Neil: How are you today Jean?

Jean: Well, actually I'm feeling a little run down. I need a break. 我最近可累坏了，再不休息一下就不行了。

Neil: Oh no, what's up?

Jean: I think I need to get out of the city.

Neil: I know somewhere we can go which is peaceful, has a fascinating history and is just twenty minutes away from the centre of London.

Jean: Sounds perfect.

Neil: Welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil. This is the programme where we visit some of the most interesting places in and around London.

Jean: So, where are we going?

Neil: St. Albans.

Jean: St. Albans. Neil 提议要去的目的地，就是伦敦市区外缘的一座叫 St. Albans 的小城。

Neil: Well, here we are. Quiet, isn't it?

Jean: Wow, I can actually hear birds singing. So, what can we do here?

Neil: Well, let's start at the biggest and most impressive building in St. Albans: the cathedral.

Jean: Cathedral 大教堂。 It's beautiful.

Neil: Yes, and it tells the story of the city.

Jean: What do you mean?

Neil: Can you see the bricks over there in the main tower of the cathedral?

Jean: The red ones?

Neil: Yes. They're actually Roman bricks.

Jean: Roman bricks? 罗马的砖头？

Neil: St. Albans used to be a Roman city. In fact, it was one of the most important cities in Roman Britain.

Jean: About two thousand years ago 罗马人在这里建造了这座现在称为 St. Albans 的城市，这座城市在罗马统治英国的时期是当时最重要的城市之一。

Neil: The Roman city was called Verulamium. There's a museum all about it here. Let's have a look.

The museum has some very impressive Roman mosaics². Mosaic¹.

Jean: 马赛克 Mosaic.

Neil: David Thorold is an archaeologist at the museum. He describes the biggest mosaic.

Jean: Archaeologist 考古学家。

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The main design itself is a seashell and it's also very reminiscent of the rays of the rising sun and that's quite a common image in Roman design.

Neil: The design is in the shape of a seashell.

Jean: Seashell 贝壳。

Neil: And it makes you think of the rays of the rising sun. In other words, it's reminiscent of the rays of the rising sun.

Jean: Rays 光线。 Reminiscent 怀旧的。 So, if the cathedral is made of Roman bricks, does it mean it's a Roman building?

Neil: No, actually there aren't any Roman buildings left. What happened was that when the Romans left, the local people demolished⁴ the Roman city and used the bricks to make the cathedral. Demolish³.

Jean: Oh no! Demolish 就是拆毁、破坏。

Neil: As you can imagine, David from the Roman Museum is not very happy about that.

Jean: But he thinks that the Roman buildings would not have survived anyway. 他说这些古老的建筑就这么被破坏了，实在是非常的可惜。不过他也说即使这些建筑当初没被破坏，可能也不会保留得下来。

Insert

On a purely⁵ archaeological level of course it's always a shame because it would have been so nice had some of the buildings survived, but the chances are, one way or another, that the buildings would have not survived.

Neil: Did you know the Romans went to China?

Jean: Really? What did they do?

Neil: Here's David again.

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What we are looking at is a small amount of trade and that we actually have Roman merchants going out to the provinces and looking for new trade routes, looking for new markets to sort of make a profit from; because the Romans were very much driven by that sort of thing.

Neil: Roman merchants were looking for new trade routes.

Jean: Merchants 商人。Trade routes 贸易路线。

Neil: He says the Romans were driven by profits. Driven.

Jean: Driven 被什么驱动着。也可以用 driven 这个词来形容某人是非常的有决心。

Neil: So, the Romans went to China to try to find new ways of making money. Well, after all that information I could do with a drink. How about you Jean, fancy a pint⁶?

Jean: Fancy a pint? 这是一个相当有用的英语口语问句，来邀请某人和你一起去酒馆喝一杯酒。 Pint 品脱是英国酒馆最常用的啤酒杯的容量，等于半公升。

Neil: We could go to the oldest pub in England. Well, there are a few pubs in England which people say are the oldest and one of them is in St. Albans. It's called Ye Olde Fighting Cocks because it used to be a venue⁷ for cock fighting.

Jean: Cock fighting 斗鸡！

Neil: But don't worry, cock fighting's been illegal for years now. We can just have a relaxing drink in a lovely old building.

Jean: Well, that's about all we have time for today on BBC Learning English.

Neil: If you want to learn more, go to our website www.bbc.co.uk/china.

Jean: See you next time.

Neil: Bye.

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