世界小史 第11章:祖先

　　These were our ancestors who may have already been using stones as tools more than 150,000 years ago.

　　這是我們的祖先，他們也許在15萬年前就已經(jīng)開始用石頭當(dāng)工具了。

　　They were very different from the Neanderthal people who appeared about 70,000 years earlier and inhabited the earth for about 200,000 years.

　　他們與出現(xiàn)于7萬年以前并在地球上居住了將近20萬年之久的尼安德特人不同。

　　And I owe the Neanderthal people an apology, for despite their low foreheads, their brains were no smaller than those of most people today.

　　有些事我得請(qǐng)尼安德特人原諒，因?yàn)?，盡管他們的額頭很低，但他們的大腦卻不比今天大多數(shù)人的小。

　　But all these "about"s, with no names and no dates ... this isn't history!you say,

　　但是所有這些沒有名字和沒有精確年代數(shù)字的"大約"...... 并不是歷史嘛!

　　and you are right. It comes before history.

　　你肯定會(huì)這樣說,你說得對(duì)。這是在史前時(shí)期。

　　That is why we call it 'prehistory', because we only have a rough idea of when it all happened.

　　所以人們稱之為史前史，因?yàn)槿藗冎皇悄：刂肋@是在什么時(shí)候發(fā)生的事。

　　But we still know something about the people whom we call prehistoric.

　　不過我們還知道一些被我們稱之為史前人類的情況。

　　At the time when real history begins – and we will come to that in the next chapter

　　就在真正的歷史起始的時(shí)候——這件事將在本書下一章提及

　　– people already had all the things we have today: clothes, houses and tools, plows toplow with, grains to make bread with,

　　——人類已經(jīng)有了一切我們今天有的東西：衣服，房屋和工具，犁，烤面包的糧食，

　　cows for milking, sheep for shearing, dogs for hunting and for company, bows and arrows for shooting and helmets and shields for protection.

　　用來擠奶的奶牛，用來剪羊毛的綿羊，狩獵的和當(dāng)作人類朋友的狗，用來射擊的箭、弓和用來防身的盔和盾。