[by:英语听力网|http://yingyu.chazidian.com||查字典英语网] [00:00.00]喜欢chazidian.com，就把chazidian.com复制到QQ个人资料中！New Concept English 4 Lesson 1 Finding fossil man [00:02.60]发现化石人 [00:05.20]First listen and then answer the following question. [00:07.77]听录音,然后回答问题 [00:10.34]Why are legends handed down by storytellers useful? [00:13.22]为什么由讲述人传下来的传奇故事很有用? [00:16.09]We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, [00:19.42]我们从书籍中可以读到五千年前近东发生的事情, [00:22.75]where people first learned to write. [00:24.72]那里的人最早学会了写字 [00:26.70]But there are some parts of the world where even now people cannot write. [00:30.01]但直到现在,世界上仍然有些地方,人们还不会书写. [00:33.33]The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas [00:37.50]他们保存历史的唯一办法是将历史当作传说讲述, [00:41.67]--legends handed down from one generation of storytellers to another. [00:45.05]--由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来. [00:48.43]These legends are useful because they can tell us something [00:51.55]这些传说是很有用的,因为它们能告诉我们 [00:54.67]about migrations of people who lived long ago, [00:57.60]以往人们迁居的情况, [01:00.53]but none could write down what they did. [01:03.10]但是,没有人能把他们当时做的事情记载下来. [01:05.67]Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples [01:09.45]人类学家过去不清楚波利尼西亚人的祖先 [01:13.22]now living in the Pacific Islands came from. [01:15.74]即如今生活在太平洋诸岛的人类来自何方. [01:18.26]The sagas of these people explain [01:20.54]当地人的传说却告诉人们 [01:22.81]that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago. [01:26.00]其中有一部分是约在两千年前从印度尼西亚迁来的 [01:29.18]But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago [01:32.51]但是,和我们相似的原始人生活的年代太久远了, [01:35.84]that even their sagas,if they had any,are forgotten. [01:38.87]因此,在关他们的传说即使有如今也失传了. [01:41.90]So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out [01:45.68]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 [01:49.45]where the first 'modern men' came from [01:51.79]最早的“现代人”是从哪里来的. [01:54.13]Fortunately,however,ancient men made tools of stone,especially flint, [01:58.10]然而,幸运的是,远古人用石头制作了工具,特别是用燧石, [02:02.07]because this is easier to shape than other kinds. [02:04.75]因为燧石较之其他石头更易成形. [02:07.43]They may also have used wood and skins,but these have rotted away. [02:11.21]他们也可能用过木头和兽皮,但这类东西早已腐烂殆尽. [02:15.00]Stone does not decay,and so the tools of long ago have remained [02:19.02]石头是不会腐烂的,因此,远古时代的石头工具得以保存了下来, [02:23.05]when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace. [02:26.63]尽管制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存. [02:30.20]Lesson 2 Spare that spider [02:33.78]不要伤害蜘蛛 [02:37.36]First listen and then answer the following question. [02:39.84]听录音,然后回答以下问题. [02:42.32]How much of each year do spiders spend killing insects? [02:45.71]蜘蛛每年用多长时间消灭害虫? [02:49.09]Why,you may wonder,should spiders be our friends? [02:51.77]你可能会觉得奇怪,蜘蛛怎么会是我们的朋友呢? [02:54.45]Because they destroy so many insects, [02:56.57]因为它们能消灭那么多的昆虫, [02:58.70]and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race. [03:01.68]其中包括一些人类的大敌. [03:04.66]Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; [03:07.23]害虫会使我们无法在地球上生活下去, [03:09.81]they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, [03:12.89]它们会吞食我们的全部庄稼,杀死我们的成群的牛羊, [03:15.97]if it were not for the protection we get from insect eating animals [03:19.25]幸亏人类受到一些食虫动物的保护,才不至于此. [03:22.53]We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects [03:25.47]我们要十分感谢那些吃昆虫的鸟和兽, [03:28.40]but all of them put together [03:30.23]然而把它们所杀死的昆虫全部加在一起 [03:32.06]kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders.