剑桥雅思13Test2Passage1阅读原文翻译 Bring cinnamon to Europe

剑桥雅思13Test2Passage1阅读原文翻译 Bring cinnamon to Europe

剑桥雅思13 Test2 Passage1阅读原文翻译

第1段

Cinnamon is a sweet, fragrant spice produced from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum, which is native to the Indian sub-continent. It was known in biblical times, and is mentioned in several books of the Bible, both as an ingredient that was mixed with oils for anointing people’s bodies, and also as a token indicating friendship among lovers and friends. In ancient Rome, mourners attending funerals burnt cinnamon to create a pleasant scent. Most often, however, the spice found its primary use as an additive to food and drink. In the Middle Ages, Europeans who could afford the spice used it to flavour food, particularly meat, and to impress those around them with their ability to purchase an expensive condiment from the ‘exotic’ East. At a banquet, a host would offer guests a plate with various spices piled upon it as a sign of the wealth at his or her disposal. Cinnamon was also reported to have health benefits, and was thought to cure various ailments, such as indigestion.

肉桂是一种带有甜味、富有芳香的香料，产自樟属树木的内层树皮，原产地为印度次大陆。它在圣经时代就广为人知，并在圣经的多个章节被提及。它即可以作为原料跟油混在一起涂抹人们的身体，也被当作爱人和朋友之间情谊的象征。在古代罗马，参加葬礼的吊唁者会焚烧肉桂以创造怡人的气味。然而，这种香料最常见的用途还是作为食物和饮料的添加剂。在中世纪，买的起香料的欧洲人用它来给食物，尤其是肉类调味，并利用它向周围的人炫耀他们能够买得起来自奇异东方的昂贵调料。在宴会中，主人会向客人提供堆满香料的盘子，作为其可支配财富的象征。肉桂还被认为有益于健康，可以治疗各种小病，比如消化不良。

第2段

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the European middle classes began to desire the lifestyle of the elite, including their consumption of spices. This led to a growth in demand for cinnamon and other spices. At that time, cinnamon was transported by Arab merchants, who closely guarded the secret of the source of the spice from potential rivals. They took it from India, where it was grown, on camels via an overland route to the Mediterranean. Their journey ended when they reached Alexandria. European traders sailed there to purchase their supply of cinnamon, then brought it back to Venice. The spice then travelled from that great trading city to markets all around Europe. Because the overland trade route allowed for only small quantities of the spice to reach Europe, and because Venice had a virtual monopoly of the trade, the Venetians could set the price of cinnamon exorbitantly high. These prices, coupled with the increasing demand, spurred the search for new routes to Asia by Europeans eager to take part in the spice trade.

到了中世纪末期，欧洲中产阶级家庭开始渴望上层人物的生活方式，其中就包括他们对香料的消费。这导致对肉桂和其他香料需求的增长。那时，肉桂由阿拉伯商人负责运输。他们对可能的竞争者严格保守香料来源的秘密。他们将它从印度这一生长地带走，利用骆驼经由陆路运至地中海。他们的旅程在到达亚历山大港时终止。欧洲商人会乘船到那里购买他们所提供的肉桂，然后将它带回威尼斯。之后香料再从这一大型贸易城市运往全欧洲的市场。因为陆上贸易路线只能够运输少量香料到达欧洲，同时也因为威尼斯对该贸易的实际垄断，威尼斯人可以将肉桂的价格定的十分离谱。这样的价位，再加上日益增长的需求刺激那些急于在香料贸易中分一杯羹的欧洲人寻找到达亚洲的新路线。

第3段

Seeking the high profits promised by the cinnamon market, Portuguese traders arrived on the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean toward the end of the 15th century. Before Europeans arrived on the island, the state had organized the cultivation of cinnamon. People belonging to the ethnic group called the Salagama would peel the bark off young shoots of the cinnamon plant in the rainy season, when the wet bark was more pliable. During the peeling process, they curled the bark into the ‘stick’ shape still associated with the spice today. The Salagama then gave the finished product to the king as a form of tribute. When the Portuguese arrived, they needed to increase production significantly, and so enslaved many other members of the Ceylonese native population, forcing them to work in cinnamon harvesting. In 1518, the Portuguese built a fort on Ceylon, which enabled them to protect the island, so helping them to develop a monopoly in the cinnamon trade and generate very high profits. In the late 16th century, for example, they enjoyed a tenfold profit when shipping cinnamon over a journey of eight days from Ceylon to India.

