英语听力：自然百科 论自然与科学

 Sir David Attenborough has been making natural history films for the BBC for over 50 years. In this time, he, perhaps more than anyone alive, has seen evidence for evolution in the stunning¹ diversity of nature.

 

To find and film animals. This is the biggest flower in the world. The blue whale! It's the biggest creature that exists on the planet.

 

In a new BBC program called Charles Darwin and Tree of Life, Attenborough marks the bicentenary of Darwin's birth and shares his personal view of Darwin's brilliant but controversial idea that all life is a result of common descent by natural selection. In this interview for the science journal Nature, he talks about the program and how the fact of evolution has always been obvious to him.

 

You would have to have been extraordinarily² blinkered if you didn't stub your toe against the theory of evolution, very early on in your life, I mean that if you collect fossils, which I did as a kid. You know that the ammonites change as you go up in the geological column. Evolution is not just a theory as many a correspondent writes me and says. It is a historical fact like any other historical facts as certain as the fact that William the Conqueror³ landed in 1066, except it's more certain, because the evidence for it is from a much wider range of fact. Yet of course I can't remember time when I wasn't aware of Darwin, to be honest. I know because it's written in my copy of the Origin that I bought them, the Origin when I was 18, but I am sure that I knew about Wallace certainly when I was 14 or 12.

 

It's not about the ethical⁴ program, it's not about Darwin's life. It is about the various objections which people in Darwin's time and ever since Darwin's time have found to accepting the proposition of evolution. So that in Darwin's time, geographical⁵ distribution of animals was not understood, the mechanism⁶ of genetics was not understood at all. Those were the sort of obstacles which people over and over again said to Darwin it can't be true because of these reasons. 

 

Now the solution to these questions has only been fully⁷ found in my lifetime, surprisingly recent. I mean, we've only really understood about DNA⁸ for less than 50 years, we have understood about continental⁹ drift for 50 years. The reality, the fact that the continents have moved in special part wasn't proved even when I was an undergraduate, and I was in Cambridge and demanded of my professor the talks about continental drift. He said I refuse to do so, because you can't demonstrate that there is any power which would shift continents by a millimeter. All those answers to the obstacles to the theory have only recently been out there, but now they are out there, and that together accumulatively, they validate¹⁰ Darwin's insight to a degree which we all ought to be aware of.

 

The influence of the Book of Genesis, which says as the Lord God said, go forth¹¹ and multiply to Adam and Eve, and the natural world is there for you to dominate. You have dominion¹² over the animals and plants of the world, and that basic notion that the world is there for us, and that if it doesn't actually serve our purposes, it is dispensable, that has produced the devastation¹³ of vast areas of the land surface. Of course, it's all known, gross oversimplification. But that's why Darwinism and the fact of evolution is of great importance, because it is that attitude which has led to devastation of so much and way on to the situation that we are in.

1 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

2 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

3 conqueror   

n.征服者，胜利者

参考例句：

• We shall never yield to a conqueror.我们永远不会向征服者低头。
• They abandoned the city to the conqueror.他们把那个城市丢弃给征服者。

4 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

5 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。

6 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

9 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

10 validate   

vt.（法律）使有效，使生效

参考例句：

• You need an official signature to validate the order.你要有正式的签字，这张汇票才能生效。
• In order to validate the agreement,both parties sign it.为使协议有效，双方在上面签了字。

11 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

12 dominion   

n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图

参考例句：

• Alexander held dominion over a vast area.亚历山大曾统治过辽阔的地域。
• In the affluent society,the authorities are hardly forced to justify their dominion.在富裕社会里，当局几乎无需证明其统治之合理。

13 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》