『新东方在线托福听力』为托福考生准备了ETS托福TPO/Official 15 Lec 3听力练习：What does the professor imply about the significance of the Archimedes palimpsest?原文题目答案解析，TPO/Official 15 Lec 3听力原文范文音频翻译。

托福TPO/Official 15 Lec 3听力原文What does the professor imply about the significance of the Archimedes palimpsest?-新东方托福官方网校手机版

旁白:听一段艺术历史的课堂演讲。

Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an Art History class.

教授：在欧洲中世纪时期，在印刷术发明之前，所有的书、手稿都是手工制作的。而书页主要是用羊皮纸来制作的，这是一种将动物的皮拉伸并在拉力之下使之干燥，所以它就变得很易排版面并能在上面写字。

Male Professor: Now in Europe in the Middle Ages before the invention of printing and printing press, all books, all manuscripts were hand made, and the material typically used for the pages was parchment, which is animal skin that's stretched and dried under tension so it becomes really flat and can be written on.

在15世纪，印刷术得到发展的时期，纸张变成欧洲主要制作书籍的材料。

During the 1400s when printing was being developed, paper became the predominant material for books in Europe.

羊皮纸很耐用，比纸张耐用很多，而且可以重复使用，这就变得很便利，因为羊皮纸是很贵的材料而且供应紧张。

Parchment is durable, much more so than paper, and it could be reused which came in handy since it was a costly material and in short supply.

因此对于那些写手稿的抄写员或者和尚来讲，使用并不少见。

So it wasn't uncommon for the scribes or monks who produced the manuscripts.

啊，记得在印刷术发明之前，书籍基本都是在修道院制作的吧。

Uh, remember before printing, books were made mainly in monasteries.

呃，抄写员经常重复使用之前抄写手稿时用过的羊皮纸。

Well, the scribes often recycled the parchment that had been used for earlier manuscripts.

他们就将羊皮纸上的墨迹擦拭掉，然后再在上面写上新的东西。

They simply erased the ink off the parchment and wrote something new in its place.

这种被书写过，再经过擦拭后重新使用的手稿叫做重写本。

A manuscript page that was written on, erased and used again, is called a palimpsest.

重写本是通过……呃，我们知道两种方式来对羊皮纸进行墨迹擦除的。

Palimpsests were created …well, we know about two methods that were used for removing ink from parchment.

在中世纪晚期，人们习惯用一种研磨料来对羊皮纸表面进行擦拭，这种方式能完全擦掉上面的墨迹。

In the late Middle Ages, it was customary to scrape away the surface of the parchment with an abrasive, which completely wiped out any writing that was there.

但是在中世纪早期，羊皮纸上面墨迹的擦拭通常是用牛奶来洗。

But earlier, in the Middle Ages, the original ink was usually removed by washing the used parchment with milk.

但是过一段时间，早先的字迹可能会重新显示出来。事实上，甚至到了一定程度，学者可以分辨出原始版本的密文。

But with the passing of time, the original writing might reappear; in fact, it might reappear to the extent that scholars could make out and even decipher the original text.

也许，最出名的例子就是阿基米德的重写本。

Perhaps the most famous example is the Archimedes palimpsest.

阿基米德在大约公元前200年前居住于希腊。

Archimedes lived in Greece around 200 BCE.

你们可能知道，他被看做是亘古以来最出色的数学家之一。

And as you probably know, he's considered one of the greatest mathematicians who ever lived.

即便他多数的手稿都已经丢失，包括我们现在认为的他最重要的成就，称之为方法论。

Even though many of his writings have been lost, including what many now think to be his most important work, called The Method.

但是在1998年的一个艺术拍卖会上，一本中世纪的祈祷书被高价拍卖，比任何一本12世纪的受损书籍的价格都要高。很神奇吧，为什么呢？

But in 1998, a book of prayers from the Middle Ages sold in an art auction for a lot of money, more money than anyone would pay for a damaged book from the 12th century, beautiful or not. Why?

