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标题: 阅读资料：房龙《人类的故事》 [打印本页]

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作者: huge57    时间: 2006-12-17 10:51
标题: 阅读资料：房龙《人类的故事》
The Story of Mankind

by Hendrik van Loon



THE STORY OF MANKIND
BY HENDRIK VAN LOON, PH.D.
Professor of the Social Sciences in Antioch College.
Author of The Fall of the Dutch Republic, The Rise of the Dutch
Kingdom, The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators,
A Short Story of Discovery, Ancient Man.

[ 本帖最后由 huge57 于 2006-12-19 08:29 编辑 ]

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作者: huge57    时间: 2006-12-17 10:56
为了使Pets(1)班和其他的学生进一步学习英语阅读和写作，我将陆续在此贴出《人类的故事》英文原文。推荐这本书，有几点考虑：
1，扩大知识面
2，观点可取
3，文字流畅优美
4，写法通俗易懂

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作者: huge57    时间: 2006-12-17 11:01
FOREWORD



For Hansje and Willem:





WHEN I was twelve or thirteen years old, an uncle of

mine who gave me my love for books and pictures promised

to take me upon a memorable expedition. I was to go with

him to the top of the tower of Old Saint Lawrence in Rotterdam.



And so, one fine day, a sexton with a key as large as that

of Saint Peter opened a mysterious door. ``Ring the bell,''

he said, ``when you come back and want to get out,'' and with

a great grinding of rusty old hinges he separated us from the

noise of the busy street and locked us into a world of new and

strange experiences.



For the first time in my life I was confronted by the phenomenon

of audible silence. When we had climbed the first

flight of stairs, I added another discovery to my limited

knowledge of natural phenomena--that of tangible darkness. A

match showed us where the upward road continued. We went

to the next floor and then to the next and the next until I had

lost count and then there came still another floor, and suddenly

we had plenty of light. This floor was on an even height with

the roof of the church, and it was used as a storeroom. Covered

with many inches of dust, there lay the abandoned symbols

of a venerable faith which had been discarded by the good

people of the city many years ago. That which had meant life

and death to our ancestors was here reduced to junk and rub-

bish. The industrious rat had built his nest among the carved

images and the ever watchful spider had opened up shop between

the outspread arms of a kindly saint.



The next floor showed us from where we had derived our

light. Enormous open windows with heavy iron bars made

the high and barren room the roosting place of hundreds of

pigeons. The wind blew through the iron bars and the air was

filled with a weird and pleasing music. It was the noise of the

town below us, but a noise which had been purified and cleansed

by the distance. The rumbling of heavy carts and the clinking

of horses' hoofs, the winding of cranes and pulleys, the hissing

sound of the patient steam which had been set to do the work

of man in a thousand different ways--they had all been

blended into a softly rustling whisper which provided a beautiful

background for the trembling cooing of the pigeons.



Here the stairs came to an end and the ladders began. And

after the first ladder (a slippery old thing which made one feel

his way with a cautious foot) there was a new and even greater

wonder, the town-clock. I saw the heart of time. I could hear

the heavy pulsebeats of the rapid seconds--one--two--three--

up to sixty. Then a sudden quivering noise when all the wheels

seemed to stop and another minute had been chopped off eternity.

Without pause it began again--one--two--three--until

at last after a warning rumble and the scraping of many wheels

a thunderous voice, high above us, told the world that it was

the hour of noon.



On the next floor were the bells. The nice little bells and

their terrible sisters. In the centre the big bell, which made

me turn stiff with fright when I heard it in the middle of the

night telling a story of fire or flood. In solitary grandeur it

seemed to reflect upon those six hundred years during which

it had shared the joys and the sorrows of the good people of

Rotterdam. Around it, neatly arranged like the blue jars in

an old-fashioned apothecary shop, hung the little fellows, who

twice each week played a merry tune for the benefit of the

country-folk who had come to market to buy and sell and hear

what the big world had been doing. But in a corner--all alone

and shunned by the others--a big black bell, silent and stern,

the bell of death.



Then darkness once more and other ladders, steeper and

even more dangerous than those we had climbed before, and

suddenly the fresh air of the wide heavens. We had reached

the highest gallery. Above us the sky. Below us the city--

a little toy-town, where busy ants were hastily crawling hither

and thither, each one intent upon his or her particular business,

and beyond the jumble of stones, the wide greenness of the

open country.



