2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Neolithic Noodles Unearthed in China

From NPR news, this is All Things Considered, I am Michelle Norris. Italians like to think they made the first noodles. But the Chinese maintain they invented the dish about 2000 years ago. And Arab cooks argue that the honor belongs to them. Well now scientists have weighed in. A team of archeologists at a site in northwest China turned up a bowl of noodles that was prepared in the Stone Age. NPR s Jon Hamilton has details.

About 4, 000 years ago, someone in the village of Lajia along the Yellow River was apparently¹ getting ready to eat a bowl of noodles. Then a massive earthquake hit. Kam-biu Liu of Louisiana State University explains what happened next.

The bowl of noodles was dropped and overturned with the noodles inside, and then the bottom of the overturned bowl was then sealed by the layer of flood sediment².

Liu says that's because the massive earthquake triggered an equally massive flood. The village of Lajia was entombed in silt³ and debris⁴. Ok, skip forward a few thousand years. Archeologists have discovered the ancient buried village of Lajia, and are sifting⁵ through the ruins. Liu says that after digging down through about 10 feet of silt and clay, they uncover something that looks like an overturned bowl.

They turn/ it over, you know expecting that there is anything inside, but then they're, after they open/ or remove/ this overturned bowl they found the noodles. What is amazing about it is that, it almost looked as if, you know, this is a fresh bowl of noodles, almost looked like, you know it is edible⁶.

The clay has created an airtight seal that preserved the neolithic⁷ noodles for 4000 years. The noodles turned to powders soon after being uncovered, but not before archeologist took a picture. Gary Crawford is an anthropologist⁸ at University of Toronto at Mississauga. He says this discovery defied all odds⁹.

It's exciting, because noodles just shouldn't be preserved at archeological sites. They're really quite delicate. Crawford says the find reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature also confirms that ancient cultures were quite sophisticated when it came to processing foods.

We know that they've been steaming food for a long time, because we find ceramic¹⁰ steamers at sites this old or even older. And so we just assumed they were maybe boiling grain, making porridges or something. But now this adds another dimension to what they were cooking.

It required the technique that's still used by Chinese cooks today. At the Chinatown Express restaurant in Washington D. C. , a chef works behind the window facing the sidewalk. He kneads and twists a slab¹¹ of dough¹², stretches it into a thick rope about 4 feet long, and folds the rope in half so as to make two thinner strands¹³ . Then he stretches them. Soon there are dozens of strands thin enough to send to the kitchen on a plastic tray. These neo-noodles are made from wheat. Laboratory test shows that the paleo-noodles found in China were made from millet¹⁴. But they are still noodles. And Gary Crawford says this discovery may help settle the debate about who invented this culinary classic.

Well I have always been on the side of China (of) being the originator of noodles, so this sure lends support to that / argument.

The woman behind the counter of Chinatown Express sees pretty underwhelmed though. She says she's always assumed that Chinese noodles hadn't changed much since the Stone Age.

Unless they're fried, it's same thing, same thing that I make here. It's just in the style, only different in style,only different in style, maybe someone do them fat, more skinny, you know.

She is more impressed that the pre-historical noodles survive so long. Here hand-made noodles rarely last more than a few minutes. Jon. Hamilton, NPR News.

To see a picture of the ancient noodles, go to our website: NPR. org.

1 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

2 sediment   

n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物)

参考例句：

• The sediment settled and the water was clear.杂质沉淀后，水变清了。
• Sediment begins to choke the channel's opening.沉积物开始淤塞河道口。

3 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

4 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

5 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句

6 edible   

n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的

参考例句：

• Edible wild herbs kept us from dying of starvation.我们靠着野菜才没被饿死。
• This kind of mushroom is edible,but that kind is not.这种蘑菇吃得，那种吃不得。

7 neolithic   

adj.新石器时代的

参考例句：

• Cattle were first domesticated in Neolithic times.新石器时代有人开始驯养牛。
• The monument was Stone Age or Neolithic.该纪念碑是属于石器时代或新石器时代的。

8 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

9 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

10 ceramic   

n.制陶业，陶器，陶瓷工艺

参考例句：

• The order for ceramic tiles has been booked in.瓷砖的订单已登记下来了。
• Some ceramic works of art are shown in this exhibition.这次展览会上展出了一些陶瓷艺术品。

11 slab   

n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上

参考例句：

• This heavy slab of oak now stood between the bomb and Hitler.这时笨重的橡木厚板就横在炸弹和希特勒之间了。
• The monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab.这座纪念碑由两根垂直的柱体构成，它们共同支撑着一块平板。

12 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

13 strands   

n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Twist a length of rope from strands of hemp. 用几股麻搓成了一段绳子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She laced strands into a braid. 她把几股线编织成一根穗带。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 millet   

n.小米，谷子

参考例句：

• Millet is cultivated in the middle or lower reaches of the Yellow River.在黄河中下游地区，人们种植谷子。
• The high quality millet flour was obtained through wet milling.采用湿磨法获得了高品质的小米粉。