外研版选修四册第五单元阅读讲解

Unit 5 Into the unknown

第50页阅读讲解

The Mysteries of THE MAYA
玛雅之谜

1 Intrigued by Maya civilisation from a very young age, 15-year-old Canadian William Gadoury thought he had made an incredible discovery from his study of ancient star charts. Through comparison, he found that the locations of the 117 known Maya cities correspond to the positions of the stars. Based on this, he believed he had spotted an unknown Maya city buried deep in the jungle. (c) Although his theory has been dismissed by scholars, it shows how powerful the secrets of Ancient Maya civilisation are among people.
十五岁的加拿大少年威廉·加杜里自幼便对玛雅文明着迷，他认为自己通过研究古老星象图有了惊人发现。通过比较，他发现117座已知玛雅城市的位置和星象的位置是对应的。据此，他相信自己发现了一座隐藏于丛林深处的未知玛雅城市的位置。尽管学者们对他的理论不予考虑，但是这表明古玛雅文明的奥秘在人们心中是如此举足轻重。

2 It isn't difficult to see why. Extending south from parts of what we now know as Mexico into Central America, (a) Maya civilisation has been surrounded by mystery since its rediscovery in the 19th century. The Maya built impressive palaces and temples, including their representative step pyramids. What is most extraordinary about these complex structures is how they were built without the use of wheels, metal tools or even animal power. The Maya's understanding of mathematics and astronomy was also quite amazing. They applied this understanding to the Maya calendar, which was accurate to within 30 seconds per year. On top of all this was an achievement unique in the Americas at that time: a true writing system. It contained more than 800 characters, with some signs representing animals, people and objects and others representing syllables. It was a writing system so complicated that, so far, no one has been able to interpret it completely.
这背后的原因不难发现。玛雅文明的范围从现今墨西哥的部分区域向南延伸至中美洲。自从19世纪玛雅文明再现，层层迷雾便一直围绕着它。玛雅人建造了恢宏的宫殿和庙宇,其中包括代表性建筑阶梯金字塔。这些复杂建筑最不同寻常之处在于，在没有使用机轮、金属工具甚至畜力的情况下，玛雅人是如何建造它们的。玛雅人对数学和天文学的认识也十分令人惊叹。他们将这一认识应用到了玛雅历中，该历法精确程度极高，每年误差不超过30秒。除此之外，还有一项当时美洲独有的成就：一个真正的文字系统。这种文字系统中包含800多个字符，有些符号代表动物、人和物，其他代表音节。这种文字系统很复杂，以至于到目前为止没有人可以将其完全解读。

3 The fact that Maya society was technologically primitive makes its achievements all the more incredible and mysterious. (b) But the greatest mystery of all is what caused the Maya to abandon most of their great cities. By 700 AD, Maya civilisation was at its peak. Yet, within just a couple of generations, it began to mysteriously decline. The cities were left to be taken back by the jungle. When Europeans arrived in Central America in the early 16th century to claim its riches, the remaining Maya people were living in small settlements.
玛雅社会的科技水平十分原始，这一事实使得玛雅的种种成就更加令人难以置信、神秘莫测。但最大的谜团是为何玛雅人抛弃了绝大部分的大城市。到公元700年时，玛雅文明如日中天。然而，仅仅在几代之内，玛雅文明开始神秘地衰落。城市荒废，任凭丛林蚕食取代。16世纪早期，欧洲人来到中美洲攫取财富时，只剩下一些玛雅人居住在小型聚居区里。

