A passage or path through which water or other liquids can flow; a medium for communication or transmission.
水渠,水道;途径,通道;引导
课文例句 Example
“Overflow channels bled off excess water that accumulated during the summer monsoon months.”
02dispersev.C2
/dɪˈspɜːs/
释义 Definition
To scatter or spread something over a wide area; to distribute water or resources.
分散,散开,疏导,分配
课文例句 Example
“The reservoirs enabled the city to keep scarce water in dry months and disperse excess water during the rainy season.”
03doomedadj.C2
/duːmd/
释义 Definition
Certain to fail, die, or be destroyed; facing unavoidable ruin.
注定失败的,注定毁灭的,劫数难逃的
课文例句 Example
“This shift may have doomed the city when sea trade began to develop rapidly between Southeast Asia and China.”
04ingenuityn.C2
/ˌɪn.dʒəˈnjuː.ə.ti/
释义 Definition
The quality of being clever, original, and inventive in solving problems.
独创力,心灵手巧,巧妙的设计
课文例句 Example
“In the end, the tale of Angkor is a profound lesson in the limits of human ingenuity.”
05invadern.C2
/ɪnˈveɪ.dər/
释义 Definition
A person, group, or army that enters a country or territory by force in order to conquer it.
侵略者,入侵者,武装占领军
课文例句 Example
“Scholars have come up with suspected causes for Angkor's decline, including foreign invaders and climate chaos.”
06mechanismn.C1
/ˈmek.ə.nɪ.zəm/
释义 Definition
A machine, system, or operational process designed to perform a specific function.
机制,机械装置,运行系统
课文例句 Example
“Angkor's system was an amazing machine, a wonderful mechanism for regulating the world.”
07regimen.C2
/reɪˈʒiːm/
释义 Definition
A government, especially an authoritarian or strict one; a system of rule or management.
政权,统治体制,管理制度
课文例句 Example
“Cambodia's civil war, the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge, and subsequent conflicts turned Angkor into a no-go zone.”
08reservoirn.C2
/ˈrez.ə.vwɑːr/
释义 Definition
A large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply.
水库,大型蓄水池
课文例句 Example
“Angkor was powerful largely thanks to an advanced network of canals and massive reservoirs.”
09subsequentadj.C1
/ˈsʌb.sɪ.kwənt/
释义 Definition
Happening or coming after something else in time; following.
随后的,后来的,继起的
课文例句 Example
“The collapse of the dam and the subsequent arrival of military conflicts prevented further archaeological research.”
10subversiveadj.C2
/səbˈvɜː.sɪv/
释义 Definition
Seeking or intended to disrupt, challenge, or overthrow an established government, authority, or system.
颠覆性的,破坏既有等级制度的
课文例句 Example
“Theravada Buddhism's ideas of social equality were very subversive to the elite kings of Angkor.”
Reading 1B: The Collapse of Angkor · 课文互动精读
Paragraph AAn Empire's Splendor
1Almost hidden amid the forests of northern Cambodia is the scene of one of the greatest vanishing acts of all time.
在柬埔寨北部森林的掩映深处,上演了人类历史上最伟大的消失之谜之一。
2This was once the heart of the Khmer kingdom. At its height, the Khmer Empire dominated much of Southeast Asia, from Myanmar (Burma) in the west to Vietnam in the east.
这里曾是高棉帝国的核心心脏。在其鼎盛时期,高棉帝国统治着东南亚的大片土地,西起缅甸,东抵越南。
3As many as 750,000 people lived in Angkor, its magnificent capital.
有多达 75 万人生活在其宏伟的都城吴哥。
4The most extensive urban complex of the preindustrial world, Angkor stretched across an area the size of New York City. Its greatest temple, Angkor Wat, is the world's largest religious monument even today.
1Yet when the first Europeans arrived in Angkor in the late 16th century, they found a city that was already dying.
然而,当首批欧洲人在 16 世纪末抵达吴哥时,他们发现这座城市早已濒临消亡。
2Scholars have come up with a list of suspected causes for Angkor's decline, including foreign invaders, a religious change of heart, and a shift to maritime trade.
学者们列出了一系列推测导致吴哥衰落的原因,包括外敌入侵、宗教信仰的转变,以及贸易向海上商路的转移。
3But it's mostly guesswork: Roughly 1,300 inscriptions survive on temple doors and monuments, but the people of Angkor left not a single word explaining their kingdom's collapse.
