(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
During the last ice age, the northern half of North America was blanketed by ice. But along the Pacific coast of Canada, some land remained bare...a place where animals and plants could thrive. And humans too.
Archaeologists have found stone tools and cave sites 12,000 to 13,000 years old in the coastal Pacific Northwest. One find was a mastodon rib with a bony weapon in it. And now scientists at the Hakai Institute and the University of Victoria have made a spectacular discovery: clay soil, trampled by human feet—the oldest footprints uncovered in North America.
Researchers were digging several feet below a modern-day beach on British Columbia's Calvert Island, about 250 miles northwest of Vancouver, when they discovered tracks. They found 29 in all. Some had toes, arches and heel prints—indicating the people who left them were probably barefoot. And using a shoe size measurement chart—similar to the kind you find in a shoe store—they determined that the footprints likely belonged to a child and two adults. Who lived and walked the area some 13,000 years ago.
The results are in the journal PLOS ONE.
The tracks are not in a line, like the famous Laetoli footprints in Tanzania. Instead, they're facing different directions, suggestive of people gathering. Or perhaps, the authors write, they could be the footprints of people getting out of a boat, headed towards higher and drier land. Still on the move.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。
在最后一个冰河时代，北美北半部地区被冰覆盖。但是在加拿大太平洋沿岸，一些土地仍旧裸露着，那个地方是动植物可以繁荣成长的地方。当然还有人类。
考古学家在太平洋西北沿岸地区发现了石器和距今1.2万至1.3万年的石洞穴遗址。其中一个发现是内含骨制武器的乳齿象肋骨。现在，哈卡伊研究所和维多利亚大学的科学家取得了惊人的发现：人类踩在粘土上留下了足迹，这是北美发现的最古老的人类脚印。
研究人员在不列颠哥伦比亚省卡尔弗特岛一处现代海滩地下几英尺处进行挖掘时，发现了这些足迹，该地距离温哥华西北约250英里。他们一共发现了29个石化脚印。一些脚印有脚趾、足弓和脚跟印迹，这说明留下这些脚印的人可能是赤足的。研究人员对照类似于鞋店用的那种鞋号尺码表，确定这些脚印很可能属于一名儿童和两名成人。在约1.3万年以前，他们曾在这片地区居住并行走。
这项研究结果发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》期刊上。
这些脚印并不在一条直线上，这与著名的坦桑尼亚莱托里脚印一样。这些脚印朝向不同方向，暗示当时人们正在聚会。作者写到，或者这些可能是人们下船时留下的脚印，他们走向更高且更干燥的土地。他们仍在移动中。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. in all 总共；合计；
In all, she has eight costume changes.
她总共换了8次演出服。
2. be similar to 相像的；相仿的；类似的；
The construction of the diesel engine is quite similar to that of the gasoline engine.
柴油机的构造与汽油机的构造十分相似。
3. belong to 属于；归…所有；
These musical instruments belong to the school.
这些乐器归学校所有。
4. be suggestive of 使人想起…的；引起联想的；暗示的；
His behavior was suggestive of a cultured man.
他的举止暗示他是一个有教养的人。
