he script of this programme 本節(jié)目臺詞

Wang Fei: 大家好，歡迎收聽《都市掠影》節(jié)目，我是王飛。威風凜凜的高頭大馬還有英俊威武的騎士，這里就是倫敦著名的 Horse Guards Parade 皇家騎兵衛(wèi)隊閱兵場。每天這里的游人都是絡繹不絕，今天我就帶大家一起揭開皇家騎兵衛(wèi)隊的神秘面紗。

[Bugle sound and horse guards bellowing]

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Mr Westwood: Horse Guards (Parade) is still the official entrance to the royal residences, because beyond us, around St James’s Park, you’ll find Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and St James’s Palace. These are the royal residences, so this is still the official entrance, this is why it’s guarded, and has been guarded for 350 years.

Wang Fei: 剛才說話的是 Martin Westwood from Household Cavalry Museum, 他是英國皇家騎兵衛(wèi)隊博物館的部門主任。Westwood 先生解釋說 Horse Guards Parade is still the official entrance to the royal residences. 皇家騎兵衛(wèi)隊閱兵場仍然是通向英國皇室居住區(qū)的大門。皇家騎兵衛(wèi)隊 Household Cavalry 已經(jīng)鎮(zhèn)守這座大門350多年了。每天上午在這里舉行的換崗儀式讓世界各地的游客都能目睹到騎兵衛(wèi)隊的風采。我們聽一聽游客們的感受。

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Girl: They look really well-groomed, and look like they’re well-trained!

Woman: They’re very well-behaved, it’s amazing how they stand still for so long, and they’re just very well-groomed.

Wang Fei: 她們說 they're very well-groomed. 這里的 well-groomed 是指馬匹梳洗得非常干凈漂亮。They're also well-trained and well-behaved. 這些高頭駿馬也都經(jīng)過了嚴格的訓練，非常聽話。但是每個隊列中只有一匹白馬，其余的都是黑馬。這是怎么回事呢？我們有請 Westwood 先生來解釋一下。

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Mr Westwood: Currently there are I think 257 horses in the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment. They’re all black horses apart from the trumpeter’s horse or the bugler’s horse. And that’s a battlefield convention from, I think the 18th, 19th century, when they were unarmed. And they were used for giving orders across the battlefield, and so therefore they were very distinctive with their grey horses. So there was a gentleman’s agreement that they wouldn’t be hurt.

Wang Fei: I thought that they were white.

Mr Westwood: Well, they are white – we call them greys, though. That’s just a…

Wang Fei: Why?

Man: A British idiosyncrasy I think!

Wang Fei: 原來騎白馬是軍號手 trumpeter 或者 bugler. 軍號手騎白馬很容易和其他士兵區(qū)分，但是英文中稱軍號手的白馬為 grey horses. 在18、19 世紀的戰(zhàn)爭中，交戰(zhàn)雙方有君子協(xié)議，gentleman's agreement, 戰(zhàn)爭中不許傷害軍號手。除了馬匹有不同的顏色以外，騎兵隊成員的服裝顏色也不同，我們聽一聽下面這位觀眾的疑惑。

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Woman: I think they’re from different regiments but I don’t know fully.

Girl: They’ve got different hats!

Woman: They’ve got different hats and different coats, yes. One set has got red coats and all very highly polished boots, and the other set has got blue coats and red collars.

Wang Fei: 這位觀眾發(fā)現(xiàn) one group of horse guards wear red coats and the other group wear blue coats. And they also found the horse guards were wearing different hats. 下面我們請 Mr Westwood 讓他來解釋一下騎兵們?yōu)槭裁创┎煌姆b？聽的時候注意兩個詞：tunic 緊身的短上衣制服，plume 是指頭盔上的羽毛、纓子。

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Mr Westwood: And the Household Cavalry is actually made up of two regiments, the Life Guards – they’re the ones with the red tunics and the white plumes - and the Blues and Royals, which are the ones with the very dark blue tunics and the red plumes. So they’re the two regiments that form the Household Cavalry.

Wang Fei: 原來穿 red tunic 紅上衣制服，頭盔上有白色纓子 white plume 的騎兵來自 Life Guards Regiment 皇家近衛(wèi)騎兵團； 而穿 blue tunic 深藍色上衣制服，頭盔上有紅色纓子 red plume 的騎兵來自 Blues and Royals Regiment 藍軍皇家騎兵團。他們每天在廣場上舉行換崗儀式，場面非常壯觀。在節(jié)目的最后，我們聽一下兩個觀眾的感受。我們下次節(jié)目再會！

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Teenager: It was really… really cool, and they’re really smart. You don’t see this every single day of your life, you can only see it, like, once a year or something like that.

Man: Yeah, it’s fantastic, there’s nothing like it. Absolutely brilliant! I mean, I’ve never seen this before. I’m 42 now, so I’ve never seen it and it is – it’s fantastic to watch. You know, I like the red uniforms, the blue uniforms, and it’s, you know, it’s so colourful to see.