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1.Not very far from Naples, a strange city sleeps under the hot Italian sun. It is the city of Pompeii, and there is no other city quite like it in all the world. Nothing lives in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards, yet every year thousands of people travel from distant countries to visit it. 1. 在离那不勒斯不远的地方，一座奇特的小城寂静的沉睡在意大利炙热的骄阳之下。那就是庞培城。全世界再没有任何一个城市和庞培城相像。在庞培城中，除了蟋蟀、甲虫和蜥蜴之外，别无其他生物，然而每年都有成千上万的人从不同国度不远万里前来参观。 2.Pompeii is a dead city. No one has lived there for nearly two thousand years----not since the summer of the year A.D. 79, to be exact.

2.庞培是一座死城。确切的说自从公元79年的那个夏天开始，两千年来没有人在这里生活过。

3.Until that year Pompeii was a prosperous city of 25,000 people. Nearby was the Bay of Naples, an arm of the blue Mediterranean. Rich men came down from wealthy Rome to build seaside villas. Farmlands surrounded Pompeii. Rising behind the city was the 4000-foot Mount Vesuvius, a grass-covered slope where the shepherds of Pompeii took their goats to graze. Pompeii was a busy city and a happy one.

3.直到那年夏天庞培成还是一座拥有25000人的繁荣城市，离那不远就是蓝色地中海之臂的那不勒斯湾。一些有钱人从富有的罗马城来到这里建造海边别墅。庞培城的周围有农田环绕。在这座城市的背后矗立着4000英尺高的维苏威火山。绿草覆盖的山坡上，牧羊人赶着他们的羊群在吃草。庞培城是一座繁忙而又充满幸福感的城市。

4.It died suddenly, in a terrible rain of fire and ash. The tragedy struck on the 24th of August, A.D.79. Mount Vesuvius, which had slept quietly for centuries, erupted with savage violence. Tons of hot ash fell on Pompeii, hiding it from sight. For three days the sun did not break through the clouds of volcanic ash that filled the sky. And when the eruption ended, Pompeii was buried deep. A city had perished. 4.可是，在一阵可怕的火与灰的袭击中，这座城市灭亡了。这个悲剧发生在公元79年的8月24日。维苏威火山。这座沉睡了几世纪的山脉，突然剧烈的爆发了。数以吨计滚烫的火山灰落到了庞培城遮住了人们的视线。3天以来阳光都无法穿过被火山灰充斥的云层。当喷发结束的时候，庞培城被深深的掩埋了。这座城市也就消失了。

5. Centuries passed, Pompeii was forgotten. Then, seventeen hundred years later, it was discovered again. Beneath the protecting shroud of ash, the city lay intact. Everything was as it had been the day Vesuvius erupted. There were still loaves of bread in the ovens of the bakeries. In the wine shops, the wine jars were in place, and on one counter could be seen a stain where a customer had thrown down his glass and fled.

5.几个世纪过去了，庞培城几乎被遗忘了。不过，1700年后，人们又重新发现了它。在火山灰的保护下，这座城市完好无损的躺在那里。一切都是维苏威火山喷发那天的样子。面包店烤箱里依然有尚未出炉的面包，在卖红酒的店里，酒坛子依然放在原处，在柜台前，人们扔下酒杯逃命的痕迹清晰可见。

6. To go to Pompeii today is to take a trip backward in time. The old city comes to life all around you. You can almost hear the clatter of horses’ hoofs on the narrow streets, the cries of children and the laughter of the shopkeepers. The sky is cloudlessly blue, with the summer sun high in the sky. The grassy slopes of great Vesuvius rise to the heavens behind the city, and sunlight shimmers on the waters of the bay a thousand yards from the city walls. Ships from every nation are in port and strange languages can be heard in the streets.

