TED演讲:达顿解释达尔文主义的美的理论(5)（在线收听）

Consider briefly an important source of aesthetic pleasure, the magnetic pull of beautiful landscapes.

想一下简单且重要的审美愉悦的来源，美丽风景的吸引力。

People in very different cultures all over the world tend to like a particular kind of landscape,

全世界在完全不同的文化背景下的人们，都倾向于某种特定的风景，

a landscape that just happens to be similar to the pleistocene savannas where we evolved.

这种风景恰巧与我们进化而来的更新纪大草原相似。

This landscape shows up today on calendars, on postcards,

今天这类风景在日历中、明信片中、

in the design of golf courses and public parks and in gold-framed pictures that hang in living rooms from New York to New Zealand.

高尔夫球场设计和公共公园中，还有挂在起居室中的镶金画框中找到，从纽约到新西兰都能看到。

It's a kind of Hudson River school landscape featuring open spaces of low grasses interspersed with copses of trees.

这是一种有点像哈得逊河画派的风景画，描绘了开阔的原野上低低的草地点缀着些许树木。

The trees, by the way, are often preferred if they fork near the ground,

顺便说一下，通常这些树开叉离地面较低，

that is to say, if they're trees you could scramble up if you were in a tight fix.

也就是说，如果有紧急情况，你可以爬到这些树上。

The landscape shows the presence of water directly in view, or evidence of water in a bluish distance,

风景中会在视野可见范围内能直接看到水流，或是远处的黛青色暗示着水的存在，

indications of animal or bird life as well as diverse greenery and finally -- get this -- a path or a road,

指明有动物或鸟类生命的迹象，还有各种不同的绿色植物，最后--还有这个--一条小径或是一条路，

perhaps a riverbank or a shoreline, that extends into the distance, almost inviting you to follow it.

也许是河岸或是海岸，延伸向远方，几乎就是在邀请你沿着它走下去。

This landscape type is regarded as beautiful, even by people in countries that don't have it.

这种类型的风景大家一致公认是很漂亮的，甚至生活在没有这种风景的人们也是这样认为的。

The ideal savanna landscape is one of the clearest examples where human beings everywhere find beauty in similar visual experience.

理想的热带稀树大草原风景是最显著的例证之一，在世界各地的人都能找到有相似的视觉体验的美。