It was my first glimpse of the big world.



Since then, whenever I have had the opportunity, I have

gone to the top of the tower and enjoyed myself. It was hard

work, but it repaid in full the mere physical exertion of climbing

a few stairs.



Besides, I knew what my reward would be. I would see the

land and the sky, and I would listen to the stories of my kind

friend the watchman, who lived in a small shack, built in a

sheltered corner of the gallery. He looked after the clock

and was a father to the bells, and he warned of fires, but he

enjoyed many free hours and then he smoked a pipe and

thought his own peaceful thoughts. He had gone to school almost

fifty years before and he had rarely read a book, but he

had lived on the top of his tower for so many years that he had

absorbed the wisdom of that wide world which surrounded him

on all sides.



History he knew well, for it was a living thing with him.

``There,'' he would say, pointing to a bend of the river, ``there,

my boy, do you see those trees? That is where the Prince of

Orange cut the dikes to drown the land and save Leyden.''

Or he would tell me the tale of the old Meuse, until the broad

river ceased to be a convenient harbour and became a wonderful

highroad, carrying the ships of De Ruyter and Tromp upon

that famous last voyage, when they gave their lives that the

sea might be free to all.



Then there were the little villages, clustering around the

protecting church which once, many years ago, had been the

home of their Patron Saints. In the distance we could see the

leaning tower of Delft. Within sight of its high arches,

William the Silent had been murdered and there Grotius had

learned to construe his first Latin sentences. And still further

away, the long low body of the church of Gouda, the early home

of the man whose wit had proved mightier than the armies of

many an emperor, the charity-boy whom the world came to

know as Erasmus.



Finally the silver line of the endless sea and as a contrast,

immediately below us, the patchwork of roofs and chimneys

and houses and gardens and hospitals and schools and railways,

which we called our home. But the tower showed us

the old home in a new light. The confused commotion of the

streets and the market-place, of the factories and the workshop,

became the well-ordered expression of human energy

and purpose. Best of all, the wide view of the glorious past,

which surrounded us on all sides, gave us new courage to face

the problems of the future when we had gone back to our daily

tasks.



History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time

has built amidst the endless fields of bygone ages. It is no easy

task to reach the top of this ancient structure and get the benefit

of the full view. There is no elevator, but young feet are

strong and it can be done.



Here I give you the key that will open the door.



When you return, you too will understand the reason for

my enthusiasm.

                                   HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON.

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作者: huge57    时间: 2006-12-17 11:02
CONTENTS





1.  THE SETTING OF THE STAGE

2.  OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS

3.  PREHISTORIC MAX BEGINS TO MAKE THINGS FOR HIMSELF

4.  THE EGYPTIANS INVENT THE ART OF WRITING AND THE RECORD

       OF HISTORY BEGINS

5.  THE BEGINNING OF CIVILISATION IN THE VALLEY OF THE NILE

6.  THE RISE AND FALL OF EGYPT

7.  MESOPOTAMIA, THE SECOND CENTRE OF EASTERN CIVILISATION

8.  THE SUMERIAN NAIL WRITERS, WHOSE CLAY TABLETS TELL US

       THE STORY OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, THE GREAT SEMITIC