6.今天，去庞培可以称得上是一次体验时光倒流的旅行，古老的城市在你的周围仿佛又重新充满了活力。你几乎能听到狭窄街道上的马蹄声，孩子们的哭闹声和店主们的笑声。蔚蓝的

天空万里无云，盛夏的烈日在空中高悬。城市的背后维苏威火山长满青草的山坡伸向天空，阳光在城墙外1000多码的海湾水面上闪烁发光。从世界各国驶来的船只停在港内，大街上还能听到各种不同的语言。

7.Such was Pompeii on its last day. And so it is today, now that the volcanic ash has been cleared away. A good imagination is all you need to restore it to activity. 7.这就是庞培的最后一天。也就是今天，火山灰已经清理完毕，你需要一个很丰富的想象力来把它恢复到现实当中。 8. At dawn on August 24, in the year A.D. 79, Pompeii’s 25,000 people awakened to another hot day in that hot summer. There was going to be a contest in the arena that night and the whole town was looking forward to the bloody fights of the gladiators. The children headed toward school, carrying slates and followed by their dogs. In the forum the town’s important men had gathered after breakfast to read the political signs that had been posted during the night. Elsewhere in the forum the wool merchants talked business. The banker was going over his account books. At the inn later-rising travellers from the East awakened and yawned and called for breakfast.

8.在公元79年8月24日黎明，庞培城的人们在炎热的夏天中迎来了新的一天，原本在那天晚上竞技场有一场竞赛，全城百姓都期待着角斗士们的血腥搏斗，孩子们提着石板跟在狗的后面去上学，在城镇广场上全城的重要人士在早饭后都聚集起来看张贴好的政治公告。在广场的其他地方，羊毛商正在谈生意；旅馆里刚刚起床的游客还在打着哈欠叫早餐。

9.The quiet morning moved slowly along. There was nothing very unusual about Pompeii. But tragedy was on its way. Beneath Vesuvius’ vine-covered slopes a mighty force was about to break loose. At one o’clock in the afternoon the critical point was reached. The mountain blew up, raining death on thousands. Down in Pompeii, four miles from the summit, a tremendous explosion was heard.

9.安静的早上，时间慢慢过去。庞培城没有什么异常。但是一场悲剧正在逼近，在维苏威火山藤蔓覆盖的山坡下一股巨大的力量即将爆发。在下午一点钟，这股力量到达了临界点。火山爆发了，死亡向成千上万的人们降临。山下的庞贝城，距离山顶有四英里，巨大的爆炸声清晰可闻。

10. “What was that?” people cried from one end of town to another. They stared at each other, puzzled, troubled. Were the gods fighting in heaven?

10.“那是什么？”人们哭喊着从一座城跑到应一座城，他们互相瞪着眼睛看 在猜测，在忧虑。难道是众神在天堂里打架么？

11.“Look!” somebody shouted. “Look at Vesuvius!” 11. “看!”一些人喊道，“看维苏威火山！”

12. Thousands of eyes turned upward. Thousands of arms pointed. A black cloud was rising from the shattered summit of the mountain. Higher and higher it rose. Like the trunk of a tree, it rose in the air, branching out as it climbed.

12.上万双眼睛齐刷刷的向上面望去，上万只胳膊指向那里，一阵乌云从粉碎的山顶向上升起，乌云越升越高，像一棵大树伸向填空，如枝条似的展开。

13.Minutes passed. The sound of the explosion died away, but it still reverberated in everyone’s ears. The cloud over Vesuvius continued to rise, black as night, higher and higher. A strange rain began to fall on Pompeii----a rain of stones. The stones were light. They were pumice stones, consisting mostly of air bubbles. These poured down as though there had been a sudden cloudburst. The pumice stones did little damage. 13.几分钟过去了，爆炸声逐渐消失，但每个人仍然能听到回音维苏威火山的黑云继续上升，暗如黑夜，越升越高。一阵奇怪的雨开始飘落——石块雨。石块是浅色的。这是浮石，大多数还夹杂着空气中的气泡。这些浮石倾泻而下，如同瞬间的

倾盆大雨一般。不过这些浮石几乎没有破坏。

14.“What is happening?” Pompeiians asked one another. They rushed to the temples----the Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Isis. Priests tried to calm the citizens. The sky was dark. An hour went by and darkness still shrouded every thing. All was confusion. The people of Pompeii now knew that doom was at hand. Their fears were redoubled when a tremendous rain of hot ash began to fall. The wooden roofs of some of the houses began to catch fire as the heat of the ash reached them. Other buildings were collapsing under the weight of the pumice stones.

