疯狂英语阅读：GLADIATIOR

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2007:05:24 11:35:45
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

MAXIMUS: 1)Archers, three weeks from now I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line, stay with me, if you find yourself alone riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled for you are in the Elysium, and youre already dead. Brothers, what we do alive echoes in eternity!

CAESAR: Tell me again, Maximus, why are we here.

MAXIMUS: For the Glory of the empire, 2)Sire.

CAESAR: Ah yes, ah yes I remember. Do you see that map, Maximus? That is the world which I created. For 25 years, I have conquered, spilt blood, expanded the empire. Since I became Caesar, Ive known 4 years without war. 4 years of peace in 20! And for what, I brought the sword, nothing more?

MAXIMUS: Caesar, your life...

CAESAR: Please, dont call me that. Come, please. Come sit. Let us talk together now, very simply asmen. Well, Maximus, talk.

MAXIMUS: 5,000 of my men are out there on the freezing mud. 3,000 of them are bloodied and 3)cleaved. 2,000 will never leave this place. I will not believe that they fought and died for nothing.

CAESAR: And what would you believe?

MAXIMUS: They fought for you, and for Rome.

CAESAR: And what is Rome, Maximus?

MAXIMUS: Ive seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark. Rome is the light.

CAESAR: And yet youve never been there, you have not seen what it has become. I am dying, Maximus! When a man sees his end, he wants to know there was some purpose to his life. How will the world speak my name in years to come? Will I be known as the philosopher, the warrior, the tyrant? Or will I be the emperor who gave Rome back her true self? There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish. It was so fragile, and I fear that it will not survive the winter. Maximus, let us whisper now, together now you and I. You have a son, tell me about your home.

MAXIMUS: My house is in the hills above Tiupllo, a very simple place. Pink stones that warm in the sun. A kitchen garden, it smells of herbs in the day, jasmine in the evening. Through the gate is a giant 4)poplar. Figs, apples, pears, and soil mark as black, black as my wifes hair. Grapes on the south slopes, olives on the north. Wild 5)ponies playing in the house that teach my son, he always wants to be one of them.

CAESAR: Remember the last time you were home?

MAXIMUS: Two years 264 days of this morning.

CAESAR: Oh I envy you, Maximus. Its a good home, worth fighting for. There is one more duty that I ask of you before you go home.

MAXIMUS:what would you have me do ,Caesar?

CAESAR:I want you do become the Protector of Rome after I die. I will empower you to one end alone.to give power back to the people ofRome ,and end the corruption that has crippled it.

LUCILLA: Is it really so terrible seeing me again?

MAXIMUS: No, Im tired from battle.

LUCILLA: It hurts you to see my father so fragile. Commodus expects of my father will announce his 7)succession within days. Will you serve mybrother as you served his father?

MAXIMUS: I will always serve Rome.

LUCILLA: Do you know, I still remember you in my prayers. Oh yes, I pray.

MAXIMUS: I was sad to hear of your husbands death, I mourned him.

LUCILLA: Thank you.

MAXIMUS: And I hear you have a son.

LUCILLA: Yes, Lucius. Hell be nearly eight years old.

MAXIMUS: My son is also nearly eight. I thank you for your prayers.

MAXIMUS: Ancestors, I ask for your kindness. Blessed mother, come to me with the Gods desire for the future. Blessed father, watch over my wife and son with a ready sword. Whisper to them, I live only to hold them again. Ancestors, I honor you. I will try to live with the dignity you have taught me.

CAESAR: Are you ready to do your duty for Rome?

COMMODUS: Yes, father.

CAESAR: You will not be emperor.

COMMODUS: Which wise or older man is to take my place?

CAESAR: My powers will pass to Maximus to hold in trust until the senate is ready to rule once more. Rome is to be a republic again.

COMMODUS: Maximus?

CAESAR: Yes. My decision disappoints you?

COMMODUS: You wrote to me once listing the four virtues: wisdom, justice, 8)fortitude and temperance. As I read the list, I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, father: ambition that can be a virtue when it drives us to excel, 9)resourcefulness, courage -- perhaps not on the battlefield, but there are many forms of courage, devotion to my family and to you. But none of my virtues were on your list. Even then it was as if you didnt want me for your son.