4 Why Maya civilisation collapsed remains a mystery. Was it a natural disaster? A deadly disease? Conflicts between cities? Or was it a combination of several different factors? (f) Some research seems to indicate that the Maya people themselves may have played a part in their downfall. They had turned wetlands into fields for growing grains, and had dug huge canal systems. As their population expanded, yet more land was needed for agriculture and more trees for construction. By changing the landscape in this way, it is possible that the Maya people unknowingly reduced their ability to deal with natural disasters.
玛雅文明倾颓的原因一直是一个谜团。究竟是因为自然灾害、致死疾病、城市间的冲突，抑或是几个不同因素叠加所致？某些研究似乎暗示，玛雅人自己也许就是导致衰落的掘墓人。他们将湿地变成了种植庄稼的田地，还开凿了巨大的运河系统。随着人口增长，人们需要更多土地以发展农业，需要更多树木以修建建筑物。通过这样改变地貌，玛雅人可能在不知不觉中减弱了自己应对自然灾害的能力。

5 (d) Research also suggests that those natural disasters may have led to the decline of the Maya. Some recent studies have found that there were far fewer tropical cyclones than usual between 700 AD and 1000 AD. This is likely to have led to a series of droughts, each lasting for a couple of years, including a “megadrought” around 900 AD. Many scientists believe that these droughts were the main reason why Maya civilisation began to collapse at different rates in different places. These droughts would have led to food shortages, conflicts and, ultimately, the downfall of the cities.
研究也表明，那些自然灾害可能导致了玛雅文明的衰落。最近一些研究发现，公元700年到公元1000年之间，热带气旋的数量远远少于往常。这可能导致了一系列旱灾，每一次旱灾都持续若干年，其中就包括公元900年的一场“百年不遇的旱灾”。许多科学家认为，这些早灾是玛雅文明在不同地方以不同速度衰落的主要原因。这些旱灾会导致食物短缺、冲突发生，最后导致城市的衰败。

6 Whatever the reasons, Maya civilisation largely disappeared within the deep jungle. Its once-great cities fell into ruin, leaving various mysteries for later people to solve. (e) Meanwhile, the rise and fall of this civilisation must also leave us thinking about our own past, present and future.
无论原因如何，玛雅文明几乎消失在了从林深处。曾经恢宏的城市沦为废墟，留下各种谜团等待后人解开。同时，玛雅文明的崛起与衰落必定也让我们思考自己的过去、现在与将来。

第56页阅读讲解

DIVING DEEP
潜入深海

1 Lying under waters across the globe are an estimated three million shipwrecks. All of them represent attempts over the centuries to explore Earth's furthest corners. Among these is the Esmeralda, the earliest wreck from the age of the European exploration of Asia. Today, some 500 years after the Esmeralda set sail, there is little – if any – land on our planet left unexplored. We have more detailed maps of the Moon, and even of Venus and Mars, than we do of Earth's own sea bed.
全球水域下大约沉睡着三百万艘沉船残骸，每艘都代表了若干世纪以来探索地球最远端的努力尝试。其中就包括了“埃斯梅拉达”号，它是欧洲国家探索亚洲时代留下的最早残。如今，距离“埃斯梅拉达”号起航已有500多年，我们星球上尚未被人类探索的土地已经少之又少了。然而，我们手中关于地球自身海底的地图，甚至比不上关于月球乃至金星、火星的天体图详尽。

2 Given our limited knowledge, it is perhaps no surprise that exploration of the oceans continues to lead to discoveries in various scientific fields. As with the discovery of the Esmeralda, many archaeological finds are made in shallow waters near the coast. These may sometimes include whole cities buried beneath the waves. One such find is the ancient Roman city of Neápolis, discovered off the coast of Tunisia. Believed to have been buried underwater by a tsunami in the fourth century AD, the ruins of Neápolis are almost 2,000 years old. The remaining streets and buildings offer a window into a fascinating period in our history. However, we are only beginning to overcome the challenges of pressure, darkness and extreme cold at vast depths. Fragments of the past lying deep beneath the oceans are still waiting to be discovered.
基于我们有限的认知，探索海洋可以带来许多科学领域的新发现，这也许就显得不足为奇了。就像发现“埃斯梅拉达”号的残骸一样，很多考古学发现都发生在近海岸的浅水水域。这些发现有时会包括埋在海浪下的整座城市，其中之一便是在突尼斯近海发现的古罗马城市奈阿波利斯。据悉，在公元4世纪，奈阿波利斯被一场海啸淹没，其废墟至今已有近2，000年的历史。存留下来的街道、建筑为我们打开了一扇窗，让我们得以窥见那段精彩的历史。然而，我们才刚刚开始克服广袤的海洋深处的压强、黑暗和极寒所带来的挑战。过去的碎片仍深藏在大洋底部，等待被发现。

