听力原文

What do you take with you when you travel? Most of us would embark on a long list that begins with a toothbrush and ends with excess baggage. But for most of human history, there was only one thing that you really needed in order to travel - a stone handaxe.

当你旅行时随身携带的物品是什么？我们中大多数人会开出一张长长的清单，以牙刷开头，直到用超重的行李包结尾。但是在人类历史上的多数阶段，你旅行中真正需要的可能仅仅是一把石制手斧。

"Pretty sharp, around the edges, isn't it?"

“周边边缘真是锋芒锐利，是吧？”

"I think whoever made this, did it very beautifully and carefully."

“我觉得制造这工具的人，手艺堪称鬼斧天工啊！”

It looks pretty straightforward, but in fact, it is extremely tricky to make and, for over a million years, it was literally the cutting edge of technology.

它看起来相对简单，但其实制造一把手斧的工夫却是非常棘手，而且在超过近百万年时光里，这一直领先的前沿工艺。

"And once they'd been invented, if you want to use that word, they just never changed the design ... and I think that is the ultimate compliment to the design of a superb tool."

“一旦它们被发明出来，其名字确认下来，设计再也不曾被修改过。我觉得这种‘从来被模仿，不曾被超过’真是对一种超极工具的终极评价!”

It accompanied our ancestors through half of their history, and was the main reason they spread first across Africa and then across the world.

它伴随着我们老祖宗渡过近一半的人类历史，同时也是他们得以走出非洲，遍布全球的原因。

Olduvai handaxe (made 1.2 - 1.4 million years ago) found in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, East Africa

奥杜威手斧，距今约一百二十至一百四十万年前，出土于东非坦桑尼亚奥杜威峡谷

For a million years the sound of making handaxes provided the percussion of everyday life. Anyone choosing a hundred objects to tell a history of the world would have to include a handaxe. All of this week I'm looking at objects from the very earliest moments of human history.

在将近百万年的时光里，制造手斧的声音宛如人们日常生活里打击乐器的乐声。任何人企图选择百件物品来讲叙一段世界历史的，这石斧肯定是必选之物。本周以来我一直在寻找着一些来自于最早期人类历史的物品。

Every object I've chosen is a document of the world in which it was made, but also marks a critical stage in the process by which we became fully human. And what I think makes this stone axe so interesting is how much it tells us, not just about the hand, but about the mind that made it.

我所选择的每件物品本身都一份文件，承载着制造它那个世界的信息，同时也标志着让我们成为完整人类过程中的某个关键阶段。我觉得让这把石斧如何有趣，是因为它不仅可以告诉我们其制造者手中的工艺，还有制造者脑里的想法。

I am holding a handaxe now,The Olduvai Gorge handaxe now. It doesn't, of course, look anything like a modern axe - there's no handle and there's no metal blade. It's in fact a piece of grey-green volcanic rock, a very beautiful grey-green, and it's in the shape of a tear-drop, and it's a lot more versatile than a modern straight axe would be.

奥杜威峡谷手斧肯定外表同现代斧头是两回事，既没有手柄，也没有金属刀刃。其实这是一块灰绿色的火山岩石，很漂亮的灰绿色，泪珠状，同时它更比现代斧头更加的多功能多用途。

重点讲解

1. embark on

从事，着手；登上船

eg. But are we, the fans, ready for them to embark on something new?

但是我们这些粉丝准备好他们从事别的事了吗？

eg. Experts argue that although most companies see the need to reform in a crisis, many embark on the wrong kind of change.

专家辩称，尽管多少公司在危机中看到改革的需求，许多公司会从事一类错误的变革。

2. begin with

以…开始；开始于…

eg. The concert began with the National Anthem.

音乐会以国歌开始。

eg. The English alphabet begins with A.

英语字母表的第一个字母是A。

3. in order to

为了

eg. In order to compass our object we must work hard.

为了达到我们的目标，我们必须努力工作。

eg. He polished off his work in order to see his girlfriend.

为了去见女朋友，他匆忙地做完手头的工作。