Leeds Castle 利兹城堡

Chen Li: 大家好， 我是陈鹂。今天，我们的城市掠影节目中，我们来带您去英国一些最有名的地方。 Helen, I'm very excited about this place we're going today.

Helen: Me too. Today we're taking you to Leeds Castle, set in the stunning 1 countryside of Kent, about one hour from London.

Chen Li: 利兹城堡，不要被这个名字给弄糊涂了，要知道这个城堡不在利兹市，实际上它位于具有英格兰花园之称的肯特郡。

Helen: Taking us on a tour of the castle is Victoria Wallace, the managing director of the castle. First she told us how old the castle is.

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Palace is exactly the right word – it was a royal palace. It's basically a building that's evolved over 900 years, it started off as one of the Norman castles.

Chen Li: Victoria 说这个城堡更可以说是个皇宫。

Helen: A royal palace. And it has evolved over 900 years. Evolve is a verb and it means developing slowly.

Chen Li: Evolve 进化，我们在谈论历史或者自然科学的时候，会经常用到这个词。

Helen: Leeds castle is very well known worldwide and I asked Victoria, what makes it so famous.

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Leeds has been described as the loveliest castle in the world. And I think that's largely because it sits in a beautiful fairytale landscape, sitting on these two islands in the middle of a lake, with gentle mellow 2 stone architecture.

Chen Li: 这可是里兹城堡一个值得骄傲的称谓。

Helen: The loveliest castle in the world.

Chen Li: 世界上最可爱的城堡。

Helen: And this is because it sits in a beautiful fairytale landscape.

Chen Li: 童话般的风景，一个神奇的感觉。

Helen: Exactly. The castle itself is on two islands in the middle of a lake. That's a very unusual setting.

Chen Li: 对城堡来说，这两个岛屿足够大，以至于看起来，这个城堡就象从湖中升起一样。

Helen: With the stone architecture, it gives visitors a sense of security and tranquillity 3.

Chen Li: Security 安全，tranquillity 宁静。

Helen: Once visitors walk through the castle gate, what are they expecting to see?

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As you walk into the castle itself, you enter a completely different atmosphere - it looks like an English country house.

Chen Li: 当您步入城堡，就会感到氛围开始变化，从一个防御性的城堡转变为英国乡村的一幢豪宅。

Helen: That's right. The atmosphere is more relaxed, more homelike.

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And all the way around, are these big windows, so it's a castle full of light. And you look out over the lakes and over the moat, and you see the swans swimming – particularly black swans, which are our speciality - and look out to the gentle English landscape beyond.

Helen: The big windows were put in by Henry VIII around 500 years ago.

Chen Li: 里兹城堡光线充足，因为这里的窗户很大，光线从四面照射进来。 还可以看到护城河。

Helen: The moat, which was dug and filled with water for defence.

Chen Li: 同时还有湖，漂亮的天鹅。

Helen: Leeds castle is famous for its swans, especially black swans.

Chen Li: 许多来参观城堡的人，也非常喜欢这里漂亮的花园和周围的风景。

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We've got lovely gardens which are set up to show all sorts of different styles, and a fantastic maze 4 with an underground grotto 5, full of myth and mystery. You can be lost in there for hours, but for most people it takes about quarter of an hour to go round.

Helen: The maze is great. Children love it.

Chen Li: 迷宫 maze。 如果你有时间，非常值得去试一试。

Helen: There's also an underground grotto, a small cave which is full of myth and mystery.

Chen Li: A grotto 洞穴，充满了神奇和奥秘。Helen, how long did it take you to get through the maze?

Helen: Not very fast, but not too slow either. About 15 minutes.

Chen Li: So you didn't get lost.

Helen: No, luckily not.

Chen Li: 好了，时间到了。世界上最美丽的城堡之旅利兹城堡就到这里了。

Helen: We will be taking you to more interesting places in the UK. So stay tuned 6.

Chen Li: Bye.