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12

The Kings of the Jews
犹太国王

A few centuries before Homer was singing his wonderful songs through the streets of Greece, a great king of the Jews was singing other wonderful songs in Canaan. This king was named David, and he wasn't born a king. He was only a shepherd boy in King Saul's army. This is the way he happened to become king.

At first, as you remember, the Jews had no kings; but they had asked for kings, and at last they were given one by the name of Saul.

David had killed the giant Goliath. We all love this Bible story because we are always glad when the skillful little chap beats the great, big, bragging bully.

Well, King Saul had a daughter, and she fell in love with this brave and athletic young David the Giant-Killer, and at last they were married.

After Saul died, David became king, and he was the greatest king the Jews had ever had. Although Saul had been king, he had lived in a tent, not in a palace, and he didn't even have a capital city.

David eventually conquered a city in Canaan called Jerusalem and made this city the capital of the Jews.

David was not only a brave warrior and a great king; he wrote beautiful songs as well.

The blind poet Homer sang of his fairy-tale gods. The great King David sang of his one God.

These songs are the Psalms, which are still read and sung in churches and synagogues.

Nowadays even a popular song is popular for only a few months, but the songs that David wrote almost three thousand years ago are still popular today! The Twenty-third Psalm, which starts, “The Lord is my shepherd,” is one of the most beautiful and a good one to learn by heart. David likens himself to a sheep and his Lord to a good shepherd, who tenderly looks out for the comfort and safety of his sheep.

David's son was named Solomon, and when David died Solomon became king.

If a good fairy had asked you what you would rather have than anything in the world, I wonder what you would have chosen. When Solomon became king, God is said to have appeared to him in a dream and asked him what he would rather have than anything else in the world. Instead of saying he wanted to be made rich or powerful, Solomon asked to be made wise, and God said He would make him the wisest man that ever lived. Here is a story that shows how wise he was.

Once upon a time two women came to Solomon with a baby, and each woman said the baby was her own child. Solomon called for a sword and said, “Cut the baby in two, and give each a half.” One of the women cried out to give the baby to the other rather than do this, and Solomon then knew who was the real mother and ordered the baby to be given to her.

Solomon built a magnificent temple made of cedar-wood, from the famous forest of Lebanon, and of marble and gold and studded with jewels. Then he built himself a wonderful palace, which was so gorgeous and splendid that people came from all over the world to see it. The Bible tells us just how large this temple and palace were, not in feet but in cubits. A cubit was the distance from a man's elbow to the end of his middle finger, which is about one foot and a half.

The queen of Sheba, among others, came a long distance across Arabia to hear the wise sayings of Solomon and see his palace and the temple he had built.

Although the palace and temple were considered extraordinarily magnificent at that time, you must remember that this was a thousand years before Christ.

Solomon's temple and palace have disappeared long since. But his wise sayings are preserved in many languages and read by many people all around the world. There are thousands of buildings now in the world that would make his palace, if still standing, look like a child's toy house. But no one has ever been able to say any better the things he said. Do you think you could? Suppose you try. Here are some of them. They are called proverbs.

A soft answer turneth away wrath;
but grievous words stir up anger.

What's that mean?

A good name is rather to be chosen than great
riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold.

What's that mean?

Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth.

What's that mean?

Solomon was the last great king the Jews ever had. After he died the Jewish nation gradually broke up and then came back together again. Then, six hundred years later it finally went to pieces and, for about two thousand years, the Jewish people were without a king, without a capital, and without a country of their own, though they are found in many other countries of the world. Then at last they formed a new country, a country called Israel. Israel is in the land that used to be called Canaan.

