新概念第四册课文.pdf

1

新概念第四册课文

Unit1

Lesson1

Findingfossilman发现化石人

Firstlistenandthenanswerthefollowingquestion.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

Whyarelegendshandeddownbystorytellersuseful?

Wecanreadofthingsthathappened5,000yearsagointheNearEast,wherepeoplefirst

learnedtowrite.Buttherearesomepartsofthewordwhereevennowpeoplecannotwrite.The

onlywaythattheycanpreservetheirhistoryistorecountitassagas--legendshandeddownfrom

onegenerationofanother.Theselegendsareusefulbecausetheycantellussomethingabout

migrationsofpeoplewholivedlongago,butnonecouldwritedownwhattheydid.

AnthropologistswonderedwheretheremoteancestorsofthePolynesianpeoplesnowlivinginthe

PacificIslandscamefrom.Thesagasofthesepeopleexplainthatsomeofthemcamefrom

Indonesiaabout2,000yearsago.

Butthefirstpeoplewhowerelikeourselveslivedsolongagothateventheirsagas,ifthey

hadany,areforgotten.Soarchaeologistshaveneitherhistorynorlegendstohelpthemtofindout

wherethefirstmodernmencamefrom.

Fortunately,however,ancientmenmadetoolsofstone,especiallyflint,becausethisiseasier

toshapethanotherkinds.Theymayalsohaveusedwoodandskins,butthesehaverottedaway.

Stonedoesnotdecay,andsothetoolsoflongagohaveremainedwheneventhebonesofthemen

whomadethemhavedisappearedwithouttrace.

ROBINPLACEFindingfossilman

Newwordsandexpressions生词和短语

fossilman(title)

adj.化石人

recount

v.叙述

saga

n.英雄故事

legend

n.传说，传奇

migration

n.迁移，移居

anthropologist

1

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

我们从书籍中可读到5,000年前近东发生的事情，那里的人最早学会了写字。但直到现

在,世界