The Cathedral in St Albans

Jean: Well, actually I'm feeling a little run down. I need a break. 我最近可累坏了，再不休息一下就不行了。

Neil: Oh no, what's up?

Jean: I think I need to get out of the city.

Neil: I know somewhere we can go which is peaceful, has a fascinating history and is just twenty minutes away from the centre of London.

Jean: Sounds perfect.

Neil: Welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil. This is the programme where we visit some of the most interesting places in and around London.

Jean: So, where are we going?

Neil: St. Albans.

Jean: St. Albans. Neil 提议要去的目的地，就是伦敦市区外缘的一座叫 St. Albans 的小城。

Neil: Well, here we are. Quiet, isn't it?

Jean: Wow, I can actually hear birds singing. So, what can we do here?

Neil: Well, let's start at the biggest and most impressive building in St. Albans: the cathedral.

Jean: Cathedral 大教堂。 It's beautiful.

Neil: Yes, and it tells the story of the city.

Jean: What do you mean?

Neil: Can you see the bricks over there in the main tower of the cathedral?

Jean: The red ones?

Neil: Yes. They're actually Roman bricks.

Jean: Roman bricks? 罗马的砖头？

Neil: St. Albans used to be a Roman city. In fact, it was one of the most important cities in Roman Britain.

Jean: About two thousand years ago 罗马人在这里建造了这座现在称为 St. Albans 的城市，这座城市在罗马统治英国的时期是当时最重要的城市之一。

Neil: The Roman city was called Verulamium. There's a museum all about it here. Let's have a look.

The museum has some very impressive Roman mosaics. Mosaic.

Jean: 马赛克 Mosaic.

Neil: David Thorold is an archaeologist at the museum. He describes the biggest mosaic.

Jean: Archaeologist 考古学家。

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The main design itself is a seashell and it's also very reminiscent of the rays of the rising sun and that's quite a common image in Roman design.

Neil: The design is in the shape of a seashell.

Jean: Seashell 贝壳。

Neil: And it makes you think of the rays of the rising sun. In other words, it's reminiscent of the rays of the rising sun.

Jean: Rays 光线。 Reminiscent 怀旧的。 So, if the cathedral is made of Roman bricks, does it mean it's a Roman building?

Neil: No, actually there aren't any Roman buildings left. What happened was that when the Romans left, the local people demolished the Roman city and used the bricks to make the cathedral. Demolish.

Jean: Oh no! Demolish 就是拆毁、破坏。

Neil: As you can imagine, David from the Roman Museum is not very happy about that.

Jean: But he thinks that the Roman buildings would not have survived anyway. 他说这些古老的建筑就这么被破坏了，实在是非常的可惜。不过他也说即使这些建筑当初没被破坏，可能也不会保留得下来。

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On a purely archaeological level of course it's always a shame because it would have been so nice had some of the buildings survived, but the chances are, one way or another, that the buildings would have not survived.

Neil: Did you know the Romans went to China?

Jean: Really? What did they do?

Neil: Here's David again.

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What we are looking at is a small amount of trade and that we actually have Roman merchants going out to the provinces and looking for new trade routes, looking for new markets to sort of make a profit from; because the Romans were very much driven by that sort of thing.

Neil: Roman merchants were looking for new trade routes.

Jean: Merchants 商人。Trade routes 贸易路线。

Neil: He says the Romans were driven by profits. Driven.

Jean: Driven 被什么驱动着。也可以用 driven 这个词来形容某人是非常的有决心。

Neil: So, the Romans went to China to try to find new ways of making money. Well, after all that information I could do with a drink. How about you Jean, fancy a pint?

Jean: Fancy a pint? 这是一个相当有用的英语口语问句，来邀请某人和你一起去酒馆喝一杯酒。 Pint 品脱是英国酒馆最常用的啤酒杯的容量，等于半公升。

Neil: We could go to the oldest pub in England. Well, there are a few pubs in England which people say are the oldest and one of them is in St. Albans. It's called Ye Olde Fighting Cocks because it used to be a venue for cock fighting.

Jean: Cock fighting 斗鸡！

Neil: But don't worry, cock fighting's been illegal for years now. We can just have a relaxing drink in a lovely old building.

Jean: Well, that's about all we have time for today on BBC Learning English.

Neil: If you want to learn more, go to our website www.bbc.co.uk/china.

Jean: See you next time.

Neil: Bye.