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第一段
1 .Nowadays, we use different products for personal cleanliness, laundry,dishwashing and household cleaning, but this is very much a 20th-century development.
如今，我们使用不同的产品在个人清洁、洗衣洗碗和家庭清洁方面，但这基本上是20世纪的发展。
2 .The origins of cleanliness date back to prehistoric times. Since water is essential for life,the earliest people lived near water and knew something about its cleansing properties –at least that it rinsed mud off their hands.
清洁的起源可以追溯到史前时代。由于水是生命的必需品，最早的人类生活在水的附近，并且知道水的清洁特性–至少它能冲洗掉他们手上的泥土。
3 .During the excavation of ancient Babylon,evidence was found that soapmaking was known as early as 2800 BC.
在发掘古巴比伦的过程中，人们发现了早在公元前2800年就知道肥皂制造的证据。
4 .Archaeologists discovered cylinders made of clay,with inscriptions on them saying that fats were boiled with ashes.
考古学家发现了由粘土制成的圆柱体，上面刻有铭文说把脂肪和灰烬一起煮。
5 .This is a method of making soap, though there’s no reference to the purpose of this material.
这是一种制造肥皂的方法，虽然没有提到这种材料的用途。
6 .The early Greeks bathed for aesthetic reasons and apparently didn’t use soap.Instead, they cleaned their bodies with blocks of sand, pumice and ashes,then anointed themselves with oil, and scraped off the oil and dirt with a metal instrument known as a strigil.
早期的希腊人因为审美的原因而洗澡，显然不使用肥皂。取而代之的是，他们用大块的沙子、浮石和灰烬来清洗身体，然后用油膏抹身，再用一种名为strigil的金属工具刮去油垢。
7 .They also used oil mixed with ashes.Clothes were washed without soap in streams.
他们还使用混合了灰烬的油。衣服是在没有肥皂的小溪里洗的。
8 .The ancient Germans and Gauls are also credited with discovering how to make a substance called ’soap’,made of melted animal fat and ashes. They used this mixture to tint their hair red.
古德国人和高卢人还被认为发现了制作一种叫做“肥皂”的物质。由融化的动物脂肪和灰烬制成。他们用这种混合物把头发染成红色。
9 .Soap got its name, according to an ancient Roman legend, from Mount Sapo, where animals were sacrificed,leaving deposits of animal fat.
根据一个古罗马传说，肥皂得名于萨波山，在那里献祭动物留下动物的脂肪。
10 .Rain washed these deposits, along with wood ashes, down into the clay soil along the River Tiber.
雨水将这些沉积物和木灰一起冲刷到台伯河沿岸的粘土中。
11 .Women found that this mixture greatly reduced the effort required to wash their clothes.
女性发现，这种混合物大大减少了洗衣服的力气。
12 .As Roman civilisation advanced, so did bathing. The first of the famous Roman baths,supplied with water from their aqueducts, was built about 312 BC.
随着罗马文明的进步，沐浴也在进步。 第一个著名的罗马浴场建于公元前312年，其水源来自他们的引水渠。
13 .The baths were luxurious, and bathing became very popular.
洗澡是奢侈的，洗澡也变得很流行。
14 .And by the second century AD,the Greek physician Galen recommended soap for both medicinal and cleansing purposes.
到了公元二世纪希腊内科医生盖伦推荐肥皂用于医疗和清洁。
15 .After the fall of Rome in 467 AD and the resulting decline in bathing habits,much of Europe felt the impact of filth on public health.
公元467年罗马帝国灭亡，随之而来的是洗澡习惯的衰落欧洲大部分地区都感受到了肮脏对公众健康的影响。
16 .This lack of personal cleanliness and related unsanitary living conditions were major factors in the outbreaks of disease in the Middle Ages,and especially the Black Death of the 14th century.
缺乏个人卫生和相关的不卫生生活条件是中世纪疾病爆发的主要因素，特别是14世纪的黑死病。
17 .Nevertheless, soapmaking became an established craft in Europe,and associations of soapmakers guarded their trade secrets closely.
然而，肥皂制造在欧洲成为了一门成熟的手艺，肥皂制造商的协会严密地保护着他们的商业秘密。
18 .Vegetable and animal oils were used with ashes of plants, along with perfume, apparently for the first time.
植物油和动物油和植物的骨灰一起使用，还有香水，这显然是第一次。
19 .Gradually more varieties of soap became available for shaving and shampooing,as well as bathing and laundering.
渐渐地，更多种类的肥皂出现了，可用于剃须和洗头，以及洗澡和洗衣服。
20 .A major step toward large-scale commercial soapmaking occurred in 1791,when a French chemist, Nicholas Leblanc, patented a process for turning salt into soda ash, or sodium carbonate.
1791年，大规模商业肥皂制造迈出了重要一步。法国化学家尼古拉斯·勒布朗(Nicholas Leblanc)申请了一项将盐转化为苏打灰或碳酸钠的工艺专利。
21 .Soda ash is the alkali obtained from ashes that combines with fat to form soap.
纯碱是从灰烬中提取的碱，与脂肪结合形成肥皂。
22 .The Leblanc process yielded quantities of good-quality, inexpensive soda ash.
勒布朗法生产了大量质量好、价格便宜的纯碱。
23 .Modern soapmaking was born some 20 years later, in the early 19th century,with the discovery by Michel Eugène Chevreul, another French chemist, of the chemical nature and relationship of fats, glycerine and fatty acids.
现代肥皂制造出现在大约20年后的19世纪初另一位法国化学家,米歇尔·尤金·切夫勒发现了脂肪、甘油和脂肪酸的化学性质及其相互关系。
24 .His studies established the basis for both fat and soap chemistry, and soapmaking became a science.
他的研究奠定了脂肪和肥皂化学的基础，肥皂制造成为一门科学。
25 .Further developments during the 19th century made it easier and cheaper to manufacture soap.
19世纪的进一步发展使得制造肥皂更容易、更便宜。
26 .Until the 19th century, soap was regarded as a luxury item, and was heavily taxed in several countries.
直到19世纪，肥皂还被视为奢侈品，在一些国家被课以重税。
27 .As it became more readily available, it became an everyday necessity,a development that was reinforced when the high tax was removed.
当它变得更容易获得，它成为日常生活的必需品，这一发展在高税收被取消后得到加强。
28 .Soap was then something ordinary people could afford, and cleanliness standards improved.
那时，肥皂是普通人买得起的东西，清洁标准也提高了。
29 .With this widespread use came the development of milder soaps for bathing and soaps for use in the washing machines that were available to consumers by the turn of the 20th century.
随着这种广泛的使用，温和的沐浴皂和用于洗衣机的皂在20世纪之交面世。消费者在20世纪之交就可以买到。