中文阅读

在荷马吟唱他美妙的诗歌穿过希腊大街小巷之前的几个世纪,一位伟大的犹太国王也在迦南吟唱另一种精彩的诗章。这位国王名叫大卫,他并非生来就是国王。他原来只是犹太国王扫罗军队里的一个牧童。以下说的就是他怎么碰巧当上国王的故事。

你们还记得吧,最初犹太人是没有国王的;但是他们要求有国王,最终他们有了一个国王,名叫扫罗。

圣经记载,大卫杀死了巨人歌利亚。我们都喜欢这个故事,因为当那个武艺高超的小家伙打败了那个又高又大又爱吹牛的恶霸时,我们总是高兴的。

国王扫罗有个女儿,爱上了这个勇敢健壮、年纪轻轻就杀了巨人的大卫,最后他们结婚了。

扫罗死后,大卫当了国王,他是犹太人历史上最伟大的国王。虽然扫罗也当过国王,但是他那时还住在帐篷里而不是宫殿里,他甚至连一个都城都没有。

大卫最终征服了迦南的一个叫耶路撒冷的城市,并将它定为犹太人的都城。

大卫不仅是勇敢的武士和伟大的国王,而且他还写了很多优美的诗歌。

盲诗人荷马歌颂的是神话故事中的众神,而伟大的大卫王则颂扬他唯一的主。

这些颂歌是圣经中的《诗篇》,也就是现在教堂和犹太会堂里仍然还在诵读和歌唱的赞美诗。

如今即使一首大众喜爱的歌曲也只能流行几个月,但大卫王在几乎三千年前写的那些歌至今还在传唱。第二十三首赞美诗《耶和华是我的牧者》是最优美的赞美诗之一,让人铭记在心。大卫将自己比作一只羊,将上帝比作善良的牧羊人,细心呵护着羊群,让羊生活得自由自在。

大卫的儿子叫所罗门,大卫死后,所罗门成了国王。

如果有位善良的仙女问你,世界上你最想要什么,我想知道你会选什么呢?所罗门成为国王后,据说上帝出现在他的梦中,问他在世界上他最想要什么。所罗门不想要财富和权势,他只请求让他变成有智慧的人,于是上帝说会让他成为世界上最有智慧的人。下面这个故事说明他多么有智慧。

有一次,两个妇女抱着个婴儿来找所罗门,各自都说婴儿是自己的亲骨肉。所罗门让人拿来一把剑,然后说:“把这个婴儿劈成两半,给她们一人一半。”其中一个妇女大声哭了起来,说宁愿把孩子让给另一个妇女,也不愿要这样的结果。所罗门就知道了谁才是婴儿的生母,下令把孩子还给她。

所罗门建造了一座宏伟壮观的圣殿,所用材料有大理石、黄金和闻名于世的黎巴嫩雪松,殿里点缀着颗颗珠宝。然后,他又为自己建了一座辉煌的宫殿,它是那样的美轮美奂,吸引了世界各地的人前来参观。圣经中说起所罗门的圣殿和王宫有多宏大时,都是用肘尺而不是用英尺来计算的。肘尺是人从肘部到中指尖的距离,长度相当于一英尺半。

在来访者中,有位示巴女王穿越阿拉伯半岛,长途跋涉前来聆听所罗门的隽语箴言,参观他建造的圣殿和王宫。

尽管当时这座圣殿和王宫被认为是奢华无比,但是你必须记住那可是在公元前1000年。

所罗门的圣殿和王宫早已荡然无存了,但是他睿智的名言却被译成多种语言保存至今,世界各地的人们现在还在阅读它们。如果他的王宫今天还在,和世界上成千上万座高大建筑物相比看上去就像孩子的玩具房一样了,但是至今也没有人能说出比所罗门的隽语箴言更有智慧的话了。你觉得你能吗?要不你试试?以下是其中的几句,现在称作谚语了。

回答柔和,使怒消退;
言语暴戾,触动怒气。

这是什么意思?

美名胜过大财,恩宠强如金银。

这是什么意思?

任他人赞美而不自夸。

这又是什么意思呢?

