美国学生人类历史第8期:我们最早的祖先(2)

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　　运气不错时，经一番漫长而耐心的追逐，他能抓到一只松鼠、小野狗或老鼠什么的，开开荤。

　　These he would eat raw for he had never discovered that food tasted better when it was cooked.

　　他吃什么都生吞活剥，因为他还未发现经火烤过的食物味道要好一些。

　　During the hours of day, this primitive¹ human being prowled about looking for things to eat.

　　白天，这些原始人在莽莽林海中四处潜行，寻找可吃的东西。

　　When night descended² upon the earth, he hid his wife and his children in a hollow tree or behind some heavy boulders³,

　　一俟黑暗降临大地，他便把自己的妻女藏进空树干或巨石后面。

　　for he was surrounded on all sides by ferocious⁴ animals

　　凶猛危险的野兽遍布他的四周，

　　and when it was dark these animals began to prowl about, looking for something to eat for their mates and their own young, and they liked the taste of human beings.

　　它们惯于在夜间悄悄活动，为它们的配偶和幼仔寻找食物。它们很喜欢人肉的味道。

　　It was a world where you must either eat or be eaten, and life was very unhappy because it was full of fear and misery⁵.

　　这是一个你要么吃野兽，要么被野兽吃的世界，人类早期的生活非常悲惨，充满了恐惧和痛苦。

　　In summer, man was exposed to the scorching⁶ rays of the sun,

　　夏天，人类被烈日炙烤；

　　and during the winter his children would freeze to death in his arms.

　　冬天，他的孩子冻死在自己怀里。

　　When such a creature hurt itself, (and hunting animals are forever breaking their bones or spraining⁷ their ankles) he had no one to take care of him and he must die a horrible death.

　　当他不小心弄伤了自己（追猎野兽是很容易摔断骨头或者扭伤脚踝的），没人可以照顾他，只能在惊恐和疼痛中自生自灭。

　　Like many of the animals who fill the zoo with their strange noises, early man liked to jabber⁸.

　　就像动物园会充斥着动物们林林总总、稀奇古怪的叫声一样，早期的人类也喜欢发出急促不清的怪叫。

　　That is to say, he endlessly repeated the same unintelligible⁹ gibberish because it pleased him to hear the sound of his voice.

　　也就是说，他不断地重复着一些相同的胡言乱语，因为他喜欢听见自己的声音。

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