Terror down in the Dungeon

I’ve seen strange and terrible things like the woman in black. She stares into you with evil eyes that burn right through your soul.

Jean: Oh no Neil, where have you brought me?

Neil: I’m sorry Jean, but I’ve actually brought you to one of the scariest places in London.

Jean: Oh thank you! 欢迎大家收听我们 BBC Learning English 的节目。

Neil: This is On the Town, the programme where we take you to some of the most interesting places to visit in London. So Jean, what do you think of this museum?

Jean: Museum? It seems more like a dungeon. 是个博物馆吗？我看它像个恐怖的地牢。

Neil: Well, it is a museum… and a dungeon – it’s the London Dungeon.

Insert

We provide the gruesome, horrible history of London through live shows and also mechanics and things like that.

Neil: That’s Louise Moore, who’s in charge of the London Dungeon. It’s a very different kind of museum because they provide the gruesome, horrible history of London. Gruesome.

Jean: 令人毛骨悚然的。

Neil: Horrible.

Jean: 恐怖的。

Neil: There are live shows and mechanical displays.

Jean: 这里有现场的表演节目，也有机械操作的蜡像机器人。 Oh, it sounds spooky 好恐怖！ What sort of things can we see?

Neil: Here’s Louise again from the museum talking about some of the gruesome parts of London’s history you can learn about.

Insert

You can take a walk through a plague street and have a look at a victim of the plague; we have an eighteenth century courtroom; a torture chamber.

(Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!)

Neil: You can see a street infected with the plague.

Jean: The plague. 在14世纪的时候，整个欧洲差不多三分之一的人都被一场流行瘟疫夺取了生命。

Neil: And even a victim of the plague. Well, it’s only a model.

Jean: Urgh! 虽然这个死于瘟疫的尸体是假的，不过照样是怪吓人的。

Insert

You now find yourself here in an eighteenth century court of law. You are here to pay for your wicked crimes.

Neil: There’s also an eighteenth century courtroom. People were given the death sentence even for minor offences, like theft.

Jean: Courtroom 审判室。这里还展示了一间18世纪的审判室。当时很多小偷小摸的罪犯都在这里被判处了死刑。

Insert

We place the hook at the back of the neck and then hoist the victim up.

Neil: There’s a torture chamber.

Jean: Torture chamber. 实施酷刑拷打的房间。 Here’s Louise again.

Insert

You can take a walk through a plague street and take a look at a victim of the plague; we have an eighteenth century courtroom; a torture chamber.

Neil: So, Jean, shall we take a look around?

Jean: Should we be scared, Louise?

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You should be very scared because we’re going to be looking out for you all the way around.

Neil: Here we go...

Neil: So what did you think, Jean?

Jean: It was terrifying! 实在太恐怖了。

Neil: Let’s hear what these people thought.

Insert

Very, very frightening.

Scary, yes, and funny.

Everyone’s screaming, panicking, so it’s very, very frightening.

It was a blast, yeah. It was a lot of fun.

Neil: Frightening.

Jean: 吓人的。

Neil: Scary.

Jean: 可怕的。

Neil: People were screaming and panicking.

Jean: 尖叫 screaming. 恐慌 panicking.

Neil: But it was a blast.

Jean: A blast. 一般来讲 "blast" 是爆炸发出的声音或者冲击波，不过在这里口语中意思是一个很让人兴奋激动的事情。

Neil: So if it’s so scary, why do people visit the London Dungeon?

Jean: Well, here’s Louise again.

Insert

People love to be scared. The English nationals certainly just love the whole general goriness of it. And they love to have their history presented back to them in a way that’s fun.

Neil: She thinks people love to be scared.

Jean: And especially the English.

Neil: Yes, the English love the goriness.

Jean: 血淋淋的景象。 Goriness.

Neil: And they love to have their history presented to them in a fun way. Well, that’s all we have time for today, Jean. I hope you don’t have nightmares tonight...

Jean: 也希望大家今晚不做噩梦噢。那就到我们的网站来看看好了，我们的网址就是 www.bbc.co.uk/china, 点击 Learning English 就行了。 See you next time.

Neil: Bye!