41. Geoffrey Chaucer’s best known work is the Canterbury Tales which describes a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury to visitTomas Becket’s tomb.
杰佛利·喬叟的名著《坎特伯雷故事集》描述了一群朝圣者到坎特伯雷參觀托馬斯貝克特墳?zāi)沟穆眯小?BR> 42. The baron’s charter, or Magna Carta, as it came to be known was presented by a delegation of their class to the king and his advisers in the summer of 1215.
1215年夏天，貴族代表團把他們的憲章——后以《大憲章》聞名——遞交給國王和他的顧問團們。
43. A committee of 24 barons plus the Mayor of London was chosen to help the king carry out the Charter, with the right of declaring war on him should he break its provisions.
由24名貴族和倫敦市市長組成的委員會幫助國王執(zhí)行大憲章，若國王違反規(guī)定，他們有權(quán)對國王宣戰(zhàn)。
44. Magna Carta was a statement of feudal and legal relationship between the crown and the barons, a guarantee of the freedom of the church and a limitation of the power of the king.
《大憲章》陳述的是國王與貴族間的封建和法律關(guān)系，保證了教會自由和限制了王權(quán)。
45. While the king Henry Ⅲ and Prince Edward were keep in prison, Simon de Montfort summoned in 1265 the great council to meet at Westminster which developed later into the Lords and the Commons known as a parliament.
1265年當亨利三世國王和愛德華王子被關(guān)入監(jiān)獄，西蒙德孟福爾在威斯敏斯特召集大議會，大議會發(fā)展到后來演變?yōu)樽h會，分為上議院和下議院。
46. The statute of Wales in 1284 placed the country under English law and Edward Ⅰpresented his new-born-son to the Welsh people as the Prince of Wales, a title held by the heir to the throne ever since.
1284年的威爾士法，使威爾士處于英國法律之下，愛德華一世將他新出生的兒子贈與威爾士人民，封他為威爾士王子。此后，該稱號一直由該王位的繼承人沿用至今。
47. When Edward Ⅲ claimed the French Crown by the right of his mother Isabella, the French refused to recognize the claim because the Salic Law debarred females from the succession. In 1337 Edward declared a war that was to last a hundred years.
愛德華三世通過他母親伊莎貝拉的關(guān)系宣布繼承法國王位，但法國人民拒絕承認，因為薩利法典規(guī)定女子不得繼承王位，于是在1337年，愛德華對法宣戰(zhàn)，戰(zhàn)爭持續(xù)了一百年。
48. Black Death swept through England in the summer of 1348 without warning. It killed between one half and one third of the population of England.
1348年夏天，黑死病橫掃全英國，沒有任何征兆，它奪去了三分之一到一半的英國人口。
49. In 1351 the government issued a statute of Laborers which made it a crime for peasant to ask for more wage or for their employers to pay more than the rates laid down by the Justice of the Peace.
1351年政府頒布“勞工法令”。規(guī)定農(nóng)民們漲工資的要求或者雇主支付比地方官制定的工資水平高的工資都是犯罪。
50. Although the Peasant Uprising of 1381, was brutally suppressed, it had far-reaching significance in English history. It dealt a telling blow to villeinage and a new class of yeomen farmers emerged, paving the way for the development of capitalism.
盡管1381年的農(nóng)民起義被血腥鎮(zhèn)壓了，但在英國歷史上留下了深遠的影響。它沉重打擊了封建農(nóng)奴制度，產(chǎn)生了全新的自耕農(nóng)階級，為資本主義發(fā)展鋪設(shè)了道路。