       MELTING-POT

9.  THE STORY OF MOSES, THE LEADER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE

10. THE PHOENICIANS, WHO GAVE US OUR ALPHABET

11. THE INDO-EUROPEAN PERSIANS CONQUER THE SEMITIC AND THE

       EGYPTIAN WORLD

12. THE PEOPLE OF THE AEGEAN SEA CARRIED THE CIVILISATION

       OF OLD ASIA INTO THE WILDERNESS OF EUROPE

13. MEANWHILE THE INDO-EUROPEAN TRIBE OF THE HELLENES WAS

       TAKING POSSESSION OF GREECE

14. THE GREEK CITIES THAT WERE REALLY STATES

15. THE GREEKS WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO TRY THE DIFFICULT

       EXPERIMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT

16. HOW THE GREEKS LIVED

17. THE ORIGINS OF THE THEATRE, THE FIRST FORM OF PUBLIC

       AMUSEMENT

18. HOW THE GREEKS DEFENDED EUROPE AGAINST AN ASIATIC INVASION AND

DROVE THE PERSIANS BACK ACROSS THE AEGEAN SEA

19. HOW ATHENS AND SPARTA FOUGHT A LONG AND DISASTROUS WAR

FOR THE LEADERSHIP OF GREECE

20. ALEXANDER THE MACEDONIAN ESTABLISHES A GREEK WORLD

EMPIRE, AND WHAT BECAME OF THIS HIGH AMBITION

21. A SHORT SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 1 TO 20

22. THE SEMITIC COLONY OF CARTHAGE ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF

AFRICA AND THE INDO-EUROPEAN CITY OF ROME ON THE WEST

COAST OF ITALY FOUGHT EACH OTHER FOR THE POSSESSION OF

THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND CARTHAGE WAS DESTROYED

23. HOW ROME HAPPENED

24. HOW THE REPUBLIC OF ROME, AFTER CENTURIES OF UNREST AND

REVOLUTION, BECAME AN EMPIRE

25. THE STORY OF JOSHUA OF NAZARETH, WHOM THE GREEKS CALLED

JESUS

26. THE TWILIGHT OF ROME

27. HOW ROME BECAME THE CENTRE OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD

28. AHMED, THE CAMEL DRIVER, WHO BECAME THE PROPHET OF THE

ARABIAN DESERT, AND WHOSE FOLLOWERS ALMOST CONQUERED

THE ENTIRE KNOWN WORLD FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF

ALLAH, THE ``ONLY TRUE GOD''

29. HOW CHARLEMAGNE, THE KING OF THE ~ RANKS, CAME TO BEAR

THE TITLE OF EMPEROR AND TRIED TO REVIVE THE OLD IDEAL

OF WORLD-EMPIRE

30. WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE TENTH CENTURY PRAYED THE LORD

TO PROTECT THEM FROM THE FURY OF THE NORSEMEN

31. HOW CENTRAL EUROPE, ATTACKED FROM THREE SIDES, BECAME

AN ARMED CAMP AND WHY EUROPE WOULD HAVE PERISHED

WITHOUT THOSE PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS AND ADMINISTRATORS

WHO WERE PART OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM

32. CHIVALRY

33. THE STRANGE DOUBLE LOYALTY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE

AGES, AND HOW IT LED TO ENDLESS QUARRELS BETWEEN THE

POPES AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPERORS

34. BUT ALL THESE DIFFERENT QUARRELS WERE FORGOTTEN WHEN

THE TURKS TOOK THE HOLY LAND, DESECRATED THE HOLY

PLACES AND INTERFERED SERIOUSLY WITH THE TRADE FROM

EAST TO WEST. EUROPE WENT CRUSADING

35. WHY THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES SAID THAT CITY AIR

IS FREE AIR

36. HOW THE PEOPLE OF THE CITIES ASSERTED THEIR RIGHT

TO BE HEARD IN THE ROYAL COUNCILS OF THEIR COUNTRY

37. WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE AGES THOUGHT OF THE

WORLD IN WHICH THEY HAPPENED TO LIVE

38. HOW THE CRUSADES ONCE MORE MADE THE MEDITERRANEAN A

BUSY CENTRE OF TBADE AND HOW THE CITIES OF THE ITALIAN

PENINSULA BECAME THE GREAT DISTRIBUTING CENTRE FOR THE

COMMERCE WITH ASIA AND AFRICA

39. PEOPLE ONCE MORE DARED TO BE HAPPY JUST BECAUSE THEY

WERE ALIVE. THEY TRIED TO SAVE THE REMAINS OF THE

OLDER AND MORE AGREEABLE CIVILISATION OF ROME AND

GREECE AND THEY WERE 80 PROUD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS

THAT THEY SPOKE OF A RENAISSANCE OR RE-BIRTH OF

CIVILISATION

40. THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO FEEL THE NEED OF GIVING EXPRESSION

TO THEIR NEWLY DISCOVERED JOY OF LIVING. THEY EXPRESSED

THEIR HAPPINES9 IN POETRY AND IN SCULPTURE AND

IN ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING, AND IN THE BOOKS THEY

PRINTED

41. BUT NOW THAT PEOPLE HAD BROKEN THROUGH THE BONDS OF

THEIR NARROW ~IEDIIEVAL LIMITATIONS, THEY HAD TO HAVE

MORE ROOM FOR THEIR WANDERINGS. THE EUROPEAN WORLD

HAD GROWN TOO SMALL FOR THEIR AMBITIONS. IT WAS THE

TIME OF THE GREAT VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY

42. CONCERNING BUDDHA AND CONFUCIUS

43. THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN RACE IS BEST COMPARED TO A

GIGANTIC PENDULUM WHICH FOREVER SWINGS FORWARD AND

BACKWARD. THE RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE AND THE ARTISTIC

