Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East,

我們從書籍中可讀到5，000 年前近東發生的事情，

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

where people first learned to write.

那里的人最早學會了寫字。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

But there are some parts of the word where even now people cannot write.

但直到現在，世界上有些地方，人們還不會書寫。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas -- legends handed down from one generation of another.These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could wri

他們保存歷史的唯一辦法是將歷史當作傳說講述，由講述人一代接一代地將史實描述為傳奇故事口傳下來。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

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.

其中一部分是約在2，000年前從印度尼西亞遷來的。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten.

但是，和我們相似的原始人生活的年代太久遠了，因此，有關他們的傳說既使有如今也失傳了。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first 'modern men' came from.

于是，考古學家們既缺乏歷史記載，又無口頭傳說來幫助他們弄清最早的“現代人”是從哪里來的。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint,

然而， 幸運的是，遠古人用石頭制作了工具，特別是用燧石，

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

because this is easier to shape than other kinds.

因為燧石較之其他石頭更容易成形。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away.

他們也可能用過木頭和獸皮，但這類東西早已腐爛殆盡。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

Stone does not decay,

石頭是不會腐爛的。

Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.

因此，盡管制造這些工具的人的骨頭早已蕩然無存，但遠古時代的石頭工具卻保存了下來。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends?

你可能會覺得奇怪， 蜘蛛怎么會是我們的朋友呢？

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.

因為它們能消滅那么多的昆蟲，其中包括一些人類的大敵，

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world;

要不是人類受一些食蟲動物的保護，昆蟲就會使我們無法在地球上生活下去，

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals.

昆蟲會吞食我們的全部莊稼，殺死我們的成群的牛羊。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders.

我們要十分感謝那些吃昆蟲的鳥和獸，然而把它們所殺死的昆蟲全部加在一起也只相當于蜘蛛所消滅的一小部分。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the harm to us or our belongings.

此外，蜘蛛不同于其他食蟲動物，它們絲毫不危害我們和我們的財物。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them.

許多人認為蜘蛛是昆蟲，但它們不是昆蟲，甚至與昆蟲毫無關系。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and insect never more than six.

人們幾乎一眼就能看出二者的差異，因為蜘蛛都是8條腿，而昆蟲的腿從不超過6條。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

How many spiders are engaged in this work no our behalf?

有多少蜘蛛在為我們效力呢？

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in grass field in the south of England,

一位研究蜘蛛的權威對英國南部一塊草坪上的蜘蛛作了一次調查。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre;

他估計每英畝草坪里有225萬多只蜘蛛。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch.

這就是說，在一個足球場上約有600萬只不同種類的蜘蛛。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.

蜘蛛至少有半年在忙于吃昆蟲。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day.

它們一年中消滅了多少昆蟲，我們簡直無法猜測，它們是吃不飽的動物，不滿意一日三餐。

Lesson 2 Spare that spider

It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.

據估計，在英國蜘蛛一年里所消滅昆蟲的重量超過這個國家人口的總重量。

Lesson 3 Matterhorn man

and the more difficult it is, the more highly it is regarded.

他們認為， 道路愈艱險愈帶勁兒。

Lesson 3 Matterhorn man

In the pioneering days, however, this was not the case at all.

然而，在登山運動的初期，全然不是這種情況。

Lesson 3 Matterhorn man

The early climbers were looking for the easiest way to the top, because the summit was the prize they sought, especially if it and never been attained before.

早期登山者所尋找的是通往山頂的最方便的途徑，因為頂峰特別是前人未曾到過的頂峰 -- 才是他們尋求的目標。