VOA标准英语2010-What Does it Mean to be Human?

Smithsonian Museum opens new window on human origins

Rosanne Skirble | Washington, DC 02 April 2010

 
Photo: Chip Clark, Jim DiLoreto, & Don Hurlbert, Smithsonian Institution
Five fossil human skulls² show how the shape of the face and braincase of early humans changed over the past 2.5 million years.

Related Links:

National Museum of Natural History
David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins
Musee de l'Homme, Paris
The Origin of Species
Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution, National Research Council

When you peel away the obvious outside differences, it turns out people and bananas have a lot in common.

Humans and banana trees are 60 percent genetically³ similar. We're even closer to chickens, sharing 75 percent of our DNA⁴ with the poultry⁵. But chimpanzees are our closest cousins, matching more than 98 percent of our DNA. 

These are just some of the fascinating facts unveiled in the National Museum of Natural History's newest exhibit: The Hall of Human Origins, which explores that age-old question: "What does it mean to be human?" 

The National Museum of Natural History in Washington is marking its 100th anniversary by welcoming hundreds of visitors to the exhibit.

Early man

Visitors enter through a time-tunnel depicting⁶ faces of modern and early human, or "hominid" species.  Nearby Curator Rick Potts stands at a display case that holds 76 hominid skull¹ replicas⁷, among the oldest known from six continents.

Seventy-six skulls on the human family tree at the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian Institution.

He says all of the species are gone. "Their ways of life are now no longer on earth. And we are the only ones left of a diverse family tree." 

The more than 300 fossils and other artifacts in the exhibit illustrate⁸ a rich mosaic⁹ of physical and behavioral traits that evolved over time.  Visitors learn about milestones¹⁰ along that journey: when humans stood upright, when brains became large, when social lives became complex, and when speech was initiated¹¹.

They peer into the eyes of life-like replicas of early humans, sit down at their ancestral hearth¹² and walk in footprints molded from those left 3.6 million years ago in Tanzania.

"Those footprints are exactly at the spacing and the size of the footprints where three individuals walked across an African plain that long ago," Potts says.

Origin of mankind

Also on display are two historic human fossils. One is the 28,000 year-old skull of a Cro-Magnon - the first modern humans in Europe. The other is the skull of a Neanderthal, a species of hominid that co-existed with Cro-Magnon until they disappeared about 30,000 years ago. Both skulls are on loan from the Musee de l'Homme in Paris.

Alain Froment, curator of anthropology¹³ collections at the Musee de l' Homme in Paris, with the braincase of a Cro-Magnon, reconstructed in minute detail from a computer scan of the 28,000-year-old skull.

Alain Froment, who curates that museum's anthropology collection, says the fossils were discovered in France around the same time that Charles Darwin published his famous, "Origin of Species," in 1859.  "It fueled the debate on the origin of mankind and the surprise was to find such a modern human in the fossil context with extinct animals."

Visitors are drawn¹⁴ to touch the ancestral replicas, to transform an image of their face into an early-human version and to interact with dioramas that convey the science of evolution, Potts says. 

"What we've done in this hall is to allow people to explore the fossils from three points in time and touch the evidence.  That activates¹⁵ a conversation with a scientist and ultimately activates, when you put all the clues together, an animated¹⁶ portrayal¹⁷ of a day in the life of early humans at three points in time."

Starting with a cast skull, artist John Gurche builds layers of muscle, fat, and skin to create hyper-realistic busts¹⁸ of human ancestors.

Adapting to a changing world

This six-million-year-old story unfolds during an era of dramatic climate change, according to curator Rick Potts. He says the exhibit shows how, during great swings between warm and cool, and moist and dry, humans adapted to a changing world.

"Not only adapted to an African savannah or how Neanderthals became adapted to an ice age, but rather how our ability to make tools, our ability to have an expanded and complex brain, even our ability to use symbols and speak to one another, are not just adaptations to a past ancestral environment, but an adaptation to being flexible, to being adaptable¹⁹." 

That is a lesson 5th grade teacher Neisha Speights-Burno hopes to communicate to her students in Dumfries, Virginia. "For them to see the different skulls and tools," she says, "gives them more of a first-hand account that this stuff really did exist."
Some cave paintings were likely made as shown, by mixing pigment²⁰ with saliva²¹ inside the mouth and blowing the mixture onto a cave wall.

And it's a sense of connection that resonates with Charla Weiswurm from San Antonio, Texas. "I think that with all the conflict with everyone in the world that you come back saying, 'we all came from the same place originally, and why can't we just all get along because we are all exactly alike.' Why did we have to have such differences in everything?"

Curator Rick Potts hopes the exhibit helps answer that question by showing that our ancient relatives - once-living and breathing individuals - are worth getting to know. 

And in knowing them, he adds, they can teach us what it means to be human.

 

1 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

2 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

3 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

4 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

5 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

6 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

7 replicas   

n.复制品( replica的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His hobby is building replicas of cars. 他的爱好是制作汽车的复制品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The replicas are made by using a thin film of fusible alloy on a stiffening platen. 复制是用附着在加强托板上的可熔合金薄膜实现的。 来自辞典例句

8 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

9 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

10 milestones   

n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑

参考例句：

• Several important milestones in foreign policy have been passed by this Congress and they can be chalked up as major accomplishments. 这次代表大会通过了对外政策中几起划时代的事件，并且它们可作为主要成就记录下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dale: I really envy your milestones over the last few years, Don. 我真的很羡慕你在过去几年中所建立的丰功伟绩。 来自互联网

11 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。

12 hearth   

n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面

参考例句：

• She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
• She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。

13 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。

14 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

15 activates   

使活动，起动，触发( activate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Activates the window and displays it in its current size and position. 激活窗口，保持当前的大小及位置不变。
• Pulling out the alarm switch activates alarm and pushing it deactivates it. 闹钟的开和关是通过拔出和按入闹铃开关实现的。

16 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

17 portrayal   

n.饰演；描画

参考例句：

• His novel is a vivid portrayal of life in a mining community.他的小说生动地描绘了矿区的生活。
• The portrayal of the characters in the novel is lifelike.该书中的人物写得有血有肉。

18 busts   

半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕

参考例句：

• Dey bags swells up and busts. 那奶袋快胀破了。
• Marble busts all looked like a cemetery. 大理石的半身象，简直就象是坟山。

19 adaptable   

adj.能适应的，适应性强的，可改编的

参考例句：

• He is an adaptable man and will soon learn the new work.他是个适应性很强的人，很快就将学会这种工作。
• The soil is adaptable to the growth of peanuts.这土壤适宜于花生的生长。

20 pigment   

n.天然色素，干粉颜料

参考例句：

• The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls.古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。
• Who thought he might know what the skin pigment phenomenon meant.他自认为可能知道皮肤色素出现这种现象到底是怎么回事。

21 saliva   

n.唾液，口水

参考例句：

• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。
• Saliva dribbled from the baby's mouth.唾液从婴儿的嘴里流了出来。