首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The Sacrifice at Masada One discovery always leads to another. Archaeologists working near the Dead Sea became curious a- bo
The Sacrifice at Masada One discovery always leads to another. Archaeologists working near the Dead Sea became curious a- bo
admin
2013-04-08
67
问题
The Sacrifice at Masada
One discovery always leads to another. Archaeologists working near the Dead Sea became curious a- bout a steep rock near Qumran. At the top of this rock are the ruins of the great palace and fort of Masada. In 1963 a man began careful exploration of this forbidding place. Yigael Yadin was both soldier and archaeologist, and he and his father had both been studying the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yadin was anxious to explore the history of the great palace of Masada.
It was a huge palace. He knew that hundreds of workers were going to be needed for digging there, so Yadin extended an invitation to young men and women from all over the world to join him in digging at Masada. For two summers hundreds of young people came. Masada is not a pleasant place in mid - summer; the mountains are hot and brown and dry. There was no protection for the workers except in camp huts. Yet each year hundreds came to help.
Why? What was the particular interest of this place? Why was there any excitement about this lonely ruin?
Masada had been the scene of great events and acts of courage. The story was famous, but many people had doubts about its truth. Now Yadin and his young workers were digging in order to prove it was true.
Masada had once been the palace of King Herod who ruled Palestine under the Romans during the life of Christ. He had had this palace built far from the city. It was lonely and it was safe, hanging over the steepest part of the rock. The palace was fixed to the actual sides of the rock at three levels. Nowadays men would not dare to build in such a place; yet Herod gave orders for his servants to build it there. They did the work with their own hands and simple tools. They made it beautiful with wall paintings and fountains and fine stone floors. Water was brought from a great distance to this waterless mountain, and oil the upper level there were beautiful fountains and gardens and baths. Inside their palace Herod and his family were comfortable and safe.
Earthquakes have since destroyed a lot of the palace, but the main walls are still standing. Young workers have cleared some of the ruins so we can see how beautiful they were. The workers were tied together with ropes and let down over the cliffs as they worked. Digging in those ruins the young people were sharing the dangers of the men who first built the palace.
After Herod’s death the palace became a fort for the Jewish rebels fighting for their freedom from Rome. But the Romans were too powerful. They had already attacked Jerusalem and the great temple had gone up in flames. They had destroyed the monastery at Qumran. Its priests had escaped to the mountains with their scrolls and treasure. In the year A. D. 73 tile Roman army arrived at Masada. Orders had been given to destroy the fort and everyone inside it.
There were nine hundred and sixty men, women and children defending the fort, and the Romans were determined that nobody should escape. They built a wall all round the hill. There were eight camps for guarding every corner. The waterpipes going into the fort were cut, and the fountains and the baths in Herod’s palace ran dry. Soon the drinking water was finished.
Then the Romans began building a great bank of earth against the side of the hill at Masada; soon the height of the bank reached the height of the walls of the fort. They then shot burning arrows into the fort and set fire to the buildings inside. As the wooden walls went up in flames and the arrows shot through the air, the defenders were driven back into the fort inside.
It was clear that the Romans were going to win. The Jews had no hope of keeping their freedom, and were facing certain death.
But the Jews were determined to die as free men, preferring to kill themselves while they were still free. They would not wait for the Roman victory, and decided to make a terrible sacrifice.
Every man took his wife and children to his own room. First they burned all their belongings, and said a loving goodbye to each other. When they could say no more the men killed their wives’ and children.
Sadly they returned to a place in the centre of the fort. Their lives had no value now, and they chose ten men to kill all the others. Hundreds of men then lay down beside their dead families, and the ten chosen officers had the dreadful task of killing them all.
Finally, the last ten men chose one to complete the sacrifice. He had to kill his nine companions and then he killed himself.
When the Romans broke through the walls of Masada they were met by a dreadful silence--they had seized a dead fort
This story of’ courage and sacrifice brought young people from all over the world to dig at Masada. They admired the strong character and love of freedom shown by the defenders of the fort, and wanted to see where it had happened.
