考满分 toefl

1 .Listen to part of a lecture in an archaeology class.

听一部分在考古学课程上的演讲

1 .It's every archaeologist's dream to find a lost civilization, to make some huge discovery, to find artifacts no one else has laid a hand on in millennia.

每个考古学家都梦想着发现一个失落的文明，有个巨大的发现，找到千年来从没有人发现的物品。

2 .You might think that this never happens any more, given all the research in archaeology that's been done.

在众多考古发现之后，你可能会认为这种发现不会再有了

3 .But in the late twentieth century, archaeologists discovered the remains of a sophisticated people whose settlement might have been the hub of a civilization few people even thought existed.

但是在20世纪晚期，考古学家发现了一个高级的民族的遗迹，他们的生活地区可能是一个未知文明的中心。

1 .They found this site at the edge of a desert in Turkmenistan, in central Asia, where a series of mounds rise up from the plains.

他们在中亚的土库曼斯坦的一个沙漠边上发现了一个遗址，那儿的平原上有一系列的土丘。

2 .Now, you might remember because we've talked about this, archaeologists know that mounds such as these are the kinds of geological features that indicate the presence of ancient settlements. Jim?

你可能还有印象因为我们讲过，考古学家知道土丘这类地貌告诉我们有古代居民地的存在。Jim？

1 .Um... mounds can be different things, right? Some are burial places...

嗯，土丘可能是很多东西，对吗？一些是坟墓……

1 .Exactly. And some are the remains of cities.

没错。一些是城市的遗址。

2 .The inhabitants would build houses and temples you know, what have you.

你知道，当地居民会建房子和神庙等等。

3 .And over time, those buildings would fall down or be torn down and then be built over.

时间一长，这些建筑物会倒塌或被拆除，然后重建。

4 .Over time, generations of building and rebuilding in the same area would result in a large hill the size of a city.

过一阵，在同一地方多次的修建和重建之后会产生一个很大的山丘，有城市那么大。

5 .Careful excavation and documentation of layers in a mound can reveal a wealth of information about the everyday life of people in a settlement over many periods of occupation.

细心的挖掘和记录每层山丘能够告诉我们很多关于当地人长期的日常生活的信息。

1 .Now, this particular site is called Gonur-depe.

那么，这个遗址叫做Gonur-depe。

2 .What was found at Gonur-depe was amazing: the ruins of a huge palace complex, the foundations of shops and houses, the remains of thick walls and towers that fortified the city.

我们在这儿有惊人的发现：巨大宫殿群的残存，商店和房子的地基，防守城市的厚墙和塔的遗迹。

3 .There was even an elaborate canal system and a lot of very intricate jewelry.

甚至还有一个复杂的运河和好多精美的珠宝。

4 .All these findings seem to indicate that they are the remains of an ancient civilization that was every bit as advanced as other more famous civilizations of the time, like those in Egypt, or, or China.

所有这些发现都指出它们属于一个非常先进的古代文明，这个文明和当时其他更出名的文明同样先进。比如埃及或中国。

5 .And the site dates back to 3,000 B.C.E.

这个遗址可追溯到公元前3000年。

1 .Did they trade with those other civilizations?

他们和其他文明通商么？

2 .Because if they did, wouldn't there've been some evidence of that?

因为如果他们通商了，会不会有些这方面的证据呢？

3 .You know, an artifact found in the ruins of other civilizations?

比如，在其他文明的遗迹中发现的物品。

1 .That's a good question.

问的好。

2 .I mentioned Jewelry, well, Jewelry have been found in Mesopotamia and at archaeological sites in modern-day Pakistan.

我提到了珠宝。嗯，珠宝曾经在美索不达米亚和现在是巴基斯坦的一个考古遗址被发现。

3 .But archaeologists didn't know where it came from.

但是考古学家并不知道他们来自何处。

4 .Only after the site at Gonur-depe was excavated were archaeologists able to identify it as coming from Gonur-depe.

直到Gonur-depe的遗址被发掘，考古学家才认出它们是这儿的。

5 .Uh, Sheryl?

嗯，Sheryl？

1 .I wonder why nobody found this site before.

我在想为什么之前没人发现过这个遗址？

1 .Well, before the discovery of this site, it was commonly believed that central Asia had always been occupied by mostly nomadic people.

嗯，发现这个遗址之前，普遍认为中亚主要居住的是游牧民族，

2 .So there would be no record of major settlements.

所以应该不会有人类聚居的记录。

3 .A couple of small finds have been made in the area, but really, no one had looked very hard.

有过几个小的发现，但是没人特别努力的寻找过。

1 .Now, one mystery regarding this site is that archaeological records show it was inhabited for only a few centuries.

这处遗址的神秘之处在于考古记录它只被居住了几百年。

1 .What happened to the people who lived there?

这儿的居民发生什么事儿了？

1 .Well, the site was close to the Murgab river, which they would have depended on for their water.

嗯，这个遗址距穆加尔布河很近，居民依靠河流的水源。

2 .And the Murgab river, which runs toward the west, is the kind of river that shifts its course over time.

而向西流的穆加尔布河是那种随时间改变河道的河流。

3 .So one theory is that the river's course shifted toward the South, and they simply followed it and built new towns to the South.

因此，一种理论认为河道向南变化，然后人们随着河道而迁移并在南方建了新的城市。

1 .Another theory is that they were involved in wars with neighboring settlements.

另一种理论是这些人和临近的居民发生战争。

2 .But we might never know the truth.

是我们可能永远也不会知道真相。

1 .One thing we do know is that in the decades since Gonur-depe was discovered, the site has deteriorated significantly.

我们确定的一件事是在Gonur-depe发现后的近几十年，该遗址一直严重的恶化

2 .I mean, it's been disturbed for the first time in millennia.

。我是说，在千百年后它第一次被打开。

3 .And being exposed to the Sun and wind has taken its toll on the ancient city.

日晒和风化损害了这座古城。

1 .So now the question is, do we partially restore and rebuild the site before the entire thing disintegrates?

现在的问题是，我们在它消失之前要不要修复和重建这座遗址？

2 .It will take a lot of funding to restore it and I am not sure it'll be made available, which would be a pity.

重建需要很多资金，而我不确定会有这么多钱，这会是一个遗憾。

3 .Even a partly altered site can provide valuable information, which would be lost otherwise.

即使是一部分修护的遗迹也能提供宝贵的信息，不修复则我们会失去它。