劍橋雅思13Test2閱讀passage1真題+翻譯

劍橋雅思13Test2閱讀passage1真題+翻譯 關于這個問題下面小編就來為各個考生解答下。

劍橋雅思13Test2閱讀passage1真題+翻譯

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Bringing cinnamon to Europe

桂皮入歐

Cinnamon is a sweet, fragrant spice produced from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum, which is native to the Indian sub-continent. It was known in biblical times, and is mentioned in several books of the Bible, both as an ingredient that was mixed with oils for anointing people's bodies, and also as a token indicating friendship among lovers and friends. In ancient Rome, mourners attending funerals burnt cinnamon to create a pleasant scent. Most often, however, the spice found its primary use as an additive to food and drink. In the Middle Ages, Europeans who could afford the spice used it to flavour food, particularly meat, and to impress those around them with their ability to purchase an expensive condiment from the ‘exotic’ East. At a banquet, a host would offer guests a plate with various spices piled upon it as a sign of the wealth at his or her disposal. Cinnamon was also reported to have health benefits, and was thought to cure various ailments, such as indigestion.

桂皮是用肉桂屬樹木的內層樹皮做成的一種散發(fā)著香甜氣味的香料,原產(chǎn)于印度次大陸。它早在圣經(jīng)時代就己為人所知,圣經(jīng)中也有數(shù)次關于它的記載,當時它既作為原料與油脂混合給身體涂油,也可以作為愛人和朋友間親密的象征。古羅馬時期,出席葬禮的人會點燃桂皮來散發(fā)香氛。然而桂皮最主要的用法還是作為食物和飲料的添加劑。中世紀時期,買得起桂皮的歐洲人會用桂皮給食物調味,特別是肉類,同時也向周圍的人炫耀自已有財力買得起來自“神秘”東方的昂貴香料。在宴會上,主人會將堆滿了各種香料的盤子獻給客人們,以顯示他/她有財可資揮霍。也有記栽說桂皮有醫(yī)療效用,可以用來治療多種病癥,如消化不良等。

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the European middle classes began to desire the lifestyle of the elite, including their consumption of spices. This led to a growth in demand for cinnamon and other spices. At that time, cinnamon was transported by Arab merchants, who closely guarded the secret of the source of the spice from potential rivals. They took it from India, where it was grown, on camels via an overland route to the Mediterranean. Their journey ended when they reached Alexandria. European traders sailed there to purchase their supply of cinnamon, then brought it back to Venice. The spice then travelled from that great trading city to markets all around Europe. Because the overland trade route allowed for only small quantities of the spice to reach Europe, and because Venice had a virtual monopoly of the trade, the Venetians could set the price of cinnamon exorbitantly high. These prices, coupled with the increasing demand, spurred the search for new routes to Asia by Europeans eager to take part in the spice trade.

中世紀晚期時,歐洲的中產(chǎn)階級渴求精英階層的生活方式,包括他們享用的香料。這導致了對桂皮和多種其他香料需求量的增長。當時,桂皮是阿拉伯商人販往歐洲的,他們對桂皮的來源嚴格保密,以防范可能的競爭對手。他們將桂皮從原產(chǎn)地印度買走,走陸路用駱駝運往地中海地區(qū)。他們的行程終點位于亞歷山大。歐洲商人走水路抵達亞歷山大,從他們手中買走桂皮,接著運往威尼斯。然后,這些香料又從這座貿易都市銷往歐洲各地市場。由于通過陸路運輸?shù)綒W洲的桂皮數(shù)量不大,以及威尼斯在桂皮交易上的將近壟斷地位,威尼斯人將桂皮價格賣到天價。由于價格高昂,加上需求不斷增長,想要在桂皮交易中分一杯羹的歐洲商人急于搜尋新的亞歐商路。

Seeking the high profits promised by the cinnamon market, Portuguese traders arrived on the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean toward the end of the 15th century. Before Europeans arrived on the island, the state had organized the cultivation of cinnamon. People belonging to the ethnic group called the Salagama would peel the bark off young shoots of the cinnamon plant in the rainy season, when the wet bark was more pliable. During the peeling process, they curled the bark into the ‘stick’ shape still associated with the spice today. The Salagama then gave the finished product to the king as a form of tribute. When the Portuguese arrived, they needed to increase production significantly, and so enslaved many other members of the Ceylonese native population, forcing them to work in cinnamon harvesting. In 1518, the Portuguese built a fort on Ceylon, which enabled them to protect the island, so helping them to develop a monopoly in the cinnamon trade and generate very high profits. In the late 16th century, for example, they enjoyed a tenfold profit when shipping cinnamon over a journey of eight days from Ceylon to India.

