听力文本

In an obscure museum in eastern Europe a fossil hunter has made a momentous discovery.
这里是东欧一间昏暗的博物馆，一位化石专家在此有了重大发现
The young palaeontologist was randomly sifting through a collection of drawers that hadn't been examined for 30 years.
年轻的古生物学家正在随机挑选抽屉里的收藏品，它们已有30年没人动过了
I was going through these drawers finding drawer after drawer of very much the sort of fossil I would expect to find,
我正在翻看抽屉，一抽屉一抽屉地寻找我想要的那种化石
really nothing particularly exciting and then pulling open one drawer I spotted in the middle,
没发现什么值得兴奋的东西，后来我打开一个抽屉，突然注意到抽屉中间
sitting in a little cardboard tray like soap, a fossil the likes of which would never have been found anywhere in the world.
在肥皂盒一样的纸格中躺着一块化石，看起来从没在世界上其它地方发现过

Of all the tales of life on Earth there is one more fabulous than all the others the story of how we got our legs.
地球上所有生命故事中最传奇的部分莫过于我们进化出腿的经历
Scientists believe that long ago a fish came onto the land, grew legs and started to walk.
科学家们认为很久以前有一条鱼爬上了陆地，长出腿，然后开始行走
It is one of the most crucial events in the history of life because that animal is our ancestor,
这是生命历史上最重大的事件之一，因为这只动物正是我们的祖先
but how and why that fish grew legs is one of the biggest mysteries in evolution.
但是鱼长出腿的原因和过程却是进化史上最大的谜题之一
It baffled the finest minds in science for over a century.
一个多世纪以来，它一直困扰着科学界的精英
All they had to guide them were the theories of Charles Darwin, evolution's founding father.
唯有查尔斯·达尔文——进化论的创始人堪称探讨此问题的向导

词汇解析

1.make a discovery 发现
But they've made a discovery that means there are probably a lot more stars in the universe than they thought.
但是他们最近发现宇宙的恒星可能比想象中要多上许多。

2.sift through 筛选；仔细查看
You can request people to fill in questionnaires or take interviews, sift through them and retain whatever is necessary.
你可以让人们填写问卷或者进行访谈，从中筛选并且保留你所需的信息。

3.onto the land 来到陆地上
But something happened when our aquatic ancestors first slithered onto the land.
但是我们的水生祖先有时偶尔摇摇晃晃的爬上陆地。

视频及简介

19世纪，英国生物学家赫胥黎在研究了尼安德特人的头骨以后，认为是一个具有猿脸的头骨，但决不是人与猿之间的中间缺环。这就告诉我们，人与猿之间的亲缘关系，似乎还应该有一环。1891年发现直立猿人（爪哇猿人）的骨胳，证明这个缺环确实是存在的。可是，日本的人类学家认为爪哇猿人尚不是真正的中间缺环。那么，在猿与人之间到底应该是什么样的一环呢？在埃塞俄比亚发现的早期人科动物化石，很可能是过渡物种。这一发现，弥补了原始人类进化中的一个“缺环”。