3 Amazing biological discoveries are also being made. The dark zones of the oceans may contain up to 90 per cent of the planet's fish. In these waters, more than 200 metres deep, where light cannot reach, are extraordinary creatures that appear as if they are straight out of science fiction. Imagine bone-white coral 6,000 metres below the ocean's surface, growing at the rate of only one or two millimetres per year. Some of these could be 4,000 years old. Swimming through these black depths is the barreleye, a strange fish with eyes that can look upwards through its transparent forehead. In the very deepest ocean trenches that are more than 8,000 metres below the surface, the pressure is equivalent to 50 aeroplanes stacked one on top of another. Yet there is still life to be found, even around the deep-sea volcanic openings. These discoveries all help us understand the capacity for life on our planet, even in the most extreme circumstances.
生物学领域也有惊人的发现。海洋的黑暗区域里或许生存着多达地球上90%的鱼类。在200多米以下、阳光照不到的深水水域里，住着一些看起来就像是刚从科幻小说中走出来的奇异的生物。想象一下，在海平面下6，000米深处，骨白色的珊瑚以每年仅一到两毫米的速度缓慢生长着，它们中有些已经存活了4，000年。漆黑的深海里管眼鱼游来游去，这是种奇特的鱼，其眼睛可以透过透明的前额向上看。在海平面以下8，000多米处最深的海沟里，压强相当于50架飞机堆叠在一起，然而这里仍有生命的存在，甚至在深海海底的火山口周围也有生命。这些深海发现帮助我们理解地球上生命的承受力，甚至是在最极端的环境下的承受力。

4 Furthermore, the oceans are a valuable source of natural resources, some of which are completely new to us. Most notable of these is China's discovery of an ice-like substance, known as “fire ice”, under the South China Sea. In addition, China's underwater vessels, such as the Jiaolong and Shenhai Yongshi, have been exploring waters at depths of thousands of metres. The Jiaolong even holds the record for the deepest dive by a manned submarine, at 7,062 metres, giving China its place alongside the world's top ocean explorers. The research conducted by these vessels is giving scientists a greater understanding of how the sea bed was formed, as well as helping identify areas for deep-sea drilling, taking deep-sea exploration into a whole new era.
此外，海洋还包含着珍贵的自然资源，其中一些对我们来说完全是新的资源。最值得一提的便是中国在南海发现的冰状物质—可燃冰。此外，中国的水下舰艇如“蚊龙”号和“深海勇士”号，一直在数千米深的水域探索。“蚊龙”号甚至创造了载人潜舰的最深下潜纪录7，062米，使中国跻身于世界顶级海洋探索国之列。借助这些潜水器所完成的研究有利于科学家进一步了解海床的形成过程，帮助确定深海钻探区域，将深海勘探带入一个崭新的时代。

5 Being a tough environment of complete darkness, enormous pressure and intense cold, the ocean depths have long been beyond the reach of human exploration. However, through closer international scientific, economic and cultural cooperation, we are all becoming part of a global mission to open up our planet's final frontier. Humankind is entering a new age of oceanic discovery, and the world beneath the waves may one day be almost as familiar to us as the land we walk upon today.
深海区域环境恶劣，完全黑暗、压强极大、极度寒冷，长期以来都是人类探索无法企及的区域。然而，通过更紧密的国际科学、经济以及文化合作，我们都在成为开拓地球最后疆域这一全球使命的参与者。人类正走向海洋发现的新时代，或许有朝一日，我们会像熟悉脚下的土地一样熟悉那海浪下的世界。