英语新闻:罗德岛巨像再次崛起?(图)

http://www.sina.com.cn 2008年01月10日 10:49   英语周报大学版

英语新闻:罗德岛巨像再次崛起?(图)
罗德斯岛巨像

  Will the Colossus of Rhodes rise again?

  2007-2008 学年 第19 期

  The Colossus of Rhodes, a huge statue of the Greek god Helios, once towered above the harbor in Rhodes, Greece. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the statue took 12 years to construct and stood for 56 years until it collapsed during an earthquake in 226 B.C. The giant figure broke into several pieces, which remained where they had fallen almost a thousand years before being sold as scrap and carted away.

  The bronze-and-stone sculpture was 110 feet (34 meters) tall and was perched on twin marble bases that were about 50 feet (15.25 meters) tall. Constructed around blocks of stone embedded with iron beams, its hollow outer skin consisted of bronze plates that were fastened to the beams.

  New York’s Statue of Liberty, inspired by the original colossus, was dubbed “The New Colossus” when it was unveiled in 1886. Lady Liberty is about the same size as its ancient predecessor, but stands atop a higher pedestal. A plan to reconstruct the Colossus of Rhodes near its original site has been in the works for years, but has failed to obtain widespread support or government approval.

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  The Colossus of Rhodes

  In 305 B.C. Antigonus the One-Eyed, a powerful ruler of Macedonia and one of Alexander the Great’s most successful generals, called upon the island of Rhodes to join him in a war against his rival, King Ptolemy I of Egypt. The Rhodians, however, could ill afford to go to war with Egypt, their largest trading partner, and so they refused Antigonus’s offer.

  To express his displeasure with this decision, Antigonus sent his son Demetrius Poliorcetes ( “The Besieger” ) to attack Rhodes with an army of 40,000 soldiers. Demetrius was skilled in directing catapults and battering rams to crush city walls, and upon landing on the island he immediately began his efforts to break down its fortifications and defenses.

  Demetrius’s tortoise-like armored battering rams were 180 feet long and manned by one thousand men, and his giant catapults threw 180-pound stone balls a quarter of a mile. Probably his most fearsome device was an enormous wheeled fortified tower called Helepolis (the “Taker of Cities” ). This tower was 50 feet square at its base, more than 100 feet tall, and was armed with its own banks of catapults and sling throwers. The outlook for the island of Rhodes was grim.

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