发信人: liweizju (Kid Tiger·水木，每天爱你1小时), 信区: EnglishTest
标 题: My New Concept English 4 (lesson 1)
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Wed Nov 20 19:40:04 2002), 站内
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Finding fossil man
By Robin Place
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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 world 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 story-tellers 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.
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.
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint,
because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They 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.
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WORDS
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the Near East:
[AH]:A region of southwest Asia generally thought to include Turkey,
Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the other countries
of the Arabian Peninsula. Egypt and Sudan in northeast Africa are
sometimes considered part of the region.
近东亚洲西南部地区，通常包括土耳其，黎巴嫩、以色列、伊朗、约旦、沙特阿拉伯
和阿拉伯半岛的其他一些国家。非洲东北部的埃及和苏丹有时被认为是该地区的一部分
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recount:
[MW]: to relate in detail : NARRATE 详细叙述，讲述
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saga:
[AH]:
1.A prose narrative usually written in Iceland between 1120 and 1400,
dealing with the families that first settled Iceland and their
descendants, with the histories of the kings of Norway, and with the myths
and legends of early Germanic gods and heroes.
萨迦写于1120年和1400年之间冰岛的一种叙事散文，主要描述首先在冰岛定居的家
族及其后代的故事、挪威国王的历史和早期日耳曼神和英雄的神话传说
2.A modern prose narrative that resembles a saga.
萨迦式的现代叙事散文
3.A long, detailed report:
长且详尽的报告：
recounted the saga of their family problems.
详细叙述了他们家的麻烦事
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flint:
[AH]
1.A very hard, fine-grained quartz that sparks when struck with steel.
燧石，火石一种用钢撞击能发出火星的坚硬的、纹理细密的石英
2.A piece of flint used as a tool by primitive human beings.
打火石原始人作为工具用的一块打火石
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SENTENCES
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1.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.
notes:
a."migration" 的发音,是可数名词。
b. none和who都是指代people
c. legends有用，因为它们能告诉我们那些生活在很早以前，而且不会记录他们
情况的人的迁移状态。
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2.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.
notes:
a.and so:因此
b.注意时态，does not, have remained, have disappeared,
c,单复数， stone,the tools,the bones, the men
--作者: likunlikun 时间: 2009-3-21 16:57:07