原来这本书被发现是一本重写本，在手稿字迹的下面，猜猜是什么？

It had been discovered that the book was a palimpsest, and beneath the surface writing of the manuscript laid, guess what?

是阿基米德的数学理论和图解。

Mathematical theorems and diagrams from Archimedes.

阿基米德最初的字是写在纸莎草卷轴上面的。

Archimedes' writings were originally done on the papyrus scrolls.

然后在10世纪，一个抄写员将他的附图的文章都抄写在羊皮纸的上面，这就是方法论。

Then in the tenth century, a scribe made a copy on parchment of some of his texts and diagrams including, as it turns out, The Method.

这简直是非常幸运，因为后来，这个纸莎草卷轴丢失了。

This was extremely fortunate, since later on, the original papyrus scrolls disappeared.

大约在200年后的12世纪，这个羊皮纸手抄稿变成了一个重写本，因为一个抄写员用这张羊皮纸制作成了祈祷书。那么书页，一张张羊皮纸就被留存下来。但是阿基米德的文本已经被擦除并已经重新写上了字，所以没有人知道它的存在。

About two hundred years later in the 12th century, this parchment manuscript became a palimpsest when a scribe used the parchment to make a prayer book, so the pages, the pieces of parchment themselves, had been preserved, but the Archimedes text was erased and written over and no one knew it existed.

直到1906年，一位学者来到图书馆偶然看到这本祈祷书，并意识到了这是本重写本，而下面藏匿的内容仅有可能是来自阿基米德。

It wasn't until 1906 that a scholar came across the prayer book in the library and realized it was a palimpsest, and that the underlying layer of text could only have come from Archimedes.

That was when his work The Method was discovered for the first time.

嗯，重写本经历了风风雨雨，最终到了艺术拍卖会上，然后被人买到又被捐赠到了巴尔的摩的艺术博物馆，来进行保护和钻研。

Um, the palimpsest then went through some more tough times but eventually it ended up in an art auction where it was bought and then donated to an art museum in Baltimore for conservation and study.

为避免手稿遭到更多的破坏，艺术博物馆研究队伍的人员在看原始字迹时采用的技术需要及其的谨慎。

To avoid further damage to the manuscript, research team at the art museum has had to be extremely selective in the techniques they used to see the original writing.

他们使用过紫外线以及一些其它技术，如果你们对这个感兴趣的话，可以学习一下艺术保护课程。

They've used ultraviolet light and some other techniques, and if you're interested in that sort of thing, you can learn more about it in an art conservation class.

但是实际上，是一位物理学家想出的方法有了突破。

But, actually, it was a physicist who came up with the method that was a breakthrough.

他意识到古墨水中的铁会在一定的X光影像处理方法中显露出来。

He realized that the iron in the ancient ink would display if exposed to a certain X-ray imaging method.

除了一小部分的内容还没有被破解，这项技术通过中世纪的重写本对我们看阿基米德的文章和图解有及其的有帮助。

And except for small portions of the text that couldn't be deciphered, this technique's been very helpful in seeing Archimedes texts and drawings through medieval over-writing.

What are two points the professor makes about parchment?

What does the professor imply when he explains the washing and scraping methods that were used to remove ink from a parchment surface?

What type of book became known as the Archimedes palimpsest?

What does the professor imply about the various techniques used to view Archimedes' text?

What does the professor imply about the significance of the Archimedes palimpsest?

