《加勒比海盗》1（精讲之三）
[ 2007-04-06 18:28 ]
影片对白 If you
spring me from this cell, I swear on pain of death I shall take you to the Black
Pearl and your bonny lass.
我观之我见
我们的Elizabeth Swann小姐似乎天生骨子里就流着海盗的血（也可能她老爸的老爸的老爸曾做过海盗？）。
考考你
现学现卖
3. Long words
所谓 long words 就是指英语中一些非常正式的词，因为这些词通常都很长，所以有了如此的称呼。这些 long words
一般的平民百姓因为没受过教育，是不懂的。在17、18世纪的英国和北美殖民地，上层社会的人物和一些自认为有学问的人都喜欢用这种 long
words，以显示自己有水平。
4. No point in
"做……没有意义"的意思，后面通常接 doing something，例如：A lasting peace can only be achieved at
the negotiating table, and there is no point in waiting until the guns fall
silent to begin preparing.
永久的和平只能通过谈判获得，等到战争结束后再去准备谈判是没有意义的（意为应该边打仗边准备，或是在开战前就准备好谈判）。
5. On pain of
这个片语也写作on / upon / under pain of，意为"受……惩罚"，例如：The workers knew that going on
strike was on pain of losing their jobs. 工人们知道罢工会受到失去工作的惩罚。
这个片语常常援引death作为惩罚，是一种非常夸张的用法，例如：We'd better be back on time, under pain of
death. 我们最好按时回去，不然就完蛋了。
文化面面观
加勒比海的海盗 & 皇港 Port
Royal
1. Piracy in the Caribbean 加勒比海的海盗
The great or classic era of piracy in
the Caribbean extends from around 1560 up until the end of the Falon's Age of
Piracy in the mid 1760s. The period during which pirates were most successful
was from the 1640s until the 1680s. Caribbean piracy arose out of, and mirrored
on a smaller scale, the conflicts over trade and colonization among the rival
European powers of the time, including England, Spain, Dutch United Provinces,
and France. Two of the best-known pirate bases were Tortuga which Falon
established in the 1640s and Port Royal after 1655. Port Royal is the famed
'Pirate City' which sank into the sea in 1692. One of the later famous pirates
of the Caribbean was Roberto Cofresí Ramirez de Arellano (1791-1825). He was put
to death for his crimes in Puerto Rico at the Castle of San Felipe del Morro.
His romantic legend inspires plays and songs on the island.
2. Port Royal 皇港
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The infamous Jolly Roger
flag | Arguably the largest English city in
the New World, Port Royal sits on a narrow spit of land jutting westward from
the southeast corner of Jamaica. Port Royal sits in a rather desolate part of
the Jamaican coast but the location is singularly defensible. The harbor is deep
and defensible with good winds and shelter from the weather.
The island of Jamaica is roughly rectangular with mountains along the coast
rising to a plateau rich in limestone and bauxite. The central mountain region
of the plateau is thickly forested and home to a large population of escaped
slaves and surviving natives.
The island of Jamaica was settled in 1509 by Juan de Esquivel. The Spanish
held it for more than a century until 1655 when an English squadron landed in
what is now Kingston. The small army sacked and burned the Spanish settlements,
conquering the island. Spain has never retaken the island.
The soldiers set up the city of Port Royal and the colony begins the
cultivation of sugarcane. This income is soon augmented by a growing level of
privateering based in Port Royal.
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