AND LITERARY ENTHUSIASM OF THE RENAISSANCE WERE FOLLOWED

BY THE ARTISTIC AND LITERARY INDIFFERENCE AND THE

RELIGIOITS ENTHUSIASM OF THE REFORMATION

44. THE AGE OF THE GREAT RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES

45. HOW THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS

AND THE LESS DIVINE BUT MORE REASONABLE RIGHT OF

PARLIAMENT ENDED DISASTROUSLY FOR KING CHARLES II

46. IN FRANCE, ON THE OTHER HAND, THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS

CONTINUED WITH GREATER POMP AND SPLENDOR THAN EVER

BEFORE AND THE AMBITION OF THE RULER WAS ONLY TEMPERED

BY THE NEWLY INVENTED LAW OF THE BALANCE OF POWER

47. THE STORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS MUSCOVITE EMPIRE WHICH SUDDENLY

BURST UPON THE GRAND POLITICAL STAGE OF EUROPE

48. RUSSIA AND SWEDEN FOUGHT MANY WARS TO DECIDE WHO

SHALL BE THE LEADING POWER OF NORTHEASTERN EUROPE

49. THE EXTRAORDINARY RISE OF A LITTLE STATE IN A DREARY PART

OF NORTHERN GERMANY, CALLED PRUSSIA

50. HOW THE NEWLY FOUNDED NATIONAL OR DYNASTIC STATES OF

EUROPE TRIED TO MAKE THEMSELVES RICH AND WHAT WAS

MEANT BY THE MERCANTILE SYSTEM

51. AT THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE HEARD

STRANGE REPORTS OF SOMETHING WHICH HAD HAPPENED IN

THE WILDERNESS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT. THE

DESCENDANTS OF THE MEN WHO HAD PUNISHED KING CHARLES

FOR HIS INSISTENCE UPON HIS DIVINE RIGHTS ADDED A

NEW CHAPTER TO THE OLD STORY OF THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-

GOVERNMENT

62. THE GREAT FRENCH REVOLUTION PROCLAIMS THE PRINCIPLES

OF LIBERTY, FRATERNITY AND EQUALITY UNTO All THE PEOPLE

OF THE EARTH

53. NAPOLEON

54. AS SOON AS NAPOLEON HAD BEEN SENT TO ST. HELENA, THE

RULERS WHO SO OFTEN HAD BEEN DEFEATED BY THE HATED

CORSICAN MET AT VIENNA AND TRIED TO UNDO THE MANY

CHANCES WHICH HAD BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE FRENCH

REVOLUTION

55. THEY TRIED TO ASSURE THE WORLD AN ERA OF UNDISTURBED

PEACE BY SUPPRESSING ALL NEW IDEAS. THEY MADE THE

POLICE-SPY THE HIGHEST FUNCTIONARY IN THE STATE AND

SOON THE PRISONS OF AIL COUNTRIES WERE FILLED WITH

THOSE WHO CLAIMED THAT PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO

GOVERN THEMSELVES AS THEY SEE FIT

56. THE LOVE OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, HOWEVER, WAS TOO

STRONG TO BE DESTROYED IN THIS WAY. THE SOUTH AMERICANS

WERE THE FIRST TO REBEL AGAINST THE REACTIONARY

MEASURES OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. GREECE AND BELGIUM

AND SPAIN AND A LARGE NUMBER OF OTHER COUNTRIES

OF THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT FOLLOWED SUIT AND THE

NINETEENTH CENTURY WAS FILLED WITH THE RUMOR OF MANY

WARS OF INDEPENDENCE

57. BUT WHITE THE PEOPLE OF EUROPE WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR

NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY LIVED

HAD BEEN ENTIRELY CHANGED BY A SERIES OF INVENTIONS,

WHICH HAD MADE THE CLUMSY OLD STEAM-ENGINE OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THE MOST FAITHFUL AND EFFICIENT

