LESSON 1 Finding Fossil Man
篇章精讲（上）：历史如何承载？
Lead-in：今天我们进入新概念四册的第一讲，The very first passage I selected for you is lesson 1 Finding Fossil Man。(注意 fossil 的发音误区) 一看题目化石人fossil man, what immediately came into your mind? 你可能立刻想到这篇文章一定是something about history or archeology or anthropology. 那到底是历史学还是考古系人类学呢？Let’s check it out!
【原文精讲】
原文 1： We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write.
语言分析点：
内容分析点：
1. The Near East: a geographic concept 近东，一般是相对中东，远东地区而言
的近东概念，指距离西欧较近的国家和地区。 远东、中东、近东这几个政治地理概念是\"欧洲中心论\"Europe-centralism 的产物。14、15 世纪，资本主义生产关系首先在欧洲萌芽，16、17 世纪起，欧洲列强开始向东方进军扩张殖民地march toward the East to colonize the wealth land。东方富庶之地，就是首选啦。
2. 最早的文字：楔形文字。考古学证据表明，在公元前 5000 年至公元前 4000年间，美索不达米亚的两河三角洲居住的人群被称为苏美尔人。They are those who first recorded their life by written language. 最早的文字出现在伊南那神庙的泥板上。这些泥板上雕刻了据猜测是数字的记号和物体，诸如动物的头颅、鸟、鱼、植物、家用器具和人体器官的图画。So people actually recorded history through paintings on the stone.
原文 2： 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 storytellers to another.
语言分析点：
1. 定语从句：world where/ way that
2. 生词：
Preserve v. 保存；保留Recount v. 讲述；叙述
Saga n.传说；冒险故事；英雄事迹
Legend n. 传奇Hand down 传递，传承
3. 同位语：sagas=legends...
4. 过去分词：legends handed down...
内容分析点：
1. 最有名的 Saga: Knights of the Round Table 圆桌骑士。圆桌骑士是传说中不列颠伟大的国王亚瑟王(King Arthur)所领导的高贵骑士。娶了王后，继承了老丈人的大圆桌，这嫁妆，也是独特。The round table represents equality and justice.圆桌会议。
2. 古代记事拓展：上古无文字，结绳以记事。宋代词人张先写过\"心似双丝网，中有千千结\"。“心结”Knot？---The Scar
听起来这么不靠谱的历史，要了有啥用呢？
原文 3 ： 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 [,pɔli'ni:ziən; -ʒiən] peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2000 years ago.
语言分析点：
Migration——immigrate to 移入——emigrate 移民（出）
Ancestors——forefather——子孙：descendant, offspring
Peoples 中的“s”：民族
内容分析点：
例证思维 example, 抽象具体化。How to support your point? Use examples! How to make the abstract concept more accessible to your audience? Use examples! How to make your point convincing? Use examples!新四篇章会有很多不同类型的example, 我们后续一一展开学习！
此处：Historic Facts! Facts speak louder than words!
但是 sagas 能解决所有问题嘛？我们下集揭晓！
音频文件私
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