所罗门是犹太人最后一位伟大的国王。他死后,犹太民族开始了分而又合的过程。六百年后,犹太王国最终还是分崩离析了。将近两千年来,犹太人一直都没有国王,没有国都,也没有一个属于自己的国家,虽然现在许多国家都可以见到犹太人。最后,他们建立了一个新的国家,一个叫以色列的国家。以色列就位于过去被称为迦南的那块土地上。 ruqMMm4KpjDQVl/gs3SOsLkXok4h5P0iq0p5g1uqMPHfRInoZGGqdAApA31ra7BH



13

The People Who Made Our ABC's
发明字母ABC的人

LONG before people knew how to write, there lived a carpenter named Cadmus. One day he was at work on a house when he wanted a tool that he had left at home. Picking up a chip of wood, he wrote something on it and, handing it to his slave, told him to go to his home and give the chip to his wife, saying that it would tell her what he wanted. The slave, wondering, did as he was told. Cadmus's wife looked at the chip, and without a word handed the tool to the amazed slave, who thought the chip in some mysterious way had spoken the message. When he returned to Cadmus with the tool, he begged for the remarkable chip, and when it was given him, hung it around his neck for a charm.

This is the story the Greeks told of the man they say invented the alphabet. We believe, however, that Cadmus was a mythical person, for the Greeks liked to make up such stories, and we think no oneperson made the alphabet. But Cadmus was a Phoenician and we do know that the Phoenician people invented the alphabet on which ours is based. You probably call it your A B C's, but the Greeks had much harder names for the letters. They called A alpha, B beta, and so on. So the Greek boy spoke of learning his alpha beta, and that is why we call it the alphabet.

You may never have heard of Phoenicia or the Phoenician people. Yet, if there had been no such country as Phoenicia, you might now be learning at school to read and write in hieroglyphics or in cuneiform.

Up to this time, you know, people had very clumsy ways of writing. The Egyptians had to draw pictures, and the Babylonians made writing like chicken tracks. The alphabet that the Phoenicians invented had twenty-two letters, and from it we get the alphabet we use today.

Of course, we do not use just the same alphabet now that the Phoenicians did, but some of the letters are almost, if not quite, like those we now have after three thousand years. For instance,

the Phoenician A was written on its side— .

E was written backward— .

Z was written just the same—z.

O was written just the same—o.

The Phoenicians lived next door to the Jews; like the Jews, they were Semites. Their country was just north of the kingdom of the Jews; that is, above it on the map and lying along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Phoenicians had a great king named Hiram who lived at the same time as Solomon. In fact, Hiram was a friend of Solomon and sent him some of his best workmen to help build a temple at Jerusalem. Yet Hiram himself and the Phoenicians did not believe in the Jewish God.

The Phoenicians worshiped idols named Baal and Moloch, which they called gods of the sun. They also believed in a goddess of the moon named Astarte and made sacrifices of live children to her idol, Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum; this is a real story and not a fairy tale. Just suppose you had been a child then!

The Phoenicians were great business people. They made many things to sell, such as objects carved from ivory, engraved gold and silver items, and beautiful glassware. They knew how to weave woolen and linen cloth, and were well known for the dyed cloth and robes that they manufactured.

They knew the secret of making a wonderful purple dye from the body of a little shell-fish that lived in the water near the city of Tyre. This dye was known as Tyrian purple from the name of that city, and it was so beautiful that kings' robes were colored with it.

Tyre and Sidon were the two chief cities of Phoenicia, and once upon a time they were two of the busiest cities in the world.

In order to find people to sell to, the Phoenicians traveled in boats all over the Mediterranean Sea and even went outside this sea into the Great Ocean. This opening is now called the Strait of Gibraltar, but was then known as the Pillars of Hercules. They went as far as the British Isles and along the coast of Africa. Many other people in those days had not dared to go so far in boats; they thought they would come to the edge of the ocean and tumble off. But the Phoenicians had no such fear, and so they were the greatest sailors as well as the greatest traders of their times. Their ships were built from the cedar trees that grew on the slopes of their hills. The trees were called the cedars of Lebanon.

