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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
By around 12,000 years ago, the Clovis people and their descendants1 had not only spread across North America, but had also reached the southernmost tip of South America. Not long after this, warming climate and melting ice raised sea levels sharply2 so that the land-bridge to Asia flooded once again. There was no way back.
大约在一万两千年前，克洛维斯人与他们的后裔，不仅仅已经遍布北美，同时到达了南美洲的最南端。没过多久，全球气候变暖，冰川融化，海平面大幅度回升，再次淹没了通往亚洲的大陆架。没有退路了。
For the next nine thousand years, in fact until European contact in the sixteenth century AD, the civilisations of the Americas would develop on their own. So, 12,000 years ago, we had reached a key moment in human history. With the exception of the islands of the Pacific, human beings had settled the whole habitable world.
于是在接下来的九千多年，直到公元十六世纪左右欧洲探险者重新发现了美洲，在此之间的悠悠岁月里，美洲文明将独立发展，自成一体。因此，一万两千年前，我们到达了人类历史上的关键时刻。随了太平洋岛屿以后，人类差不多生息繁衍在了世界任何可居住的角落。
We seem to be hard-wired to keep moving, to want more, to find out what's beyond the next hill. Broadcaster and traveller Michael Palin has covered a good deal of the globe - what does he think drives us on?
我们似乎与生俱来有一种永远向前的天性，想要得到更多，发现更多，去跨越下一座山峰。广播员与旅行家迈克尔·佩林差不多走遍全世界了，那他又是什么力量驱动这种人性执着呢？
'In myself I've always been very restless and, from when I was very small, interested in where I wasn't, [in] what was over the horizon, [in] what was round the next corner. And the more you look at the history of 'homo sapiens', it's all about movement, right from the very first time they decided3 to leave Africa.
“对于我自己而言，我一向就很不安分了，就是呆不住。很小很小的时期，我对所有我没去过的地方都感兴趣，想去看看地平线之外有什么，下个转弯处之后又有什么。而且当你看了越多的“智人”历史，你就越感觉从他们决定离开非洲的那一刻起，那便是一部旅行探索的历史。
It is this restlessness which seems a very significant factor in the way the planet was settled by humans. It does seem that we are not settled, we think we are, but we are still looking for somewhere else where something is better - where it's warmer, it's more pleasant.
现在看来似乎这种躁动不安的天性恰恰是一种非常重要的因素，决定了人类在这地球上的定居方式。其实并不是说我们没能安居下来，我们觉得我们安顿好了，然而我们还是自然而然地想往别外寻找更好的地方，更温暖，更恰人的地方。可能这是一种元素，精神元素。
Maybe there is an element, a spiritual element, of hope in this whole thing. You know, that you are going to find somewhere that is going to be wonderful. It's the search for paradise4, the search for the perfect land - maybe that's at the bottom of it all, all the time.'
你知道你就是得去寻找这片乐土。这是在寻找天堂，在寻找极乐世界。也许这追求在是整个人类历史上很本质的，一直就是。
Hope, as the defining5 human quality - wouldn't that be an encouraging note in which to end this first week of our history of the world?
希望是一种定义人性的要素，拿它来结束我们《百件物品中的世界历史》这系列第一周五集节目岂不鼓舞人心？
What's stood out for me in this week's long journey of nearly two million years, is the constant human striving6 to do things better; to make tools that are not only more efficient but also more beautiful, to explore not just environments but ideas, to struggle towards something not yet experienced. The objects I've looked at this week have tracked that move - from tools for survival7 not so different from what other animals might use, to a great work of art and the beginnings of religion.
本周我们经历了将近两百万年的漫长旅程，感受最深的一点是人类总是不断努力着把事情做得更好，把工具制造得不仅仅更高效，而且更漂亮；探索的不仅仅是周围的环境，而且是思想；向未知事物奋斗着。本周我介绍的各件物品，从一件可能动物也能使用、效用不高的生存工具开始，以一件意味着宗教起点的伟大艺术作品结尾。
Next week, I'm going to be looking at how, about ten thousand years ago, we began to transform the natural world by starting to farm. In the process, changing not just the landscape, but plants, animals and, above all, ourselves. And I'm going to be focussing on two favourite pastimes8 - food and sex.
下一周，我将继续去探索近万年前，我们是如何去将自然世界改造成农场。在此过程中，改变的不仅仅是地貌景观，还有植被、动物，还有最重要的我们自身。而且我将聚集于人类最喜爱的两种消遣方式——食欲与性欲的满足。
收听单词发音 |
1
descendants
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| n. 后代，后裔 名词descendant的复数形式 | |
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sharply
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| adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地 | |
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3
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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paradise
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| n.伊甸乐园，天堂 | |
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5
defining
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| 规定( define的现在分词 )； 使明确； 精确地解释； 画出…的线条 | |
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striving
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| v.努力奋斗，力求( strive的现在分词 ) | |
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7
survival
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| n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者 | |
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8
pastimes
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| n.消遣，娱乐( pastime的名词复数 ) | |
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