OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS

我們最早的祖先

2016年2月26日功課

WE know very little about the first ``true'' men. We have never seen their pictures. In the deepest layer of clay of an ancient soil we have sometimes found pieces of their bones. These lay buried amidst the broken skeletons of other animals that have long since disappeared from the face of the earth. Anthropologists (learned scientists who devote their lives to the study of man as a member of the animal kingdom) have taken these bones and they have been able to reconstruct our earliest ancestors with a fair degree of accuracy.

關(guān)于第一個(gè)“真正的”人類，我們知道的非常少。我們從來(lái)沒(méi)見(jiàn)過(guò)它們的圖片。在一片古老土地的深層圖層下，我們有時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)它們的骨頭碎片。它們和其它動(dòng)物的骨架碎片埋在一起，那些動(dòng)物已經(jīng)從地面消失很久了。古人了學(xué)家（這些博學(xué)的科學(xué)家們畢其一生研究人類，將其視為動(dòng)物之王）取得了他們的骨頭，并且它們能夠在一定程度上重建我們最早的祖先。

2016年2月27日功課

The great-great-grandfather of the human race was a very ugly and unattractive mammal.He was quite small, much smaller than the people of today.The heat of the sun and the biting wind of the cold winter had coloured his skin a dark brown.

人類的曾曾祖父是一個(gè)丑陋的毫無(wú)吸引力的哺乳動(dòng)物。他非常小，比今天的人類小很多。太陽(yáng)的炙烤與冬季寒風(fēng)的吹打使它的皮膚變成了深棕色。

His head and most of his body, his arms and legs too, were covered with long, coarse hair. He had very thin but strong fingers which made his hands look like those of a monkey. His forehead was low and his jaw was like the jaw of a wild animal which uses its teeth both as fork and knife. He wore no clothes. He had seen no fire except the flames of the rumbling volcanoes which filled the earth with their smoke and their lava.

他的頭部和大部分身體，以及他的胳膊和腿，都覆蓋著長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的粗糙的毛發(fā)。他長(zhǎng)著非常瘦小但強(qiáng)壯的手指，這使他的手看起來(lái)像一只猴子的手一樣。他的前額很低，下頜像那種把牙齒當(dāng)作刀叉的野生動(dòng)物的下頜。他不穿衣服。他沒(méi)見(jiàn)過(guò)火，除了那咆哮的火山的火焰，火山的煙塵和巖漿充滿了地球。

2016年2月28日功課

He lived in the damp blackness of vast forests, as the pygmies of Africa do to this very day. When he felt the pangs of hunger he ate raw leavesand the roots of plants or he took the eggs away from an angry bird and fed them to his own young. Once in a while, after a long and patient chase, he would catch a sparrow or a small wild dog or perhaps arabbit. These he would eat raw for he had never discovered that food tasted better when it was cooked.

他居住在陰暗潮濕的大森林里，就像非洲土著那樣。當(dāng)他餓的難受時(shí)他吃生樹(shù)葉和樹(shù)根，或者從一只憤怒的小鳥(niǎo)哪里搶走鳥(niǎo)蛋來(lái)喂他的孩子吃。有時(shí)候，經(jīng)過(guò)一個(gè)漫長(zhǎng)的追逐，他可以逮到一只麻雀或者一條小野狗，也可能是一只兔子。那些他只能生吃，因?yàn)樗€從未發(fā)現(xiàn)食物在烹調(diào)后更好吃。

During the hours of day, this primitive human being prowled about looking for things to eat.

一整天，這個(gè)原始人都在逡巡著尋找能吃的東西。

2016年2月29日功課

When night descended upon the earth, he hid his wife and his children in a hollow tree or behind some heavy boulders, for he was surrounded on all sides by ferocious animals and when it was dark these animals began to prowl about, looking for something to eat for their mates and their own young, and they liked the taste of human beings. It was a world where you must either eat or be eaten, and life was very unhappy because it was full of fear and misery.

