Unicorn（独角兽）
If you have ever watched some fantastic films, such as The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Harry Potterseries, you must have noticed some strange creatures in the stories.
假如你看过《指环王》《纳尼亚传奇》《哈利波特》这类奇幻电影的话，你一定对故事中那些奇怪的生物留有印象。
In fact, the creatures contained in these works are largely derived from or greatly inspired by Greek mythology：centaur（人马）, minotaur（牛头人）, satyrs, nymph, Pegasus, Cerberus, dragon, mermaid... to name a few.
事实上，这些故事中的怪物大多源自希腊神话，或者多多少少受到希腊神话的启发，比如：半人马、牛头怪、半羊人、仙女、飞马珀加索斯、三头狗刻耳柏洛斯、喷火龙、美人鱼等。
While many mythic creatures are man-eating monsters or evil spirits, others, like unicorns, are powerful and peaceful.
虽然许多神话中的生物都是吃人的怪物或邪恶的精灵，但也不乏像独角兽这类强大却温和的物种。
Over two thousand years ago, Greek travelers told tales of unicorns living in far-off lands. They caused no harm to humans, but such a favor was returned only by human hunting unicorns and luring（诱惑） them into traps.
在两千多年前的古希腊就有关于独角兽的记载，它们居住在遥远的地方，对人类毫无恶意，然而，这份友好换来的却是人类四处设置的陷阱、对它们的大肆捕杀。
The reason for that was the magical properties（功能） of the unique horn, which was believed to range from detecting（检测） and neutralizing（中和） poisons and curing fevers to prolonging youth and acting as an aphrodisiac（催欲剂）.
原因就在于它们那神奇的独角，古人相信独角兽的角能够检测并中和毒剂、治疗发烧、延缓衰老、刺激性欲。
The word “unicorn” consists of two parts：the prefix uni-, meaning “one”, and the root corn, “horn”.
单词unicorn（独角兽）包含两部分：前缀uni-的意思是“一”，词根corn的意思是“角”。
As a productive prefix, uni- is used to form such English words as universe, uniform, university, unicycle, unify（统一） etc.
uni-是一个很常见的词缀，可以构成诸如universe（宇宙）、uniform（制服）、university（大学）、unicycle（独轮车）、unify（统一）这些词。
Its Greek equivalent was mono-, which appears in words like monologue（独白）, monotonous（单调的）, monorail, monolingual, monopoly, monogamyetc.
而与之对应的希腊词缀mono-则构成了monologue（独白）、monotonous（单调的）、monorail（单轨列车）、monolingual（单一语言的）、monopoly（独裁）、monogamy（一夫一妻制）等。
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