Lesson 9 Royal espionage
第九课王室谍报活动

by BERNARD NEWMAN
from Spies in Britain

9-1. Alfred the Great acted as his own spy, visiting Danish camps disguised as a minstrel.

【译文】阿尔弗雷德大帝曾亲自充当间谍。他乔装吟游歌手进入丹麦军队营地侦察。

【讲解】Alfred the Great，阿尔弗雷德大帝，古英国国王，22岁登基，为抵抗入侵的丹麦人，先后与丹麦军交战6年未能取胜，后潜匿于阿森尔尼岛，终于打败丹麦军。visiting Danish camps disguised as a minstrel作方式状语，修饰acted。disguised as a minstrel作方式状语，修饰visiting。

【单词和短语】

disguise:假扮，化装（to change someone’s appearance so that people cannot recognize them），

例如：
She disguised herself as a man with a false beard.
她戴上假须女扮男装。

9-2. In those days wandering minstrels were welcome everywhere.

【译文】当时，浪迹四方的吟游歌手到处受欢迎。

【讲解】wandering minstrels，浪迹四方的吟游歌手。中世纪时期，欧洲云游四方的歌手一般都身带竖琴，自弹自唱，传颂古代的历史传说。

【单词和短语】

wandering：漫游的；闲逛的；流浪的（one uses wandering to describe a person who moves from place to place and has no permanent home）。

minstrel：（中世纪的）吟游歌手（a singer or musician in the Middle Ages）。

9-3. They were not fighting men, and their harp was their passport.

【译文】他们不是参战人员，他们的竖琴就是通行证。

9-4. Alfred had learned many of their ballads in his youth, and could vary his programme with acrobatic tricks and simple conjuring.

【译文】阿尔弗雷德年轻时学过许多吟游歌手的歌曲，并能穿插表演一些杂技和小魔术使自己的节目多样化。

【讲解】their指吟游歌手的。

【单词和短语】

acrobatic：杂技的（acrobatic movements involve moving your body in a very skillful way, for example by jumping through the air or balancing on a rope），另掌握acrobatics（杂技）和acrobat（杂技演员）。

9-5. While Alfred's little army slowly began to gather at Athelney, the king himself set out to penetrate the camp of Guthrum, the commander of the Danish invaders.

【译文】阿尔弗雷德人数不多的军队开始在阿塞尔纳慢慢集结时，大帝亲自潜入丹麦侵略军司令官古瑟罗姆的营地。

【讲解】the king himself指Alfred the Great。Guthrum是入侵英国的丹麦军首领。公元878年5月，被阿尔弗雷德大帝战败，改奉基督教，并认阿尔弗雷德大帝为教父。

【单词和短语】

penetrate：深入；进入；打入（to succeed in becoming accepted into a group or an organization, sometimes in order to find out their secrets），

例如：
penetratethe territory of enemies渗入敌人领土

penetratean enemy organization打入敌人组织

penetrate的名词形式为penetration。

9-6. These had settled down for the winter at Chippenham: thither Alfred went.

【译文】丹麦侵略军已在切本哈姆扎营准备过冬，阿尔弗雷德便来到此地。

【讲解】these指the Danish invaders。

【单词和短语】

thither：到那儿，向那儿（in that direction），

例如：
How the print of a foot came thither, I knew not, nor could in the last imagine.

那脚印是怎么留在那儿的，我既不知道，也丝毫猜不出。