第1课

旁白 neutral

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

我们能读到5000年前近东发生的事，

旁白 neutral

where people first learned to write.

那里的人们最早学会了书写。

旁白 neutral

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

但世界上的某些地方，即使到现在，人们仍然不会书写。

旁白 neutral

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.

他们保存历史的唯一方法，就是把一代代说书人流传下来的史诗故事讲述出来。

旁白 neutral

These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago,

这些传说很有用，因为它们能告诉我们一些关于远古人类迁徙的信息，

旁白 neutral

but none could write down what they did.

但没有人能记录下他们的所作所为。

旁白 neutral

Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islandscame from.

人类学家们想知道，如今居住在太平洋岛屿上的波利尼西亚人的远古祖先来自何方。

旁白 neutral

The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.

这些人的史诗记载，他们中的一部分人大约在2000年前从印度尼西亚迁徙而来。

旁白 neutral

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

但是，第一批与我们相似的人类生活在如此久远的年代，以至于即使他们曾有史诗，也早已被遗忘。

旁白 neutral

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

因此，考古学家既没有历史记载，也没有传说来帮助他们找出第一批“现代人”的起源。

旁白 neutral

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

然而，幸运的是，远古人类制造了石器，尤其是燧石工具，

旁白 neutral

because this is easier to shape than other kinds.

因为它比其他种类的材料更容易塑形。

旁白 neutral

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

他们也可能使用过木头和兽皮，但这些都已经腐烂殆尽了。

旁白 neutral

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.

石头不会腐烂，因此，即使制造这些工具的人的骨骸早已消失得无影无踪，远古的石器工具依然留存至今。