1Some scholars assume that Angkor died the way it lived: by the sword.
一些学者推断,吴哥如其依恃杀伐征战崛起一样,最终也是在战乱与刀光剑影中灭亡的。
2The historical records of Ayutthaya, a neighboring state, claim that warriors from that kingdom 'took' Angkor in 1431.
邻国阿瑜陀耶的历史文献声称,该国勇士于 1431 年“攻克”了吴哥。
3No doubt Angkor would have been a rich prize—inscriptions boast that its temple towers were covered with gold.
毫无疑问,吴哥曾是一块丰厚的战利品——石碑铭文自豪地夸耀其寺庙宝塔皆覆以纯金。
4After its rediscovery by Western travelers just over a century ago, historians deduced from Angkor's ruins that the city had been looted by invaders from Ayutthaya.
一个多世纪前西方探险者重新发现吴哥后,历史学家便从废墟推断该城曾遭阿瑜陀耶入侵者的洗劫与破坏。
Paragraph DFletcher's Skepticism
1Roland Fletcher, co-director of a research effort called the Greater Angkor Project, is not convinced.
“大吴哥研究计划”的联席负责人罗兰·弗莱彻对此并不信服。
2Some early scholars, he says, viewed Angkor according to the sieges and conquests of European history.
他说,一些早期学者是套用欧洲历史上的围城战与征服模式来看待吴哥的。
3“The ruler of Ayutthaya, indeed, says he took Angkor, and he may have taken some formal regalia back to Ayutthaya with him,” says Fletcher.
“阿瑜陀耶统治者确实声称攻占了吴哥,而且可能带走了一些象征王权的礼仪服饰与重器,”弗莱彻表示。
4But after Angkor was captured, Ayutthaya's ruler placed his son on the throne. “He's not likely to have smashed the place up before giving it to his son.”
1A religious shift may also have contributed to the city's decline.
一场宗教信仰的剧变可能同样加速了这座城市的衰颓。
2Angkor's kings claimed to be the world emperors of Hindu mythology and erected temples to themselves.
吴哥的早期君王自称是印度神话中的天下共主,并为自己大兴土木修建神庙。
3But in the 13th and 14th centuries, Theravada Buddhism gradually took over from Hinduism, and its principles of social equality may have threatened Angkor's elite.
4“It was very subversive, just like Christianity was subversive to the Roman Empire,” says Fletcher.
“这极具颠覆性,就如同当年基督教对罗马帝国的颠覆一样,”弗莱彻说。
Paragraph FThe Agrarian Engine
1A new religion that promoted ideas of social equality might have led to a worker rebellion.
宣扬社会平等的全新宗教可能引发了底层劳工的反抗与起义。
2The city operated on a moneyless economy, relying on tribute and taxation, and the kingdom's main currency was rice.
吴哥在一个无货币经济体中运转,依赖朝贡与税赋,王国的主要流通硬通货就是大米。
3For one temple complex, Ta Prohm, more than 66,000 farmers produced nearly 3,000 tons of rice a year, which was then used to feed the temple's priests, dancers, and workers.
4Scholars estimate that farm laborers comprised nearly half of Greater Angkor's population.
学者估计,农业劳工占据了大吴哥总人口的近半数。
Paragraph GShift of Power
1Or maybe the royal court simply turned its back on Angkor.
抑或是王室朝廷主动背弃了吴哥。
2Angkor's rulers often erected new temple complexes and let older ones decay.
吴哥的统治者经常新建庙宇复合群,而任由旧建筑荒废风化。
3This may have doomed the city when sea trade began to develop between Southeast Asia and China.
当东南亚与中国之间的海上贸易日益繁荣时,这一习惯可能为吴哥敲响了丧钟。
4Maybe it was simple economic opportunism that had caused the Khmer center of power to shift: The move to a location closer to the Mekong River, near Cambodia's present-day capital, Phnom Penh, allowed it easier access to the sea.
1Economic and religious changes may have contributed to Angkor's downfall, but its rulers faced another foe.
经济与宗教层面的变迁或许促成了吴哥的衰败,但其统治者还面临着另一个宿敌。
2Angkor was powerful largely thanks to an advanced system of canals and reservoirs, which enabled the city to keep scarce water in dry months and disperse excess water during the rainy season.
3But forces beyond Angkor's control would eventually bring an end to this carefully constructed system.