追逐肉桂市场所带来的高额利润，葡萄牙商人在15世纪末时来到了印度洋的锡兰岛。在欧洲人到达该岛屿之前，其统治者已经开始有组织地栽培肉桂。被称为Salagama的少数民族会在雨季期间剥掉肉桂树嫩枝的树皮。此时潮湿的树皮更为柔韧。在剥皮过程中，他们会将树皮卷成棍子的形状。这一香料形状一直延续到今天。随后，Salagama人会将制成的产品作为贡品献给国王。在葡萄牙人到达之后，他们需要大幅提升产量，因此奴役了锡兰岛上许多其他的原住民，逼迫他们从事肉桂采集的工作。1518年，葡萄牙人在锡兰岛上建造了一座堡垒，以便他们能够守卫该岛，从而帮助他们取得肉桂贸易中的垄断地位，并产生高额利润。例如，在16世纪末期，当肉桂从锡兰经过8天的旅程到达印度之后，他们可以赚取10倍的利润。

第4段

When the Dutch arrived off the coast of southern Asia at the very beginning of the 17th century, they set their sights on displacing the Portuguese as kings of cinnamon. The Dutch allied themselves with Kandy, an inland kingdom on Ceylon. In return for payments of elephants and cinnamon, they protected the native king from the Portuguese. By 1640, the Dutch broke the 150-year Portuguese monopoly when they overran and occupied their factories. By 1658, they had permanently expelled the Portuguese from the island, thereby gaining control of the lucrative cinnamon trade.

当荷兰人在17世纪之初到达南亚海岸时，他们期待取代葡萄牙人肉桂之王的地位。荷兰人与锡兰岛上的一个内陆国家Kandy结盟。作为对方支付大象和肉桂的报酬，他们保护当地国王免受葡萄牙人的侵害。到了1640年，荷兰人推翻并占领葡萄牙人的工厂，打破了其长达150年的垄断地位。到了1658年，他们永久性地将葡萄牙人驱逐出该岛，并因此控制了一本万利的肉桂贸易。

第5段

In order to protect their hold on the market, the Dutch, like the Portuguese before them, treated the native inhabitants harshly. Because of the need to boost production and satisfy Europe’s ever-increasing appetite for cinnamon, the Dutch began to alter the harvesting practices of the Ceylonese. Over time, the supply of cinnamon trees on the island became nearly exhausted, due to systematic stripping of the bark. Eventually, the Dutch began cultivating their own cinnamon trees to supplement the diminishing number of wild trees available for use.

为了保护自己对市场的掌控，荷兰人像之前的葡萄牙人一样，对待岛上居民十分严苛。为了提升产量，满足欧洲对肉桂不断增长的胃口，荷兰人开始改变锡兰人的采集方法。随着时间的推移，岛上肉桂树的供应因为该系统性的剥皮而接近枯竭。最终，荷兰人开始培育他们自己的肉桂树以弥补可供使用的野生树木数量的减少。

第6段

Then, in 1796, the English arrived on Ceylon, thereby displacing the Dutch from their control of the cinnamon monopoly. By the middle of the 19th century, production of cinnamon reached 1,000 tons a year, after a lower grade quality of the spice became acceptable to European tastes. By that time, cinnamon was being grown in other parts of the Indian Ocean region and in the West Indies, Brazil, and Guyana. Not only was a monopoly of cinnamon becoming impossible, but the spice trade overall was diminishing in economic potential, and was eventually superseded by the rise of trade in coffee, tea, chocolate, and sugar.

随后，1796年时，英国人来到了锡兰岛，就此取代荷兰人对肉桂的垄断地位。19世纪中叶，在一种品质稍低的香料得到欧洲人口味的认可之后，肉桂产量达到每年1000吨。那时，肉桂在印度洋其他地区，以及西印度群岛、巴西和圭亚那都有种植。不仅垄断肉桂成为一件不可能的事情，而且整个香料贸易的经济潜力也在缩减，最终被咖啡、茶叶、巧克力和糖的贸易增长所超越。