听力首页 听力教程 VOA慢速 英语歌曲 外语下载 英语小说 英语词典 在线背单词 听力论坛 韩语学习
听力专题 英语教材 VOA标准 英语动画 英语考试 资源技巧 英语翻译 单词连连看 听力家园 德语学习
听力搜索 英语导读 BBC英语 英语视频 英语电台 英语QQ群 外语歌曲   英语游戏 英语网刊 日语学习
当前位置: 英语听力论坛 » 【每日英语美文】 » The Different Ages of Man
返回列表 发帖

The Different Ages of Man

In the Age of Gold, the world was first furnished with inhabitants. This was an age of innocence and happiness. Truth and right prevailed, thought not enforced by law, no was there any in authority to threaten or to punish. The earth brought forth all things necessary for man, without his labor in plowing or sowing. Perpetual spring reigned, flowers sprang up without seed, the rivers flowed with milk and wine, and yellow honey distilled from the oaks.
The Silver Age came next, inferior to the golden. Jupiter shortened the spring, and divided the year into seasons. Then, first, men suffered the extremes of heat and cold, and houses became necessary. Crops would no longer grow without planting. This was a race of manly men, but insolent and impious.
Next to the Age of Silver came that of brass, more savage of temper and readier for the strife of arms, yet not altogether wicked.
Last came the hardest age and worst, - of iron. Crime burst   in like a flood; modesty, truth, and honor fled. The gifts of the earth were put only to nefarious uses. Fraud, violence, war at home and abroad were rife.
Jupiter, observing the condition of things, burned with anger, He summoned the gods to council. Jupiter set forth to the assembly the frightful condition of the earth, and announced his intention of destroying its inhabitants, and providing a new race, unlike the present, which should be worthier of life and more reverent toward the gods. Fearing lest a conflagration might set Heaven itself on fire, he proceeded to drown the world. Speedily the race of mean and their possessions, were swept away by the deluge.
Parnassus alone, of the mountains, overtopped the waves, and there Deucalion, son the Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, found refuge - he a just man and she a faithful worshiper of the gods. Jupiter, remembering the harmless lives and pious demeanor of this pair, caused the waters to recede. Then Deucalion and Pyrrha, entering a temple defaced with slime, approached the enkindled altar and, falling prostrate, prayed for guidance and aid. The oracle answered, "Depart from the temple with head veiled and garments unbound, and cast behind you the bones of your mother." They heard the words with astonishment. Pyrrha first broke silence:"We cannot obey; we dare not profane the remains of our parents." They sought the woods. and revolved the oracle in their minds. At last Deucalion spoke: "Either my wit fails me or the command is one we may obey without impiety. The earth is the great parent of all; the stones are her bones; these we may cast behind us; this, I think, the oracle means. They veiled their faces, unbound their garments, and, picking up stones, cast them behind them. The stones began to grow soft and to assume shape. By degrees they put on a rude resemblance to the human form. Those thrown by Deucalion became men; those by Pyrrha, women.

In the Age of Gold, the world was first furnished with inhabitants.
i was puzzled by the first sentnce

TOP

返回列表