劍橋歷史

張祖平

“Where is the university？” This is a question that many visitors to Cambridge ask. But no one can give them a clear answer， for there is no wall to be found around the university. The university is the city. You can find classroom buildings， libraries， museums and offices of the university all over the city. And most of its members are the students and teachers of the thirty-one colleges.

Cambridge was already a developing town long before the first students and teachers arrived 800 years ago. It grew up by the river Granta， and the river was once called the Cam. A bridge was built over the river as early as 875. So the town got its name “Cambridge”.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries， more and more land was used for college buildings. The town grew much faster in the nineteenth century after the opening of the railway in 1845. Cambridge became a city in 1951 and now it has a population of over 100，000. Many young students in other countries hope to study at Cambridge. Thousands of people from all over the world come to visit the university town. It has become a famous place all around the world.

“劍橋大學在哪里？”這個一個很多去劍橋的游客都會問的問題。但是沒有人能給出一個清楚的答案，因為劍橋大學沒有圍墻。這個大學就是一座城市。你能在市內隨處可見大學的教學樓、圖書館、博物館和辦公室，這些地方的大部分人是這31個學院的學生和老師。

800年前，首批學生和教師來到劍橋之前，劍橋已經是一個蓬勃發展的城鎮了。劍橋這個城鎮是在格蘭塔河畔發展起來，而這條河曾經叫作“劍河”（音譯，又作康河，徐志摩《再別康橋》中康橋即為劍橋）。早在875年，劍河上就修了一座橋，所以這個城鎮才得名——劍橋。

在14世紀和15世紀，越來越多的土地用于劍橋大學的建筑。1845年，鐵路開建，劍橋的發展速度愈發加快。1951年，劍橋升級為市，現在有10萬多人口。很多外國的年輕學生都希望到劍橋學習。全球各地成千上萬的人來參觀這座大學城，劍橋已經成為了世界上一個著名的地方。