Jason瘋英文 :回首頁

Lecture

Narrator

Listen to part of a lecture in an archeology class. Professor

OK, we've been talking about early agriculture in the near east (Near East

Middle East, countries in southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa

). So let's concentrate on one site and see what we can learn from it. Let's look at Catalhoyuk. Ah... I'd better write that down.

Catalhoyuk, that's about as close as we get in English. It's Turkish, really. The sites in modern day Turkey, and who knows what the original inhabitants called it. Anyway, uh...Catalhoyuk wasn't the first agricultural settlement in the near east, but it was pretty early, settled about 9000 years ago in the Neolithic period. And ... umm... the settlement...ah...town really, lasted about a thousand years and grew to a size of about eight or ten thousand people. That certainly makes it one of the largest towns in the world at that time.

at the beginning 从头开始 in the beginning 起初; 首先 at the start

inhabit v 居住於/棲息於

habitat 棲息地

inhabitat 沒有

habitation 居住，住處，住房

inhabitation 居住，棲息

habitant 居民

inhabitant 某地區的居住者, 棲息的動物

One of the things that make the settlement of this size impressive is the time period. It's the Neolithic, remember, the late Stone Age. So the people that lived there had only stone tools, no metals. So everything they accomplished, like building this town, they did with just stone, plus wood, bricks, that sort of thing. But you got to remember that it wasn't just any stone they had, they had obsidian. And umm... obsidian is a black, volcanic, well, almost like glass. It flakes very nicely into really sharp points. The sharpest tools of the entire Stone Age were made of obsidian. And urrr... the people of Catalhoyuk got theirs from further inland, from central Turkey, traded for it, probably.

Stone Age

n the Stone Age
a very early time in human history, when only stone was used for making tools, weapons etc

Stone Age

First known period of prehistoric human culture, characterized by the use of stone tools.

The term is little used by specialists today. See Paleolithic Period; Mesolithic Period; Neolithic Period; stone-tool industry. See also Bronze Age; Iron Age.

Bronze Age

Copper Age, era before the Age of Steel, period in the history of pre-historic man

Bronze Age

n the Bronze Age
the time, between about 6000 and 4000 years ago, when bronze was used for making tools, weapons etc

Bronze Age

Third phase in the development of material culture among the ancient peoples of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, following the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods and preceding the Iron Age.

The term also denotes the first period in which metal was used. The date at which the age began varied by region; in Greece and China it began before 3000 BC, in Britain not until с 1900 BC. The beginning of the period is sometimes called the Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone) Age, referring to the initial use of pure copper (along with its predecessor, stone). By 3000 BC the use of copper was well known in the Middle East, had extended westward into the Mediterranean area, and was beginning to infiltrate Europe. Only in the 2nd millennium BC did true bronze come to be widely used. The age was marked by increased specialization and the invention of the wheel and the ox-drawn plow. From с 1000 BC the ability to heat and forge iron brought the Bronze Age to an end.

Iron Age

Final technological and cultural stage in the Stone–Bronze–Iron-Age sequence (or Three-Age System) in which iron largely replaced bronze in implements and weapons.

The start of the Iron Age varied geographically, beginning in the Middle East and southeastern Europeс 1200 BC but in China not until с 600 BC. Though the large-scale production of iron implements brought new patterns of more permanent settlement, use of iron for weapons put arms in the hands of the masses for the first time and set off a series of large-scale movements and conquests that did not end for 2,000 years and that changed the face of Europe and Asia. See also Bronze Age.

x

Anyway, what I wanna focus on is the way the town was built. The houses are all rectangular, one storey made of sun dried bricks. But what's really interesting is that there are no spaces between them, no streets in other words, and so generally no doors on the houses either. People walked around on the roofs and entered the house through a hatchway on the roof, down a wooden ladder. You can still see the diagonal marks of the ladders in the plaster on the inside walls. Once you were in the house, there would be one main room and a couple of small rooms for storage. The main room had the hearths, for coakirhjeatidtf would've been pretty cold during the winters. And it also looks like they made their tools near the fire. There tends to be a lot of obsidian flakes and chips in the hearth ashes, but no chimney. The smoke just went out the same hatchway that people used for going in and out themselves. So there would have been an open fire inside the house with only one hole in the roof to let the smoke out. You and I would have found it a bit too smoky in there. You can see on the walls, which they plastered and

decorated with paintings. They ended up with a layer of black soot on them, and so did people's lungs. The bones found in the graves show a layer of soot on the inside of the ribs.

