时间:2018-12-07 作者:英语课 分类:其他文化


英语课

In the town of Yazd in southern Iran, a priest tends a sacred fire in the Zoroastrian fire temple. It’s said that this fire has been burning continuously for 2,000 years. Generation after generation of priests have tended it, feeding it with sandalwood logs and banking 1 ashes around the timbers at night so that it never goes out. The priest wears a mask in case his breath pollutes the flame.

This sacred flame isn't god, but in its purity, in its lack of substance and in the comfort it gives, it’s one of the ways that people have tried to imagine the unimaginable and describe the indescribable—the very nature of god.

However you define god, and whether you believe in god or not, the world that we live in has been shaped by the universal human conviction that there is more to our life than life itself, that there is a god-shaped hole at the center of our universe. We've come up with many different ways to fill that hole with many gods or just one, with gods of hunting, gods of farming and gods of war, with gods of sea and sky. We’ve imagined god as a stern father figure or a fertile mother. We’ve pictured a jealous angry punishing god and a god of justice, wisdom and infinite love.

But why did mankind start believing in god at all? The answer to that question can be found in the caves where our ancestors first approached their gods, and in the fields where we still call on them for help. In the cities of the dead where the spirits of our ancestors have been honored, and in the temples where the gods have been appeased 2 with bloody 3 sacrifices, but most of all, the answer lies in the human desire to be united with something bigger than ourselves, something outside us, beyond us or perhaps even deep within us. This, according to some, is the ultimate reality which is just another name for god.

This series is about the story of god and the different ways that god has been understood at different times and in different cultures, but in telling the story of god, we will also be telling our own story and understanding a little bit more about what it means to be human.

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word to memorize:

banking ashes / fire

bank the fire

Cite from "About":
Banking a Fire

Question: I would like to know exactly what 'banking' a fire means and how it's done. For years I have seen this phrase, 'bank the fire,' and wondered. It sounds like something magical one does to a fire so that it's still smoldering 4 in the morning, thus making the building of the morning fire a snap.

Answer: Banking a fire is actually nothing more than the name implies. To bank a fire means to build a wall around it out of rocks or stones, or to build the fire next to a rock or dirt wall such that it blocks the wind.



1 banking
n.银行业,银行学,金融业
  • John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
  • He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。
2 appeased
安抚,抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 ); 绥靖(满足另一国的要求以避免战争)
  • His hunger could only be appeased by his wife. 他的欲望只有他的妻子能满足。
  • They are the more readily appeased. 他们比较容易和解。
3 bloody
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染
  • He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
  • He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。
4 smoldering
v.用文火焖烧,熏烧,慢燃( smolder的现在分词 )
  • The mat was smoldering where the burning log had fallen. 燃烧的木棒落下的地方垫子慢慢燃烧起来。 来自辞典例句
  • The wood was smoldering in the fireplace. 木柴在壁炉中闷烧。 来自辞典例句
标签: story 故事
学英语单词
a sight for sore eyes
act on something
aggregate adjustment
alternate hemianesthesia
amalrik
antipersonnel hand grenade
aposematic resemblance
backwash-regeneration cycle
Balmer discontinuity
be one up on
billers
bottle method
bottom clearance
calophya meliorata
central business intensity index
chemical energies
climate resource
cold-maceration
commencement of liquefaction
creg
delayed scanning
diffused silicon diode
discount on stock
division rings
dropping character
electric-field meter
elliptical cross section
employee needs for motivation
engle
Eriochrome black T
festyfull
Fontinaleae
gaseous effluent cooler
globe and mail
GTBA
guas
harazd
have your eye on something
helmet
HEXOPAL
horizontal airspace
in the wedding
interflowing
interpersonal relations
inthrones
Ipomoea dissecta
irrigation cooler
Kamenki
Keplerates
landov
luminosity classification
Magyichaung
major corn seed
malvas
Martelange
mean population
mesospore
mesyl
metahyostyly
mevinphos
mycosphaerella platanifolia cooke
non-recognition
Occidental Petroleum Corporation
outfronts
parameter-free representation
Pascalines
pediculosis
peripheral manager interface
piquerist
Platform for Internet Content Selection
practices of law
pressure sounder
Psaronius
pyxine sorediata
radar-coverage indicator
red scad
repeatability of a measuring instrument
Rex cat
rosette leaves
Schallibaum's solution
sgurr
slow-scan sync
solderball
sporadic typhus
sulesomab
swimmy
synaptic space
Taiohae
tapehead
timber hitch
Tolypite
train load
trigger error
two-pin plug
uniform tariff classification
unulcerate
vertebrate feet
waist cincher
Wall of Worry
wanshon
weakly water-wet
whitten effect