VOA常速英语2007年-Discoverer of Lucy Fossil Weighs in on Human Ev

By Greg Flakus
Houston
14 November 2007

The fossilized bones of a female hominid creature who lived about three-million years ago in what is now Ethiopia, continues to draw crowds at Houston's Museum of Natural Science. Recently visiting the skeleton called Lucy was the man who discovered her on a rocky slope in Ethiopia back in November 1974, anthropaleontologist and director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, Donald Johanson. VOA's Greg Flakus has this report from Houston.

For the past couple of months, school children have been coming to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see a set of fossilized bones that the world now knows as Lucy.

No visitor has a more special relationship with Lucy than the man who discovered her, anthropaleontologist Donald Johanson.

"I can say that my heart beat a little faster when I knew that the original fossil is in this room," he said.

Johanson found the fossil while working in northeastern Ethiopia on November 24, 1974.

"The first bone I found was a little fragment of a right elbow and I looked at it on the ground and knew from the shape of it that it did not belong to a monkey or any other kind of animal and that it had to come from a human ancestor skeleton," he said.

He says the partial skeleton picked up its name later that night as he and his team worked while listening to a Beatles song on a portable tape player.

"'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' from the 'Sergeant¹ Pepper's Lonely Hearts' Club Band album was playing and a girl friend of mine on the expedition, Pamela, said, 'If you really think the skeleton is a female,' and I thought it was because of its very small size, she said, 'why don't you call it Lucy?'" said Johanson.

High school students visiting the exhibit had lots of questions for the anthropologist², and teacher Elizabeth Blevins says the visit proved valuable on many levels.

"I think it helps them connect with history, with science, anthropology³, and archaeology⁴ and all the sciences that go into understanding our world," she said.

Evolution has become a controversial topic in some communities where conservative Christians⁵ claim that the theory contradicts the Bible. But Johanson says most religious people have come to accept evolution as part of God's plan. People who challenge the theory of evolution often deride⁶ the notion that humans are descended⁷ from monkeys, but Johanson says scientists do not believe that either.

"We are not descended from monkeys. We are descended from a creature that was a common ancestor to the African apes and to us," added Johanson. "If we look at the anatomy⁸, look at the behavior, look at the genetics, who are our closest relatives on the planet today? Chimpanzees and gorillas⁹."

Johanson says Lucy and humans share a common ancestor, but she and homo sapiens then evolved along separate branchs. He says anthropologists may disagree over some aspects of human evolution, but there is broad agreement on the basic theory of where it all began.

"The one thing that all anthropologists have agreed on now is that the fossil record for humanity is so convincing, from the very earliest, very primitive¹⁰ stages, long before Lucy, going back as much as six million years in Africa, that this is really the cradle of humankind, Africa," he said.

Johanson says the people who live in the vicinity of where Lucy was found are proud of their area's importance and are very willing to help him find more fossils.

"The Afar people who live there today know what these bones look like and sometimes when we come back to the field, they will take me by my hand and they will walk me and say 'look what I found when I was herding¹¹ my goats.' And they know that you should never pick it up, because then you do not know where it is from," he said.

Donald Johanson goes back to Ethiopia every year hoping to find more clues to unlock the mystery of human origins.

1 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

2 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。

3 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

4 archaeology   

n.考古学

参考例句：

• She teaches archaeology at the university.她在大学里教考古学。
• He displayed interest in archaeology.他对考古学有兴趣。

5 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

6 deride   

v.嘲弄，愚弄

参考例句：

• Some critics deride the group as self - appointed food police.一些批评人士嘲讽这个组织为“自封的食品警察”。
• They deride his effort as childish.他们嘲笑他的努力，认为太孩子气。

7 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。

8 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

9 gorillas   

n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 )；暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
• Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 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。

11 herding   

中畜群

参考例句：

• The little boy is herding the cattle. 这个小男孩在放牛。
• They have been herding cattle on the tableland for generations. 他们世世代代在这高原上放牧。