【欢迎跟读】新概念第四册 Lesson 1 Finding fossil man

I really appreciate that Funfun started the "Welcome to reading"program last week. 

This is a good reading program. I recall 仙女 mentioned “Don't compare with others“， ”Do your practice and all is coming. “

I use the "Echo method" first on the reading sentence by sentence with the origial reading. And then I record this one.  Thanks 花董‘s suggestion on the sense groups（意群） as his reading has no broken words at all even when he read such a long poem “As I began to love myself”.

 I make some space on the following article based on sense groups.    After my reading, I feel very good as  I make some progress today. :)

Bricks are really welcome!

Please join “Welcome to reading”！

My reading：

Lesson1 

 

Original reading：

https://www.tingclass.net/show-5046-919-1.html （原文及在线MP3）

Lesson 1
Finding fossil man 发现化石人

First listen    and then answer the following question.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。

Why are legends    handed down     by storytellers useful?

 

We can read of things    that happened 5,000 years ago    in the Near East,    where people first     learned to write.    But there are some parts of the world     where even now     people cannot write. 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.     These legends are useful because they can tell us    something about migrations of people who lived long ago,   but none could write down    what they did. 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.
But the first people    who were like ourselves       lived so long ago      that even their sagas,    if they had any, are forgotten.  So archaeologists    have neither history     nor legends    to help them to find out      where the first 'modern men'     came from.
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone,   especially flint,    because this is easier    to shape than other kinds.  They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away.    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.

ROBIN PLACE Finding fossil man

New words and expressions 生词和短语

fossil man (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
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,世界上有些地方，人们还不会书写。 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。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，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。
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。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。
然而， 幸运的是，远古人用石头制作了工具，特别是用燧石，因为燧石较之其他石头更容易成形。他们也可能用过木头和兽皮，但这类东西早已腐烂殆尽。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。