1-1. We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write.

【译文】我们能读到五千年前近东发生之事，那里的人最先学会了书写。

【单词和短语】

read：此处为不及物动词，意为“读到，获悉”(to find out information from books，newspapers etc.)，后接of或about，

例如：

He reads about the war. 他读到关于战争的消息。

Did you read of their accident in the newspapers?

你在报上看到他们遭遇意外事故的消息了么?

5,000 years：五千年。另学习millennium，意为“一千年”，复数为millennia。5,000 years即为5 millennia。

the Near East：近东，指地中海东部沿岸地区，包括亚洲西南部和非洲东北部，有时还包括巴尔干半岛。

1-2. But there are some parts of the world where even now people cannot write.

【译文】但时至今日世上某些地方的人还不会书写。

【单词和短语】

even now：此处意为“甚至到现在”，

例如：

Even now he won’t believe me. 他甚至到现在还不相信我。

even now另有两解，一为“就在此刻”，例如：

Perhaps even now the time has arrived.也许正是此刻时机来到了。

另一为“尽管这样，虽然情况如此”(in spite of what has happened)，

例如：

I have explained everything，but even now she doesn’t understand.

我什么都解释了，但是尽管如此她还是不明白。

1-3. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas-legends handed down from one generation of story-tellers to another.

【译文】他们能够保存历史的唯一方法是将历史当传说讲述，由讲述人一代接一代地口授传奇故事。

【讲解】

to recount it as…another是动词不定式短语，作表语，说明主语way的内容，it指history。句中破折号引出同位语。handed down … another是过去分词短语，作legends的定语。another后省略了generation of story-tellers。

【单词和短语】

preserve：保存，保留(to make sth. continue without changing)。

例如：

preserve an old house as a museum 保存一幢老房子用作陈列馆

preserve sb.’s right to do sth. 保留某人对某事物的权利

Few of his early poems are preserved. 他早期的诗没有几首留存下来。

recount：详细叙述，描述，说明(to tell someone a story or describe a series of events)，

例如：

recount a story with real wit 妙趣横生地讲故事

The explorer recounted his adventures in a number of books.

探险家在好几本书中描述自己的冒险经历。

saga：英雄传奇(a long story about events that happened over the years)

hand down：把……传下去(to give or leave sth. to people who will live after you)，

例如：

This custom is handed down from the past. 这个习惯是过去传下来的。

The gold watch has been handed down in his family. 那块金表是他家祖传的。

1-4. 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.

【译文】

这些传说有用，因为它们能告诉我们一些人迁徙之事。这些人生活在远古，但没人能记录他们的所作所为。

【讲解】

none可指可数名词，亦可指不可数名词。指前者时动词用单数或复数，指后者时动词用单数。

【单词和短语】

migration：迁徙，移居(when large numbers of people go to live in another area or country，especially in order to find work)，动词形式为migrate，

例如：

migrate to another country 移居他国

1-5. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from.

【译文】人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛的波利尼西亚各民族的远祖来自何方。

【讲解】now living in the Pacific Islands是现在分词短语，作peoples的定语。

【单词和短语】

anthropologist：人类学家。anthropology意为“人类学”(the scientific study of people，their societies ，cultures，etc.)。相关词汇有sociology(社会学)和ethnology(人种学，民族学)。

remote ancestor：远祖(someone related to you，who lived a long time ago)。形容词remote的常用意为“遥远的，久远的”(far from towns or other places where people live)，

例如：

the remotest corners of the earth 天涯海角

a custom of remote antiquity 远古遗风

remote亦可作名词，常用意为“遥控器”(remote controller)。重庆新概念英语第三册

people：people作“一国人民，民族”(the people who belong to a particular country，race，or area)解时为可数名词单数，复数为peoples或people。参照上下文，文中people译为“民族”。

另举例如下：

the peoples of the world 世界各国人民

a hardworking people 勤劳的民族

the Jewish people 犹太民族

Each people builds a culture adapted to its particular needs. 各民族都建立起一种适应其独特需要的文化。

1-6. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.

【译文】当地人的种种传说向世人解释了其中一些民族约在两千年前迁自印度尼西亚。

【单词和短语】

saga:传说(a long story about events that happen over many year)。

1-7. But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten.

【译文】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，即使存在，如今也失传了。

1-8. So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first 'modern men' came from.

【译文】于是，考古学家既无历史记载，亦无口头传说来帮助他们弄清首批“现代人”来自何方。

【单词和短语】

legend:传说(an old，well-known story，often about brave people, adventures, or magical events)。形容词为legendary。

1-9. Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds.

【译文】然而，幸运的是，远古人用制作石器，特别是燧石器，因为燧石比其他石头更易成形。

【讲解】other kinds后面省略了of stones。

【单词和短语】

flint：燧石(a type of smooth hard stone that makes a small flame when you hit it with steel)。

1-10. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away.

【译文】他们也可能用过木头和兽皮，但这两类东西早已腐烂殆尽。

【讲解】may also have used意为“可能使用过”，may+完成时结构表示对过去情况的推测。these指wood and skins。

【单词和短语】

rot: 腐败，腐烂(to decay by a gradual natural process, or to make something to do this)。

1-11. 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.

【译文】石头不会腐烂。因此，虽然制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存，但远古时代的石器却保存至今。

【讲解】

when even the bones … trace相当于让步从句，when意即“虽然，尽管”，又如：

We sometimes expect gratitude when we are not entitled to it.

有时虽然我们不值得感激，我们却期望别人感激。

While he has a house of his own, his brother lives in a flat.

尽管他有自己的房子，他弟弟却住在公寓里。