And that's another unusual feature of Catalhoyuk, the burial sites. The graves have all been found under the houses, right under the floors. And it maybe this burial custom that explains why the houses were packed in so tightly without streets. I mean, you might think it was for protection or something, but there has been no evidence found yet of any violent attack that would indicate that kind of danger, it maybe they wanted to live as near as possible to their ancestors' graves and be buried near them themselves. But it makes a good point.

Based on excavations, we can know the layout of the houses and the location of the graves, but we're only guessing when we tried to say why they did it that way. That^’s the way it is with archeology. You are dealing with the physical remains that people left behind. We have no sure access to what they thought and how they felt about things. I mean it's interesting to speculate. And the physical artifacts can give us clues, but there is a lot we can't really know. So, for instance, their art. They painted on the plastered walls and usually they painted hunting scenes with wild animals in them. Now they did hunt and they also raised cereal crops and kept sheep, but we don't know why so many of the paintings are of hunting scenes. Was it supposed to have religious or magical significance? That's the kind of thing we can only guess at based on clues. And hopefully, further excavation of Catalhoyuk will yield more clues. But we'll probably never know for sure.

that's the way it is

it's this way,

this is all there is,

that's the situation

Lecture

Narrator

Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class. Professor

For today's discussion, we'll review the case study on how some animals have behaviorally adapted to their environments. Now you had to read about two animal species, the Eastern marmot and the Olympic marmot. Marmots are rodents(order of gnawing or nibbling mammals). They are large ground squirrels, about the size of an average house cat. And theyflhabrta4ca*reJyeoen though they spend the significant portion of the year hibernating, according to this case study, marmots are still considered excellent subjects for animal behavioral studies. Why is that?

Student

Well, when they are not hibernating, you can find them in open areas. And they are pretty active during the day, which makes them easy to observe, right?

日行性（diurnal）其他兩種是晨昏性（crepuscular/ crepuscule）及夜行性（nocturnal）

Professor

Uh-ha, so first let's discuss the Eastern marmots. They reside throughout the eastern region of North America where there is a temperate climate, where the growing season lasts for at least five months of the year, which is when they do all their mating, playing and eating.

Student

Oh, I see. At first I wasn't sure what growing season meant, just from the reading. But now I get it. It's the amount of time it takes for them to grow, right? So it would be five months?

Professor

Umm? Oh, uh... I'm sorry but no. it has nothing to do with that, it's not about the time it takes for Eastern marmots to grow. It's when the food is available. That is when if s not covered in snow and there is no frost covering the grass and, umm, vegetative parts of a plant¹ s herbs and the flowers the marmots like to eat. So growing season refers to the availability of the food they eat, OK? So now how would you describe the Eastern marmots' social habits?

Student

Well, they are really territorial / terrestrial , and loners, and just so aggressive even with other Eastern marmots. And their mating ritual is just so impersonal.

Professor

Uh-ha? Now when they emerge in the spring from hibernation, the mating process begins. For them, well, they come together to mate and then they go their separate ways. Then about six to eight weeks after birth, the offspring leave their mothers.

Student

Really? Just six weeks? Is that possible for the offspring to make it on their own so young? Professor

Well, it's not as if they aren't ready for the real world because they are. Remember, they mature quickly and the weather's nice. Also they live in open fields where there is lots of edible vegetation. So roughly six weeks after birth. Eastern marmots are just old enough to take their chances of surviving in the temperate environment. So how does this relate to their behavior?