书城历史英国历史读本:与《英国语文》同步的经典学生历史读本
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第133章 公元1603~1881年的英格兰(41)

3.On her arrival,grave charges of misconduct were brought against her;but these had to be given up.Yet,when the King was crowned in Westminster Abbey,she was not admitted,though she actually went to the door.A few days afterwards she died of a broken heart.Her coffin bore,by her own order,the words,“Here lies Caroline of Brunswick,the injured Queen of England.”

4.Early in this reign,the Greeks,who had long been subject to the Turks,rose against them,and showed so much bravery,that Britain,France,and Russia agreed to help them to win back their freedom.A fleet was sent to Greece,which in a few hours destroyed the whole Turkish navy in the harbouraof Navarino.

Greece was then formed into a kingdom.

5.George the Fourth died at the age of sixty-eight.He is chiefly famous for his polished manners and his fondness for dress.He used to be called “the first gentleman in Europe;”but he lived a wicked life,and he was a weak anda Navarino.-A sea-port of Greece,near the south-western point of Morea.

useless King.Having no son,he was succeeded by his brother William,Duke of Clarence.

6.Important Events.-During this reign Captains Ross and Parry sailed to the Arctic Seas in search of a passage to the east coast of Asia.The Test andaCorporation Actswere repealed.The Catholic Emancipation Act,allowingRoman Catholics to sit in Parliament,was passed in 1829.

中文阅读

1.王储成为英国国王后不久,就有人密谋杀死首相和政府成员,砸开监狱,并在伦敦放火;但是这一阴谋被发现,其头目被处死。

2.乔治四世与不伦瑞克的卡罗琳结婚二十五年,但他一直对她非常苛刻,而卡罗琳被迫长期远离他。不过,在他登上王位后,她又回到英国,要求重回王后的位置。

3.在她回国后,有人严重指控她行为不端,但是这些指控都无果而终。不过,当国王在威斯敏斯特修道院加冕时,虽然她实际上已经到了门口,却无法进入。按照她的意愿,她的灵柩上写着这样的话:“此处长眠着不伦瑞克的卡罗琳,受伤的英国王后。”

4.在这一统治时期早期,长期受土耳其人奴役的希腊人起义,表现得极为勇敢,以至于英国、法国和俄国都答应帮助他们赢回自由。一支舰队被派往希腊,只用几个小时就在纳瓦里诺港b摧毁了整个土耳其海军。随后希腊成立了一个王国。

5.乔治四世在68岁时死去。他为人所知的主要是优雅的举止和对服饰的喜爱。

他经常被人称为“欧洲第一绅士”,但他的生活却不道德,是一个软弱无用的国王。由于没有子嗣,他的王位由他弟弟威廉即克拉伦斯公爵继承。

6.重要事件--在这一统治时期,罗斯和帕里船长向北极诸海航行,以期找到一条通往亚洲东海岸的海上通道。“宣誓与公司法”c被废止。允许罗马天主教徒参加国会的“天主教解放法”在1829年通过。

a Test and Corporation Acts.-The Test Act,passed in 1673,required all civil and military officers to receive the communion according to the rites of the English Church.The Corporation Act,passed in 1661,required the same of all officers in boroughs.Both Acts were results of the Restoration.

b 纳瓦里诺:希腊的一个海港,摩里亚半岛西南端附近。

c 宣誓与公司法:“宣誓法”于1673年通过,要求所有平民和军官按照英国教会的规矩接受感化。“公司法”于1661年通过,要求享有自治权的市镇的所有军官做同样的事。这两项法案都是王朝复辟的结果。

143

GEORGE STEPHENSON

乔治·斯蒂芬森

dissolved,ended.experiments,trials.inclined,sloping.

locomotive,an engine that moves on wheels.

model,copy.

obstacle,hindrance.previously,formerly.pursuits,occupations.repairing,mending.stationary,standing.

1.About 1790,a little boy used to earn a few pence a day by herding cows in the fields of Dewley Burn in Northumberland.His father‘s wages,as the fireman of a steam-engine attached to thecoalmines there,were very small.One afternoonthe boy collected a quantity of mud,and cutting the stiff stalks of a hemlockplant,he built a model of his father’s engine.His name was George Stephenson.

2.We see him next,at the age of eighteen,holding a position similar to his father‘s,and taking advantage of his situation to study every crank and bolt and rivet of the engine under his charge.On Saturday afternoons,when other men were idling,or wasting their wages,young George would shut himself up in the engine-room,take themachinery to pieces,and polish with loving carethe steel piston-rods till they gleamed like silver.

3.By-and-by he added the repairing of clocks and watches to his other means of gain;and his little son Robert used to stand by,watching him with eyes of eager interest.The boy was delighted-beyond measure when his father allowed him to stand on a chair and put on the hand of a clock that was under repair.Father and son thus began a partnership in mechanical pursuits which lasted until it was dissolved by death.

4.One day George Stephenson heard that the engine used for pumping water out of a new coalpit would not work.When his labour for the day was over,he went to see the machinery that had failed;and he examined it carefully,until he found the cause of the failure.

5.He then told the engineer that he could make it work;and as everything had been tried to no purpose,and as it seemed that George could do it no harm by trying once more,he was allowed to take it to pieces.So successful was he in this first attempt at engine-curing,that in four days it was in fine working order,and the men were then enabled to descend to the bottom of ashaft which had previously been full of water.

6.The next scene of Stephenson’s life was the town of Killingworth,bwherehe obtained the situation of engine-wright.Railways or tram-roadshad longbeen laid between the mouths of the coal-pits and the wharfs where the ships received their grimy cargoes;but the trucks had always been drawn slowly and painfully by horses.

7.The notion of employing steam to do this work had already been suggested;but the grand difficulty in the way seemed to be that the smooth iron wheels of an engine,being turned by steam,would slip round instead of rolling the engine forward.Stephenson,thinking over this difficulty,saw that it was merely a fancy;and having made some experiments,he found that the weight of the mass of metal used in making an engine,would press the rails sufficiently to give the wheels a hold.

8.Lord Ravensworth came to his aid with money,and some time afterwards,on the tramroad of Killingworth men witnessed the novel sight of a small locomotive drawing a weight of thirty tons upa rather steep inclined plane at the rate of four miles an hour.When the fact was ascertained that an engine worked by steam couldbe used for locomotion,theprogress of improvement was very rapid.

FIRST LOCOMOTIVE CONSTRUCTED BY STEPHENSON.

a Killingworth.-Five miles north-east of Newcastle-on-Tyne.