In one way, the Phoenicians were very short-sighted. They cut down all their wonderful cedar trees until almost none were left. Then no more ships—or anything else—could be made with the strong wood. Do you think we would ever do anything as foolish as that?

When the Phoenicians found good harbors for their boats, they often started little towns where they traded with the local people. Often they drove a hard bargain, trading purple cloth worth very little for gold or silver or other things worth a great deal. On the coast of north Africa, one of these towns they started was called Carthage. Carthage later grew to be very strong and wealthy—but you will have to wait a while until I come to that story.

中文阅读

人类在知道如何写字之前很久很久,有个名叫卡德摩斯的木匠。一天,他正在造房子,忽然想起有件工具忘在家里了。他捡起一块木片,在上面写了几笔,然后把木片递给他的奴隶,要他回去交给女主人,说木片会告诉她自己要的是什么。奴隶感到纳闷,照他的话去做了。卡德摩斯的妻子看了看木片,什么也没说就把工具递给了十分惊异的奴隶。奴隶认为这块木片一定是以一种神秘的方式传递了主人的信息。当他拿着工具回去交给卡德摩斯的时候,乞求主人把这块神奇的木片赐给他。得到允许之后,他就把它挂在脖子上当做护身符。

这是希腊人所说的发明了字母的人的故事。不过,我们相信卡德摩斯只是个虚构的人物,因为希腊人喜欢编撰这类故事。我们认为字母不是由“一个人”发明的。不过,卡德摩斯是腓尼基人,而我们确信腓尼基人发明了早期的字母表,为我们今天使用的字母表打下了基础。我们读字母表发音很简单,就是A、B、C……但是希腊人的字母读法就难得多。他们把A读作“阿尔法”(alpha),B读作“贝它”( beta ),等等。所以,希腊的孩子学习是从“阿尔法”和“贝它”开始的,这也是为什么我们把“字母表”叫做alphabet的原因。

你可能从未听说过腓尼基或腓尼基人,但是如果历史上没有腓尼基这个国家,你现在可能正在学校学习用象形文字或楔形文字来读和写。

读到这里你知道了,人们有过很笨拙的书写方式。埃及人写字就得画画,巴比伦人写的字像鸡爪印。腓尼基人发明的字母表有22个字母,由此演变成了我们今天使用的字母表。

当然,我们使用的字母和腓尼基人的并不一样,但是,他们的一些字母和三千年后的我们使用的字母样子差不多少。例如:

腓尼基人的字母 A是侧着写——

E是反着写——

Z和我们的一样——Z

O和我们的一样——O

腓尼基人和犹太人相邻,他们和犹太人一样,也是闪米特人。他们的国家刚好位于犹太王国的北边;也就是说,在地图上,它在犹太王国的上面,位于地中海沿岸。

腓尼基人有一位伟大的国王叫海勒姆,和所罗门生活在同一个时代。实际上,海勒姆还是所罗门的朋友,曾经派出一些最好的工匠帮助所罗门建造耶路撒冷的圣殿。不过海勒姆本人和腓尼基人并不信仰犹太人的上帝。

他们崇拜的神有巴尔神和摩洛神,他们称这两个神为太阳神。他们还信仰名叫阿施塔特的月亮女神,并杀死儿童向她的神像献祭,阿弥陀佛,这可是真人真事,不是神话故事。假如你是生活在那个时代的孩子,该是多么令人恐怖啊!

