听力原文

'They were a very important part of the Egyptian economy. It became essentially a symbol for life.'

“它们是古埃及经济相当重要的一部分，牛在本质上已经成为一种生命的象征。”

'It's not that easy for archaeologists to pin down how food processing worked in these early stages, but some of these artefacts can give us a good insight into it.'

“对于考古学家来说，精确地找出在这些人类早期阶段食品加工究竟是怎么样的，可不是一件轻松活；不过有些文物可以给我们提供一向很好的启示。”

Our history of the world in 100 objects

100件藏品中的世界史

A painted clay medel of four cattle, approximately 5 and a half thousand years old.

四牛模型，彩绘泥塑，距今约五千五百年前。

Four horned cows stand side by side upon fertile land. And indeed they've been grazing on their little patch of grass for about five and a half thousand years. They're ancient Egyptian, more ancient even than the pharaohs or the pyramids.

这四只带角的牛肩并肩站成在肥沃的土地上，它们就在那块小草地上吃草，渡过了五千五百年的漫长岁月。它们来自古埃及，甚至比古法老金字塔的年代还要久

These cows are miniatures - small models, hand-moulded out of a single lump of Nile river clay. And on them you can still see very faint traces of black-and-white paint applied after the clay had been lightly baked.

这四只牛是实物小缩影，或者说是小模型，一次性手工造模成型，材料是一小块尼罗河粘土。在它们身上，当初粘土微火烘培后所涂上的黑白涂料仍旧留有隐隐约约的痕迹。

Like toy farm-animals of the sort most of us played with as children, they stand only a few inches high, and the clay base that they share is roughly the size of a dinner plate. These cows were buried with a man in a cemetery near a small village near El Amra in southern Egypt.

就像我们当小孩时玩的玩具农场动物一样，这些陶牛模型站着有几英寸高，托着它们的粘土盘也就餐盘大小。这些陶牛是一个男性的随葬品，地置大概在南部埃及靠近El Amra地区的小村落附近。

重点讲解

1. pin down

确定；使受约束；阻止

eg. It has taken until now to pin down its exact location.

一直到现在才确定了它的准确位置。

eg. We should use our secondary forces to pin down several enemy columns.

我们应该用助攻部队来牵制住敌人的几个纵队。

2. early stage

早期，初期

eg. But this is only at an early stage of feasibility study.

但是这仅仅处于可行性研究的初期阶段。

eg. Those initiatives are all in the early stages, and the dividends are not yet clear.

所有这些倡议目前都还处于早期阶段，以后的回报还不可知。

3. graze on

吃（牛羊等吃草）

eg. There is good grassland here for your cattle and horses to graze on.

这里有良好的草场可供你的牛马放牧。

eg. Small fish and invertebrates also graze on the plant-like organisms, and then those smaller animals are eaten by bigger ones.

小鱼和无脊椎动物也以这些植物类生物为食，然后则是众所周知的小鱼吃虾米，大鱼吃小鱼。