Lesson 9 Royal espionage第九课王室谍报活动(2)

halt：使停止前进；使停止；使终止（to prevent someone or something from continuing），

例如：
No one can halt the advance of history.
谁也阻挡不了历史的前进。

assail：攻击，袭击（to attack someone or something violently），

例如：
assail a fort 攻要塞

9-16. Now Alfred began a long series of skirmishes—and within a month the Danes had surrendered.

【译文】阿尔弗雷德这时发起一连串小规模进攻，结果不出一月丹麦人就投降了。

【讲解】skirmishes后的破折号引出被强调的部分，这里的and表示结果。

【单词和短语】

skirmish：小规模战斗；小冲突（a fight between small groups of soldiers, ships etc, especially one that happens away from the main part of a battle），

例如：
a street skirmish 巷战
a border skirmish 边境冲突

9-17. The episode could reasonably serve as a unique epic of royal espionage!

【译文】这段历史可说是王室谍报活动中独一无二的华章。

【单词和短语】

epic：史诗，叙事诗（a book, poem, or film tells a long story about brave actions and exciting events），

例如：
Homer’s Iliad and Milton’s Paradise Lost are epics.
荷马的《伊利亚特》和弥尔顿的《失乐园》是史诗。

espionage：（the activity of secretly finding out secret information and giving it to a country’s enemies or a company’s competitors），

例如：
use espionage to find out other countries’ military secrets
用间谍手段探出别国的军事机密

Three persons have been arrested on espionage charges.
三个人被指控犯间谍活动罪而被捕