腓尼基人是非常了不起的商人,他们制作了各种各样的东西来卖,比如象牙雕刻品、精雕细刻的金银饰品、晶莹剔透的玻璃制品等等。他们还会织毛纺布和亚麻布,他们制作的染色布料和染色长袍也极负盛名。

他们知道制作一种鲜亮的紫色染料的秘诀,它是从一种小牡蛎身体里提取的,这种小牡蛎就生活在提尔城附近的海域里。所以,这种紫色染料以提尔城的名字而取名为提尔紫,提尔紫非常鲜亮,因此国王们的长袍都染成提尔紫。

提尔和西顿是腓尼基的两座主要城市,也曾经是世界上最繁忙的两座城市。

为了打开销路,腓尼基人驾船走遍了地中海,甚至出地中海进入大西洋。这个出海口现在叫直布罗陀海峡,但是那时叫“赫拉克勒斯之柱”。他们的足迹远至大不列颠群岛和非洲海岸,而当时的很多人可不敢驾船航行那么远,因为他们认为走到海洋的边缘就会摔下去。可是,腓尼基人却没有这样的担心,所以他们是那个时代最伟大的航海家和商人。他们的船是用长在山坡上的雪松建造的,这种树叫黎巴嫩雪松。

在某一点上,腓尼基人目光又很短浅。他们砍倒所有挺拔的雪松树,直到一棵也不剩,结果再也没有这种坚实的木头去造船或其他什么东西了。你觉得我们也会做类似这样的蠢事吗?

腓尼基人一找到适合停泊的港口,就开始在那里建一个镇子,和当地人做生意。他们总是很善于讨价还价,用成本很低的紫色布匹换来真金、白银或其他贵重物品。在北非沿岸,他们也兴建了一些城市,其中有一个叫迦太基。迦太基后来发展得非常强大富有——但是你得等一会儿,我再讲它的故事。

Cadmus's slave and the chip .

公元前1000年. ruqMMm4KpjDQVl/gs3SOsLkXok4h5P0iq0p5g1uqMPHfRInoZGGqdAApA31ra7BH



14

Hard as Nails
像铁钉一样坚硬

OUR story goes back again to Greece, the land of Homer and the fairy-tale gods, and to Sparta, where Helen once lived.

About nine hundred years before Christ was born, there lived in Sparta a man named Lycurgus. That is a hard name, and when you hear about this man you may think he was hard, too. Lycurgus wanted his city to be the greatest in the world.

First he had to find out what it was that made a city and a people great.

He started off and traveled for years and years, visiting all the chief countries of the world to see if he could learn what it was that made them great. And this is what he learned.

Wherever the people thought chiefly of fun and pleasure, of amusing themselves and having a good time—he found they were not good for much, not of much account— notgreat.

Wherever the people thought chiefly of hard work and did what they ought, whether it was pleasant or not, he found they were usually good for something—of some account—great.

So Lycurgus came back to his home Sparta and set to work to make a set of rules that he thought would make his people greater than all other people in the world. These rules were called a Code of Laws, and I think you'll agree they were very hard, and they made the Spartans hard, too—as hard as nails. We shall see whether they made the Spartans really great, also.

To begin with, babies, as soon as they were born, were examined to see that they were strong and perfect. Whenever one was found who did not seem to be so, he or she was put out on the mountainside and left to die. Lycurgus wanted no weaklings in Sparta.

When boys were seven years old, they were taken from their mothers and put in a school, which was more like a soldiers' camp than a school, and they never lived anywhere else until they were sixty years old.

In this school they were not taught the things you are, but only the things that trained them to be good soldiers.

There were no such things as schoolbooks then.

There were no spelling books.

There were no arithmetics.

There were no geographies. No one knew enough about the world to write a geography.

There were no histories. No one knew much about things that had happened in the world before that time, and of course none of the history since then that you now study had taken place.

At certain times, the Spartan boy was whipped, not because he had done anything wrong, but just to teach him to suffer pain without whimpering. He would have been disgraced forever if he had cried, no matter how badly he was hurt.

He was exercised and drilled and worked until he was ready to drop. Still he was obliged to keep on, no matter how tired or hungry or sleepy or aching he might be, and he must never show by any sign how he felt.

