新概念英语第三册课文和笔记第38课:The first calender

■deduce v. 推断，推理
deduce: determine or decide sth. by given facts.
Eg: I deduce the conclusion from the given facts.
deduce …from 从…中推论，推断
infer 推断（不表示过程）
Eg: What can you infer from the text?
deduce ==> (ant.) indece 归纳

■scanty adj. 不足的，贫乏的
scanty: too few, not enough
scanty knowledge 一知半解
a scanty crop 欠收
be scanty of sth 奇缺
be short of 短缺
Eg: The village school is scanty of textbooks. 这乡村学校奇缺教材。
be want of = in need of 需要……

■clue n. 线索
■insignificant adj. 不重要的
■shed v. 使流出，泻
shed: pour out
shed tears 泪流满面
shed light 发光
shed light on sb. 启发，启迪
shed one’s blood for country 为祖国而流血。
shed one's clothes 脱去衣服

■advent n. 出现，到来，来临
advent: coming or arrival
at the advent of winter 在冬天到来的时候
at the advent of 在…到来的时候
since the advent of 自从…的到来

■agriculture n. 农业
■assumption n. 假定，设想
■dot n. 小圆点
■symbol n. 符号
■engrave v. 雕刻
■ivory n. 象牙制品
■mammoth n. （古）长毛象
■phase n. 月相，天相
■tusk n. 獠牙，长牙、象牙
■primitive adj. 原始的
■nomad n. 游牧民
■depict v. 描画，描绘
■correlate v. 使相互联系

【Text】
§ Lesson 38 The first calender 最早的日历
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
What is the importance of the dots, lines, and symbols engraved on stone, bones and ivoury?

Future historians will be in a unique position when they come to record the history of our own times. They will hardly know which facts to select from the great mass of evidence that steadily accumulates. What is more they will not have to rely solely on the written word. Films, videos. CDs and CD-ROMs are just some of the bewildering amount of information they will have. They will be able, as it were, to see and hear us in action. But the historian attempting to reconstruct the distant past is always faced with a difficult task. He has to deduce what he can from the few scanty clues available. Even seemingly insignificant remains can shed interesting light on the history of early man.
Up to now, historians have assumed that calendars came into being with the advent of agriculture, for then man was faced with a real need to understand something about the seasons. Recent scientific evidence seems to indicate that this assumption is incorrect.
Historians have long been puzzled by dots, lines and symbols which have been engraved on walls, bones, and the ivory tusk of mammoths. The nomads who made these markings lived by hunting and fishing during the last Ice Age, which began about 35,000 B.C. and ended about 10,000 B.C. By correlating markings made in various parts of the world, historians have been able to read this difficult code. They have found that it is connected with the passage of days and the phases of the moon. It is, in fact, a primitive 无效 of calendar. It has long been known that the hunting scenes depicted on walls were not simply a form of artistic expression. They had a definite meaning, for they were as near as early man could get to writing. It is possible that there is a definite relation between these paintings and the markings that sometimes accompany them. It seems that man was making a real effort to understand the seasons 20,000 years earlier than has been supposed.

参考译文
未来的历史学家在写我们这一段历史的时候会别具一格。对于逐渐积累起来的庞大材料，他们几乎不知道选取哪些好，而且，也不必完全依赖文字材料。电影、录像、光盘和光盘驱动器只是能为他们提供令人眼花缭乱的大量信息的几种手段。他们能够身临其境般地观看我们做事，倾听我们讲话。但是，历史学家企图重现遥远的过去可是一项艰巨的任务，他们必须根据现有的不充分的线索进行推理。即使看起来微不足道的遗物，也可能揭示人类早期历史的一些有趣的内容。
历史学家迄今认为日历是随农业的问世而出现的，因为当时人们面临着了解四季的实际需要，但近期科学研究发现，好像这种假设是不正确的。
长期以来，历史学家一直对雕刻在墙壁上、骨头上、古代长毛象的象牙上的点、线和形形色色的符号感到困惑不解。这些痕迹是游牧人留下的，他们生活在从公元前约35，000年到公元前10，000年的冰川期的末期，以狩猎、捕鱼为生。历史学家通过把世界各地留下的这种痕迹放在一起研究，终于弄懂了这种费解的代码。他们发现代码与昼夜更迭和月亮圆缺有关，事实上是一种最原始的日历。大家早就知道，画在墙上的狩猎图景并不是单纯的艺术表现形式，它们有着一定的含义，因为它们已接近古代人的文字形式。有时，这种图画与墙壁上的刻痕共存，它们之间可能有一定的联系。看来人类早就致力于探索四季变迁了，比人们想像的要早20,000年。

【课文讲解】

in the unique position 处于无以伦比，独一无二的情况
come to: start, begin
背熟：They will hardly know which facts to select from the great mass of evidence that steadily accumulates.
select from 从……中进行选择(同类中)
choose挑选（凭个人意愿）
一、有三种情况choose和 select不能互换：
1．当在两者中选一个时只能用choose, 即choose between
Eg: We have to choose between leaving early and paying for taxi.
2．choose可带 wh从句
Eg: I'll let you choose where we should go to eat.
3．choose to do 只能用choose.
Eg: What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment.（L33 ）
He has deliberately chosen to lead the life he leads and is fully aware of the consequences. (L27)
二、select比choose更正式， 即在许多同类的人或物当中根据客观标准对这两个加以比较，鉴别，认真地挑选出最好的、最喜欢的、最有用的。

great mass of == too much ＝＝ agreat amount of
evidence 不可数名词；不能手a great many, a large number of
Eg: She selected a blue dress from the wardrobe.
You have been selected to present us on the committee.