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新概念四Lesson 1 Finding fossil man 发现化石人 We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the NearEast, where people first learned to write.But there are some parts of the worldwhere even now people cannot write. The only way that they can preserve theirhistory is to recount it as sagas----legends handed down from one generation ofstory-tellers to another. These legends are useful because they can tell ussomething about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could writedown what they did. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of thePolynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. The sagas ofthese people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 yearsago. But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago thateven their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists haveneither history nor legends to help them to find out where the firstmodern men came from. Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especiallyflint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also haveused wood and skins, but these have rotted away. Stone does not decay, and sothe tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who madethem have disappeared without trace. 我们从书籍中可以读到5,000年前近东发生的事情，那里的人最早学会了写字。但直到现在，世界上仍然有些地方;人们还不会书写。他们保存历史的唯一办法是将历史当作传说讲述，由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来。这些传说是很有用的，因为它们能告诉我们以往人们迁居的情况。但是;没有人能把他们当时做的事情记载下来。人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西亚人的祖先来自何方，当地人的传说却告诉了人们：其中有一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚迁来的。 | 
