新概念英语第四册2-4课的课文

新概念英语第四册2-4课的课文
新概念英语第四册2-4课的课文

新概念英语第四册2-4课的课文
$课文1 发现化石人
1. We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write.
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.
2. But there are some parts of the world where even now people cannot write.
但直到现在,世界上有些地方,人们还不会书写.
3. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas -- legends handed down from one generation of story tales to another.
他们保存历史的唯一办法是将历史当作传说讲述,由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来.
4. These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago,
这些传说是有用的,因为他们告诉我们很久以前生活在这里的移民的一些事情.
5. but none could write down what they did.
但是没有人能写下来.
6. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from.
人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西亚人的祖先来自何方,
7. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.
当地人的传说却告诉人们：其中一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚迁来的.
8. But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas,if they had any, are forgotten.
但是,和我们相似的原始人生活的年代太久远了,因此,有关他们的传说既使有如今也失传了.
9. So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first 'modern men' came from.
于是,考古学家们既缺乏历史记载,又无口头传说来帮助他们弄清最早的“现代人”是从哪里来的.
10. Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint,
然而, 幸运的是,远古人用石头制作了工具,特别是用燧石,
11. because this is easier to shape than other kinds.
因为燧石较之其他石头更容易成形.
12. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away.
他们也可能用过木头和兽皮,但这类东西早已腐烂殆尽.
13. 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.
石头是不会腐烂的.因此,尽管制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存,但远古时代的石头工具却保存了下来.
$课文2 不要伤害蜘蛛
14. Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends?
你可能会觉得奇怪, 蜘蛛怎么会是我们的朋友呢?
15. Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race.
因为它们能消灭那么多的昆虫,其中包括一些人类的大敌,
16. Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world;
昆虫就会使我们无法在地球上生活下去,
17. they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds,
昆虫会吞食我们的全部庄稼,杀死我们的成群的牛羊.
18. if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals.
要不是人类受一些食虫动物的保护,
19. 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.
我们要十分感谢那些吃昆虫的鸟和兽,然而把它们所杀死的昆虫全部加在一起也只相当于蜘蛛所消灭的一小部分.
20. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the harm to us or our belongings.
此外,蜘蛛不同于其他食虫动物,它们丝毫不危害我们和我们的财物.
21. Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them.
许多人认为蜘蛛是昆虫,但它们不是昆虫,甚至与昆虫毫无关系.
22. One can tell the difference almost at a glance,
人们几乎一眼就能看出二者的差异,
23. for a spider always has eight legs and insect never more than six.
因为蜘蛛都是8条腿,而昆虫的腿从不超过6条.
24. How many spiders are engaged in this work no our behalf?
有多少蜘蛛在为我们效力呢?
25. One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in grass field in the south of England,
一位研究蜘蛛的权威对英国南部一块草坪上的蜘蛛作了一次调查.
26. and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre;
他估计每英亩草坪里有225万多只蜘蛛.
27. that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch.
这就是说,在一个足球场上约有600万只不同种类的蜘蛛.
28. Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects.
蜘蛛至少有半年在忙于吃昆虫.
29. It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill,
它们一年中消灭了多少昆虫,我们简直无法猜测,
30. but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day.
它们是吃不饱的动物,不满意一日三餐.
31. 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.
据估计,在英国蜘蛛一年里所消灭昆虫的重量超过这个国家人口的总重量.
$课文4 能看见东西的手
51. Several cases have been reported in Russia recently of people who can read and detect colours with their fingers,
俄罗斯最近报导了几个事例,有人能用手指看书识字和辨认颜色,
52. and even see through solid doors and walls.
甚至能透过厚实的门和墙看到东西.
53. One case concerns and eleven-year-old schoolgirl, Vera Petrova,
其中有一例谈到有一个名叫维拉.彼托洛娃的11岁学生.
54. who has normal vision but who can also perceive things with different parts of her skin, and through solid walls.
她的视力与常人一样,但她还能用皮肤的不同部位辨认东西,甚至看穿坚实的墙壁.
55. This ability was first noticed by her father.
是她父亲首先发现她这一功能的.
56. One day she came into his office and happened to put her hands on the door of a locked safe.
一天,维拉走进父亲的办公室,偶然把手放在一个锁着的保险柜的门上,
57. Suddenly she asked her father why he kept so many old newspapers locked away there, and even described the way they were done up in bundles.
她突然问父亲为什么把这么多的旧报纸锁在柜子里,还说了报纸捆扎的情况.
58. Vera's curious talent was brought to the notice of a scientific research institute in the town of Ulyanovsk, near where she lives,
维拉的特异功能引起了她家附近乌里扬诺夫斯克城一个科研单位的注意.
59. and in April she was given a series of tests by a special commission of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federal Republic.
4月里,俄罗斯卫生部一个特别委员会对她进行了一系列的测试.
60. During these tests she was able to read a newspaper through an opaque screen and,
在这些测试中,她能隔着不透明的屏幕读报纸.
61. stranger still, by moving her elbow over a child's game of Lotto she was able to describe the figures and colours printed on it;
更为奇怪的是,她把肘部在儿童玩的“罗托”纸牌上移动一下,便能说出印在纸牌上的数字和颜色.
62. and, in another instance, wearing stockings and slippers, to make out with her foot the outlines and colours of a picture hidden under a carpet.
还有一次,她穿着长筒袜子和拖鞋,能用脚步识别出藏在地毯下面的一幅画的轮廓和颜色.
63. Other experiments showed that her knees and shoulders had a similar sensitivity.
其他实验表明,她的膝盖和双肩有类似的感觉能力,
64. During all these tests Vera was blindfold;
在所有这些实验中,维拉的双眼都是蒙着的.
65. and, indeed, except when blindfold she lacked the ability to perceive things with her skin.
如果不蒙上双眼她的皮肤就不再具有识别物体的能力.
66. It was also found that although she could perceive things with her fingers this ability ceased the moment her hands were wet.
这是千真万确的.同时还发现,尽管她能用手指识别东西,但她的手一旦弄湿,这种功能便会立即消失.