双语阅读：古埃及小学生竟也有家庭作业

Homework written by a school kid in ancient Egypt has been preserved since the second century A.D. And the words on the slab may sound familiar to any kid whose parents worry about them falling in with a bad crowd.

一名古埃及学童的家庭作业从公元二世纪保存到了现在，那些经常被父母教导不要和坏人混在一起的孩子可能会觉得这份“古老”的作业里有些话很耳熟。

An ancient lesson preserved on a wood-mounted wax slab about the size of a Kindle reads: "You should accept advice from a wise man only" and "You cannot trust all your friends."

这篇古老的课文保存在一块与Kindle差不多大小的木制蜡板上，上面写道：“你应该只接受智者的建议”以及“你不能信任所有的朋友”。

Acquired by the British Library in 1892, the tablet hasn't been publicly displayed since the 1970s. The homework slab will be featured in an upcoming British Library exhibit called "Writing: Making Your Mark," which traces the evolution of writing over 5,000 years of human history, library representatives said in a statement.

这块蜡板于1892年被大英图书馆收购，自上世纪70年代以来就没有公开展示过。图书馆的代表们在一份声明中说，大英图书馆即将举办名为“书写：留下你的印记”的展览，追溯书写在5000多年人类历史当中的演变过程。这块家庭作业板将在此次展览中展出。

On the wax tablet is a two-part lesson in Greek that provides a snapshot of daily life for a pupil attending primary school in Egypt about 1,800 years ago, exhibit co-curator Peter Toth, also a curator of ancient and medieval manuscripts at the British Library, told Live Science in an email.

彼得·托特是此次展览的共同策展人，也是大英图书馆古代和中世纪文稿的策展人。他通过电子邮件告诉美国趣味科学网站，蜡板上的课文分两部分，均为希腊文，可以让我们了解大约1800年前古埃及小学生的日常生活。

One part of the assignment was a writing exercise. The slab displays a teacher's written example in the first line, and the next two lines contain the same words copied "rather clumsily" in the student's hand, much as primary students today copy lines penned by their teachers, Toth said. The rest of the homework included a multiplication table and reading exercises.

报道称，蜡板上的一部分作业是书写练习。托特说，蜡板上的第一行是老师写的示范，后面两行是学生抄写的“相当笨拙”的同样字句，就像今天的小学生抄写老师写的字句一样。其余作业包括乘法表和阅读练习。

Though the name and sex of the tablet's owner is unknown, the child was likely a boy from a wealthy family, as formal education in ancient Egypt was typically reserved for males of privilege, according to the Royal Ontario Museum.

安大略省皇家博物馆表示，尽管这块蜡板的主人姓名和性别不详，但很可能是一个出身富裕家庭的男孩，因为古埃及的正规教育通常由特权阶层的男性专享。

Lines copied by this long-ago student were not just for practicing penmanship; they were also intended to impart moral lessons. "It's not only the hands and fingers but also the mind that is being instructed here," Toth said.

这个很久以前的学生抄写的字句不仅是为了练习书写，也用于进行德育。托特说：“接受教导的不仅是手和手指，还有头脑。”

Homework slabs like this one were made by pouring melted, blackened wax into a rectangular depression at the center of a wooden tablet. Once the wax cooled, teachers and students could use a metal stylus to scratch letters that appeared as a lighter color against the dark background.

这种家庭作业板的制作方式是把融化后的黑蜡倒入一块木板中央的长方形凹槽中。蜡冷却之后，老师和学生可以用金属笔划出字母，而这些字母在黑色的底色上呈现出较浅的颜色。

Wax typically breaks down in the presence of moisture, so the region's dry climate likely helped to protect the tablet, "preserving the clumsy handwriting of a primary school pupil from almost two millennia ago," Toth said.

托特说，蜡在潮湿的情况下通常会分解，因此该地区干燥的气候很可能帮助保护了这块蜡板，“保存下了一名小学生近2000年前留下的笨拙笔迹”。

Along with the homework slab, the exhibition brings together over 100 artifacts from the British Library collections to explore examples of writing from ancient civilizations to modern cultures. Objects include stone monuments bearing Egyptian hieroglyphs; a copy of the literary classic "Ulysses" annotated by author James Joyce; musical notes penned by Mozart; and contemporary tattooing instruments.

除了这块作业板之外，此次展览还汇集了大英图书馆收藏的100多件文物，以探索从古代文明到现代文化的书写范例。展品包括刻有古埃及象形文字的石碑、作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯批注的文学经典《尤利西斯》的副本、莫扎特书写的乐谱以及当代文身工具。