职英阅读理解：中英文对照精选集(1)

A Handful of History（扑克—手中的历史）

1. The next time you do a card trick--remember this. You're playing with history. The playing cards we use today are much like those used for hundreds of years. The most interesting things are the suits and face cards. A "suit" of a playing card is not a thing to be worn. It means Hearts, Spades, Diamonds or Clubs. The figures are placed on each card with the number or value of the card. The face cards are the Jacks, Queens, Kings, and, of course, the Jokers.
1、当你下一次玩扑克的时候，要记住这些。你正在与历史进行游戏。今天我们用的扑克，几乎与数百年前的扑克相差无几。最有意思的东西是扑克里的“套”和“脸牌”。扑克中的“套”不是什么可以穿的东西。它意味着红心、黑桃、红方块、或者梅花。牌面的数标志着牌的顺序或价值。带脸的牌是杰克、皇后、国王、当然还有鬼。

2. What do you think the suits stand for? Let's take the Hearts first. When you say that an athlete has a lot of heart, what do you mean? You mean that he is brave. So, you see, the King of Hearts is a "brave king".
2、你认为“套”代表什么意思?让我们先看红心。当你说一个运动员有很多心，你到底想表达什么意思？你的意思是他很勇敢。因此，你看，红心国王是勇敢之王。

3. Look at the design of the Spade on a card. The word "spade" comes from the Italian word which means “sword”. With a little imagination, you can see the and the blade. Of course, the blade has been made much shorter on the card.
3、看看牌面上黑桃的设计。英语“spade”这个字来自意大利语，意思是刀剑。只要有一点想象力，你就能看到柄和刀刃。当然，牌面的刀刃被做的非常短。

4. The diamonds and Club designs also have interesting stories. The Diamond design is one that you probably know already. It stands for the expensive gems that you and I have seen in jewelry stores. At first it stood for the rich traders who found and sold such gems. The Club looks a little like a three-leaf clover design. Its shape came from a French design with three leaves. It has the lowest rank of the suits.
4、红方块和梅花的设计同样含着很有意思的故事。关于钻石的图案是一个你可能已经知道的东西。它代表你和我都曾在首饰店看见过的珍贵的珍宝。首先它代表了制作和出卖这样的珍宝的富有的商人。梅花看上去有点像三叶草的图案。它的形状来自一个法国的三片树叶的图案。它在套牌里排序最低。

5. Now you see how some suits of playing cards have more value or power than others. The face cards are usually powerful in any card game. The King is one of the strongest. There are four different Kings, and each one stands for a real person. The King of Hearts first meant Charlemagne. He lived about 800 years after the birth of Christ. He was one of the most powerful kings in Europe after Julius Caesar of Rome. Julius Caesar, by the way, is the King of Diamonds.
5、现在你看到了为什么一套牌的价值或力量大于另外一套牌。在任何一个扑克游戏里带脸的牌往往威力更大。国王(K)是最强的一个。这里有四个不同的国王，每一个都代表着一个真实的人。首先红心国王代表查理曼大帝，他生活在耶稣诞生后800年后。他是罗马朱利叶斯·恺撒之后，欧洲最强大的国王。顺便说一下，朱利叶斯·恺撒是红方块国王。