(单词翻译:单击)
So, Rosie and Martin, let's look at what you've got for your presentation on woolly mammoths.
好的,罗希和马丁,让我们来看一下你们关于猛犸象的展示准备的怎么样了吧。
OK, we've got a short outline here.
好的,我们准备了一个简短的大纲。
Thanks. So it's about a research project in North America?
谢谢,所以这是在北美洲的一个研究项目吗?
Yes. But we thought we needed something general about woolly mammoths in our introduction, to establish that they were related to our modern elephant, and they lived thousands of years ago in the last ice age.
是的,但是我们觉得我们需要在介绍部分说一些猛犸象的概括性的知识,以此建立它们与现今的大象的联系,它们生活在几千年的冰川时代。
Maybe we could show a video clip of a cartoon about mammoths. But that'd be a bit childish. Or we could have a diagram, it could be a timeline to show when they lived, with illustrations?
可能我们会放一段猛犸象的视频片段。但是那有点点太幼稚了。或者是我们可以画一张图表,可以是它们生存的时间轴,可以带着插图?
Or we could just show a drawing of them walking in the ice? No, let's go with your last suggestion.
或者是我们可以展示一张它们在冰川中漫步的图画?算了,我们还是采取你最后一个建议吧。
Good. Then you're describing the discovery of the mammoth tooth on St Paul's Island in Alaska, and why it was significant.
好的。然后你们会描述阿拉斯加圣保罗岛上发现的猛犸象,以及这件事为什么非常重要,是吧。
Yes. The tooth was found by a man called Russell Graham. He picked it up from under a rock in a cave. He knew it was special -- for a start it was in really good condition, as if it had been just extracted from the animal's jawbone. Anyway, they found it was 6,500 years old.
是的,一个叫做Russell Graham的人发现了象牙。他从一个洞穴里的岩石下面找到了牙齿。他知道它很特别,因为刚开始的时候它保存非常完好,好像刚从动物的颌骨上弄下来的。不管怎么样,他们发现它是来自于6500年前的。
So why was that significant?
所以为什么那很重要呢?
Well the mammoth bones previously found on the North American mainland were much less recent than that. So this was really amazing.
呃,在北美大陆之前发现的猛犸象牙要比这个象牙要早很多。所以这个真的非常了不起。
Then we're making an animated diagram to show the geography of the area in prehistoric times. So originally, St Paul's Island wasn't an island, it was connected to the mainland, and mammoths and other animals like bears were able to roam around the whole area.
然后我们会做一个动画图表,展示这片地域史前的地理状况。刚开始的时候,圣保罗岛屿并不是一个岛屿,它是和陆地相连接的,猛犸象和其他的动物,比如说熊都可以在整个地区游荡。
Then the climate warmed up and the sea level began to rise, and the island got cut off from the mainland. So those mammoths on the island couldn't escape; they had to stay on the island.
然后气温升高,海平面开始上升,这个岛屿就和陆地分离了。所以陆地,上的猛犸象没法逃脱:它们得留在陆地上。
And in fact the species survived there for thousands of years after they'd become extinct on the mainland.
其实在它们在陆地上灭绝之后,这种生物还是在岛屿上继续生存了几千年。
So why do you think they died out on the mainland?
那你们觉得为什么它们会在陆地上灭绝呢?
No one's sure.
大家都不是很确定。
Anyway, next we'll explain how Graham and his team identified the date when the mammoths became extinct on the island. They concluded that the extinction happened 5.600 years ago, which is a very precise time for a prehistoric extinction. It's based on samples they took from mud at the bottom of a lake on the island. They analysed it to find out what had fallen in over time -- bits of plants, volcanic ash and even DNA from the mammoths themselves. It's standard procedure, but it took nearly two years to do.
不过,我们接下来会解释Graham和他的团队是如何确定猛犸象在岛屿上灭绝的时间的。他们说灭绝大概发生在5600年前,对于史前的物种灭绝而言,这个时间已经非常精确了。这是基于他们从岛屿湖底所采的泥土样本所做出的。他们对其进行了分析,来找出随着时间流逝什么东西出现了--植物,山灰,甚至是猛犸象自己的DNA。这是个非常标准的程序,但是整个过程需要两年的时间。