BBC都市掠影:Tower of London 伦敦塔

Jean: 大乌鸦? A raven. 我们中国人可不太喜欢乌鸦，因为它有点不吉利。

Finn: Yes, but don’t worry, today we’ve come to a special place in London where the sound of ravens is actually a good thing.

Jean: Really? Why is that?

Finn: You’ll find out later. Today we’ve come to the Tower of London for this edition of ‘On the Town’ from BBC Learning English.

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Tour guide talking

Finn: That’s our guide Michael – he’s a guard at the Tower.

Jean: 是的，我们今天还有幸请到了一个特别好的导游…

Finn: The Tower of London is a very old castle in the centre of London. It was founded 900 years ago.

Jean: 创立、建立就是 founded. So what happened here?

Finn: Well it is often thought the Tower of London has had a dramatic and bloody history.

Jean: 一个充满戏剧和血腥色彩的历史。

Finn: It has seen executions...

Jean: executions 死刑…

Finn: prisoners...

Jean: prisoners 囚犯…

Finn: and ghosts!

Jean: 啊？还有鬼呀！

Finn: And people often think it was full of dungeons.

Jean: 有地牢的吗? Dungeons are dark scary places… 说得我可有点不敢走下去了 Quick, let’s catch up with the tour. 我们的导游正在给我们讲解伦敦塔里这座叫白塔的地方The White Tower. 看上去就给人一种敬畏的感觉。

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Tour guide talking

Finn: He says the royal family...

Jean: The Royal Family 皇室家庭…

Finn: lived on the top floor, and their knights and ladies...

Jean: knights and ladies 骑士和贵妇…

Finn: lived on the floor below, kitchens were on the next floor down, but...

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There is however, another floor... (audience gasp)

Yes, this one is partly below ground... (audience ooh)

The walls there are fifteen feet thick, there are no windows, it’s dark! (audience ooh)We’re close to the river, it’s always damp and cold! (audience oooh)

This was the ideal place for...

(audience: a dungeon?)

Wine! Wine, it’s a palace hello!