新概念英语第二册重点句子_新概念英语第三册重点句子及解析Lesson38

【课文】

　　Future historians will be in a unique position when they come to record the history of our own times. They will hardly know which facts to select from the great mass of evidence that steadily accumulates. What is more they will not have to rely solely on the written word. Films, videos. CDs and CD-ROMs are just some of the bewildering amount of information they will have. They will be able, as it were, to see and hear us in action. But the historian attempting to reconstruct the distant past is always faced with a difficult task. He has to deduce what he can from the few scanty cluesavailable. Even seemingly insignificant remains can shed interesting light on the history of early man.

　　Up to now, historians have assumed that calendars came into being with the advent of agriculture, for then man was faced with a real need to understand something about the seasons. Recent scientific evidence seems to indicate that this assumption is incorrect.

　　Historians have long been puzzled by dots, lines and symbols which have been engraved on walls, bones, and the ivory tusk of mammoths. The nomads who made these markings lived by hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age, which began about 35,000 B.C. and ended about 10,000 B.C. By correlating markings made in various parts of the world, historians have been able to read this difficult code. They have found that it is connected with the passage of days and the phases of the moon. It is, in fact, a primitive type of calendar. It has long been known that the hunting scenes depicted on walls were not simply a form of artistic expression. They had a definite meaning, for they were as near as early man could get to writing. It is possible that there is a definite relation between these paintings and the markings that sometimes accompany them. It seems that man was making a real effort to understand the seasons 20,000 years earlier than has been supposed.

　　【课文翻译】

　　未来的历史学家在写我们这一段历史的时候会别具一格。对于逐渐积累起来的庞大材料，他们几乎不知道选取哪些好，而且，也不必完全依赖文字材料。电影、录像、光盘和光盘驱动器只是能为他们提供令人眼花缭乱的大量信息的几种手段。他们能够身临其境般地观看我们做事，倾听我们讲话。但是，历史学家企图重现遥远的过去可是一项艰巨的任务，他们必须根据现有的不充分的线索进行推理。即使看起来微不足道的遗物，也可能揭示人类早期历史的一些有趣的内容。

　　历史学家迄今认为日历是随农业的问世而出现的，因为当时人们面临着了解四季的实际需要，但近期科学研究发现，好像这种假设是不正确的。

　　长期以来，历史学家一直对雕刻在墙壁上、骨头上、古代长毛象的象牙上的点、线和形形色色的符号感到困惑不解。这些痕迹是游牧人留下的，他们生活在从公元前约 35，000年到公元前10000年的冰川期的末期，以狩猎、捕鱼为生。历史学家通过把世界各地留下的这种痕迹放在一起究，终于弄懂了这种费解的代码。他们发现代码与昼夜更迭和月亮圆缺有关，事实上是一种最原始的日历。大家早就知道，画在墙上的狩猎图景并不是单纯的艺术表现形式，它们有着一定的含义，因为它们已接近古代人的文字形式。有时，这种图画与墙壁上的刻痕共存，它们之间可能有一定的联系。看来人类早就致力于探索四季变迁了，比人们想像的要早20,000年。

　　【词汇】

　　calendar n. 历法，日历

　　historian n. 历史学家

　　unique adj. 无与伦比的

　　steadily adv. 不断地

　　solely adv. 地

　　video n. 录像

　　CD-ROM n. (只读)光盘驱动器

　　bewildering adj. 令人眼花缭乱

　　deduce v. 推断，推理

　　scanty adj. 不足的，贫乏的

　　clue n. 线索

　　insignificant adj. 不重要的

　　shed v. 使流出，泻

　　advent n. 出现，到来，来临

　　agriculture n. 农业

　　assumption n. 假定，设想

　　dot n. 小圆点

　　symbol n. 符号

　　engrave v. 雕刻

　　ivory n. 象牙制品

　　mammoth n. (古)长毛象

　　phase n. 月相，天相

　　tusk n. 獠牙，长牙、象牙

　　primitive adj. 原始的

　　nomad n. 游牧民

　　depict v. 描画，描绘

　　correlate v. 使相互联系

　　【重点词汇讲解】

　　【unique】

　　例句：

　　1. You're unique, you are the only you in the universe.

　　你是独一无二的。，你是宇宙的你。

　　2. You no longer think of yourselves as a unique form of life, or that you are God's only creation.

　　你们不再认为你们自己是一种独一无二的生命形式，或者你们是上帝的创造。

　　【steadily】

　　例句：

　　1. The work is progressing steadily.

　　这项工作不断取得进展。

　　2. The country is moving steadily closer to fragmentation.

　　这个国家正在逐步的走向分裂。

　　【solely】

　　例句：

　　1. Breeding was once a craft belonging solely to the gardener.

　　繁育新品种曾经是园丁专有的一门手艺。

　　2. But make no mistake: This cannot solely be America's endeavor.

　　但必须指出的是，这不仅仅是美国的事务。

　　【bewildering】

　　例句：

　　1. The speed of change is rapid, the statistics bewildering.

　　变化速度之快，令统计工作手足无措。

　　2. He points out that one of the great features of the valley is its bewildering diversity.

　　他指出，这个峡谷中有许多特色，其中之一就是它的景物五光十色，令人眼花缭乱。

　　【deduce】

　　英英：conclude by reasoning; in logic

　　例句：

　　1.On the basis of the evidence we deduce that he is guilty.

　　根据这些证据，我们推论他是有罪的。

　　2. I deduce from the large crowd that the speaker is very popular.

　　从听众很多这一点，我可以推断，演讲者大受欢迎。

　　3. Because even when you have the facts, you can't always deduce an outcome.

　　因为即使当你知道了事实，往往也无法推论出结果。

　　【scanty】

　　例句：

　　1. I have only a scanty knowledge of world affairs.

　　我对于国际事务只是一知半解。

　　2. The farmer 's financial difficulties were caused By a scanty harvest.

　　这个农民的经济困难是因为收成不足造成的。

　　【shed】

　　英英：cause or allow (a solid substance) to flow or run out or over

　　例句：

　　1. These discoveries may shed light on the origins of the universe.

　　这些发现会有助于理解宇宙的起源。

　　2. Better statistics might help to shed light on the nature of galactic evolution.

　　更精确的统计数据可能会有助于揭露星系发展的本质所在。

　　3. The shrewd shipper's remark shed light on why he shrank and shift duties onto others.

　　这个精明的托运人的话有助于我们理解他为何退缩并把责任推卸给别人。

　　【advent】

　　例句：

　　1. The advent of the golden autumn, I do not see many gains.

　　金色的秋天来临，我却没有看到太多的收获。

　　2. Since the advent of jet aircraft, travel has been speeded up.

　　自从喷气式飞机出现以来，旅行的速度大为提高。

　　【correlate】

　　英英：bring into a mutual, complementary, or reciprocal relation

　　例句：

　　1. Research workers find it hard to correlate one set with the other.

　　研究人员发现很难使这两组数字之间产生联系。

　　2. Results in the natural sciences seldom seem to correlate with those in art.

　　自然科学的成果似乎很少与艺术发生关联。

　　3.Crop yield correlates closely with annual rainfall.

　　农作物的收成与年降雨量有密切关系。

　　【常用表达】

　　【our own times】我们的时代

　　【what is more】而且

　　【as it were】可以说，就像

　　【in action】活灵活现

　　【be faced with】面对，面临

　　【shed light on】阐明，使清楚

　　【up to now】目前为止

　　【come into being】形成，产生

　　【make an effort】作出努力

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