Hello 大家好呀！休息了一周，我们这周的 Weekend English Club 回归啦。这一期我们继续来讲人类历史上的伟大奇迹- -- 位于意大利罗马的古罗马圆形大剧场。

Last week I did not manage to record an episode because I was so busy, but today I will talk about the Colosseum in Rome.

In the center of Rome, the capital of Italy, you can find a very large monument called the Colosseum. It is one of the most famous monuments of European history, and it was built a long time ago.

It is a huge building and was surely an impressive thing to see in the time it was built. The Roman empire was very large and powerful in the first century in Europe, and it was them who built the Colosseum. The Romans started building it under emperor Vespasianus and it was finished in the year 80. It is the largest ancient theater ever built with a length of 189 meters and walls that are 48 meters high.

The Colosseum was used to entertain people, just like sports stadiums we have today. Rome was one of the biggest cities in the world back then, and the Colosseum could contain up to 80.000 people. There were special seats for the emperor and Roman politicians, called senators. They were the most powerful men in Rome so they got the best seats.

But the Romans did not go to the Colosseum to watch people play football or basketball. The world was very different back then, and the Romans wanted something more exciting. They loved watching gladiators, men trained to fight with real weapons. These were the superstars of the Roman world, but their job was of course very dangerous, and they even fought wild animals like lions and bears while people watched. There were also theater plays, and maybe most impressively, the Romans could fill the Colosseum with water and bring boats inside to show the people what a battle at sea looked like.

After the Roman empire disappeared, people stopped using the Colosseum for entertainment and it was abandoned. It still stands there though, and nowadays millions of people visit it every year, more than in the time of the Romans.

• Impressive: 给人印象深刻的
• Roman empire：罗马帝国
• The Romans：罗马人（复数）
• Entertain：娱乐，使...有兴趣，使...快乐
• Stadium：体育场，运动场；（古希腊或古罗马的）竞走跑道
• Politician：政客；政治家
• Senator：参议员，（古罗马的）元老院议员
• Gladiator：斗剑者；古罗马公开表演的格斗者
• Theater plays：剧场演出（复数）
• Entertainment：娱乐，娱乐表演
• Abandon：抛弃，遗弃

主播：Daniel

校对：nan_nan