新概念第四册课文翻译及学习笔记【Lesson1、2、3】

新概念第四册课文翻译及学习笔记【Lesson1、2、3】 【课文】 First listen and then answer the following question. 听录音，然后回答以下问题。 Why are legends handed down by storytellers useful? 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 to recount it as sagas - legends handed down from one generation of story tellers 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 nor legends to help them to find out where the first modern men came from. Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because 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 of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace. 【New words and expressions 生词和短语】 wfossil/w man adj. 化石人 recount v. 叙述 saga n. 英雄故事 legend n. 传说，传奇 migration n. 迁移，移居 anthropologist n. 人类学家 archaeologist n. 考古学家 ancestor n. 祖先 Polynesian adj.波利尼西亚(中太平洋之一群岛)的 Indonesia n. 印度尼西亚 flint n. 燧石 rot n. 烂掉 【课文注释】 1.hand down 把.传下去 例句：Many old legends were handed down from generation by mouth. 很多古老的传说都是一代一代口传下来了。 2.read of，读到，和read about是相同的意思。 谈到：speak of，talk of 了解到：know of 听到：hear of 3.the first people，原始人 people+s 表示民族 4.if they had any： 即便是有，表假设 例句：His relatives, if he had any, never went to visit him when he was hospitalized. 他的亲戚，即便他还有的话，在他住院时也从来不去看他。 5.when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace，这个以when引导的状语从句表示让步的意思，而when能够译成“虽然”，“即使”。 【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年前从印度尼西亚迁来的。 但是，和我们相似的原始人生活的年代太久远了，所以，相关他们的传说既使有如今也失传了。于是，考古学家们既缺乏历史记载，又无口头传说来协助他们弄清最早的“现代人”是从哪里来的。 不过， 幸运的是，远古人用石头制作了工具，特别是用燧石，因为燧石较之其他石头更容易成形。他们也可能用过木头和兽皮，但这类东西早已腐烂殆尽。石头是不会腐烂的。所以，即使制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存，但远古时代的石头工具却保存了下来。 Lesson2 【课文】 First listen and then answer the following question. 听录音，然后回答以下问题。 How much of each year do spiders spend killing insects? Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race. Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals. We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the harm to us or our belongings. Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them. One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six. How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre; that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch. Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects. It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day. It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country. 【New words and expressions 生词和短语】 insect n. 昆虫 devour v. 吞食 flock n. 羊群 herd n. 牧群 beast n. 野兽 fraction n. 小部分 census n. 统计数字 acre n. 英亩 content adj. 满足的 【课文注释】 1. you may wonder 是这个疑问句的插入语。 常见的插入语还有：as you know, to be frank, in fact, generally speaking等等。 2. flock 既可作名词，也可作动词。 作名词，表示羊群或牛群，或者人群 例句：They kept a small flock of sheep. 他们养了一小群羊。 例句：There are many flocks of tourists in the palace. 宫殿里有好几群游客。 作动词，表示聚集，群集 例句：In the summer, tourists flock to the museums and art galleries. 夏季游人成群结队到博物馆和艺术馆参观。 拓展：Birds of a feather flock together.物以类聚，人以群分。 3. if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals，这是一个非真实条件状语从句，were表示虚拟语气。 表示对过去的虚拟：If+过去完成时(had done sth), would/could have done. 表示对现在的虚拟：If+简单过去时(did sth), would/could do. 4. owe a lot to 归功于，感激 owe money to sb欠某人钱 例句：The company owes money to more than 60 banks. 这家公司欠了60多家银行钱。 owe sth to sb把某事归功于某人，感谢某人 例句：He owes his success more to luck than to ability. 他认为他的成功是靠运气而不是因为自己有水平. 5. almost at a glance，几乎一眼(就能看出)。 