14.到底发生了什么？庞培城的百姓互相询问着，他们涌向了神殿——丘比特神殿、阿波罗神殿、宙斯神殿。牧师们设法去使居民们保持镇静，天空阴沉了下来，一小时过后一切变得黑暗起来，一切都是那么混乱。庞培城的人们现在知道厄运即将来临。当一场巨大的石灰雨从天而降的时候，他们更加恐慌了。一些房屋的木制屋顶在石灰的炙烤下开始着起火来。其他一些建筑也被浮石压塌了。

15. In these first few hours, only the quick-witted managed to escape. A wealthy wool merchant called his family together and crammed jewelry and money into a sack. Lighting a torch, he led his little band out into the nightmare of the streets. Many hundreds of Pompeiians fled in those first few dark hours. Stumbling in the darkness, they made their way to the city gates, then out and down to the harbor. They boarded boats and got away, living to tell the tale of their city’s destruction. Others preferred to remain within the city, huddling inside the temples, or in the public baths or in the cellars of their homes. They still hoped that the nightmare would end.

15.在最初的几个小时里，只有一些机警的人们设法去逃脱。一位富有的羊毛商人招呼他们全家人一起把珠宝和金钱统统塞进布袋里。点燃了火把，他带领他们一小队人马走上了噩梦般的街道。在最初的几小时内成百上千的庞培人逃亡，他们在黑暗中跌跌撞撞，设法涌向城门。接着，出了城门直奔港口。他们有的人登上了船离开了那里后得以幸存下来给我们讲述他们这座城市的毁灭。而其他人更喜欢留在城里面，在神庙里挤做一团或者索性呆在公共浴室和家中的酒窖里避难。他们仍在盼望噩梦能早点结束。

16. It was evening now. And a new trouble was in store for Pompeii. The earth trembled and quaked! Roofs went crashing in ruin, burying hundreds who had hoped to survive the eruption. In the forum the tall columns toppled. The entire city seemed to shake in the grip of a giant fist.

16. 到了傍晚的时候，一场新的灾难正等待着庞培。不久大地开始剧烈的摇晃，屋顶突然倒塌，瞬间掩埋了成百位尚有一线生机的人们。在城镇广场上高大的房柱轰然倒塌，整个古城仿佛被一只巨大的拳头握住，任其摆布。

17. Three feet of pumice stones now covered the ground. Ash floated in the air. Poisonous gas came drifting from the crater, though people could still breathe. Roofs were collapsing everywhere. The cries of the injured and dying filled the air. Rushing throngs, blinded by the darkness and the smoke, rushed up one street and down the next, trampling the fallen in a crazy fruitless dash toward safety. Dozens of people plunged into dead-end streets and found themselves trapped by crashing buildings. They waited there, too frightened to run further, expecting the end.

17. 三英尺大的浮石覆盖了整个地面。尘埃漂浮在空气中有毒的气体从火山口飘了出来，尽管人们还有一丝呼吸。倒塌的屋顶随处可见，空气中充斥着伤亡者的哭喊声。四处奔走的人群都被黑暗和浓烟熏得失明，他们从一条街挤向另一条街践踏着倒塌的（屋顶）疯狂的冲向安全的地方。很多人挤向了封死的街道最后发现他们被倒塌的建筑截在了那里。他们因为害怕已经不敢移动了 所以就在那里等着，期待厄运早点结束。

18. The poison gas thickened as the terrible night advanced. It was possible to protect oneself fro