希腊神话 遥远而美丽的传说

雅典是用智慧女神雅典娜的名字命名的历史古城。相传希腊古时候，智慧女神雅典娜与海神波赛顿为争夺雅典的保护神地位，相持不下。后来，主神宙斯决定：谁能给人类一件有用的东西，城就归谁。海神赐给人类一匹象征战争的壮马，而智慧女神雅典娜献给人类一颗枝叶繁茂、果实累累、象征和平的油橄榄树。人们渴望和平，不要战争，结果这座城归了女神雅典娜。从此，她成了雅典的保护神，雅典因之得名。后来人们就把雅典视为"酷爱和平之城"。

听力文本：

My name is Victoria Kyriakopoulos, and I write about Athens for Lonely Planet.

It's not the love at first sight for most people, but it's a fascinating city. Athens sits in a basin, so basically there's mountain surrounding it that's where the pollution gets trapped, where infamous pollution problems come from.

Ever since the Olympics in 2004, Athens is a much prettier city. It's a much cleaner city. There's always streets of tables, havens, restaurants and bars outside. That's what surprises people, because you can go on to one neighborhood and think this is it, this is where everybody is, and then you walk 10 minutes down. And there's just as many tables outside, people sitting around.

Well most people go to Plaka, it's got lots of neoclassic buildings and you find the remains of many ancient temples. There's always something you are interested in to look at. You get some fantastic old style havens, serving hand-style Greek cooking. Most people shouldn't leave there without having one of their favorite soup lentil that you can get there. You don't really need to speak Greek to get around in Athens, most speak English.

The Acropolis is what defines Athens. And you might be a kind of heed down in a side street looking for a shop or doing something, instead of look up and you get a glimpse of it. It's every time, and it's just all inspiring. Light afternoon when the sun setting, it's just stunning. It's a must basically in Athens. It's loud. It's chaotic. It's vibrant. It's beautiful. Yet it's so so pretty. And you get this palpable sense of history there.

Keep it up in mind, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.