万物简史 第294期:地下的烈火(2)

 　　Working alone in the lab on the morning I passed through was a cheerfully grizzled, looking fellow in a blue work shirt 一天上午，我从里面经过，只见一个身穿蓝色工作服、头发灰白的人独自在实验室里忙碌。

　　whom I recognized as Mike Voorhies from a BBC television documentary in which he featured. 我认出他就是主持过英国广播公司一部《地平线》记录片的迈克·沃里斯。

　　They don't get a huge number of visitors to Ashfall Fossil Beds State Park, it's slightly in the middle of nowhere， 州立阿什福尔化石床公园多少位于一个四周不着边际的地方，因此游客不算太多。

　　and Voorhies seemed pleased to show me around. 沃里斯似乎很高兴带着我到各处转转。

　　He took me to the spot atop a twenty-foot ravine where he had made his find. 他还把我领到那6米深的隘口之顶，看一眼他的发现现场。

　　It was a dumb place to look for bones, he said happily. “到这样的地方来找骨头是一件蠢事，”他快活地说，

　　"But I wasn't looking for bones. “不过，我不是在找骨头。

　　I was thinking of making a geological map of eastern Nebraska at the time, and really just kind of poking¹ around. 当时，我在考虑绘制一幅东内布拉斯加的地质图，实际上只是在这一带到处走走。

　　If I hadn't gone up this ravine or the rains hadn't just washed out that skull², I'd have walked on by and this would never have been found." 要是我没有爬上这个隘口，要是大雨没有把那块头骨冲到外面，我会径直走过去，根本不会发现这玩意儿。”

　　He indicated a roofed enclosure nearby, which had become the main excavation³ site. 他指了指近处一个带遮棚的地方，那里曾是主要发掘现场。

　　Some two hundred animals had been found lying together in a jumble⁴. 他们发现大约有200头动物横七竖八地躺在一起。

　　I asked him in what way it was a dumb place to hunt for bones. 我问他为什么说到这样的地方来找骨头是一件蠢事。

　　"Well, if you're looking for bones, you really need exposed rock. “哎呀，要想找到骨头，就得有暴露在外面的岩石。

　　That's why most paleontology is done in hot, dry places. 因此，大多数古生物学的工作是在炎热、干燥的地方完成的。

　　It's not that there are more bones there. 倒不是因为那里的骨头多，

　　It's just that you have some chance of spotting them. 而是因为发现骨头的可能性大。

　　In a setting like this"—he made a sweeping⁵ gesture across the vast and unvarying prairie— "you wouldn't know where to begin. 在这种地方，”他把手朝那广阔无垠的草原一挥，“你简直无从下手。

　　There could be really magnificent stuff out there, but there's no surface clues to show you where to start looking." 那里可能确有了不起的东西，但地面上没有任何线索来指点你从哪儿开始寻找。”

　　At first they thought the animals were buried alive, and Voorhies stated as much in a National Geographic⁶ article in 1981. 起先，他们认为那些动物是被活埋在里面的，沃里斯1981年在《国家地理杂志》的一篇文章里就是那么阐述的。

1 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

2 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

3 excavation   

n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地

参考例句：

• The bad weather has hung up the work of excavation.天气不好耽误了挖掘工作。
• The excavation exposed some ancient ruins.这次挖掘暴露出一些古遗迹。

4 jumble   

vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆

参考例句：

• Even the furniture remained the same jumble that it had always been.甚至家具还是象过去一样杂乱无章。
• The things in the drawer were all in a jumble.抽屉里的东西很杂乱。

5 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

6 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法