欧洲文化名词解释集锦.doc

Division One Greek Culture and Roman Culture1. Iliad（伊利亚特）: 1) It is one of the two great ancient Greek epics by Homer. 2) It deals with the alliance of the states of the southern mainland of Greece, led by Agamemnon in their war against the city of Troy probably in the period 1200-1100 B. C. 3) The heroes are Hector on the Trojan side and Achilles and Odysseus on the Greek. 4) In the final battle, Hector was killed by Achilles and Troy was sacked and burned by the Greeks.2Herodotus（希罗多德）: 1) He is one of great ancient Greek historians. 2) He is often called “ Father of History. 3) He wrote about the wars between Greeks and Persians. 4) His history, full of anecdotes and digressions and lively dialogue, is wonderfully readable.5) His object in writing was “ that the great and wonderful deeds done by Greeks and Persians should not lack renown.” 3Socrates: 1) He was the philosopher of ancient Greece in the 5th and 4th century. 2) He was considered one of the three greatest names in European philosophy. 3) He hold that philosophy took the aim to reach the conclusion of oneself and virtue was knowledge. 4) His thoughts were recorded in Dialogues by Plato. 5) He devised the dialectical method.4. Dialectical method（辩证法）: 1) It was devised by ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. 2) It is a method of argument, by questions and answers.5. Plato: 1) He was the greatest philosopher of ancient Greece, pupil of Socrates. 2) His Dialogues are important not only as philosophical writing but also as imaginative literature. Of the Dialogues he wrote, 27 have survived, including: the Apology, Symposium and the Republic. 3) Plato built up a comprehensive system of philosophy. 4) His philosophy is called idealism.6. Diogenes（狄奥艮尼）（北京市2002年自考真题名词解释）: He was one of the Cynics leaders in ancient Greece, who decided to live like a dog. 2) The word “cynic” means “dog” in Greek. 3) He rejected all conventions, advocated self-sufficiency and extreme simplicity in life. 7Stoics（斯多咯派）: 1) It was one of four ancient Greek schools of philosophers in the 4th century B. C. 2) To them , the most important thing in life was “duty”. 3) It developed into the theory that one should endure hardship and misfortune with courage. 4) The chief Stoic was Zeno. 8Doric Style（陶立克柱）: 1) It is one of three ancient Greek architecture styles. 2) It is also called the masculine style. 3) It is sturdy, powerful, severe-looking and showing a good sense of proportions and numbers. 4) The Doric style. is monotonous and unadorned.9Pax Romana（罗马和平）（北京市2001年自考真题名词解释）: 1）In the year 27 B.C. Octavius took supreme power as emperor with the tile of Augustus. 2) Two centuries later, the Roman empire reached its greatest extent in the North and East. 3) The emperors mainly relied on a strong army-the famous Roman Legions and an influential bureaucracy to exert their rules. 4) Thus the Roman enjoyed a long period of peace lasting 200 years. This remarkable phenomenon in the history is know as Pax Romana. 10. Virgil（维吉尔）: 1) He was the greatest of Latin poets. 2) He wrote the great epic, the Aeneid. 3) The poem opened out to the future, for Aeneas stood at the head of a rce of people who were to found the first the Roman republic and then the Roman Empire.Division Two The Bible and Christianity1. The Bible: 1) The Bible is a collection of religious writings comprising two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. 2) The former is about God and the laws of God; the latter, the doctrine of Jesus Christ. 2. The Old Testament: 1)The Bible was divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. 2) The Old Testament is about God and the Laws of God. 3)The word “Testament” means “agreement”, the agreement between God and Man.3. The New Testament: 1) The Bible was divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. 2) The New Testament is about the doctrine (教义) of Jesus Christ. 3)The word “Testament” means “agreement”, the agreement between God and Man.4. Pentateuch（摩西五经）: 1) In the Old Testament, the oldest and most important are the first five books, called Pentateuch.2) Pentateuch contains five books: Genesis (创世记), Exodus (出埃及记), Leviticus(利未记), Numbers (民数记), Deuteronomy (申命记).5Genesis： 1） Genesis is the first one of the five books in Pentateuch in Old Testament. 2) It tells about a religious account of the origin of the Hebrews people, including the origin of the world and of man, the career of Issac and the life of Jacob and his son Joseph.6. Exodus: 1) Exodus is the second one of the five books in Pentateuch in the Old Testament. 