然而,超越吴哥掌控的外在自然伟力,最终彻底摧毁了这一精心构筑的复杂水网。
Paragraph ITwo Millennia of Water
1Few ancient sites in southern Asia could compare to Angkor in its ability to guarantee a steady water supply.
在南亚和东南亚古代遗址中,几乎没有哪个遗迹能像吴哥一样保证如此稳定的供水系统。
2The first scholar to appreciate the scale of Angkor's waterworks was French archeologist Bernard-Philippe Groslier.
第一位洞察并赞叹吴哥水利系统规模的学者是法国考古学家贝尔纳-菲利普·格罗斯利耶。
3In 1979, he argued that the great reservoirs served two purposes: to symbolize the Hindu cosmos and to irrigate the rice fields.
1979 年,他提出大水库兼具双重使命:既象征印度教的宇宙秩序,又灌溉无际的稻田。
4Unfortunately, Groslier could not pursue his ideas further. Cambodia's civil war, the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge, and the subsequent arrival of Vietnamese forces in 1979 turned Angkor into a no-go zone for two decades.
1In the 1990s, Christophe Pottier followed up on Groslier's ideas and discovered that the south part of Angkor was a vast landscape of housing, water tanks, shrines, roads, and canals.
2Then, in 2000, Roland Fletcher and his colleague Damian Evans viewed some NASA radar images of Angkor. The researchers marveled at the sophistication of Angkor's infrastructure.
随后在 2000 年,罗兰·弗莱彻与同事达米安·埃文斯调阅了 NASA 的吴哥雷达影像。研究人员对吴哥基础设施的精巧程度叹为观止。
3“We realized that the entire landscape of Greater Angkor is artificial,” Fletcher says. Teams of laborers constructed hundreds of kilometers of canals and dikes that diverted water from the rivers to the reservoirs.
4Overflow channels bled off excess water that accumulated during the summer monsoon months, and after the monsoon, irrigation channels dispensed the stored water. “It was an incredibly clever system,” says Fletcher.
1Fletcher was therefore baffled when his team made a surprising discovery.
正因如此,当弗莱彻团队取得一项意外发现时,他们感到无比困惑。
2An extraordinary piece of Angkorian workmanship—a vast structure in the waterworks—had been destroyed, apparently by Angkor's own engineers.
吴哥水利工程中一件非凡的宏伟结构竟然遭到了破坏,而且显然出自吴哥自己的工程师之手。
3“The most logical explanation is that the dam failed,” Fletcher says.
“最合乎逻辑的解释就是大坝决堤溃败了,”弗莱彻表示。
4The river may have begun to erode the dam, or perhaps it was washed away by a flood. The Khmer broke apart the remaining stonework and modified the blocks for other purposes.
河水可能逐渐侵蚀了坝体,或者它被特大洪水彻底冲垮。高棉人拆解了剩余的石料,并改作他用。
Paragraph LThe Little Ice Age Shock
1Any weakening of the waterworks would have left the city vulnerable to a natural phenomenon that none of Angkor's engineers could have predicted.
水利系统的任何削弱,都会使这座城市在吴哥工程师完全始料未及的自然异变面前不堪一击。
2Starting in the 1300s, it appears that Southeast Asia experienced a period of extreme climate change, which also affected other parts of the world.
从 14 世纪开始,东南亚似乎经历了一场极端的全球性气候巨变。
3In Europe, which endured centuries of harsh winters and cool summers, it was known as the Little Ice Age.
在欧洲,人们承受了数百年严酷的凛冬与阴凉的夏季,这段时期被称为“小冰期”。
Paragraph MSocial Instability & Famine
1To an already weakened kingdom, extreme weather would have been the final blow.
对于一个本已元气大伤的王国而言,极端恶劣的气候成为了致命一击。
2“We don't know why the water system was operating below capacity,” says Daniel Penny, co-director of the Greater Angkor Project. “But what it means is that Angkor was more exposed to the threat of drought than at any other time in its history.”
3If inhabitants of parts of Angkor were starving while other parts of the city were hoarding a finite quantity of rice, the most likely result was social instability.
4“When populations in tropical countries exceed the carrying capacity of the land, real trouble begins,” says Yale University anthropologist Michael Coe, “and this inevitably leads to cultural collapse.”
5A hungry army weakened by internal problems would have exposed the city to attack. Indeed, Ayutthaya's invasion happened near the end of a long period of drought.
1Add to the climate chaos the political and religious changes already affecting the kingdom, and Angkor's prospects were bleak, says Fletcher.
