BBC初級口語: 給全世界的一個博物館

Background: 網絡巨頭 Google 宣佈從2010年1月起將會將伊拉克國家博物館的寶藏的照片放在互聯網上供全世界人民免費觀賞。Google 首席執行官 Eric Schmidt 先生在參觀伊拉克國家博物館時宣佈了此消息。

【文本】

The Iraqi National Museum was heavily looted in the immediate aftermath of Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003. Thousands of priceless items were stolen. About one third of them have been retrieved.

The museum itself has been renovated and reactivated. Three times over the past six years, its reopening has been announced, most recently in February this year. But the security situation has never been stable enough for it to reopen its gates fully to the Iraqi public - only a limited number of its galleries have fully been restored.

Much of the restoration work has been sponsored by the Italian embassy, and the Italian National Research Centre is already running a ‘Virtual Museum of Iraq’ on the internet, showing many of the artefacts of ancient Mesopotamia. But Google, with its vast resources, is now planning to make a wider range of pieces available to a bigger public.

From January, around 14,000 images will be available on Google, charting the course of civilisation in Iraq from the Stone Age through Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and later times up to the arrival of Islam. It won't be quite the same as visiting the museum and seeing it all for yourself. But for the time being, for most people, that's not possible anyway.

【口語突破】

looted
洗劫

aftermath
後果

overthrow
推翻

priceless
無價的

retrieved
找回了

renovated
整修

reactivated
從新開放

the security situation
安全形勢

restored
恢復

sponsored
贊助

virtual
虛擬的

artefacts
文物

Mesopotamia
美索不達米亞 (亦稱“兩河流域”)

civilisation
文明

the Stone Age
石器時代

for the time being
暫時

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