He was made to eat the worst kind of food, to go hungry and thirsty for long periods of time, to go out in the bitter cold with little or no clothing, just to get used to such hardships and able to bear all sorts of discomforts. This kind of training, this kind of hardening, is therefore called Spartan discipline. How do you think you would have liked it?

The Spartans'food, clothing, and lodging were all furnished them, though it was very poor food and poor clothing and poor lodging. They were not allowed good things to eat, soft beds to lie on, or fine clothing to wear. Such things were called luxuries, and luxuries, Lycurgus thought, would make people soft and weak, and he wanted his people hard and strong.

The Spartans were even taught to speak in a short and blunt manner; they were taught not to waste words; they must say what they had to say in as few words as possible. This manner of speaking we call laconicfrom the name Laconia, the state in which Sparta was located.

Once a king wrote to the Spartans a threatening letter, saying that they had better do what he told them to, for ifhe came and took their country, he would destroy their city and make them slaves.

The Spartans sent a messenger back with their answer, and when the letter was opened, it contained only one word:

“IF!”

Even today, we call such an answer, short but to the point, a laconic answer.

Did all this hard training and hard work make the Spartans the greatest people in the world?

Lycurgus did make the Spartans the strongest and best fighters in the world——but—.

The Spartans conquered all the peoples around about them, though there were ten times as many—but—.

They made these people their slaves, who did all their farming and other work—but—.

We shall see later whether Lycurgus's idea was right.

North of Sparta was another great city of Greece called Athens. There were, of course, many other towns in Greece, but Sparta and Athens were the most important. In Athens the people lived and thought quite differently from those in Sparta.

The Athenians were just as fond of everything beautiful as the Spartans were of discipline and of everything military.

The Athenians loved athletic games of all sorts just as the Spartans did, but they also loved music and poetry and beautiful statues, paintings, vases, buildings, and such things that are known as the arts.

The Athenians believed in training the mind as wellas the body. The Spartans believed the training of the body was the all-important thing. Which do you like better, the Athenians' idea or the Spartans' idea?

Once at a big game a very old man was looking for a seat on the Athenians' side. There was no seat empty, and no Athenian offered to give him one. Whereupon the Spartans called to the old man and gave him the best seat on their side. The Athenians cheered the Spartans to show how fine they thought this act. At this the Spartans said:

“The Athenians knowwhat is right but they don't doit.”

中文阅读

我们的故事又回到希腊——荷马和神话传说中众神的故乡,然后再去海伦曾经生活过的城市斯巴达。

大约在基督诞生前900年,斯巴达有个男人叫来库古。这是个很硬朗的名字,当你听到有关此人的事情时,可能会认为这个人也很强硬。来库古希望斯巴达成为世界上最强大的城市。

首先,他得弄明白什么才能让一个城市和一个民族变得强大起来。

他出外游历了很多很多年,走访了世界上主要的国家,想看看自己是否能发现这些国家变得强大的原因。以下就是他所发现的。

哪个地方的人首先想的是寻欢作乐,贪图享受——他发现那里的人就没有大的作为,显得无足轻重——当然就不会强大。

哪个地方的人首先想的是努力工作,不管开心不开心,都做该做的事,他发现那里的人通常就有所作为——受人重视——当然会强大。

后来,来库古回到家乡斯巴达,着手制定一系列的规则,他认为按照这些规则生活就能使他的人民变得比世界上别的民族都强大。这些规则叫“法典”,我想你会赞同我说这些规则都非常苛刻,确实让斯巴达人变得非常强大——“像铁钉一样坚硬”。我们再来看这些规则是否真让斯巴达人变得强大起来。

首先,婴儿刚刚呱呱坠地,就要接受检查,看他们是否强壮、健全。只要发现哪个婴儿看上去达不到这个要求,就会被遗弃在山坡上,任其自生自灭。来库古希望在斯巴达没有一个体质孱弱者。