In two years Yigael Yadin and his workers raised Masada again from its ruins. Of course the Romans had destroyed everything, but signs of the fort’s history could be seen. They found many examples of the beautiful work of Herod’s palace; wall paintings and baths and beautiful rooms were brought to life again Yet perhaps the little huts of the Jewish defenders were more admired. In some of these the pots were still on the fire waiting for the evening meal. In others, the bones of whole families lay together. One pile of bones may have been the remains of the ten men chosen to do the final killing.
The character of Masada lives in those simple huts and not in the ruins of the palace. Everything that has been uncovered by the archaeologists shows the truth of the old story about the sacrifice at Masada.
From Successful Reading, 1979.
Yadin needed hundreds of people to help him because the palace of Masada was huge and the work was difficult.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
A
解析
文章的第二段详细说明了Yadin为什么会邀请成百年轻人来参与圣殿的发掘工作,而R.还描述了发掘工作的艰苦条件和恶劣环境。例如文中“It was huge,He knew that hundreds of workers were going to be needed for digging there,so Yadin extended…”“Masada is not a pleasant place… came to help”都说明第一句是正确的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/ZRr7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
ScientistsintheUnitedStateshavereportedsomegoodnewsabouttheozoneintheatmosphere.Recentfindingssuggestthatthe
Theword"sport"firstmeantsomethingthatpeopledidintheirfreetime.Lateritoftenmeant【B1】______wildanimalsandbi
Theword"sport"firstmeantsomethingthatpeopledidintheirfreetime.Lateritoftenmeant【B1】______wildanimalsandbi
A、Howtomakeapowerfulrocketengine.B、Howtoensurethesafetyofthecrew.C、Howtochoosequalifiedcrewmenforthetrip.
Stressmaybedefinedasanemotional,intellectual,orphysicalreactiontochangeordemands.Thestressreactionpreparesthe
A、Tomakethemliveagoodlife.B、Tohavegoodandfriendlycompany.C、Tokeepawayunwantedanimals.D、Tokeepawayloneliness
Twoscientistsaretalkinginalabonedayandonesaystotheother,"Waittillyouseemy【S1】______discovery.It’llblowyo
A、Toexchangeideas.B、Toprovetheirvalue.C、Toachievesuccessinlife.D、Toovercometheirfearofsilence.D选项均以不定式开头表明,本题考
Theproblemofinternetcrime___________(近些年来引起了广泛关注).
Languagelearningbeginswithlistening.Individualchildrenvarygreatlyintheamountoflisteningtheydobeforetheystarts
随机试题
公共政策执行力的影响因素有
组织兴奋性降低,组织的()
含铁卟啉的化合物包括
基金管理人内部控制的全面性原则应该涵盖的环节包括()。I.资金募集Ⅱ.投资研究和运作Ⅲ.运营保障Ⅳ.信息披露
1963年,威廉.夏普提出一种简化形式的均值方差模型计算方法,使得证券投资组合理论应用于实际市场成为可能。()
在下列各种事由中,不属于提存原因的是()。
2004~2008年我国文化产业增加值分别为3340亿元、4216亿元、5123亿元、6412亿元、7600亿元,逐年大幅度攀升,平均增长速度高达17%以上,比同期GDP增值高出10个百分点左右,不仅高于传统产业的增长速度,而且还高于同为朝阳产业的电子信息
攻击者使用无效的IP地址,利用TCP连接的三次握手过程,使得受害主机处于开放会话的请求之中,直至连接超时。在此期间,受害主机将会连续接受这种会话请求,最终因耗尽资源而停止响应。这种攻击被称为()。
Today,thereisnosuchthingasa"typical"collegestudent.Peopleofallagesareenrolledincollege.Thoughtheconcept
Mysistersaidthatshewouldworkouttheproblemherself______askmybrotherforhelp.
最新回复
(
0
)