Lesson 1 Finding fossil man发现化石人
First listen and then answer the following question.
听录音,然后回答以下问题。
Why are legends handed down by storytellers useful?
We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write. But there are some parts of the word where even now people cannot write. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas -- legends handed down from one generation of stories to another. These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.
我们从书籍中可读到5,000 年前近东发生的事情,那里的人最早学会了写字。但直到现在,世界上有些地方,人们还不会书写。 他们保存历史的办法是将历史当作传说讲述,由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来。人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西 亚人的祖先来自何方,当地人的传说却告诉人们:其中一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚迁来的。
But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first 'modern men' came from.
但是,和我们相似的原始人生活的年代太久远了,因此,有关他们的传说既使有如今也失传了。于是,考古学家们既缺乏历史记载,又无口头传说来帮助他们弄清最早的“现代人”是从哪里来的。
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away. Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.
然而, 幸运的是,远古人用石头制作了工具,特别是用燧石,因为燧石较之其他石头更容易成形。他们也可能用过木头和兽皮,但这类东西早已腐烂殆尽。石头是不会腐烂的。因此,尽管制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存,但远古时代的石头工具却保存了下来。
New words and expressions 生词和短语
fossil man (title)
adj. 化石人
recount
v. 叙述
saga
n. 英雄故事
legend
n. 传说,传奇
migration
n. 迁移,移居
anthropologist
n. 人类学家
archaeologist
n. 考古学家
ancestor
n. 祖先
Polynesian
adj.波利尼西亚(中太平洋之一群岛)的
Indonesia
n. 印度尼西亚
flint
n. 燧石
rot
n. 烂掉
Notes on the text课文注释
1 read of 读到,和read about是相同的意思。
2 the first people 原始人
3 when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace,这个以when引导的状语从句表示让步的意思,而“when”可以译成“虽然”,“尽管”。
正在阅读:
新概念英语第四册第1课课文|新概念英语第四册第1课_FindingFossilman07-13
2020年西藏中医执业医师网上报名和现场审核时间公布【附报考条件】01-09
到加拿大高中留学怎么样03-30
清晨美好祝福语大全05-07
2017年重庆主管护师考试准考证打印时间:4月28日至5月27日11-10
贵州医科大学专升本考试科目2017_2017天津津南专升本考试科目02-15
2017年父亲节日记温馨的父亲节:2017父亲节的日记500字12-13
小学二年级写景作文300字[六篇]02-18
2019年四川省达州市中考生物真题及答案(Word版)09-20
恭喜考上大学金榜题名的祝福贺词11-23