[ Journals ] 9 An Ancient Disaster

　　For more than six hundred years, Pompeii was an important city in the Roman Empire. Located on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, Pompeii was a favorite spot for wealthy Romans to build their country villas. The city was busy and prosperous, and the streets were lined with shops, houses, and temples. Citizens had use of an open-air theater and public baths. But this dream city had one flaw. Pompeii sat at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.
　　In A.D. 79, on the morning of August 24, Vesuvius erupted violently. Fire and ash filled the sky and buried the beautiful city. When Vesuvius finally settled down, Pompeii lay buried under pumice nearly ten feet thick. The volcano so changed the area that spot where Pompeii, a port city, once stood either from falling rock and collapsing or from the volcano’s poisonous fumes.
The great city of Pompeii had disappeared.
　　So it was a great surprise when, in the 1700s, a peasant discovered some statues buried in his vineyard. When people began to dig further, they unearthed the houses, food, and even the bodies of some of the citizens of the once-bustling Pompeii. The city had been covered so quickly that everything in it seemed to be frozen in time.


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I. Summarize

　　About six hundred years ago, Pompeii was an important city in the Roman Empire. Pompeii located on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. The city was busy and prosperous, wealthy Romans like to buid their country villas here. But this dream city sat at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.
　　One day morning, Vesuvius erupted. Fire and ash soon filled the sky and buried the beautiful city. The great city of Pompeii had disappeared. It took a long time before a peasant found something in his vineyard and began to dig futher.


II. Vocabulary words and phrases

i. new words/phrases
flaw n. 最愛的
erupt v. 爆發
pumice n. 火山岩
peasant n. 農夫
vineyard n. 葡萄園
unearth v. 挖出
bustling adj. 繁忙的

ii. useful words/ phrases
be lined with 佈滿了


III. The reason I chose this article

　　I think most of people have heard about this once-bustling city. Since I am interested in mystery, I've got interested in it. It is fun by seeing some exhibition about Pompeii, and read something about it.