CAESAR: Oh Commodus, you go too far.

COMMODUS: I search the faces of the Gods for ways to please you, to make you proud. One kind word, one full hug. When you breast me to your chest and hold me tight, it would have been like the sun on my heart for a thousand years. What is this in me you hate so much? All Ive ever wanted was to have loved you, Caesar, father!

CAESAR: Commodus, your faults as a son is my failure as a father!

COMMODUS: Why?!

FALCO: Rome greets her new emperor, your loyal subjects bid you welcome highness!

COMMODUS: Thank you, Falco. And for the loyal subjects, I trust they werent too expensive.

GRACCHUS: For your guidance, Caesar, the senate has prepared a series of 10)protocols to begin addressing the many problems in the city. Beginning with basic 11)sanitation for the Greek quarter, to combat the 12)plague which is already springing up there, so it seems that...

COMMODUS: Shush,...dont you see, Gracchus? Its the very problem, isnt it? My father spent all his time at study, at books, learning and philosophy. He spent his twilight hours reading 13)scrolls from the senate. And all the while, the people were forgotten...

GRACCHUS: But the senate is the people, Sire, chosen from among the people to speak for the people.

COMMODUS: I doubt many of the people eat as well as you do, Gracchus, or have such splendid mistresses, Gais. I think I understand my own people.

GRACCHUS: Then perhaps Caesar would be so good as to teach us, out of his own extensive experience.

COMMODUS: I call it love. Im their father, the people are my children. And I shall hold them to my bosom and embrace them tightly.

GAIS: Have you ever embraced someone dying of plague, Sire?

COMMODUS: No, but if you interrupt me again, I assure you that you shall.

LUCILLA: Senator, my brother is very tired. Leave your list with me. Caesar shall do all that Rome requires.

GRACCHUS: My lady, as always your lightest touch commands obedience.

(Later, in the palace.)

COMMODUS: Who are they to lecture me?!

LUCILLA: Commodus, the senate has its uses.

COMMODUS: What uses? All they do is talk! Should be just you and me, and Rome.

LUCILLA: Dont even think it, theresalways been a senate.

COMMODUS: Rome has changed. It takes an emperor to rule an empire.

LUCILLA: Of course, but leave the people there.

COMMODUS: Illusion.

LUCILLA: Traditions.

COMMODUS: My fathers world is for 14)barbarians. He said it himself, it achieved nothing, but the people loved him.

LUCILLA: The people always love victories.

COMMODUS: Why? Didnt they see the battles? What do they care about Romania?

LUCILLA: They care about the greatness of Rome.

COMMODUS: The greatness of Rome, and what is that?

LUCILLA: Its an idea, greatness, greatness is a vision.

COMMODUS: Exactly, a vision. Do you not see, Lucilla? I will give the people a vision of Rome, and theyll love me for it, and theyll soon forget the 15)tedious 16)sermonizing of a few dry old men. I will give the people the greatest vision of their lives.

MAN 1: Games. One hundred and fifty days of games!

MAN 2: Hes cleverer than I thought.

MAN 1: Clever?! The whole of Rome will be laughing at him, if they werent so afraid of his Pretoria.

MAN 2: Fear and wonder, a powerful combination.

MAN 1: Do you really think the people are going to be seduced by that?

MAN 2: I think he knows what Rome is -- Rome is the 17)mob.

MAN 1: To 18)conjure magic for them and theyll be distracted. You take away their freedom and still they wow. The beating heart of Rome, is not the marble of the senate, its the sand in the 19)coliseum. Hell bring them death, and they will love him for it.

MAN: On this day, we reach back to 20)hallowed 21)antiquity to bring you a recreation of the second halt of mighty 22)Carthage. On the barren plain of Zama, there stood the invincible armies of the barbarian Hannibal. 23)Ferocious 24)mercenaries and warriors from all brute nations, bent on merciless destruction, conquest. Your emperor is pleased to give you the barbarian 25)hoard!