中英文本

Writing seems to have emerged independently in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Central America-all of them expanding population centres-but there's fierce debate and much rivalry about who got to writing first.
文字似乎在各个人口规模很大的中心地区，如美索不达米亚、埃及、 中国和中美洲都独立发展起来了dbsFUQt)JI,D+2k1&g。但关于谁第一个开始书写，仍然争议不断D7YLVC_xY3JT|Flv。
At the moment, the Mesopotamians seem to be in the lead, but that may simply be because their evidence-being in clay-has survived.
美索不达米亚人目前似乎暂时领先，但这很可能只是因为他们的证据—这些黏土板留存了下来_dq,I*Tt]Y)|rs。
I began this week looking at how rulers, trying to control their subjects in the new populous cities of Egypt and Mesopotamia, used military force to coerce them.
如前所述，埃及和美索不达米亚的统治者起初用武力来控制他们人口逐渐增多的城市2M!]14|uv6|。
But in writing, they found an even more powerful weapon of social control.
但后来他们发现，书写是更有力的控制社会的武器d5#h6LdBSzEaPZRo。
Even a reed pen turned out to be mightier than the sword.
芦苇笔的力量比刀剑更强6+4(Ko2ct,^。

重点讲解

1.seem to 似乎

Would seem to be a fairly salient fact.
这似乎是一个相当显著的事实];QLMNx-N9TC)。

France's high labor costs seem to be behind the drop off in exports.
法国的劳动力成本高，似乎是出口下降背后的原因NXwpj~!=yUebTfF=9!。

2.military force 军事力量

Nor is it to rule out the use of military force.
也不是说要排除动用武力2|t%(Y,sgJ|。

Military force is essential in afghanistan to combat the taliban.
在阿富汗与塔利班战斗军事力量是必不可少的yGRb,3;9XP~--k。

3.turn out 结果是；出席

Businesses could turn out impressive buzz-monitoring applications.
而公司也可以用它制作出监视热门话题的应用E8YC!ndZr.aV。

So makers would be able to turn out new models quicker and at lower cost.
这样汽车制造商可以在更短的时间内以较低的成本设计出新车型CnXFfC[X!U3O*c^#。