(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Want to know the route humans took when they first migrated from Africa into Europe?
Seems that they might have marked the path.
Not like Hansel and Gretel, who consciously left bread crumbs.
Ancient humans ate as they trekked.
And they appear to have chucked aside the packaging for some of their slimy sustenance: snails.
Conventional wisdom has been that humans initially traveled from Africa to the Near East,then up around the Mediterranean through Lebanon before heading into Europe some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago.
But recently, some scientists have theorized that humans made it to Europe first and then headed east.
Now there's more support for the old view that humans traveled through the Levant on the way to Europe–in the form of the shells of edible marine snails.
The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers evaluated shells from an archaeological site dated to the Upper Paleolithic in Lebanon.
The shells were mostly intact, except the tapered pointy tip had been removed—most likely for easier access to the meat inside.
The scientists calculated the age of the shells via a variety of methods.
And they found that the snails dated back almost 46,000 years.
The earliest evidence of modern human remains in Europe seem to be no more than 45,000 years old.
The snail evidence thus adds weight to the hypothesis that ancient people passed through the Levant on their way to Europe.
And not at a snail's pace, either.
参考译文
想知道古代人类第一次从非洲迁到欧洲走的是什么路线吗?
看起来他们似乎在沿途做过标记。
他们可不像汉瑟尔和格雷特尔那样故意留下面包屑。
古人会在艰苦跋涉的途中进食。
而且他们似乎还把自己黏糊糊食物的外包装扔在了道路两旁，比如蜗牛。
传统观点认为人类最初从非洲迁到近东地区，而后在约40,000至50,000年抵达欧洲前通过黎巴嫩北上至地中海地区。
但最近一些科学家们得出人类先抵达欧洲之后才东进的新理论。
而现在有了更多支持人类在欧洲之旅中经过黎凡特旧观点的依据，那就是海洋蜗牛的壳。
这项研究已在《国家科学院院刊》上发表。
研究人员在黎巴嫩可追溯到旧石器时代晚期的考古遗址中发现了蜗牛壳并且进行了分析。
除去被拿掉的锥形尖点外这些壳大多很完整，而摘掉那部分极有可能是为了更容易吃到里面的肉。
科学家们通过一系列方法估算它们的年龄。
他们发现这些蜗牛可追溯到约46000年前。
而现代人类存于欧洲的最早证据似乎不超过45000年。
因此蜗牛的证据更加坚定了古人类经黎凡特到达欧洲的这一假说。
当然并非以蜗牛的速度迁徙。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
1.want to 想去；想要
例句:The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.
你是什么样的人和你想成为什么样的之间的差距就是，你做了什么。
2.appear to 似乎；好像
例句:By all accounts, Rodger would appear to be a fine fellow.
据说，罗杰是个好小伙。
3.date to 追溯
例句:The band have moved forward their Leeds date to October 27.
乐队已把去利兹的日期提前至10月27号。
4.add to 增加；增添
例句:This latest incident will add to the pressure on the government.
最近的这次事件将会给政府增加压力。
