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文学小屋

 


Athena

　　雅典娜Athena was the daughter of Zeus, whose head she came out of. Because she was carrying arms and was giving off [1]light and splender, she became the goddess of wisdom and knowledge and patroness[2] of Athens. Athena was also the goddess of arts and crafts and women's handiwork. She was very talented in women's handiwork. But there was a girl whose name was Arachne, she didn't think highly of [3]Athena's talents, she thought she could do much better than her. This was known to Athena who decided to compete with Arachne. She made a splendid design and it was much better than the web Arachne had woven, as Arachne herself could see. Arachne was so ashamed of herself [4]that she decided to hang herself, but Athena refused to let her do that and changed her into a spider who could do nothing but weave forever.

 

雅典娜 雅典娜

　　雅典娜是宙斯的女儿，她是从宙斯的脑袋里面出来的。由于出生时携带兵器，光彩夺目。于是就成了智慧和知识女神，以及雅典的守护神。 雅典娜还是艺术、工艺和妇女手工之神。她精通妇女手工。但是有一个叫奥拉克尼的姑娘对雅典娜的才能却不以为然，她觉得自己做的比雅典娜要好的多。 雅典娜听说了这件事，她决定与奥拉克尼一比高低。她设计了一个非常精美的织物，比奥拉克尼织的网要好出许多，阿瑞娜自叹不如，她羞愧难当，决定自缢。但雅典娜阻止了她，并把她变成一只蜘蛛。从此后，她只能不停地编织，直到永远。

 

 

注释：

1.give off：意思是“发出”、“放出”等，give off light就是“发光的意思，这里并不是说雅典娜真的能发光，而是形容她美丽照人。give off不仅仅能发光，还可以发出香气，如：that girl can give off fregrant smell (那个女孩能够发出香气)。想想看，会有多少男士围着她转呀。

2. patron：是守护神的意思，雅典娜是女的，因而就是patroness（女守护神）了。在英语中，有许多词，如waiter、actor等一般都表示男性，后面加一个ess就表示女性了，waitress表示“女服务员”，actress表示“女演员”。

3.think highly of：是一个词组，表示“赞赏……”、“对……有很高评价”，如果你的上司think highly of your work你该高兴了，但是你可不能骄傲，而要更加努力的工作，以让你的上司think highlier of you啊。

4.be ashamed of oneself：表示“羞愧”、“惭愧”，人说了大话往往会感到羞愧，如本文的Arachne。生活中，许多人都有过这种感觉，如：he spoke rudely to his father,and later he felt very ashamed of himself (他对父亲说话不恭，后来他感到非常羞愧)。