男孩们长到7岁,就会被带走,离开他们的母亲而到学校生活。说是学校,其实更像是兵营。从那时开始,他们就要一直住在学校里直到60岁。

他们在学校里学的东西和你们学的可不一样,他们只学习如何被训练成为优秀的士兵。

学校里没有课本这类的东西。

没有单词拼写课本。

没有算术课本。

没有地理课本。当时还没有人对世界有充分的了解,能写出一本地理书。

没有历史课本。之前世界上发生的事情没有人知道多少,当然,你们现在学的自那以后的历史还没发生呢。

到了一定的时候,斯巴达的男孩会被鞭打一顿,不是因为他做错了什么,只是要教会他在吃苦受难时不能哭。不管他伤得有多重,如果他哭了,就会永远感到抬不起头。

他会不断地操练、训练、劳作直到快要累倒。然而,不管有多么累、多么饿、多么困、身体有多么痛,他都要坚持下去,而且绝不能表现出一点受苦的样子。

他被迫吃最差的食物,长时间地忍受饥渴,在极其寒冷的天气里到户外,要穿得很少或根本不穿衣服。他受到如此严酷的训练,就是为了习惯这样的困苦,能够忍受各种各样的艰难。因此现在把类似这样的训练,这样的磨炼叫做“斯巴达式的训练”。你觉得你会喜欢这样的训练吗?

尽管斯巴达人的食物、衣服、住所都很简陋,却都是由国家提供的。他们不允许吃可口的食物,睡柔软的床或穿精美的衣服。他们把这些东西叫做奢侈品。而来库古认为,奢侈品会让人变得软弱、懦弱,而他则希望他的人民强硬、健壮。

斯巴达人甚至要求说话要简短直接,不能说废话,学会用尽可能少的词语说出要说的话。这种说话方式叫做“拉哥尼亚式” ,取名自斯巴达所在的拉哥尼亚。

以前,有个国王给斯巴达人写了封恐吓信,要求他们最好按照他说的去做,因为如果不服从,他就来占领他们的国家,毁掉他们的城市,使他们都沦为奴隶。

斯巴达人让信使送去了回信,国王打开一看,信上只有一个词:“如果!”

即使今天,我们还把这类简短、扼要的回答叫做“拉哥尼亚式回答”。

这样严酷的训练和拼命的劳作让斯巴达人变成世界上最强大的民族了吗?

来库古确实让斯巴达人变成了世界上最强壮、最优秀的战士——但是——

斯巴达人征服了周围地区所有的民族,尽管这些民族的人口是他们的十倍——但是——

他们迫使这些人民成为他们的奴隶,让他们种地和干活——但是——

我们以后会知道来库古的想法是否正确。

斯巴达的北边是希腊的另一个叫做雅典的大城市。当然,希腊还有很多其他的城市,但是斯巴达和雅典是最重要的两个城市。雅典人的生活和想法与斯巴达人有天壤之别。

斯巴达人强调纪律严明,热衷于一切行动军事化,而雅典人喜欢一切美的东西。

雅典人和斯巴达人一样热爱各种体育运动,但是他们还喜欢音乐、诗歌,以及美丽的雕刻、油画、花瓶、建筑等所有这类被称为艺术的东西。

雅典人认为锻炼身体和培养思维能力一样重要,而斯巴达人却认为锻炼身体才是最重要的。你更喜欢哪个观点呢,雅典人的还是斯巴达人的?

有一次,一场盛大的赛事正在进行,一个老人在雅典人那边找座位,但是没有空位子了,也没有一个雅典人给他让座。就在这时,斯巴达人那边喊老人过去,给了他最好的座位。雅典人为斯巴达人的举动欢呼起来,表示他们认为这种行为多么高尚。看到这一点,斯巴达人说:“雅典人知道什么是对的,但是他们却不去做。” ruqMMm4KpjDQVl/gs3SOsLkXok4h5P0iq0p5g1uqMPHfRInoZGGqdAApA31ra7BH

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