Finding fossil man 發(fā)現(xiàn)化石人 We can read of things that happens 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write. 我們從書籍中可讀到5000年前近東發(fā)生的事情，那里的人最早學(xué)會了寫字。 But there are some parts of the world where even now people cannot write. 但直到現(xiàn)在，世界上有些地方，人們還不會書寫。 The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas---legends headed down from one generation of storytellers to another. 他們保存歷史的唯一辦法是將歷史當(dāng)做傳說講述，由講述人一代接一代地將史實(shí)描述為傳奇故事口傳下來。 These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did. 這些傳說是很有用的，因?yàn)樗鼈兡芨嬖V我們以往人們遷居的情況。但是，沒有人能把他們當(dāng)時(shí)做的事情記載下來。 Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. 人類學(xué)家過去不清楚如今生活在太平洋諸島上的波利尼西亞人的祖先來自何方。 The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about2,000years ago. 當(dāng)?shù)厝说膫髡f卻告訴人們：其中一部分是約在2000年前從印度尼西亞遷來的。 But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. 但是，和我們相似的原始人生活的年代太久遠(yuǎn)了，因此，有關(guān)他們的傳說即使有如今也失傳了。 So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first "modern men" came from. 于是，考古學(xué)家們既缺乏歷史記載，又無口頭傳說來幫助他們弄清最早的現(xiàn)代人是從哪里來的。 Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than their other kinds. 然而，幸運(yùn)的是，遠(yuǎn)古人用石頭制作了工具，特別是用燧石，因?yàn)殪菔^之其他石頭更容易成形。 They may also have used wood and skins, but these are have rotted away. 他們也可能用過木頭和獸皮，但這類東西早已腐爛殆盡。 Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace. 石頭是不會腐爛的。因此，盡管制造這些工具的人的骨頭早已蕩然無存，但遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)代的石頭工具卻保存了下來。