Malta

choi

朱丽叶•利克斯, 记者来鸿：地中海明珠拥抱21世纪. BBC Chinese, Nov 26, 2014
www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/fooc ... _malta_ancient_city

, which is translated from

Juliet Rix, The ancient Fortress City Embracing the Modern World. BBC, Nov 18, 2014.
www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29914220

My comment:
(a) "Entering Valletta, the tiny fortified capital of Malta, always gives me a buzz. It's a 16th Century city built in the local honey-coloured limestone, by the Knights of St John."
(i)  Valletta
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valletta
(arrival of the Order of Saint John in Malta in 1530; Founded 1566 [a year after the siege]; The city took his name [that of the victorious Grandmaster, Jean de Valette])
(ii) Knights Hospitaller
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller
(also known as Order of Saint John; Following the conquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, the Order operated from Rhodes, over which it was sovereign, and later from Malta where it [the Order] administered a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily; In 1834, the order, by this time known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), acquired new headquarters in Rome where it has remained since; section 3 Knights of Malta [plus the last paragraph of section 2])

The head of the Order is Grandmaster or Grand Master.

(b) "The entrance to Valletta and the square just inside it - degraded by wartime bombing and post-war neglect - have been dramatically redesigned by Renzo Piano, the innovative Italian architect of the London Shard."
(i) Malta
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta
(section 2.4 Knights of Malta and Napoleon: The Knights' reign ended when Napoleon captured Malta on his way to Egypt during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1798; British Empire and World War II: "In 1814, as part of the Treaty of Paris [after Napoleon's FIRST abdication], Malta officially became a part of the British Empire * * * During World War II, Malta played an important role owing to its proximity to Axis shipping lanes. The bravery of the Maltese people during the second Siege of Malta [qv]")
(ii) The Shard
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shard

(c) "The great limestone slabs of Valletta's modern entrance give out on to two broad new monumental stairways leading up to the ancient fortifications."

give out (phrasal verb): "(BOT CONTINUE) to last no longer, or to work no longer <Food supplies will give out by the end of the week>"
dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/american-english/give-out

(d) The translation: "那么，马耳他正在变成瑞典或者英国？贡齐坚持说，'绝对不会。500年前，马耳他就是迷你欧盟。骑士军团来自欧洲各地'"

The original (in English): "So is Malta turning into Sweden or the UK?  'Absolutely not,' insists Gonzi, 'Malta was a mini-EU even 500 years ago. The Knights came from every part of Europe, and were followed by Napoleon and the British.'"
(i) "骑士军团来自欧洲各地"

It is clear 骑士军团 [成员] 来自欧洲各地--and in PAST tense.
(ii) Lawrence Gonzi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Gonzi
(1953- ; Gonzi was Prime Minister of Malta from 2004 to 2013, and leader of the Nationalist Party)
(iii) Italian English dictinary

gonzo (noun masculine; plural: gonzi)
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gonzo

(e) translation: "批评者称之为 '鸽子笼' 或者 '奶酪刨'”

The original: "The modern building's detractors call it 'the pigeon roost' or 'the cheese grater'"