2) It tells about a religious history of the Hebrews during their flight from Egypt Led by Moses. 3) During the period they began to receive Gods Law. 7. Noahs Ark（挪亚方舟）: 1) For many hundred years after Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden, the family of man multiplied and spread over the earth, but they became more and more corrupt 2) Thus God decided to destroy all life on earth in a great flood. 3) Because Noah always kept his faith in God, God spoke to him about His intention and told him to build an ark to protect him and his kin from the waters. 4) .Noah followed Gods instructions. 5) For 40 days it rained, the whole earth was covered with water, those sheltered in the ark being the only survivals.8. The Prophets (先知)：1）For more than a thousand years in the Middle East there had been a class of people known as “Prophets” or the spokesmen of God.2） Earlier prophets lived in groups as temple officials. Later on there appeared in dependent prophet. 3）The Prophets can be grouped into the Major Prophets and Minor Prophets.（分为大小先知）9The Book of Daniel（但以理书）： 1）The Book of Daniel belongs to The Old Testament of the Bible. 2)The book appeared in the early days of Jews revolt against the Syrian King Antiochus IV. 3) It is a story mixed with vision, describing how Daniel and his friends were taken prisoner to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem and how they refused to compromise their faith. 10The Edict of Milan（米兰赦令）: 1) Roman emperor Constantine believed that God had helped him in winning the battle for the throne, so he issued the Edict of Milan in 313. 2) It granted religious freedom to all, made Christianity legal.11 The four accounts in the New Testament（四福音书）: 1) The four accounts are the first four books in the New Testament. 2) They were believed to have been written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four of Jesus early followers. 3) They tell of the birth, teaching, death and Resurrection of Jesus.12King James version of Bible（钦定版本圣经）: 1）As the most important and influential of English Bible, it is also called the “Authorized” version. 2) It was produced by 54 biblical scholars at the command of King James, and was published in 1611. 3) With its simple, majestic Anglo-Saxon tongue, it is know as the greatest book in the English language.Division Three The Middle Ages1the Middle ages（中世纪）（北京市2002年自考真题名词解释）: 1) In European history, the thousand-year period from the 5th century to 15th century following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century is called the Middle Ages.2)The middle ages is so called because it came between ancient times and modern times. 3) During the Medieval times there was no central government to keep the order. The only organization that seemed to unite Europe was the Christian church.4) Christianity took the lead in politics, law, art, and learning for hundreds of years. It shaped peoples lives. That is why the Middle Ages is also called the “Age of Faith”.2Feudalism（封建主义）：1）Feudalism in Europe was mainly a system of land holding a system of holding land in exchange for military service. 2）The word “feudalism” was derived from the Latin “feudum”, a grant of land.3Fiefs（封地，采邑）：1）In Feudalism, the ruler of the government redivided the large lands into small pieces to be given to chancellors or soldiers as a reward for their service. 2）The subdivisions were called fiefs.4. vassals（诸侯）: 1)In Feudalism, the ruler of the government redivided the large lands into small pieces to be given to chancellors or soldiers as a reward for their service. 2)The subdivisions were called fiefs.3) The owners of the fiefs w call vassals.5. Code of Chivalry (骑士制度): 1) In the Middle Ages of western Europe, as a knight, he were pledged to protect the weak, to fight for the church, to be loyal to his lord and to respect women of noble birth. 2) These rules were known as code of chivalry, from which the western idea of good manners developed.6. dubbing (骑士头衔加冕仪式) : After a knight was successful in his trails and tournaments, there was always a special ceremony to award him with a title, knight. This special ceremony is called dubbing.7. The Manor (庄园)： 1） The centre of medieval life under feudalism was the manor. 2）Manors were founded on the fiefs of the lords. 