澳尔英语村高级班文本
澳尔英语村高级班课文text:
The Middle Eastern Bazaar The Middle Eastern bazaar takes you back hundreds-… even thousands-… of years. The one I am thinking of particularly is entered by a Gothic-arched gateway of aged brick and stone. You pass from the heat and glare of a big, open square into a cool, dark cavernwhich extends as far as the eye can see, losing itself in the shadowy distance. Little donkeys with harmoniously tinkling bells thread their way among the throngsof people entering and leaving the bazaar. The roadway is about twelve feet wide, but it is narrowed every few yards by little stalls where goods of every conceivable kind are sold. The din of the stall-holder; crying their wares, of donkey-boys and porters clearing a way for themselves by shouting vigorously, and of would-be purchasers arguing and barqaining is continuous and makes you dizzy.
Then as you penetrate deeper into the bazaar, the noise of the entrance fades away, and you come to the muted cloth-market. The earthen floor, beaten hard by countless feet, deadens t
he sound of footsteps, and the yaulted mud-brick walls and roof have hardly any sounds to echo. The shop-keepers speak in slow, measured tones, and the buyers, overwhelmed by the sepulchral atmosphere, follow suit.
One of the peculiarities of the Eastern bazaar is that shopkeepers dealing in the same kind of goods do not scatter themselves over the bazaar, in order to avoid competition, but collect in the same area, so that purchasers can know where to find them, and so that they can form a closely knit quild against injustice orpersecution. In the cloth-market, for instance, all the sellers of material for clothes, curtains, chair coversand so on line the roadway on both sides, each open-fronted shop having a trestle trestle table for display and shelves for storage. Bargaining is the order of the cay, and veiled women move at a leisurely pace from shop to shop, selecting, pricing and doing a little preliminary bargaining before they narrow down their choice and begin the really serious business of beating the price down.
It is a point of honour with the customer not to let the shopkeeper guess what it is she reall
y likes and wants until the last moment. If he does guess correctly, he will price the item high, and yield little in the bargaining. The seller, on the other hand, makes a point of protesting that the price he is charging is depriving him of all profit, and that he is sacrificing this because of his personal regard for the customer.
Bargaining can go on the whole day, or even several days, with the customer coming and going at intervals One of the most picturesque and impressive parts of the bazaar is the copper-smiths' market. As you approach it,a tinkling and banging and clashing begins to impinge on your ear. It grows louder and more distinct, until you round a corner and see a fairyland of dancing flashes, as the burnished copper catches.
The pressing of the linseed pulp to extract the oil is done by a vast ramshackle apparatus of beams and ropes and pulleys which towers to the vaulted ceiling and dwarfs the camels and their stone wheels. The machine is operated by one man, who shovels the linseed pulp into a stone vat, climbs up nimbly to a dizzyheight to fasten ropes, and then throws his weight on to a great beam made out of a tree trunk to set the ropes and pulleys in motion.
Ancient girders girders creak and groan, ropes tighten and then a trickle of oil oozes gozes down a stone runnelinto a used petrol can. Quickly the trickle becomes a flood of glistening linseed oil as the beam sinks earthwards, taut and protesting, its creaks blending with the squeaking and.
rumbling of the grinding-wheels and the occasional grunts and sighs of the camels.
(from Advanced Comprehension and Appreciation pieces,1962)
NOTES
1) This piece is taken from Advanced Comprehension and Appreciation Pieces, compiled for overseas students by L.A. Hill and D.J. May, published by Oxford University Press, Hong Kong,1962.
2) Middle East: generally referring to the area from Afghanistan to Egypt, including the Arabian Peninsula, Cyprus, and Asiatic Turkey.
3) Gothic:a style of architecture originated in N. France in 11th century, characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, steep, high roofs, etc.
pulleys4veiled women: Some Moslems use the veil--more appropriately, the purdah---to seclude or hide their women from the eyes of strangers.
5) caravanserai(caravansary): in the Middle East,a kind of inn with a large central court, where bands of merchants or pilgrims, together with their camels or horses, stay for shelter and refreshment   

版权声明：本站内容均来自互联网，仅供演示用，请勿用于商业和其他非法用途。如果侵犯了您的权益请与我们联系QQ:729038198，我们将在24小时内删除。