15世紀末期,看準了桂皮市場潛在的豐厚利潤,葡蔔牙商人登上了印度洋上的島國錫蘭。在歐洲人抵達之前,該國已經(jīng)有了組織化的桂皮收割。薩羅族人會在雨季從肉桂樹的幼枝上剝下樹皮,因為此時濕潤的樹皮更柔韌。在剝樹皮的過程中,他們會把桂皮卷成小木棍狀,這個做法浩用至今。薩羅人之后將桂皮當作貢品呈給國王。葡簡牙人登陸后,需要大規(guī)模擴大生產(chǎn),于是他們奴役了大批錫蘭土著,強迫他們從事桂皮收割。1518年,葡牙人在錫蘭建立要塞維持自己對島嶼的控制,幫助他們壟斷桂皮貿易,獲取高額收益。比如16世紀末,他們花8天時間走水路將桂皮從錫蘭運往印度,就能坐收10倍的利潤。

When the Dutch arrived off the coast of southern Asia at the very beginning of the 17th century, they set their sights on displacing the Portuguese as kings of cinnamon. The Dutch allied themselves with Kandy, an inland kingdom on Ceylon. In return for payments of elephants and cinnamon, they protected the native king from the Portuguese. By 1640, the Dutch broke the 150-year Portuguese monopoly when they overran and occupied their factories. By 1658, they had permanently expelled the Portuguese from the island, thereby gaining control of the lucrative cinnamon trade.

17世紀初期,荷蘭人在南亞海岸登陸,意在取代葡萄牙在桂皮貿易中的霸主地位。他們與錫蘭內地的王國康提結盟,以保護康提不受葡萄牙侵略為條件,換取大象及桂皮。直到1640年,荷蘭在蹂躪并占領了葡萄牙人的桂皮工廠之后,終于打破了葡萄牙獨霸150年的壟斷地位。1658年,他們徹底趕走了葡萄牙人,因此完全控制了利潤豐厚的桂皮貿易。

In order to protect their hold on the market, the Dutch, like the Portuguese before them, treated the native inhabitants harshly. Because of the need to boost production and satisfy Europe's ever-increasing appetite for cinnamon, the Dutch began to alter the harvesting practices of the Ceylonese. Over time, the supply of cinnamon trees on the island became nearly exhausted, due to systematic stripping of the bark. Eventually, the Dutch began cultivating their own cinnamon trees to supplement the diminishing number of wild trees available for use.

為了保護他們的市場地位,荷蘭人與此前的葡萄牙人一樣,對待當?shù)厝嗣癞惓埍?。為了提高產(chǎn)量以滿足歐洲日益增長的桂皮需求,荷蘭人開始改變錫蘭人的耕種收割模式。不久,由于大規(guī)模地剝離樹皮,該島的肉桂樹幾近枯竭。最終,為了彌補可用的野生肉桂樹的減少,荷蘭人開始自己種植肉桂樹。

Then, in 1796, the English arrived on Ceylon, thereby displacing the Dutch from their control of the cinnamon monopoly. By the middle of the 19th century, production of cinnamon reached 1,000 tons a year, after a lower grade quality of the spice became acceptable to European tastes. By that time, cinnamon was being grown in other parts of the Indian Ocean region and in the West Indies, Brazil, and Guyana. Not only was a monopoly of cinnamon becoming impossible, but the spice trade overall was diminishing in economic potential, and was eventually superseded by the rise of trade in coffee, tea, chocolate, and sugar.

接著,在1796年,英國人登陸錫蘭,取代了荷蘭人在桂皮貿易中的壟斷地位。到19世紀中期,在歐洲人慢慢接受了一種質量等級較低的桂皮口味之后,桂皮的產(chǎn)量達到1000噸/年。至此,桂皮開始在印度洋其他部分和西印度群島、巴西、圭亞那等地種植。這不僅讓壟斷桂皮交易的可能性化為泡影,也讓桂皮的經(jīng)濟潛能全面下跌,最終被咖啡、茶葉、巧克力和糖類貿易的崛起所取代。

由于篇幅的問題，以上只是一部分，更多內容請繼續(xù)關注我們中國教育在線外語頻道。

>> 雅思 托福 免費測試、量身規(guī)劃、讓英語學習不再困難<<