《瘋狂英語》精選輯: 德國掠影

瘋狂英語精選輯 A Glimpse at Germany

A country of music and singing. A land of fairytale castles balanced on sheer cliffs. Of Gothic cathedrals built to last an eternity. A place of gently rolling fields and vineyards and jagged Alpine peaks. A country where old architecture and high tech industry live side by side in harmony. Everybody has a different concept of this country and everybody is right. And in one way or another, everybody’s life has been touched by it.

Germany is bounded on two sides by natural barriers. In the north, by the unpredictable North Sea and the much more gentle Baltic, and in the south, by the impregnable bastion of the Alps. It’s the country of the mighty Rhine, the placid Elbe, and the lovely Danube. Around the time of Christ, the Romans pushed their empire to the Rhine and Danube, and brought with them new levels of cultural sophistication. Building technologies, like these house floors heated by hot water basements, were unknown by the native Germanic tribes of the time. Many Roman outposts, strategically located at river crossings and trade routes, eventually grew into modern cities which today carry names like Cologne, Mainz, Regensburg, Trier, and Vienna.

Ruins of castles, built a thousand years after the Romans, still dot the landscape in many places. They are powerful witnesses from Germany’s distant past, when the far-flung frontiers of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation had to be defended. Styles of architecture and especially churches, are mirrors of the consciousness of the people and of the church and state. So often, they were one and the same.

The world has one supreme celebration of beer. The locals of Munich call it "Die Wiesen," meaning the meadow. The rest of the world calls it Oktoberfest. One has the feeling that the year in Munich culminates in this heaven of the Bavarians-this most joyous, most colorful, most lively of all folk festivals. Many names of German firms, in practically all modern industries, from cars to pharmaceuticals, from airplanes to electronics, enlists a certain awe. It is here that German craftsmanship, demand for perfection, and the quest for innovation, come together in technology admired the world over.