首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Did Marco Polo Tell the Truth? There is a controversy about Marco Polo’s trip to China. Did Marco Polo tell the truth? If yo
Did Marco Polo Tell the Truth? There is a controversy about Marco Polo’s trip to China. Did Marco Polo tell the truth? If yo
admin
2010-07-19
35
问题
Did Marco Polo Tell the Truth?
There is a controversy about Marco Polo’s trip to China. Did Marco
Polo tell the truth? If you ask his 13%century contemporaries, the answer
would be a resounding no. As Polo’s 1298 book, The Travels of
Marco Polo, told Europeans something they【1】______ to believe, 【1】______
Westerners just regard Polo’s account as a romantic fantasy.
According to some critics, Polo never even【2】______foot in 【2】______
China. Had he been there, he would have reported important aspects of
13th-century Chinese life that were【3】______ such as tea drinking, 【3】______
calligraphy, the binding of women’s feet to keep them small, and, most
glaring, the Great Wall of China.
Frances Wood, head of the British Library’s Chinese department, in
her 1995 book Did Marco Polo Go to China, argues that Polo probably
never got beyond【4】______. His China stay was 【4】______
【5】______ with the help of Arabs and Persians who had visited China【5】______
. But a century after he was ridiculed as "the man of a million lies",
a Renaissance geographer hailed him as "the most diligent investigator of
【6】______ shores". 【6】______
Today, reference books state flatly that Polo went to China, even
though flaws in his story have been known for centuries. Polo’s supporters
explain Polo’s omissions like this: Tea drinking was popular in
【7】______China in Polo’s time, Lamer says, but was not yet so 【7】______
popular in the north and central regions, where Polo resided. Foot binding
was limited to【8】______ ladies confined to their houses. Only 【8】______
rarely would anyone see them except kin. While Polo said nothing about
calligraphy, he did tell the West about【9】______ money, which 【9】______
China had used for centuries. Anyhow, from Polo, the West learned
many things about China.
Polo probably told quite a few lies. But even Polo’s No. 1 critic,
Wood, deems him a useful "【10】______ of information". Whether 【10】______
he told only half of what he saw, or saw merely half of what he told, the
fact remains: He made history happen.
【4】
Did Marco Polo Tell the Truth?
Good morning, everyone. Today I’d like to discuss briefly about the travels of Marco Polo. If you ask his 13th-century contemporaries, "Did Marco Polo tell the truth ?" the answer would be a resounding no. They expected visitors to the unknown East to bring back tales of people born with one leg or one eye, or with the head beneath the shoulders. However, Polo’s 1298 book, The Travels of Marco Polo, offered no such oddities. Instead, it told Europeans something they refused to believe. The civilization of the West, Polo implied, was second-rate. China, by contrast, was a country with hundreds of thriving towns and cities far richer in goods, services, and technology than any place in Europe.
But rather than reject Polo’s account, Westerners embraced it—as a romantic fantasy. It became Europe’s most widely read book, thanks to such details as Polo’s description of China’s Kublai Khan as the world’s strongest leader, a chivalrous "Lord of Lords" who employed 10,000 falconers and 20,000 dog handlers and hosted banquets with 40,000 guests. In 1324, as Polo lay on his deathbed, a priest beseeched him to retract his "fables". His reply: "I have not told half of what I saw."
Now seven centuries later, Polo’s credibility again is under attack. According to critics, he never even set foot in China. Had he been there, they argue, he would have reported important aspects. of 13th-century Chinese life that went unmentioned. Among his omissions: tea drinking, calligraphy, the binding of women’s feet to keep them small, and, most glaring, the Great Wall of China.
The controversy bubbled up in a 1995 book-- Did Marco Polo Go to China?—by Frances Wood, head of the British Library’s Chinese department. Wood notes Polo’s omissions and argues that he probably never got beyond Persia. His China stay, she suggests, was invented with the help of Arabs and Persians who had visited China. She also points out that Polo is not mentioned in any Chinese records. But if past is prologue, Polo’s reputation will emerge in fine shape. A century after he was ridiculed as "the man of a million lies," a Renaissance geographer hailed him as "the most diligent investigator of eastern shores. "Another reader, Christopher Columbus, sailed west in hopes of finding a better route to the riches Polo described in the East.
Today, reference books state flatly that Polo went to China, even though flaws in his story have been known for centuries. In 1747, the British book Astley’s Voyages asked: "Had our Venetian been really on the Spot ... how is it possible he could have made not the least mention of the Great Wall: the most remarkable thing in ’all China or perhaps in the whole world?" The answer, Polo’s supporters say, is simple: In his day, the Great Wall wasn’t all that great. First built 300 years before the birth of Christ, much of it had crumbled by the 13thcentury. "Almost everything the tourist is normally shown today was built in the 16th century, ’ notes historian John Lamer, author of the new book Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World.
