新托福听写训练 第25期

Listen to a discussion between two archeology students, they are preparing for class presentation.

I read the prehistoric¹ people had settled in villages in start farming when they could no longer survive just by hunting and gathering². The idea was that they pushed out of the best land as the population grew, most likely they had noticed that some seeds sprang out when they dropped them, so when the prehistoric people had to move to less productive area, they settled in permanent villages there and start planting seeds to keep from starving.

That was the thinking until a few years ago when archeologists found evidence that goes against that theory. The new idea is that farming developed in the richest land areas and the people who studied it weren't been threaten by starvation. Apparently³, successful hunters and gatherers are living in villages long before they started cultivating crops, this prepare start villages just wanted to have more stable foods supply.

What? You mean that people settled in villages where they were still hunting and gathering wild food to eat. How did the archeologists come to that conclusion?

Well, one way was a new more accurate method that dating a small piece or something like a grainof corn or wheat. You know, earlier archeologists couldn't date something that small so they have to date say the charcoal⁴ around it to get the estimated age.

So with the new technique to determine the age of the tiny sample, they found out the grain was older than they had thought.

No,just the opposite.They found out it was much younger, so that meant the mastication⁵ of grain probably occurred long after people had begun to live in villages.

1 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

2 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

3 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。

4 charcoal   

n.炭，木炭，生物炭

参考例句：

• We need to get some more charcoal for the barbecue.我们烧烤需要更多的碳。
• Charcoal is used to filter water.木炭是用来过滤水的。

5 mastication   

n.咀嚼

参考例句：

• Regular like spike wave and poly spike wave were found in mastication. 在咀嚼时可见有规律性类似棘波、多棘波。 来自互联网
• Mastication is one of the most important fundamental oral functions. 咀嚼是口腔重要的生理功能之一。 来自互联网