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Some time ago，an interesting discovery
was made by archaeologists on the Aegean
island of Kea．An AmeriCan team ex-
plored a temple which stands in an
ancient city on the promontory of Ayia
Irini．The city at one time must have
been prosperous，for it enjoyed a high
level of civilization．Houses--often three
storeys high--were built of stone．They
had large rooms with beautifully decor－
ated walls．The city was even equipped
with a drainage system，for a great many
clay pipes were found beneath the narrow
streets．
The temple which the archaeologists
explored was used as a place of worship
from the fifteenth century B.C. until Roman times. In the most
sacred room of
the temple, clay fragments of fifteen statues were found. Each of
these repre-
sented a goddess and had, at one time, been painted. The body of one
statue
was found among remains dating from the fifteenth century B.C. Its
missing
head happened to be among remains of the fifth century B.C.;This
head must
have been found in Classical times and carefully preserved. It was
very old and
precious even then. When the archaeologists reconstructed the
fragments, they
were amazed to find that the goddess turned out to be a very
modern-looking
woman. She stood three feet high and her hands rested on her hip.
She was
wearing a full-length skirt which swept the ground. Despite her
great age,she
was very graceful indeed, but, so far,the archaeologists have been
unable to
discover her identity.
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
goddess(tile)
n. 女神
archaeologist
n. 考古學家
Aegean
adj. 愛玲海的
explore
v. 考察，勘探
promontory
n. 海角
prosperous
adj. （經(jīng)濟上）繁榮的，昌盛的
civilization
n. 文明
storey
n. 樓層
drainage
n. 排水
worship
n. 祟拜
sacred
adj. 宗教的，神圣的
fragment
n. 碎片
remains
n. 遺物，遺跡，廢墟
classical
adj. （希臘和羅馬）古化的
reconstruct
v. 修復(fù)
rest
v. 倚放，放置
hip
n. 屁股，臀部
full-length
adj. （裙衣）拖地長的
graceful
adj. 優(yōu)雅的
identity
n. 身份
參考譯文
不久之前，在愛琴海的基亞島上，考古工作者有一項有趣的發(fā)現(xiàn)。一個美國考古隊在阿伊亞.依里尼海角的一座古城里考察了一座廟宇。這座古城肯定一度很繁榮，因為它曾享有高度的文明，房子一般有3層樓高，用石塊修建。里面房間很大，墻壁裝飾華麗。城里甚至還敷設(shè)了排水系統(tǒng)，因為在狹窄的街道底下發(fā)現(xiàn)了許許多多陶土制作的排水管道。
考古工作者考察的這座廟宇從公元前15世紀直到羅馬時代一直是祭祀祈禱的場所。在廟中最神圣的一間殿堂里發(fā)現(xiàn)了15尊陶雕像的碎片。每一尊雕像代表一位女神，而且一度上過色。其中有一尊雕像，她的軀體是在公元前15世紀的歷史文物中發(fā)現(xiàn)的，而她那身異處的腦袋卻碰巧是在公元前5世紀的文物中找到的。她的腦袋一定是在古希臘羅馬時代就為人所發(fā)現(xiàn)，并受到精心的保護。卻使在當時，它也屬歷史悠久的珍奇之物�？脊殴ぷ髡甙堰@些碎片重新拼裝起來后，驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)那位女神原來是一位相貌十分摩登的女郎。她身高3英尺，雙手叉腰。身穿一條拖地長裙，盡管上了年紀，但體態(tài)確實優(yōu)美。不過，考古工作者至今未能確定這位女神的身份。
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