弗莱彻说,除了气候紊乱之外,加上已在冲击王国的政治与宗教变动,吴哥的前景已一片暗淡。
2“The world around Angkor was changing; society was moving on. It would have been a surprise if Angkor persisted.”
“吴哥周遭的整个世界都在发生剧变;时代在前行。如果吴哥还能顽强维系存续,那才真正令人惊奇。”
Paragraph OEchoes Across Continents
1The Khmer Empire was not the first civilization brought down by climate catastrophe.
高棉帝国并非第一个被气候灾难摧毁的古老文明。
2Centuries earlier, loss of environmental stability likewise brought down another powerful kingdom halfway around the world. Many scholars now believe that the fall of the Maya followed a series of droughts in the ninth century.
1. Complete the notes about the Khmer Empire: Empire founded by: _______
P.18 Before You Read · A Notes
2. Complete the notes about the Khmer Empire: Location of capital city: _______
P.18 Before You Read · A Notes
3. Complete the notes about the Khmer Empire: Start of empire's decline: _______
P.18 Before You Read · B Predicting
4. Skim paragraphs A and B. What reasons for the decline of Angkor are mentioned?
P.18 Before You Read · B Discussion
5. What other environmental/external factors might cause a great ancient civilization to collapse?
Section 2: Reading Comprehension (P.23-24)
P.23 Reading Comprehension · Part A #1
1. [MAIN IDEAS] What information does the passage NOT include?
P.23 Reading Comprehension · Part A #2
2. [DETAIL] According to the information in paragraphs A and B, which of the following is NOT true about Angkor?
P.23 Reading Comprehension · Part A #3
3. [VOCABULARY] In the first sentence of paragraph C, the phrase by the sword is closest in meaning to _______.
P.23 Reading Comprehension · Part A #4
4. [REFERENCE] In the last sentence of paragraph D, the word it refers to _______.
P.23 Reading Comprehension · Part A #5
5. [INFERENCE] We can infer from information in paragraph F that the greatest number of people in Angkor worked as _______.
P.23 Reading Comprehension · Part A #6
6. [DETAIL] How did the climate in Angkor change in the 1300s?
P.23 Reading Comprehension · Part A #7
7. [RHETORICAL PURPOSE] Why does the author mention the Little Ice Age in paragraph L?
P.24 Evaluating Statements · Fletcher's Views
1. The main cause of Angkor's collapse was its conflict with Ayutthaya.
P.24 Evaluating Statements · Fletcher's Views
2. The ruler of Ayutthaya likely destroyed the palace at Angkor.
P.24 Evaluating Statements · Fletcher's Views
3. Theravada Buddhism's principles of social equality threatened Angkor's elite.
P.24 Evaluating Statements · Fletcher's Views
4. Angkor's infrastructure was not very sophisticated.
P.24 Evaluating Statements · Fletcher's Views
5. The dam at Angkor probably failed.
P.24 Evaluating Statements · Fletcher's Views
6. There was little Angkor's rulers could do to avoid its eventual demise.
💡 Critical Thinking · Applying Ideas (P.24)
1. Three challenges Angkor faced: Ayutthaya conquest; religious subversion threatening divine kingship; catastrophic failure of irrigation canals and dam infrastructure under severe drought.
2. Threat to modern civilizations: Prolonged droughts and climate extremes remain among the greatest existential threats to food security and urban sustainability across the globe today.
An argument is a statement put forward by a writer that is supported by reasons or evidence. Ask yourself: Is the evidence a fact or opinion? Are sources credible? Look out for hedging language (seems, may, could, likely) which reveals the author's confidence level.
P.25 Reading Skill · Part A Evidence Matching
Match argument with evidence: 1. Invaders conquered Angkor.
P.25 Reading Skill · Part A Evidence Matching
Match argument with evidence: 2. A religious shift contributed to the city's decline.
P.25 Reading Skill · Part A Evidence Matching
Match argument with evidence: 3. The royal court turned its back on Angkor.
P.25 Reading Skill · Part A Evidence Matching
Match argument with evidence: 4. The water management system broke down.
P.25 Reading Skill · Part A Evidence Matching
Match argument with evidence: 5. A weakened Angkor was affected by climate change.
P.25 Reading Skill · Part A Evidence Matching
Match argument with evidence: 6. Angkor began to suffer from social instability.
P.25 Reading Skill · Part B Hedging Language
7. Which set of words demonstrates the author's use of hedging language when evaluating historical arguments?