异域文化 说服的艺术 05

What this individual had discovered was something that we today take for granted. Art, as personal adornment, enhances your status, it lifts you above your peers and our king was the first leader in Britain to exploit what would become a universal human trait. And it's something that leaders from the time of Stonehenge to the present day have exploited, the adornments of office enhance your power. This power of art may now finally explain how such a colossal monument came to be built. It must have taken a leader of great power to organize the hundreds of people needed for such an undertaking.

Our foreigner arrived with his gold around the time that Stonehenge was built. And it's likely that it was he who organized this construction. What's more, he may well have intended Stonehenge as the ultimate symbol of his power. If our king did indeed build this, the most impressive prehistoric temple in Europe, then adornment had played a crucial role in his achievement. Art had become a political tool. It was the dawn of a new era.

And it wasn't just in ancient Britain. In other parts of the world from Egypt to Mesopotamia, leaders were also discovering the power of art. Kings competed to wear evermore dazzling adornments and to build evermore fabulous structures. The images had a magical effect on those who saw them. But there was a catch. Kingdoms were growing in size, but the bigger they became, the harder it was for the leaders to communicate their power. Their new subjects simply couldn't see them.

word to remember:

catch: 1)setback, difficulty困难(文中意思) 2)trick诡计 eg:Watch out for the catch!

info. (from qqyyffaa)

Mesopotamia

美索不达米亚：古代西南亚介于底格里斯河和幼发拉底河之间的一个地区，位于现在的伊拉克境内。可能在公元前 5000年以前就开始有人在此定居。这一地区孕育了众多的人类早期文明，其中包括苏美尔文明、阿卡德文明、巴比伦文明和亚述文明。蒙古侵略者在 公元 1258年破坏了该地区发达的灌溉系统之后，这一地区的重要性就此减小