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 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 storytellers 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 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.
ROBIN PLACE Finding fossil man
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. 传闻，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
参考译文
大家从书本中可读到5,000 年前近东发生的事情，那里的人最早掌握了写字。但直到目前,世界上有的地方，大家还不会书写。 他们保存历史的唯一方法是将历史当作传闻讲述，由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来。人类学家过去不了解现在生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西亚人的祖先来自何方，当地人的故事却告诉大家：其中一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚迁来的。
但，和大家一样的原始生活活的年代太久远了，因此，有关他们的故事既使有现在也失传了。于是，考古学家们既缺少历史记载，又无口头传闻来帮助他们弄清最早的现代人是从哪儿来的。
然而， 幸运的是，远古人用石头制作了工具，尤其是用燧石，由于燧石较之其他石头更容易成形。他们也会用过木头和兽皮，但这种东西早已腐烂殆尽。石头是不会腐烂的。因此，尽管制造这类工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存，但远古年代的石头工具却保存了下来。
新定义英语默写本点击购买
新定义英语正版图书购买
课堂笔记
New words and expressions 生词短语
recount /ri'kaunt/ v.叙述/ ' rei'kaunt/ 再数一次
record / ' rek[d/ /ri' kC:d/ 第一个音节带重音，名前动后
叙述：recount : emotionless 重复
describe
depict： a little emotional
narrate： temporalspacial 依据时间或空间顺序描述。
portray：描述
saga /'sa:g[/ n.英雄故事 描述的内容mostly real 北欧海盗活动的故事
legend /'ledV[nd/ n.传闻，传奇 unreal e.g robin hood
anthropologist/ 'AnWr['pCl[dVist/ n.人类学家
anthrop：人
philosophere :philo＋sopher|爱＋智慧＝哲学家
philanthropist : 慈善家（对人有爱心的人）
anthropology :人类学
带|gy结尾的都是学科：biology 生物学geography 地理学 ecology 生态学
remote/ ri'm[ut/ n.遥远
ancestor / 'Ansest[/ n.祖先
an| 在前面
forefather,forebear ，predecessor祖先
rot/ rCt/ v.烂掉
leave me rot.＝leave me along
rot to death.
soon ripe,soon rotten.
decay 国家民族渐渐衰亡 decompose 渐渐衰竭 deteriorate关系渐渐恶化
trace /treis/ n.痕迹，踪迹
trace the problem
i follow your trace＝i follow where you go
polynesia 波利尼西亚
poly|多
polyandric: a wife with more than one husband
polygeny : a husband with more than one wife
flint /flint/ n.燧石 flinting hearted
fossil / ' fCsl/ n. 化石cobble 鹅卵石
Notes on the text 课文注解
read of 读到
谈到：speak of ,talk of ,know of,hear of
near east：近东 mediterranean, south europe,north afric
far east
非限定性从句，表缘由
oral(spoken) language is earlier than written language.
precede :什么在什么之前，不需要比较，直接跟名词
counterpart: two things or two people have the same position
oral(spoken) language is earlier than written counterpart.
preserve: 保留，保存（腌制）
假如句中有only，那后面的表语结构就要用to do sth,而不是doing sth.
storyteller: 讲故事的人
fortuneteller, palmreader: 算命先生
migration ：移民１）migrant
v. migrate:迁移，迁徙
migratory bird:候鸟
none: no body
people＋s 民族
if they had any: 即使是有
his relatives,if he had any,never went to visit him when he was hospitalized.
find out想方设法，费尽周折＝explore
modern men :the men who were like ourselves
however－anywhere you want ,加逗号
but,yet－不加标点，only at the beginning of the sentence
therefore－自由
so－自由
tool:小工具
instrument:实验器械
equipment:设施
shape:成型；教育，改造
may also have:表推断
peel:果皮
leather:皮革
hide:兽皮 cowhide:牛皮
without (any) trace:不见踪影