Narrator: 
Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class. 
Professor: 
Now in Europe in the Middle Ages before the invention of printing and the printing press, all books, all manuscripts were hand-made. And the material typically used for the pages was parchment, which is animal skin that’s stretched and dried under tension, so it become s really flat and can be written on. During the 1400s, when printing was being developed, paper became the predominant material for books in Europe, but prior to that, it was parchment. Parchment is durable, much more so than paper, and it could be reused which came in handy since it was a costly material and in short supply, so it wasn’t uncommon for the scribes or monks who produced the manuscripts. 
Ah, remember before printing books were made mainly in monasteries. Well, the scribes often recycled the parchment that’d been used for earlier manuscripts. They simply erased the ink off the parchment and wrote something new in its place. 
A manuscript page that was written on, erased and then used again is called a palimpsest. Palimpsests were created. Well, we know about two methods that were used for removing ink from parchment. In the late Middle Ages, it was customary to scrape away the surface of the parchment with an abrasive, which completely wiped out any writing that was there. But earlier in the Middle Ages, the original ink was usually removed by washing the used parchment with milk. That removed the ink. But with the passing of time, the original writing might reappear. In fact, it might reappear to the extent that scholars could make out and even decipher the original text. 
Perhaps, the most famous example is the Archimedes' palimpsest. 
Professor: 
Now in Europe in the Middle Ages before the invention of printing and the printing press, all books, all manuscripts were hand-made. And the material typically used for the pages was parchment, which is animal skin that’s stretched and dried under tension, so it become s really flat and can be written on. During the 1400s, when printing was being developed, paper became the predominant material for books in Europe, but prior to that, it was parchment. Parchment is durable, much more so than paper, and it could be reused which came in handy since it was a costly material and in short supply, so it wasn’t uncommon for the scribes or monks who produced the manuscripts. 
A manuscript page that was written on, erased and then used again is called a palimpsest. Palimpsests were created. Well, we know about two methods that were used for removing ink from parchment. In the late Middle Ages, it was customary to scrape away the surface of the parchment with an abrasive, which completely wiped out any writing that was there. But earlier in the Middle Ages, the original ink was usually removed by washing the used parchment with milk. That removed the ink. But with the passing of time, the original writing might reappear. In fact, it might reappear to the extent that scholars could make out and even decipher the original text. 
Perhaps, the most famous example is the Archimedes' palimpsest. 
Archimedes lived in Greece around 200 BCE, and as you probably know, he's considered one of the greatest Mathematicians who ever lived, even though many of his writings had been lost, including what many now think to be his most important work called The Method . 
But in 1998, a book of prayers from the Middle Ages sold in an art auction for a lot of money, more money than anyone would pay for a damaged book from the 12th century. Beautiful or not, why? It had been discovered that the book was a palimpsest, and beneath the surface writing of the manuscript laid, guess what? Mathematical theorems and diagrams from Archimedes. 
Archimedes' writings were originally done on papyrus scrolls. Then in the 10th century, a scribe made a copy on parchment of some of his texts and diagrams including, as it turns out, The Method. This was extremely fortunate, since later on, the original papyrus scrolls disappeared. About 200 years later in the 12th century, this parchment manuscript became a palimpsest when a scribe used the parchment to make a prayer book. So the pages, the pieces of parchment themselves, had been preserved. But the Archimedes' text was erased and written over, and no one knew it existed. 
It wasn't until 1906 that a scholar came across the prayer book in a library and realized it was a palimpsest, and that the underlying layer of texts could only have come from Archimedes. That was when his work The Method was discovered for the first time. 
Um... the palimpsest then went through some more tough times, but eventually it ended up in an art auction where was bought and then donated to an art museum in Baltimore, for conservation and study. To avoid further damage to the manuscript, the research team at the art museum has had to be extremely selective in the techniques they used to see the original writing. They've used ultraviolet light and some other techniques, and if you're interested in that sort of thing, you can learn more about it in an art conservation class. 
But actually, it was a physicist who came up with a method that was a breakthrough. He realized that the iron in the ancient ink would display if exposed to a certain X-ray imaging method, and except for small portions of the text that couldn't be deciphered, this technique's been very helpful in seeing Archimedes' texts and drawings through the medieval overwriting. 
But earlier in the Middle Ages, the original ink was usually removed by washing the used parchment with milk. That removed the ink. But with the passing of time, the original writing might reappear. In fact, it might reappear to the extent that scholars could make out and even decipher the original text. 
Perhaps, the most famous example is the Archimedes' palimpsest. 
Archimedes lived in Greece around 200 BCE, and as you probably know, he's considered one of the greatest Mathematicians who ever lived, even though many of his writings had been