长难句释义

1. … Pompeii was a prosperous city of 25,000 people. (Para. 3)

It is redundant to say “a city with a population of 23,000 people”, for the word “population” means “the number of people living in a particular area, country, etc.”

2. Nearby was the Bay of Naples, an arm of the blue Mediterranean. (Para. 3)

3. Rising behind the city was the 4,000-foot Mount Vesuvius, a grass-covered slop where the shepherds of Pompeii took their goats to graze.(Para. 3)

4. … a terrible rain of fire and ash. (Para. 4)

a rain of sth: a large number of things that fall from the sky at the same time.

Please translate the following phrases into Chinese.

●a rain of bullets

●a rain of petals

●a shower of leaves

●a shower of insults

●a storm of abuse

●a storm of cheers

5. Mount Vesuvius, which had slept quietly for centuries, erupted with savage violence. (Para. 4)

6. … For three days the sun did not break through the clouds of volcanic ash that filled the sky. (Para. 4)

7. Beneath the protecting shroud of ash, the city lay intact.(Para. 5)

The city remained as it had been before the eruption. It had been protected by the thick layer of ash that buried the city deep.

8. 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 wine glass and fled.(Para. 5)

In the wine shops, the wine containers were in their right place, and people could see a (wine) stain a customer had left on one counter when he hastily put his glass down and fled.

9. To go to Pompeii today is to take a trip backward in time. (Para. 6)

When you go to Pompeii today it is like going back 1,700 years in history because you would find the city as it actually was the day of the eruption.

10. The old city comes to life around you. (Para. 6)

The city is no longer dead city. You can imagine what was going on around you.

11. Such was Pompeii on its last day. (Para. 7)

That was what Pompeii was like the day it was destroyed in the volcanic eruption.

12. The sound of explosion died away, but it still reverberated in everyone’s ears. (Para. 13)

Even when the loud sound stopped, people did not recover from the shock.

13. … the Temple of Jupiter, the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Isis. (Para. 14)

one of the most important goddesses of ancient Egypt whose worship spread to Greece and Rome

14. All was confusion. (Para. 14)

There was total chaos everywhere. / The whole city had been thrown into chaos.

15. Poisonous gas came drifting from the crater... (Para. 17)

cf. “Poison gas” is the name given to poisonous gas which is specially manufactured to kill one’s enemies.

16. 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. (Para. 17)

People panicked. They rushed into the streets to escape the falling buildings. It was dark and the air was full of smoke so they could not see where they were going. They rushed up one street and down the next in a hopeless attempt to reach safety. In their blind rush they ran over the bodies of people who had fallen down.

17. ... And Pompeiians died by the hundreds. (Para. 18)

e.g.to rent a house by the year

to hire a boat by the hour

to sell eggs by the dozen

to be paid by the hour

to go in by twos and threes

18. All over Pompeii, people lay down on beds of pumice stones, overwhelmed by the gas… (Para. 18)

Everywhere people lay on flat piles of pumice stones which covered the ground.

19. ... Pompeii was a city of the dead. (Para. 20)

… all the people who stayed on in Pompeii had died. / … no one was still alive in Pompeii.