3）By the twelfth century manor houses were made of stone and designed as fortresses. They came to be called castles.8The Catholic Church(天主教): 1) In the medieval “ age of faith”, almost all Europeans belonged to the Catholic Church. 2) The word “catholic” meant “universal” 3) The Catholic Church was highly centralized and disciplined international organization and the Pope was the head of the Church. He not only ruled Rome and parts of Italy as a king, he was also the head of all Christian churches in western Europe. Those who opposed the Pope lost their membership and their political right. 4) The Church even set up a church court-the Inquisition to stamp out so-called heresy. 5) Latin was the accepted official language in the Roman Catholic Church. 6) This Church had great influence on peoples daily life and the western thinking.9Monasticism (修道院制度): 1）Heeding the spiritual message of Christianity, between 300 and 500 A.D., many men withdrew from worldly contacts to deserts and lonely places. 2) This movement developed into the establishment of monasteries（修道院）and convents (女修道院) for monks and nuns. 3）Some of the hermits were great scholars known as “Father of the Church”, whose work is generally considered orthodox. 4) Three representatives were St. Jerome, Augustine of Hippo and St. Benedict.10.Benedictine Rule(本尼迪克特教团)： 1) It was founded by St. Benedict, a great monk in 529 A. D. 2) The monks who followed Benedicts rule promised to give up all their possession before entering the monastery. 3) wore simple clothes and ate only certain simple foods. 4) They could not marry and had to obey without question the orders of the abbot. 5) They had to attend service seven times during the day and once at midnight.6) In addition, they were expected to work five hours a day in the fields surrounding the monastery.11. holy communion（圣餐）: 1) It is one of most important sacraments. 2) It helps to remind people that Christ has died to redeem man.12The Crusades（十字军东征）（北京市2001年自考真题名词解释）: 1) In 1071 Palestine fell to the armies of the Turkish Moslems who attacked the Christian pilgrims, killing many of them and sold many others as slaves. 2) News of this kink roused great indignation among Christians in western Europe. 3) The result was a series of holy wars called the Crusades which went on about 200 years. 4) All the soldiers going to Palestine wore a red cross on the tunics as a symbol of obedience to God. 5) There were altogether eight chief Crusades from 1096 to 1291. 6) Aothough the Crusades did not achieve their goal to regain the Holy land, they had an important effect on the future of both the East and the West. They brought the East into closer contact with the West. And they greatly influenced the history of Europe. 13. Carolingian Renaissance（加洛林复兴）： 1） In early medieval period, the Emperor of the Romans, Charlemagne, encouraged learning by setting up monastery schools, giving support to scholars and setting scribes to work copying various ancient books. Because the scribes performed their tasks well, few of the ancient works that had survived until that time were ever lost. 3) The result of Charlemagnes efforts is usually called the “Carolingian Renaissance”. 4)The term is derived from Charlemagnes name in Latin, Carolus. 5) The most interesting side of this rather minor renaissance is the spectacle of Frankish or Germanic state reaching out to assimilate the riches of the Roman Classical and the Christianized Hebraic culture. 14. Alfred the Great（阿尔弗雷德大王）（北京市2003年自考真题名词解释）: 1) As the ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, he contributed greatly to the medieval European culture. 2) He worried about the disappearance of learning and made Wessex the Anglo-Saxon cultural centre by introducing teachers and scholars, founding new monasteries, and promoting translations into the vernacular from Latin works. 3)He also inspired the compilation of the Anglo Saxon Chronicles. 15National Epic(民族史诗)：1）The epic was the product of the Heroic Age. It was an important and mostly used form. in ancient literature.2） “National epic” refers to the epic written in vernacular languagesthat is, the languages of various national states that came into being in the Middle Ages. 3）Literary works were no longer all written in Latin.4） It was the starting point of a gradual transition of European literature from Latin culture to a culture that was the combination of a variety of national characteristics.16Beowulf（贝奥武甫）：1) It is an Anglo-Saxon epic in 8th century. 