STAVE OF MAN

58. THE NEW ENGINES WERE VERY EXPENSIVE AND ONLY PEOPLE

OF WEALTH COULD AFFORD THEM. THE OLD CARPENTER OR

SHOEMAKER WHO HAD BEEN HIS OWN MASTER IN HIS LITTLE

WORKSHOP WAS OBLIGED TO HIRE HIMSELF OUT TO THE OWNERS

OF THE BIG MECHANICAL TOOLS, AND WHITE HE MADE

MORE MONEY THAN BEFORE, HE LOST HIS FORMER INDEPENDENCE

AND HE DID NOT LIKE THAT

59. THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY DID NOT BRING

ABOUT THE ERA OF HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY WHICH HAD

BEEN PREDICTED BY THE GENERATION WHICH SAW THE STAGE

COACH REPLACED BY THE RAILROAD. SEVERAL REMEDIES

WERE SUGGESTED, BUT NONE OF THESE QUITE SOLVED THE

PROBLEM

60. BUT THE WORLD HAD UNDERGONE ANOTHER CHANGE WHICH WAS

OF GREATER IMPORTANCE THAN EITHER THE POLITICAL OR THE

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS. AFTER GENERATIONS OF OPPRESSION

AND PERSECUTION, THE SCIENTIST HAD AT LAST GAINED

LIBERTY OF ACTION AND HE WAS NOW TRYING TO DISCOVER

THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS WHICH GOVERN THE UNIVERSE

61. A CHAPTER OF ART

62. THE LAST FIFTY YEARS, INCLUDING SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS

AND A FEW APOLOGIES

63. THE GREAT WAR, WHICH WAS REALLY THE STRUGGLE FOR A

NEW AND BETTER WORLD

64.ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY

65.CONCERNING THE PICTURES



66.AN HISTORICAL READING LIST FOR CHILDREN



67.INDEX

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作者: huge57    时间: 2006-12-17 11:03
THE STORY OF MANKIND





HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there

stands a rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles

wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this

rock to sharpen its beak.



When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day

of eternity will have gone by.







THE SETTING OF THE STAGE





WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark.



Who are we?



Where do we come from?



Whither are we bound?



Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing

this question mark further and further towards that distant

line, beyond the horizon, where we hope to find our answer.



We have not gone very far.



We still know very little but we have reached the point

where (with a fair degree of accuracy) we can guess at many

things.



In this chapter I shall tell you how (according to our best

belief) the stage was set for the first appearance of man.



If we represent the time during which it has been possible for

animal life to exist upon our planet by a line of this length,

then the tiny line just below indicates the age during which

man (or a creature more or less resembling man) has lived

upon this earth.



Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for

the purpose of conquering the forces of nature. That is the

reason why we are going to study him, rather than cats or

dogs or horses or any of the other animals, who, all in their

own way, have a very interesting historical development behind

them.



In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was (as far

as we now know) a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of

smoke in the endless ocean of space. Gradually, in the course

of millions of years, the surface burned itself out, and was covered

with a thin layer of rocks. Upon these lifeless rocks the

rain descended in endless torrents, wearing out the hard

granite and carrying the dust to the valleys that lay hidden between

the high cliffs of the steaming earth.



Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the

clouds and saw how this little planet was covered with a few

small puddles which were to develop into the mighty oceans of

the eastern and western hemispheres.



Then one day the great wonder happened. What had been

dead, gave birth to life.



The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea.



For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents.

But during all that time it was developing certain habits that

it might survive more easily upon the inhospitable earth. Some

of these cells were happiest in the dark depths of the lakes and

the pools. They took root in the slimy sediments which had

been carried down from the tops of the hills and they became

plants. Others preferred to move about and they grew

strange jointed legs, like scorpions and began to crawl along

the bottom of the sea amidst the plants and the pale green things

that looked like jelly-fishes. Still others (covered with scales)

depended upon a swimming motion to go from place to place

in their search for food, and gradually they populated the ocean

with myriads of fishes.



Meanwhile the plants had increased in number and they had

to search for new dwelling places. There was no more room

for them at the bottom of the sea. Reluctantly they left the

water and made a new home in the marshes and on the mud-

banks that lay at the foot of the mountains. Twice a day the

tides of the ocean covered them with their brine. For the rest

of the time, the plants made the best of their uncomfortable

situation and tried to survive in the thin air which surrounded

the surface of the planet. After centuries of training, they

learned how to live as comfortably in the air as they had done in

the water. They increased in size and became shrubs and trees

and at last they learned how to grow lovely flowers which

attracted the attention of the busy big bumble-bees and the

birds who carried the seeds far and wide until the whole earth

had become covered with green pastures, or lay dark under the

shadow of the big trees. But some of the fishes too

had begun to leave the sea, and they had learned how to breathe

with lungs as well as with gills. We call such creatures amphibious,

which means that they are able to live with equal ease on the land

and in the water. The first frog who crosses your path can tell you

all about the pleasures of the double existence of the amphibian.



