On Monday, the fifteenth of June, one thousand two hundred and fourteen, the King came from Windsor Castle, and the Barons came from the town of Staines, and they met on Runny-Mead, which is still a pleasant meadow by the Thames [泰晤士河边], where rushes [灯心草] grow in the clear water of the winding [蜿蜒的] river, and its banks are green with grass and trees. On the side of the Barons, came the General of their army, Robert Fitz-Walter, and a great concourse [群众] of the nobility of England. With the King, came, in all, some [约] four-and-twenty persons of any note [心绪复杂的], most of whom despised him, and were merely his advisers in form. On that great day, and in that great company, the King signed Magna Charta - the great charter of England - by which he pledged himself to maintain the Church in its rights; to relieve the Barons of oppressive obligations as vassals of the Crown - of which the Barons, in their turn, pledged themselves to relieve their vassals, the people; to respect the liberties of London and all other cities and boroughs; to protect foreign merchants who came to England; to imprison no man without a fair trial; and to sell, delay, or deny justice to none. As the Barons knew his falsehood well, they further required, as their securities, that he should send out of his kingdom all his foreign troops; that for two months they should hold possession of the city of London, and Stephen Langton of the Tower; and that five-and-twenty of their body [群体], chosen by themselves, should be a lawful committee to watch the keeping of the charter, and to make war upon him if he broke it.
南宋: 1127-1276. Stephen Langton of the Tower: Stephen Langton hold possession of the Tower.
All this he was obliged to yield [勉强交出]. He signed the charter with a smile, and, if he could have looked agreeable, would have done so, as he departed from the splendid assembly. When he got home to Windsor Castle, he was quite a madman in his helpless fury. And he broke the charter immediately afterwards.
python的生成器用yield很准确: 1. return a value; 2. give up the CPU.
He sent abroad for foreign soldiers, and sent to the Pope for help, and plotted [密谋] to take London by surprise, while the Barons should be holding a great tournament at Stamford, which they had agreed to hold there as a celebration of the charter. The Barons, however, found him out and put it off. Then, when the Barons desired to see him and tax [指控] him with his treachery, he made numbers of appointments with them, and kept none, and shifted from place to place, and was constantly sneaking and skulking [躲躲闪闪鬼鬼祟祟] about. At last he appeared at Dover, to join his foreign soldiers, of whom numbers came into his pay; and with them he besieged and took Rochester Castle, which was occupied by knights and soldiers of the Barons. He would have hanged them every one; but the leader of the foreign soldiers, fearful of what the English people might afterwards do to him, interfered to save the knights; therefore the King was fain [happy, willing] to satisfy his vengeance with the death of all the common men. Then, he sent the Earl of Salisbury, with one portion of his army, to ravage the eastern part of his own dominions, while he carried fire and slaughter into the northern part; torturing, plundering, killing, and inflicting every possible cruelty upon the people; and, every morning, setting a worthy example to his men by setting fire, with his own monster-hands, to the house where he had slept last night. Nor was this all; for the Pope, coming to the aid of his precious [sarcasm?] friend, laid the kingdom under an Interdict again, because the people took part with the Barons. It did not much matter, for the people had grown so used to it now, that they had begun to think nothing about it. It occurred to them - perhaps to Stephen Langton too - that they could keep their churches open, and ring their bells, without the Pope's permission as well as with it. So, they tried the experiment - and found that it succeeded perfectly.
六级/考研单词: meadow, noble, despise, mere, charter, pledge, relieve, oppress, liberty, merchant, imprison, farther, oblige, yield, depart, splendid, assemble, fury, plot, tournament, desire, sneak, besiege, knight, interfere, thereby, portion, slaughter, torture, inflict, worthy, precious
It being now impossible to bear the country, as a wilderness of cruelty, or longer to hold any terms with such a forsworn [forswear: 舍弃] outlaw of a King [修饰outlaw], the Barons sent to Louis, son of the French monarch, to offer him the English crown. Caring as little for the Pope's excommunication of him if he accepted the offer, as it is possible his father may have cared for the Pope's forgiveness of his sins, he landed at Sandwich (King John immediately running away from Dover, where he happened to be), and went on to London. The Scottish King, with whom many of the Northern English Lords had taken refuge, numbers of the foreign soldiers, numbers of the Barons, and numbers of the people went over to him every day; King John, the while [the time,那时], continually running away in all directions.
The career of Louis was checked [将了一军] however, by the suspicions of the Barons, founded on the dying declaration of a French Lord, that when the kingdom was conquered he was sworn to banish them as traitors, and to give their estates to some of his own Nobles. Rather than suffer this, some of the Barons hesitated: others even went over to King John.
he was sworn to... 从上下文看是Louis was sworn, a French Lord没那么大权力。当宾语是oneself时，主动/被动变得模糊。Tom hit Jerry. Jerry was hit by Tom. Ross avenged himeself. Ross was avenged by Ross.
It seemed to be the turning-point of King John's fortunes, for, in his savage and murderous course, he had now taken some towns and met with some successes. But, happily for England and humanity, his death was near. Crossing a dangerous quicksand [流沙], called the Wash, not very far from Wisbeach, the tide came up and nearly drowned his army. He and his soldiers escaped; but, looking back from the shore when he was safe, he saw the roaring water sweep down in a torrent, overturn the waggons [BrE =wagon], horses, and men, that carried his treasure, and engulf them in a raging whirlpool from which nothing could be delivered [rescue].
Cursing, and swearing, and gnawing his fingers, he went on to Swinestead Abbey, where the monks set [put] before him quantities of pears, and peaches, and new cider [苹果酒] - some say poison too, but there is very little reason to suppose so - of which he ate and drank in an immoderate and beastly way. All night he lay ill of a burning fever, and haunted with horrible fears. Next day, they put him in a horse-litter [担架/轿. 马轿, wagon没了], and carried him to Sleaford Castle, where he passed another night of pain and horror. Next day, they carried him, with greater difficulty than on the day before, to the castle of Newark upon Trent; and there, on the eighteenth of October, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the seventeenth of his vile reign, was an end of this miserable brute.
六级/考研单词: wilderness, outlaw, sovereign, sinister, refuge, perpetual, suspicion, conquer, noble, hesitate, oneself, revenge, savage, humane, tide, drown, shore, roar, overturn, wagon, treasury, rage, whirl, curse, fingerprint, peach, poison, fever, haunt, reign, wretched
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