动物也成木乃伊-环宇时空-休闲英语-轻松英语-洪恩在线

古埃及人认为，如果死后能把尸体保存下来，他们就可以永远"活着"。于是，一旦有重要人物去世，防腐师把尸体制成木乃伊，以备"来世"复活之用。而墓穴中那许许多多被制成木乃伊的动物，也会进入古埃及人所谓的"来世"吗？

Mummified Animals

Ancient Egyptians, well-known for mummifying[1] 木乃伊 their human dead, also mummified their animals. They mummified so many that later generations of Egyptians and Europeans ground[2] up the wrapped remains[3] for fertilizer or burned them instead of firewood. A German ship once used thousands of cat mummies for ballast.

1． mummifying：它的原形是mummify，表示"将尸体制成木乃伊"。大家知道木乃伊是怎么做成的吗？最著名的埃及木乃伊，一般先切除尸体内脏，然后再用防腐剂处理并用细麻布将尸体裹紧。这样的话，干尸可保存长达五千年。
2． ground：这里ground是grind的过去试，ground up在这句话中是指把动物木乃伊碾碎，然后撒在田野以作为肥料。grind有"磨碎，碾碎"的意思。
3． remains：remain用作名词时一般都用复数，它可以指"剩余物，残余"，比如the remains of the supper；还能指"遗迹，废墟"，比如the remains of a temple（一所寺院的废墟），the remains of ancient Rome（古罗马遗迹）。而在这儿它指的肯定就是动物的遗体了。

When you see a mummy of a shrew[4], a baboon 木乃伊 or a fish, the overwhelming[5] question is: Why? Why? Why? Why did people who lived 1,600 to 4,000 years ago put mummified animals in the tombs of the human dead? Why did they create so many enormous animal cemeteries[6]?

4． shrew：泼妇，悍妇。比如在网上经常可以看到有人诉苦：I found myself married to a vulgar shrew.（我发现自己娶了个粗俗的悍妇。）这个词后再加个字母d，就成了另一个单词shrewd"精明的"，大家可千万要分清楚哦！
5． overwhelming：势不可挡的，无法抗拒的。情人眼里出西施，在你的眼里，你的lover是否也有着overwhelming glamour（无可抵挡的魅力）呢？人人都有失落的时候，每到这时，我就会觉得I feel an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.（一种无可奈何的强烈感觉）。
6． cemeteries：公墓。还有好几个类似的表示方式，如burial ground 和graveyard。

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"Ancient Egyptians mummified animals for several 木乃伊 reasons," says Salima Ikram, who teaches Egyptology[7] and archeology at the American University in Cairo. "They believed that after they died, they traveled to another world. Victual[8] mummies - joints of cows or whole birds - were preserved and entombed with dead humans so the humans would have food in the next life."

7． Egyptology：这个词与后面的archeology都有相同的词缀：_ology，表示"学问，科学"， Egyptology指"埃及古物学"，后者指"考古学"。
8． Victual：乍一看这似乎是个形容词，实际这是个名词，表示"食物"。

Since ancient Egyptians also believed that you CAN take it with you, they packed up pets, furniture, jewelry and clothes that might be useful on the other side. Pets such as dogs or cats were mummified and buried with their owners when they died so they'd be able to play together in the next life. Many ancient Egyptians had good relations with their pets, says Ikram. "It was a relationship not based on need, but on affection[9]."

9．affection：这是一个很温情的词，在做不可数名词时，指"慈爱的，好感，爱"，如"他对子女的爱"可以说成：his affection for his children。用作复数时，表示"爱慕，钟爱之情"，比如"他倾心于那个漂亮mm"，He fixed affections upon that beautiful girl.或者也可以这样说：He set his affections upon that beautiful girl. 那么怎么表示"赢得某人的爱情"呢？可以这样说：gain/win sb.'s affections。

For example, archeologists found a mummified gazelle in the tomb of Isetemkheb, a queen who lived 4,000 years ago. Gazelles are not a particularly useful animal to have around, says Ikram. "They're not good mousers[10]. They're not a farm animal. They're useless," she says. "My grandmother had one. It was completely a luxury pet. The mummified gazelle was obviously something that the queen loved very much."

10．mousers：捕鼠动物。真有意思：它只比"老鼠"mouse多了一个"r"，就成了老鼠的天敌了。