2) It originates from the collective efforts of oral literature. 3) The story is set in Denmark or Sweden and tells how the hero, Veowulf, defeats the monster Grendel and Grendels mother, a sea monster, but eventually receives his own death in fighting with a fire dragon. 4) It marks the beginning of English literature.17. Song of Roland （罗兰之歌）： 1）It is the most well-known of a group of French epics known as La Chanson de Gestes. 2) It tells how Roland, one of Charlemagnes warriors, fights in Spain and dies defending a pass in the Pyrenees. 18. The Divine Comedy（神曲）：1）It was written by the greatest poet of Italy, Dante. 2) It is one of the landmarks of world literature. 3) The poem itself is the greatest Christian poem with a profound vision of the medieval Christian world, and expresses humanistic ideas which foreshadowed the spirit of Renaissance. 4) It was written in Italian rather than in Latin, which influenced decisively the evolution of European literature away from it origins in Latin culture to a new varied expression.19. The Canterbury Tales（坎特伯雷故事集）： 1) The Canterbury Tales was written by English poet Chaucer. 2) The book contains twenty-four tales bold by a group of pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury. 3) Most of the tales are written in verse which reflects Chaucers innovation by introducing French and Italy writing into the English native alliterative verse(头韵). 4)The Canterbury Tales is the best representative of the middle English, paving the way to Modern English.20. Gothic（哥特式建筑）(北京市2001自考真题名词解释)： 1）The Gothic style. started in France and quickly spread through all parts of western Europe. 2) It flourished and lasted from the mid-12th to the end of 15th century and, in some areas, into the 16th. 3) More churches were built in this manner tan in any other style. in history. 4) The Gothic was an outgrowth of the Romanesque, but it reflected a much more ordered feudal society with full confidence. 5) Gothic cathedrals soared high, their windows, arches and towers reaching heavenward, flinging their passion against the sky. The were decorated with beautiful stained glass windows and sculptures. Division Four Renaissance and Reformation1Renaissance（文艺复兴）：1） As a period in western civilization, generally speaking, Renaissance refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th century. 2 Renaissance started in Florence and Venice with the flowering of paintings, sculpture and architecture.3) The word “Renaissance” means revival, specifically in this period of history, revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture. 4)Renaissance, in essence, was a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of conservatism in feudalist Europe and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, to lift the restrictions in all areas placed by the Roman church authorities.5. During the period of Renaissance, old sciences revived and new sciences emerge, national languages and national cultures free from the absolute control of the Papal authority in Rome took shape and art and literature flourished as never before.2Humanism (人文主义)：1）Humanism is the essence of Renaissance. 2) Humanists in Renaissance believed that human beings had rights to pursue wealth and pleasure and they admired the beauty of human body. 3) This belief ran counter to the medieval ascetical idea of poverty and stoics, and shifted mans interest from Christianity to humanity, from religion to philosophy, fro heaven to earth, from the beauty of God to the beauty of human in all its joys, senses and feelings. 4) Theologically, the humanists were religious. But they began to look at the problems of God and Providence with a view to understanding mans work and mans earthly happiness. 5) The philosophy of humanism is reflected in the art and literature in Italy and the rest of Europe, to pass down as the beginning of the history of modern man, who, instead of brooding about death and the other world, lives and works for the present and future progress of mankind. 3. Leonard da Vinci（北京市2004年自考真题名词解释）: 1) He was a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a musician, an engineer and a scientist, who was born in Florence in Italy. 2) He was a Renaissance man in the true sense of the word. 3) He had profound understanding of art, which exerted great influence among the painters of his own generation, and generations to follow.4） His major works are Last S