6. on our behalf 代表我们 on behalf of sb/on sbs behalf 代表某人 例句：On behalf of my colleagues and myself I thank you. 我代表我的同事以及我自己向你表示谢意. 【参考译文】 你可能会觉得奇怪， 蜘蛛怎么会是我们的朋友呢?因为它们能消灭那么多的昆虫，其中包括一些人类的大敌，要不是人类受一些食虫动物的保护，昆虫就会使我们无法在地球上生活下去，昆虫会吞食我们的全部庄稼，杀死我们的成群的牛羊。我们要十分感谢那些吃昆虫的鸟和兽，不过把它们所杀死的昆虫全部加在一起也只相当于蜘蛛所消灭的一小部分。此外，蜘蛛不同于其他食虫动物，它们丝毫不危害我们和我们的财物。 很多人认为蜘蛛是昆虫，但它们不是昆虫，甚至与昆虫毫无关系。人们几乎一眼就能看出二者的差异，因为蜘蛛都是8条腿，而昆虫的腿从不超过6条。 有多少蜘蛛在为我们效力呢?一位研究蜘蛛的对英国南部一块草坪上的蜘蛛作了一次调查。他估计每英亩草坪里有225万多只蜘蛛。这就是说，在一个足球场上约有600万只不同种类的蜘蛛。蜘蛛至少有半年在忙于吃昆虫。它们一年中消灭了多少昆虫，我们简直无法猜测，它们是吃不饱的动物，不满意一日三餐。据估计，在英国蜘蛛一年里所消灭昆虫的重量超过这个国家人口的总重量。 Lesson3 【课文】 First listen and then answer the following question. 听录音，然后回答以下问题。 What was the main objective of early mountain climbers? Modern alpinists try to climb mountains by a route which will give them good sport, and the more difficult it is, the more highly it is regarded. In the pioneering days, however, this was not the case at all. The early climbers were looking for the easiest way to the top, because the summit was the prize they sought, especially if it and never been attained before. It is true that during their explorations they often faced difficulties and dangers of the most perilous nature, equipped in a manner with would make a modern climber shudder at the thought,/b but they did not go out of their way/b to court such excitement. They had a single aim, a solitary goal - the top! It is hard for us to realize nowadays how difficult it was for the pioneers. Except for one or two places such as Zermatt and Chamonix, which had rapidly become popular, Alpine village tended to be impoverished settlements cut off from civilization by the high mountains. Such inns as there were generally dirty and flea-ridden; the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread often twelve months old, all washed down with coarse wine. Often a valley boasted no inn at all, and climbers found shelter wherever they could - sometimes with the local priest (who was usually as poor as his parishioners), sometimes with shepherds or cheese-makers. Invariably the background was the same： dirt and poverty, and very uncomfortable. For men accustomed to eating seven-course dinners and sleeping between fine linen sheets at home, the change to the Alps must have been very hard indeed. WALTER UNSWORTH Matterhorn Man 【New words and expressions 生词和短语】 Matterhorn n. 马特霍恩峰(阿尔卑斯山之一，在意大利和瑞士边境) Alpinist n. 登山运动员 pioneer v. 开辟，倡导;n. 先锋，开辟者 summit n. 顶峰 attain v. 到达 perilous adj. 危险的 shudder v. 不寒而栗 court v. 追求 solitary adj. 的 impoverish v. 使贫困 Alpine adj. 阿尔卑斯山的 flea-ridden adj. 布满跳蚤的 coarse adj. 粗劣的 boast v. 自恃有 parishioner n. 教区居民 shepherd n. 牧羊人 linen n. 亚麻布床单 the Alps n. 阿尔卑斯山脉 【课文注释】 1. the more.the more.越就越 连用两个比较级，表示前后两者之间(水准等)共同增长的趋势;弱为简单形容词，则用其简单比较级形式。 例句：The older I grow, the more I know about our culture. 我年纪越大，对文化了解的就越深。 例句：The more the better. 多多益善。 2. attain获得，达到，实现。 常与goal/power/objective/target等词搭配，近义词achieve。 例句：Im determined to attain my purpose at any cost. 我决心不惜任何代价达到目的。 形容词形式attainable，表示可达到的，可实现的。 例句：These objectives are certainly attainable. 这些目标一定能够达到。 3. in the pioneering days，在初创时期，这里指登山运动的初创时期。 pioneer作名词，表示开拓者、开辟者：少先队员young pioneer。 pioneer作动词，表示当开拓者。 例句：They pioneered a new route to the coast. 他们开辟了通往海岸的新路线。 4. equipped in a manner with would make a modern climber shudder at the thought，他们的装备如此简陋，足以使现代登山者一想起来就胆战心惊。at the thought，一想到(他们的装备)，英文中省略了of the manner。