时间:2018-12-07 作者:英语课 分类:圣诞特辑


英语课

Hither, page, and stand by me, If thou know'st it, telling, yonder...)

By the ninth century, the Christian 1 version of Christmas is spreading across Northern Europe. In the Czech Republic, a Christian Saint King Wenceslas goes down in history for his reputation for charity. When Good King Wenceslas looked out in the carol, the poor man who came in sight gathering 2 winter fuel had a worst job. He was a fagoter. For hundreds of years, fagoters collected firewood to burn or sell for a few coppers 3. Fagots were a poor man’s log.

Archaeologists have excavate 4d mediaeval fagots so we know how they were made. Bundling the twigs 6 made them slower to burn. But tying them with freezing fingers is a painful business.
Very good.
My very first fagot. Can you help me get it on my back?
Yeah.

I know this, er, must look like there isn’t much to it, but actually once the Enclosures happened and the land everybody could go on was suddenly under private control. This became a very difficult job because either(you take that one...) (top) you had to take the risk of going on to somebody’s land and getting caught or else you bought it off. the landlord, in which case you paid over the odds 7 for it.

You can do it. Yup!
OK.
Or else you got it on the black market and there are stories of people actually being sent to Australia to the penal 8 colonies just for collecting fagots. So, you know, maybe in the early Middle Ages it wasn’t so bad but after a while it became something that’s very very scary to do. See you later, Albert.
Yup.


(In his master’s steps he trod, Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod )

------------------------------------------------

excavatev. To expose or uncover by or as if by digging: 挖掘, 用挖掘或类似挖掘的办法揭开或移去:
ex: excavate an archaeological site. 挖掘考古现场

Enclosure n. (英国历史上的)圈地运动

buy off v.收买



1 Christian
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒
  • They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
  • His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。
2 gathering
n.集会,聚会,聚集
  • He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
  • He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。
3 coppers
铜( copper的名词复数 ); 铜币
  • I only paid a few coppers for it. 我只花了几个铜板买下这东西。
  • He had only a few coppers in his pocket. 他兜里仅有几个铜板。
4 excavate
vt.挖掘,挖出
  • They plan to excavate a large hole.他们计划挖个大洞。
  • A new Danish expedition is again excavating the site in annual summer digs.一支新的丹麦探险队又在那个遗址上进行一年一度的夏季挖掘。
5 excavated
v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 );开凿;挖出;发掘
  • The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
  • The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 twigs
细枝,嫩枝( twig的名词复数 )
  • Some birds build nests of twigs. 一些鸟用树枝筑巢。
  • Willow twigs are pliable. 柳条很软。
7 odds
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别
  • The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
  • Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗?
8 penal
adj.刑罚的;刑法上的
  • I hope you're familiar with penal code.我希望你们熟悉本州法律规则。
  • He underwent nineteen years of penal servitude for theft.他因犯了大窃案受过十九年的苦刑。
学英语单词
advertising-agencies
afterwaters
alkars
arithmetic control unit
auxiliary component
back-coupling condition
bail court
bastard-dom
beta-plus decay
branch of mainspring
browser detection
bulemic
caddell
cathode corrosion
chapeaus
chemical theory
Chigyong
circumvests
Clortetrin
commentary
condenser ceramics
condition of measurement
coparties
cross fertilization
deliberate maiming
diamfirst
discommodating
Dzhubga
ecological geography
electrotyped
equatorial tidal currents
film lulbrication
flow laminar
full faced
gear changing by foot
glutinant
grounded circuit
guestimates
has an advantage of
heteropolar binding
hypersonic flight experiment
image quality criterion
into heaven
jerkwater towns
karrens
keratoconus
kernel of integral transform
lithium aluminum hydride
loebbecke
logic design system
lucilles
Machakos, Mt.
magnetic flux detector
magnetic flux transducer
Mayakovsky, Vladimir
maytansinoids
middle cornu
mimela ignicauda
mixed leukemia
moisture teller
monkless
myasis
mycoma
narrow-leaved cottonwood
New Peso
no-lines
Noel Coward
nonconcessional
not so much
orthopedic surgical technique
overlaying surfaces
packaged air-conditioning unit
perchloryl fluoride
peta-meter
polyadenomatosis
pop one's clogs
preemptive schedule
pressurization energy
Puulavesi
quantize
quasi-stationary front
rail heating machine
recipient processor
remote circumstance
renewals
Semper Gumbi
showcaves
signal to low frequency interference rate
soap opera effect
stag-beetles
staging post
storylining
structural lake
sui generis rights
Sundridge
supercenters
superintendants
supply and transport
suprasegmental phoneme
titanium nitride whisker reinforcement
to keep it real
waste circulation