美国学生人类历史第8期:我们最早的祖先(2)

 　　Once in a while, after a long and patient chase, he would catch a sparrow or a small wild dog or perhaps a rabbit.

　　运气不错时，经一番漫长而耐心的追逐，他能抓到一只松鼠、小野狗或老鼠什么的，开开荤。

　　These he would eat raw for he had never discovered that food tasted better when it was cooked.

　　他吃什么都生吞活剥，因为他还未发现经火烤过的食物味道要好一些。

　　During the hours of day, this primitive¹ human being prowled about looking for things to eat.

　　白天，这些原始人在莽莽林海中四处潜行，寻找可吃的东西。

　　When night descended² upon the earth, he hid his wife and his children in a hollow tree or behind some heavy boulders³,

　　一俟黑暗降临大地，他便把自己的妻女藏进空树干或巨石后面。

　　for he was surrounded on all sides by ferocious⁴ animals

　　凶猛危险的野兽遍布他的四周，

　　and when it was dark these animals began to prowl about, looking for something to eat for their mates and their own young, and they liked the taste of human beings.

　　它们惯于在夜间悄悄活动，为它们的配偶和幼仔寻找食物。它们很喜欢人肉的味道。

　　It was a world where you must either eat or be eaten, and life was very unhappy because it was full of fear and misery⁵.

　　这是一个你要么吃野兽，要么被野兽吃的世界，人类早期的生活非常悲惨，充满了恐惧和痛苦。

　　In summer, man was exposed to the scorching⁶ rays of the sun,

　　夏天，人类被烈日炙烤；

　　and during the winter his children would freeze to death in his arms.

　　冬天，他的孩子冻死在自己怀里。

　　When such a creature hurt itself, (and hunting animals are forever breaking their bones or spraining⁷ their ankles) he had no one to take care of him and he must die a horrible death.

　　当他不小心弄伤了自己（追猎野兽是很容易摔断骨头或者扭伤脚踝的），没人可以照顾他，只能在惊恐和疼痛中自生自灭。

　　Like many of the animals who fill the zoo with their strange noises, early man liked to jabber⁸.

　　就像动物园会充斥着动物们林林总总、稀奇古怪的叫声一样，早期的人类也喜欢发出急促不清的怪叫。

　　That is to say, he endlessly repeated the same unintelligible⁹ gibberish because it pleased him to hear the sound of his voice.

　　也就是说，他不断地重复着一些相同的胡言乱语，因为他喜欢听见自己的声音。

1 primitive   

adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物

参考例句：

• It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
• His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。

2 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

3 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 ferocious   

adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的

参考例句：

• The ferocious winds seemed about to tear the ship to pieces.狂风仿佛要把船撕成碎片似的。
• The ferocious panther is chasing a rabbit.那只凶猛的豹子正追赶一只兔子。

5 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

6 scorching   

adj. 灼热的

参考例句：

• a scorching, pitiless sun 灼热的骄阳
• a scorching critique of the government's economic policy 对政府经济政策的严厉批评

7 spraining   

扭伤（关节）( sprain的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• In regions with certain isolates of TRV, spraining is more prominent. 在具有TRV某些分离物的地区，坏死是比较显著的。
• Stir the switch on the left foot in ON end, push and press spraining. 把左脚上的开关拨动ON端，按下按扭。

8 jabber   

v.快而不清楚地说；n.吱吱喳喳

参考例句：

• Listen to the jabber of those monkeys.听那些猴子在吱吱喳喳地叫。
• He began to protes,to jabber of his right of entry.他开始抗议，唠叨不休地说他有进来的权力。

9 unintelligible   

adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的

参考例句：

• If a computer is given unintelligible data, it returns unintelligible results.如果计算机得到的是难以理解的数据，它给出的也将是难以理解的结果。
• The terms were unintelligible to ordinary folk.这些术语一般人是不懂的。