Once outside of the water, these animals gradually adapted

themselves more and more to life on land. Some became reptiles

(creatures who crawl like lizards) and they shared the

silence of the forests with the insects. That they might move

faster through the soft soil, they improved upon their legs

and their size increased until the world was populated with

gigantic forms (which the hand-books of biology list under

the names of Ichthyosaurus and Megalosaurus and Brontosaurus)

who grew to be thirty to forty feet long and who could have

played with elephants as a full grown cat plays with her kittens.



Some of the members of this reptilian family began to live in

the tops of the trees, which were then often more than a hundred

feet high. They no longer needed their legs for the purpose

of walking, but it was necessary for them to move quickly from

branch to branch. And so they changed a part of their skin

into a sort of parachute, which stretched between the sides of

their bodies and the small toes of their fore-feet, and gradually

they covered this skinny parachute with feathers and made

their tails into a steering gear and flew from tree to tree and

developed into true birds.



Then a strange thing happened. All the gigantic reptiles

died within a short time. We do not know the reason. Perhaps

it was due to a sudden change in climate. Perhaps they

had grown so large that they could neither swim nor walk nor

crawl, and they starved to death within sight but not within

reach of the big ferns and trees. Whatever the cause, the

million year old world-empire of the big reptiles was over.



The world now began to be occupied by very different

creatures. They were the descendants of the reptiles but they

were quite unlike these because they fed their young from the

``mammae'' or the breasts of the mother. Wherefore modern

science calls these animals ``mammals.'' They had shed the

scales of the fish. They did not adopt the feathers of the bird,

but they covered their bodies with hair. The mammals however

developed other habits which gave their race a great advantage

over the other animals. The female of the species

carried the eggs of the young inside her body until they were

hatched and while all other living beings, up to that time, had

left their children exposed to the dangers of cold and heat,

and the attacks of wild beasts, the mammals kept their young

with them for a long time and sheltered them while they were

still too weak to fight their enemies. In this way the young

mammals were given a much better chance to survive, because

they learned many things from their mothers, as you will know

if you have ever watched a cat teaching her kittens to take

care of themselves and how to wash their faces and how to

catch mice.



But of these mammals I need not tell you much for you

know them well. They surround you on all sides. They are

your daily companions in the streets and in your home, and you

can see your less familiar cousins behind the bars of the zoological

garden.



And now we come to the parting of the ways when man

suddenly leaves the endless procession of dumbly living and

dying creatures and begins to use his reason to shape the

destiny of his race.



One mammal in particular seemed to surpass all others in

its ability to find food and shelter. It had learned to use its

fore-feet for the purpose of holding its prey, and by dint of

practice it had developed a hand-like claw. After innumerable

attempts it had learned how to balance the whole of the

body upon the hind legs. (This is a difficult act, which every

child has to learn anew although the human race has been

doing it for over a million years.)



This creature, half ape and half monkey but superior to

both, became the most successful hunter and could make a

living in every clime. For greater safety, it usually moved

about in groups. It learned how to make strange grunts to

warn its young of approaching danger and after many hundreds

of thousands of years it began to use these throaty noises

for the purpose of talking.



This creature, though you may hardly believe it, was your

first ``man-like'' ancestor.

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作者: huge57    时间: 2006-12-17 11:13
在课堂上，我们将从第五号帖的内容讲起。请预习。

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作者: huge57    时间: 2006-12-18 20:24
http://www.iciba.com/search?s=attribute&t=word&lang=utf-8
以上是金山词霸的网址，可以用来查词。也可以用下面的网址查阅英文词：
http://www.103.net/

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作者: 三宝妈    时间: 2007-1-9 12:03
收藏，三宝3年级，快学完《新概念》1，寒假复习1。
我想学完《新概念》2后看您贴出《人类的故事》英文原文。

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作者: x6036867    时间: 2007-1-31 10:11
袁大侠,hello!

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作者: hlp525    时间: 2009-1-8 09:33
The Story of Mankind  引进的英文原版刚出版，在当当网上有售，价格合理

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20445632

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