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简易英语读物《希腊神话
-Greek My
thology
》
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（
1
）
Pandora’s
Box
潘多拉的盒子
一个偶尔的机会，
搜索发现网络音乐程序酷我音乐中有英文版
< br>《
Greek Mythology
》
< br>专辑
可以收听和下载。本专辑共
34
集，每集约
3-13
分钟。全部用最通俗易懂的的英文写成
、真
人配音，讲述了
34
个流行的希腊
神话故事，引人入胜，特别适合喜欢历史和英语的青少年
收听学习。对有一定英语水平的
中老年人，也是不错的学习希腊神话典故的素材。
本专辑的英
文文字系本人收听记录（参考了新浪博客精卫填海的一些素材）
，并翻译为
中文。供喜爱希腊神话和英语爱好分享。
Pandora’s Box
When the gods created the earth, they
made it a perfect place for
man. Each
of the gods gave man a gift, such as strength,
intelligence,
and skills, and they
filled the earth with everything that man needed
to live happily.
Fruit tree grew everywhere, and
beautiful flowers gave out a
delicious
drink called
nectar
that
gave people energy. No people
needed to
work or hunt, and people never grew old or sick or
died.
The only thing that the gods did
not give man was fire. This they
kept
for themselves. They feared that giving man fire
would make him
as powerful as the gods
and would cause him to destroy the many
wonderful things that the gods had put
on earth.
One day, the Titan named
Prometheus stole some fire from
heaven
and gave it to man.
Though
man knew that fire was the possession of the gods,
they
still accepted Prometheus ?gift.
Zeus was very angry at this and
decided
to punish man.
He called on
Hephaestus
, the gods of
metal and fire, and asked
him to build
a woman out of stone.
Aphrodite
, the goddess of
love,
modeled for the statue so that it
would be beautiful.
When it
was finished, Athena breathed life into the cold
stone and
it came alive. Then each of
the gods gave the woman a gift.
Aphrodite
taught her how to
dance and how to attract any man
without even having to look at him.
Athena
gave her great
wisdom.
Apollo
taught her
how to play many musical instruments, and the
Muse
?s taught her how to
sing.
Hermes
taught her how to
speak wonderful lies that made other
people happy. The last gift was given
to her by
Hera
, Zeus? wife,
and
this was curiosity.
The gods then named her Pandora, which
means, “All
-
gifted” and
placed her down on earth with all the
common men.
Zeus went down to earth
with Pandora and gave her one last gift.
It was a beautiful box, closed with a
heavy lock.
He then gave
Pandora the key to box and told her that she must
never open it, or let anybody open it
for any reason.
After a short time, one
of
Prometheus
' brothers,
Epimetheus
met
Pandora and fell deeply in love with
her.
She loved him as well
and returned with him to his small village.
They lived there together
happily because life was easy and there
were no troubles.
The people of the village spent their
days dancing and singing in
the warm
sunshine.
Plenty of food
grows on the trees and clean water ran through the
rivers.
Also,
since nobody ever grew or became ill, there was no
way to
die or lose a friend, family
member, or a lover.
Everyone's life on earth was Pandora
was happy
living with Epimetheus, she
could not forget the box that Zeus had
given her.
This
was because Hera had given her the gift of
curiosity, and each
day
Pandora
?s curiosity grew
bigger and bigger inside her.
But she followed Zeus' order and put
the box in a corner of their
home where
she would not have to look at it.
She then told Epimetheus not to ever
touch it or move it.
One night, after a
few years in the village, Pandora woke up in the
middle of the night and walked into the
room where the box was.
The
moonlight was shining in through the window, and
it made the
box look bright and
wonderful.
The box itself
was not fancy or special. It was just a common box
with a large lock on the front.
Pandora reached into her
pocket and felt the key inside for she had
kept the key there since Zeus had given
it to her.
The key felt warm in her hand and sent
excitement through her
body. Her
curiosity grew and grew as she walked closer and
closer to
the box, but then she
remembered Zeus's words and turned away.
She got back into her bed with
Epimetheus, but was no able to
sleep.
She kept thinking about the box and wondering what
was
inside.
Finally, Pandora got up and went to the
room where the box sat.
She
carried the box outside into the garden, dug a
deep hole in the
middle of a group of
flowers, and placed the box inside.
She looks down at it one last time
before covering it with the
earth.
She then took several large
stones and piled them on top of the
hole. She was tired from her work and
returned to bed to sleep with
Epimetheus.
As she slept,
she had a dream about the box.
In her dream, the box was bright and
beautiful, and it softly
whispered her
name over and over again,
it said.
Then she took the key out
of her pocket and carefully inserted it
into the lock. As she turned the key,
the box became even brighter
and more
beautiful.
When she opened
the top, she was amazed because the box was
filled with the most beautiful jewels
that she had ever seen! These
were her
gift from Zeus!
But why
wasn't she supposed to open it? With those jewels,
she
and Epimetheus could live like a
King and Queen!
She awoke from her
dream and sat up in bed. It was still dark, and
Epimetheus was in sleep at her side.
She jumped out of her bed and
ran out
to her garden.
Her hands quickly pushed
away the rocks that sat over the hole.
She moved the heavy rocks so quickly
that her hands began to bleed,
but she
didn't notice because there was not yet pain or
suffering in the
world.
She dug into the earth and didn't stop
until she felt the top of the
box.
Grasping the box with
excitement, she pulled it out of the hole and
placed it on the earth beside her.
Almost without realizing it, she put
her hand into her pocket and
pulled out
the key.
For a short moment,Pandora
looked at the key laying in her hand.
The metal was cold, and Pandora had
never felt cold before.
Unable to stop
what she had begun; Pandora put the key into the
lock.
The felling of cold
ran through her body quickly, but she ignored it.
She opened the lock and threw the top
of the box open.
Suddenly a thick,
black smoke poured out of the box and came
into her eyes. She felt something that
she had never felt before: it
was pain.
She could not see clearly
and began to cry. When her vision
returned, she looked down to see
thousands of tiny monsters
escaping
from the box.
They were
running and flying out of the box in all
directions,
spreading out into the
world. She grabbed one of the monsters in her
hand, and it bit one of her fingers.
She immediately became ill
from the bite, and her body fell down
onto the box, causing its top to close.
She lay on the ground with
the box in her arms breathing heavily
and feeling the sickness that the
monsters had given her filled her
body.
After a minute, she heard a small voice
cry out,
of the box.
Pandora listened to the voice and
worried that it was just another
little
monster trying to trick her.
out, “she cried,” I've
already caused
so
much
damage!
others, I can help to
fix what you have done; I can reduce the pain and
suffering of mankind.
“With her last bit of strength, Pandora
opened the top then fell
back down onto
the earth.
A small, golden
light then appeared before her. When Pandora
looked at it, she saw that it was a
small woman with a pair of wings.
The tiny woman came down to Pandora's
face and kissed her
lightly on the
nose. Suddenly, Pandora's suffering lessened, and
she
had the strength to sit up again.