Question

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 拓展与运用：

Hollywood wrong about Gladiators

　　It was thumbs(大拇指) down at the British Museum, in London, for the Hollywood history of gladiatorial combat(格斗), from Quo Vadis through Ben-Hur and Spartacus to this year's blockbuster Gladiator.

　　According to Ralph Jackson, British curator(馆长) of the first major exhibition on the true history of the Roman games, no thumb was ever turned down to condemn a gladiator to death; no gladiator ever bellowed(怒吼) in the arena “We who are about to die salute you!”; the bloodied losers were carried off carefully on stretchers(担架), not dragged away with hooks(钩子).

　　Most shockingly of all, relatively few died and many lived on to the ripe old age of 35. “The sign for death was a thumb raised,” said Dr Jackson, a historical consultant on the blockbuster film Gladiator, which did at least get this bit right.

　　“The sign far life was probably the thumb hidden away behind the other fingers. As for the shout of ‘We who are about to die’, we can only find one reference to one fighter saying it on one occasion, and that was not in the arena.”

　　Where Gladiator erred(犯错), he said, was in the spectacle of an amphitheater heaving with gladiators engaged in mass warfare: great movie scene, had history. In reality, gladiators fought in pairs, in highly choreographed bouts(设计好了的动作回合), which ended not with one man being chopped(剁) into cat's meat but signaling(发信号) surrender: most of the complaints by Roman writers were not that the games were barbarous(野蛮的), but that they were boring.

　　Gladiators, after years of training and wearing expensive handmade armour, capable of winning small fortunes in prize money and large fortunes in bets, were valuable commodities. “I am not suggesting that the owners looked after their gladiators out of the goodness of their hearts,” said co-curator Paul Roberts.” But they were very costly(昂贵的) property, they were well taken care of, and the owners were shouting for then to win, net to be killed.” The exhibition, which originated in Germany but has been expanded in London, brings together an unprecedented(空前的) collection of gladiatorial items from 22 museums in Europe, ranging from cheap souvenirs sold to fans in gift shops at the amphitheaters, to a 2.5-tonne marble grave slab from near Pompeii.

　　It records the first recorded outbreak of stadium violence, when a fight started in the amphitheater(竞技场) at Pompeii between supporters of the home team and the visitors, which led to a riot in the town and the games being banned for 10 years.

　　The two most embarrassed warriors in history were on display at the British Museum yesterday, and will be making sporadic(零星的) appearances during the exhibition.

　　Blushing under cover of their massive bronze helmets, and tottering(蹒跚的) under 18 kg of kit, were Tim Chamberlain and Tim Clark, the only members of the museum staff who fitted into the replica armour recreated by a German archaeologist from real sword-slashed pieces found in excavations. In fact, the two Tims, though in their 20s, would in historical terms have been getting on a bit as gladiators.

Questions：

1．What is the comment of Ralph Jackson on the film?

2．Why didn't the gladiators' owners kill their gladiators?

Answer 1

答案：
解析：

Answers： 　　1．It's a good film of splendid scene but its history is poor. 　　2．Because the gladiators were costly property, they were well taken care of, and the owners were shouting for them to win, not to be killed.