皇帝和工匠(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
皇帝和工匠
one day, a roman metalworker proudly presented to emperor tiberius（ 42 bc- ad 37） a cup made from an unknown metal, which in all likelihood was aluminium. to demonstrate the amazing properties of the metal, the metalworker dashed the cup to the ground, denting it badly. he then produced a small hammer and effortlessly knocked out all the dents until the cup appeared as good as new.
tiberius was greatly astonished, but then he had the unfortunate man dragged away and beheaded, and his workplace razed to the ground. he was afraid that the new wonder metal would devalue his fortune in gold and silver.
it was not until the mid-19th century that the secret of aluminium was rediscovered.

有一天，罗马一名金属制品工匠得意洋洋，向提比略皇帝（公元前四十二年至公元三十七年）献上一个金属杯子。那不知是什么金属，但很可能是铝。为了表现这金属的特性，他用力把杯子往地上一摔，摔得杯身大大凹了，然后拿出小锤子，毫不费劲就把所有凹陷地方敲平，杯子看来和新的一般无二。
提比略十分惊讶，但随即下令把那倒霉工匠拖去斩首，还把他的工场夷为平地。提比略担心这种奇异的新金属，会令他拥有的大量金子银子贬值。
铝的秘密，要到十九世纪中叶才再度给人发现。
【附注】 as good as是「和……一样」的意思，例如： he is as good as dead（他和死了没有什么分别）。