當(dāng)夜幕突然降臨，他把他的妻子和孩子藏在中空的樹(shù)干里或者大石頭后面，因?yàn)樗粌疵偷囊矮F在四面八方包圍著。天黑時(shí)，那些動(dòng)物開(kāi)始游蕩，為它們的配偶和孩子尋找吃的東西，它們喜歡人肉的味道。那是一個(gè)要么吃要么被吃掉的世界，生活相當(dāng)痛苦，因?yàn)槌錆M著恐懼與苦難。

2016年3月1日功課

In summer, man was exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, and during the winter his children would freeze to death in his arms. When such a creature hurt itself, (and hunting animals are forever breaking their bones or spraining their ankles) he had no one to take care of him and he must die a horrible death.

在夏天，原始人暴露在太陽(yáng)炙熱的照射下。在冬季，他的孩子可能凍死在他的臂彎里。當(dāng)這種溫度（以及獵捕動(dòng)物永久的折斷了他們的骨頭或者扭傷他們的腳踝）傷害了他自己，沒(méi)有人照顧他，他必須可怕的死去。

2016年3月2日功課

Like many of the animals who fill the Zoo with their strange noises, early man liked to jabber.That is to say, he endlessly repeated the same unintelligible gibberish because it pleased him to hear the sound of his voice.In due time he learned that he could use this guttural noise to warn his fellow beings whenever danger threatened and he gave certain little shrieks which came to mean ``there is a tiger!'' or ``here come five elephants.'' Then the others grunted something back at him and their growl meant, ``I see them,'' or ``let us run away and hide.'' And this was probably the origin of all language.

就像許多動(dòng)物用它們奇怪的聲音填滿整個(gè)動(dòng)物園一樣，早期的人類喜歡快而含糊不清的說(shuō)話。也就是說(shuō)，他無(wú)休止的重復(fù)同樣的無(wú)法理解的亂語(yǔ)，因?yàn)樗?tīng)到自己的聲音讓他快樂(lè)。直到某一刻他意識(shí)到他可以用這種喉部聲音警告他的同伴，只要危險(xiǎn)降臨他就發(fā)出特定的低聲尖叫。尖叫意味著“這里有一只老虎！”或者“這兒來(lái)了五頭大象?！比缓笃渌斯緡佉恍┞曇魬?yīng)答他，他們的吼聲意思是“我看到它們了，”或者“我們逃走吧，躲起來(lái)”。這可能是所有語(yǔ)言的起源了。

2016年3月3日功課

But, as I have said before, of these beginnings we know so very little. Early man had no tools and he built himself no houses. He lived and died and left no trace of his existence except a few collar-bones and a few pieces of his skull. These tell us that many thousands of years ago the world was inhabited by certain mammals who were quite different from all the other animals -- who had probably developed from another unknown ape-like animal which had learned to walk on its hind-legs and use its fore-paws as hands -- and who were most probably connected with the creatures who happen to be our own immediate ancestors.

但是，就如我之前說(shuō)過(guò)的那樣，關(guān)于那些開(kāi)始的事情，我們知之甚少。原始人沒(méi)有工具，他也沒(méi)給自己蓋過(guò)房子。他生存和死亡沒(méi)有留下關(guān)于他存在過(guò)的痕跡，除了少量的鎖骨和顱骨碎片。這些東西告訴我們，幾千年以前有一種奇特的動(dòng)物這個(gè)世界上生存過(guò)。這種動(dòng)物與世界上其它任何一種動(dòng)物都大不一樣，它可能從一種不知名的像猿一樣的動(dòng)物發(fā)展而來(lái)。這種猿類曾經(jīng)學(xué)會(huì)用后腿行走并把前爪當(dāng)手使。這種動(dòng)物最有可能與恰好成為我們直系祖先的那個(gè)動(dòng)物有關(guān)聯(lián)。

It is little enough we know and the rest is darkness.

我們知道的還非常少，其余都是未知。