Finding Fossil man

We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where

people first learned to write. But there are some parts of the world where even

now people cannot write. The only way that they can preserve their history is

recount it as sagas--legends handed down from one generation of story-teller

to another. These legends are useful because they can tell us something about

migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they

did. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian

peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. The sagas of these people

explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.

But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their

sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists have neither history no

legends to help them to find out where the first 'modern men' came from.

Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, be-

cause this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used wood

and skins, but these have rotted away. Stone does not decay, and so the tools

long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have

disappeared without trace.

1.       Near East: 地中海東部、歐洲東南部巴爾幹半島一帶，19世紀以降，此地成為歐洲紛亂的中心，1次大戰由此而起。

參覽 -http://www.hkahe.com/teaching/2007_AL_Notes/

Chinese_Paper_1/Ceu9.pdf

2. preserve:  vt.1. 保存,保藏;防腐[(+from)] 2. 保護;維護;維持

3. 醃(肉等);把...做成蜜餞(或果醬);把...製成罐頭食品[(+in)]

4. 禁獵,把...劃為禁獵區

n. 1. 蜜餞;果醬2. (動植物)保護區;禁獵區

3. 包攬的事物. 防護用品;護目鏡

3. saga    n. 1. 傳說;英雄事蹟 2. 冒險故事;家世小說

4. recount: vt. 1. 敘述,講述

5. migration: n.1. 遷移;(候鳥等的)遷徙 2. 移民群;移棲動物群

3. 【化】【物】移動,徙動

6. anthropologist: n. 人類學家

7. Polynesian: a. 1. 玻里尼西亞的;玻里尼西亞人(語)的

             n. 1. 玻里尼亞人(語)

8. Pacific Islands: 分南北太平洋群島，參覽 - http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/

COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/PACIFICISLANDSEXTN/

0,,contentMDK:20217257~menuPK:456992~pagePK:1497618~piPK:

217854~theSitePK:441883,00.html

9. archaeologist: 考古學家

10. flint:  n. 1. 燧石,火石;(原始人用的)打火石 2. (打火機的)電石

3. 堅硬物,堅如燧石的東西

11. rotted away: 爛掉

12. decay:  vi. 1. 腐朽,腐爛;蛀蝕 2. 衰敗;衰退

vt. 1. 使腐朽,使腐爛 2. 使(牙齒)蛀壞

n. 1. 腐朽,腐爛;蛀牙 2. 衰敗;衰退 3. (放射性物質的)蛻變

4. 人造衛星重返大氣層的日期

我們可以讀到到近東地區5000年前發生之事，

人類在那裏剛開始懂得書寫。然而，

世界上還有些地方的人，甚至到今天都還無法寫字。

唯一能保存他們的歷史的方式 – 口述的傳說，

由說故事者代代相傳。這些傳說很好，能夠告訴我們

遠古居民遷移的情況。人類學家狐疑著，現在住在

太平洋群島的玻里尼亞人，他們遠古的祖先到底來自何方。

他們的傳說敘述: 有些人大約2000年前從印尼遷來。

但是，像我們的那些最初的遠古人，即使他們有一丁點兒傳說，也都被遺忘了。因此，考古學家既無歷史亦無傳說之助，讓他們搞清楚最初的現代人打哪兒來。

幸運地，遠古人造了石器，特別是燧石，因為這一種較其他類容易成形；他們或許也用過木頭或獸皮，但都已經爛掉了；而石頭，不爛 ! 因此這些石器得以保留，即使製做石器人的骨頭早已消失無蹤。