牛津大学校训是什么？
The university motto is “Hic jacet”which means“Here lies.” 该大学的座右铭是“Here lies”，意为“这里躺著... ” The origin of the University's Motto " Hic Jacet " dates back to medieval times when Oxford was founded in the late 1080′s by Bishop Hugo. The first building on what is now called 'University' Park， where we have our sporting facilities and the Parks department based，is said to be a chapel that stood on this site at that time. In front of it was an area for gravestones， thus the name "chapel green". Back then there would never have been any buildings around so you can imagine how it might have looked with gravestones and mausoleums all round， and very likely a cemetery.
In order not to block the view of students arriving into the city via what is now known as Broad Street，the grave yard was moved south in about 1276， and again in 1450 to make way for an extension to Merton College. So， as you walk past this lovely Victorian building with its pillars and arches， and think of all those who had been laid to rest here previously， you will be remembering the university’s history stretching over almost a thousand years.
What makes this even more interesting are some theories that suggest that perhaps there were human remains buried in the floor， though I could find no concrete archaeological evidence of this. Others have suggested there may well have been skeletal remains， but they were interred under the floors of the main buildings – the worst possible place from a religious point of view (I should know – I am a historian！)， but possibly useful if plague or other serious epidemic broke out. However， others have argued that since the university has such a strong tradition of disinterring dead bodies——as recently as May last year they dug up the remains of at least twenty-seven people in their search for Queen Eleanor's remains – there seems little doubt that many skeletons lie beneath our feet. What is most fascinating is that just because we walk across these graves every day to go to work， and drive over them to pick up our young scholars， we rarely pause to ponder upon the fact that we are treading upon someone's tomb.