VOA标准英语2010-Smithsonian Opens New Exhibit on Human Or

Human skulls² on display at the Smithsonian Institution's Natural Museum of Natural History

Scientists writing in the journal Science report that two skeletons found in a cave in South Africa belong to a previously³ unclassified species of hominid or early human relative.  This discovery may shed new light on the evolution of our own species, homo sapien, and spark greater interest in human evolution. So may a new exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's Natural Museum of Natural History. It's based on developments of more than a century of scientific research.

The National Museum of Natural History is marking its 100th anniversary by welcoming visitors to its newest hall. 

They're here to explore the age-old question: "What does it mean to be human?"

 

Curator Rick Potts says the 300 fossils and other artifacts on display illustrate⁴ a mosaic⁵ of physical traits and behaviors that evolved over time.  

"And all of those species are now gone, their ways of life no longer on earth," said Potts.  "We are the only ones left of the diverse family tree."

Visitors peer into the eyes of replicas⁶ of early humans, sit down at their ancestral hearth⁷ and walk in footprints molded from those left almost 4 million years ago in Tanzania.

"And those footprints are exactly at the spacing, the size of the footprints, where three individuals walked across an African plain that long ago," added Potts.

Two prized fossils are in this case. One is the 28,000 year-old skull¹ of a Cro-Magnon, the first modern humans in Europe. The other is the skull of a Neanderthal, a species of upright primates⁸ that co-existed with Cro-Magnon until they disappeared about 30,000 years ago. 

Both skulls are on loan from the Musee de l'Homme in Paris.  They were discovered in France around the same time that Charles Darwin published his famous "On the Origin of Species" in 1859. 

Alain Froment, who curates the French museum's anthropology⁹ collection, says Darwin's work played a crucial role.    

"It fueled the debate on the origin of mankind and the surprise was to find such a modern human in the fossil context with extinct animals," said Froment.  

Visitors are invited to touch the ancestral replicas, to transform an image of their face into an early-human version and to engage with dioramas that convey evolution.

This six-million-year-old story also unfolds during an era of dramatic climate change. Rick Potts says the exhibit shows how, during great swings between warm and cool, moist and dry, humans adapted.

"Not only adapted to an African savannah or how Neanderthals became adapted to an ice age, but rather how our ability to make tools, our ability to have an expanded and complex brain, even our ability to use symbols and speak to one another, are not just adaptations to a past ancestral environment, but an adaptation to being flexible, to being adaptable," explained Potts.

Elementary school teacher Neisha Speights-Burno plans to share that lesson with her students.  

"I think it just gives them more of a first-hand account that this stuff really did exist," noted¹⁰ Speights-Burno. 

The sense of connection is important for Charla Weiswurm visiting Washington from Texas.  

"I think that with all the conflict with everyone in the world, that you come back saying we all came from the same place originally, and why can't we just all get along because we are all exactly alike," said Weiswurm. 

Rick Potts hopes the exhibit answers that question by showing that our ancient relatives are worth getting to know.  And in knowing them, he adds, they can teach us what it means to be human.

 

1 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。

2 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

3 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

4 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

5 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

6 replicas   

n.复制品( replica的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His hobby is building replicas of cars. 他的爱好是制作汽车的复制品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The replicas are made by using a thin film of fusible alloy on a stiffening platen. 复制是用附着在加强托板上的可熔合金薄膜实现的。 来自辞典例句

7 hearth   

n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面

参考例句：

• She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
• She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。

8 primates   

primate的复数

参考例句：

• Primates are alert, inquisitive animals. 灵长目动物是机灵、好奇的动物。
• Consciousness or cerebration has been said to have emerged in the evolution of higher primates. 据说意识或思考在较高级灵长类的进化中已出现。

9 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

10 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。