托福听力练习对照文本第八十三篇

　　Okay, as you look at this next exhibit, you'll notice something quite common—an ordinary bar of soap.

　　好的，当你们看下一个展览时，你将会注意到很平常的东西——普通的一块肥皂。

　　Now, soap has been around a long time.

　　现在，肥皂已经存在很长时间了。

　　In fact, the ancient Phoenicians produced soap as a substance for washing the body way back in 600 B.C.

　　事实上，古代腓尼基人早在公元前600年生产肥皂，作为洗身体的一种物质。

　　They made it by blending goat's fat with wood ash.

　　他们通过混合山羊脂肪和木灰来制作它。

　　The Phoenicians, as you may know, regularly traded along the Mediterranean, and they were the ones who introduced soap to the Greeks and Romans.

　　腓尼基人，像你可能知道的，沿着地中海经常性的贸易，他们就是把肥皂介绍给希腊人和罗马人的人。

　　Now, soap was not something welcomed by all countries.

　　好吧，肥皂并不是受到所有国家欢迎的事物。

　　In fact, during the superstitious Middle Ages, many people were afraid to bathe their whole body too frequently.

　　事实上，在迷信的中世纪期间，许多人害怕过于频繁地沐浴他们整个的身体。

　　They thought it could be dangerous for their health—that it could even kill them.

　　他们认为这能威胁到他们的健康——甚至能致他们于死地。

　　And even after the production of soap became common in some European countries in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, even then some people in the heart of Europe refused to use it.

　　即使在十一和十二世纪，肥皂的生产在一些欧洲国家变得普通之后，一些在欧洲中心的人依然拒绝使用它。

　　You'll find it interesting that when a duchess was given a box of soap as a present in 1549, she was so insulted that she had the gift-giver thrown off her estate!

　　你会发现很有趣(的一件事)，就是在1549年当一位公爵夫人被送了一盒肥皂当礼物时，她(觉得)如此地受到侮辱以至于她把送礼的人扔出了她的庄园。

　　But by the nineteenth century the attitude toward soap had changed drastically.

　　但是到了十九世纪，对肥皂的态度有了彻底地改变。

　　In some regions of Europe the tax on soap was so high that people secretly made their own.

　　在一些欧洲地区，肥皂的税如此之高以至于人们偷偷地自己制造。

　　A baron went so far as to suggest that the wealth of a nation could be judged according to the amount of soap it used.

　　一个男爵甚至建议一个国家的财富能够根据它使用的肥皂数量来评判。

　　Now, if you turn your attention to the next exhibit, you can see how soap is manufactured today.

　　好，如果你把注意力转到下个展览上，你能看到今天肥皂是如何制造的。