新概念第四册课文Unit1Lesson1Findingfossilman发现化石人Firstlistenandthenanswerthefollowingquestion.听录音，然后回答以下问题。Whyarelegendshandeddownbystorytellersuseful?Wecanreadofthingsthathappened5,000yearsagointheNearEast,wherepeoplefirstlearnedtowrite.Buttherearesomepartsofthewordwhereevennowpeoplecannotwrite.Theonlywaythattheycanpreservetheirhistoryistorecountitassagas--legendshandeddownfromonegenerationofanother.Theselegendsareusefulbecausetheycantellussomethingaboutmigrationsofpeoplewholivedlongago,butnonecouldwritedownwhattheydid.AnthropologistswonderedwheretheremoteancestorsofthePolynesianpeoplesnowlivinginthePacificIslandscamefrom.ThesagasofthesepeopleexplainthatsomeofthemcamefromIndonesiaabout2,000yearsago.Butthefirstpeoplewhowerelikeourselveslivedsolongagothateventheirsagas,iftheyhadany,areforgotten.Soarchaeologistshaveneitherhistorynorlegendstohelpthemtofindoutwherethefirst'modernmen'camefrom.Fortunately,however,ancientmenmadetoolsofstone,especiallyflint,becausethisiseasiertoshapethanotherkinds.Theymayalsohaveusedwoodandskins,butthesehaverottedaway.Stonedoesnotdecay,andsothetoolsoflongagohaveremainedwheneventhebonesofthemenwhomadethemhavedisappearedwithouttrace.ROBINPLACEFindingfossilmanNewwordsandexpressions生词和短语fossilman(title)adj.化石人recountv.叙述sagan.英雄故事legendn.传说，传奇migration宝贝馨雅资源网www.babyxy.vip1一套引导英语单词记忆的革命性教程谷雨单词王彻底摆脱记单词的苦恼，比普通人快10倍、20倍记牢英语单词http://www.guyuenglish.comQQ:285517323n.迁移，移居anthropologistn.人类学家archaeologistn.考古学家ancestorn.祖先Polynesianadj.波利尼西亚（中太平洋之一群岛）的Indonesian.印度尼西亚flintn.燧石rotn.烂掉参考译文我们从书籍中可读到5,000年前近东发生的事情，那里的人最早学会了写字。但直到现在,世界上有些地方，人们还不会书写。他们保存历史的唯一办法是将历史当作传说讲述，由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来。人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西亚人的祖先来自何方，当地人的传说却告诉人们：其中一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚...