Tea time? Lamer also downplays other omissions. Tea drinking was popular in southern China in Polo’s time, he says, but was not yet so popular in the north and central regions, where Polo resided. Foot binding, Lamer reports, was limited "to upper-class ladies ... confined to their houses. "Only rarely would anyone see them except kin.
While Polo said nothing about calligraphy, he did tell the West about paper money, which China had used for centuries. From Polo, the West learned of China’s "large black stones which ... burn away like charcoal. "Centuries later, Europeans would come to know the substance as coal. Polo also told quite a few lies. Although he never visited Japan, he reported its royal palace roofed in gold. He claimed to have been Kublai Khan’s military adviser in a Chinese siege that occurred, it turns out, before his reported time in China. In fact, Polo may have done much less for the khan than he claimed. Perhaps that’s why Chinese records ignore him.
But even Polo’s No. 1 critic, Wood, deems him a useful "recorder of information". Whether he told only half of what he saw, or saw merely half of what he told, the fact remains: He made history happen.
选项
答案
Persia
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/aklO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
TheauthorthinksthatDanesadopta______attitudetowardstheircountry.Theauthor’sreactiontothestatementbytheMinis
Mostoftheso-calledyogisintheWestseemtofocusonfigurecorrection,nottrueawareness.Theymakestatementsaboutyoga
浙江钱塘江河口的涌潮,自古蔚为天下奇观。它是大自然赋予的神奇景象。由于天体引力和地球离心作用,每逢农历初一至初五,十五至三十,天体引潮力特别强,易形成大潮;农历八月十八日的大潮尤为壮观。而杭州湾喇叭口的地形特殊,梅湾水域广阔,但河口狭窄,加之河床泥沙阻挡,
Cooperationistheonlysafeguardwehaveagainstthedevelopmentofneurotictendencies.Itisthereforeveryimportantthatch
第二天清早,她起早出了门。她走进批发行商业区,但是每当她走到一个商号,打算进去申请工作时,她的勇气就消失了。她心里骂自己是胆小鬼,所以她继续往前走,走了又走,最后终于走进了一家商号。结果还是老样子。她出来时感到命运在和她作对,因此一切努力都是徒劳的。
得病以前,我受父母宠爱,在家中横行霸道,一旦隔离,拘禁在花园山坡上一幢小房子里,我顿感打入冷宫,十分郁郁不得志起来。一个春天的傍晚,园中百花怒放,父母在园中设宴,一时宾客云集,笑语四溢。我在山坡的小屋里,悄悄掀起窗帘,窥见园中大千世界,一片繁华,自己的哥姐
DidMarcoPoloTelltheTruth?ThereisacontroversyaboutMarcoPolo’striptoChina.DidMarcoPolotellthetruth?Ifyo
DidMarcoPoloTelltheTruth?ThereisacontroversyaboutMarcoPolo’striptoChina.DidMarcoPolotellthetruth?Ifyo
DidMarcoPoloTelltheTruth?ThereisacontroversyaboutMarcoPolo’striptoChina.DidMarcoPolotellthetruth?Ifyo
随机试题
仰卧位时心包积液常积聚在()
胆总管下端结石易发生()
违约概率和不良率是两个概念,关于违约和不良两者关系的说法,正确的有()。
甲公司以及与甲公司发生交易的以下公司均为增值税一般纳税人,销售或进口货物适用的增值税税率均为17%,以下事项中销售价格均不含增值税。甲公司2016年发生如下经济业务:(1)1月1日,甲公司与乙公司签订协议,向乙公司销售商品,成本为90万元,增值税专用发票
妇女社会工作者金迪经常把类似处境的妇女组织起来,建立支持小组.那么她应该注意的问题不包括()。
下面哪部作品不是德国作曲家韦伯的作品?()
督察制度建立的法律依据是( )。
行政处罚是指行政主体依照法定职权和程序对违反行政法规范,尚未构成犯罪的相对人给予行政制裁的具体行政行为。下列情形属于行政处罚的是()。
玛雅遗址挖掘出一些珠宝作坊,这些作坊位于从遗址中心向外辐射的马路边上.且离中心有一定的距离。由于贵族仅居住在中心地区,考古学家因此得出结论,认为这些作坊制作的珠宝不是供给贵族的,而是供给一个中等阶级,他们一定已足够富有,可以购买珠宝。对在这些作坊工作
Youshouldspendabout20minutesonQuestions1-13,whicharebasedonReadingPassage1below.TheExtraord
最新回复
(
0
)