新概念英语第三册Lesson38(课文2)

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　　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 clues available. 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.

　　【New words and expressions】 生词和短语

　　●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. 唯一地

　　●video n. 录像

　　●CD-ROM n. (只读)光盘驱动器

　　●bewilder v. 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

　　●puzzle v. 使迷惑

　　●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

　　参考译文

　　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10，000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研究，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。

　　重点词汇

　　■calendar n. 历法，日历　 词形联想：calender 轮压机

　　■historian n. 历史学家(person who studies or writes about history)

　　相关比较：historic　　具有历史意义的 Eg: This is a historic speech.

　　historical　与历史研究有关系的 Eg: historical research 历史研究

　　■unique adj. 无与伦比的(uneaqualed)

　　Eg: Speech is a unique human ability.

　　unique 不能接受比较级，可以接受quite, almost, nearly, surely, really等修饰，但不能接受rather, very等词的修饰。

　　联想：unique　　 独一无二的，因唯一而独特

　　special　　 注重性质的特殊

　　especial　　强调超过其他的全部

　　particular　特定的，着重同类中某一个所有独特的性质

　　exceptional　 例外的，异常的

　　extraordinary 特别的，与众不同的

　　Eg: This is a matter of especial importance.

　　This is a especially important matter.

　　Pineapples have particular flavour. 菠萝有特别的味道。

　　The warm weather is exceptional for January.

　　■bewilder v. 令人眼花缭乱(confuse)

　　■puzzle v. 使困惑，苦思(make (sb) think hard) 某问题因复杂而令人费解，主、被动语态均可

　　Eg: she was bewildered by so many beautiful dresses.

　　I am puzzled by the problem.

　　联想：perplex　难以理解(包含焦虑不安，不知如何解决的意思，常用于被动语态)

　　Eg: He is perplexed for the answer.

　　词性相关：bewilderment n.　常用短语：in bewilderment 茫然不知所措

　　■deduce v. 推断，推理(determine or decide sth. by given facts)

　　常用短语：deduce ...from 从...中推论，推断

　　Eg: I deduce the conclusion from the given facts.

　　联想：infer 推断(不表示结论是否有充足的理由)

　　Eg: What can you infer from the text?

　　词形联想：induce 劝诱，促使，导致，引起 Eg: illness induced by overwork 过度劳累引起的疾病

　　词性相关：deduction n. 推论，演绎，减除，扣除

　　■scanty adj. 不足的，贫乏的(too few, not enough)

　　Eg: scanty knowledge 一知半解 a scanty crop 欠收

　　常用短语及相关：be scanty of sth 奇缺

　　be short of 短缺

　　be want of=in need of 需要......

　　Eg: The village school is scanty of textbooks. 这乡村学校奇缺教材。

　　■shed v. 使流出，泻(pour out)

　　shed tears 泪流满面

　　shed light 发光

　　shed light on sb. 启发，启迪

　　shed one's blood for country 为祖国而流血。

　　shed one's clothes 脱去衣服

　　■advent n. 出现，到来，来临(coming or arrival)

　　常用短语：at the advent of 在...到来的时候

　　Eg: at the advent of winter 在冬天到来的时候

　　since the advent of 自从...的到来

　　■engrave v. 雕刻(cut or carve)

　　Eg: His initials were engraved on the cigarette case. 他姓名的首字母刻在烟盒上了。

　　The cigarette case was engraved with his initials. 烟盒上刻着他姓名的首字母。

　　常用短语：engrave sth on sth：impress sth deeply on (the memory or mind), 铭刻，牢记在心

　　Eg: Memories of that terrible day are forever engraved on my mind.

　　联想：carve 雕刻，切开

　　Eg: Apart from an interesting-looking carved dagger, the box was full of crockery, much of it broken. (NCE3 lesson 34)

　　Vocabulary exercise:

　　Read this text. Then use the word given in capitals to form a word that fits in the space.

　　I like history, but don't think I could ever have become a (1) HISTORY　　　　. I wouldn't have had the patience. From a (2) BEWILDER　　　　collection of facts, figures and often quite (3) SIGNIFY　　　　details, they work (4) STEADY　　　　towards a picture of an era or a famous historical character, on the (5) ASSUME　　　　that the picture will become clearer the more information they have.

　　In the past people often had to make (6) DEDUCE　　　　about their forefathers based (7) SOLE　　　　on a few written records together with perhaps a selection of relevant artefacts, if they survived!

　　Contemporary paintings of famous people have always been valuable historical documents. Unfortunately, there are not so many pictures of ordinary people in (8) ACT　　　　, as it were. But such pictures as we have are often prized as much for their value as social documents as for their value as art.

　　Answer: 1. historian 2. bewildering

　　3. insignificant 4. steadily

　　5. assumption 6. deductions

　　7. solely 8. action

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