The Oldest Pictures in the World (Ⅱ)世界上最古老的圖畫(下)

Now， what do you suppose these cave men drew pictures of？ Suppose I asked you to draw a picture of anything—just anything. Try it. What you have drawn is probably one of five things. A cat is my first guess， a sail-boat or an automobile is my second， a house is my third guess， a tree or a flower is my fourth， and a person is my fifth. Are there any other kinds？

你認(rèn)為這些穴居人會(huì)畫些什么呢？假如我讓你隨便畫點(diǎn)什么，什么都可以，試想想看，你會(huì)畫些什么呢？我想你畫的東西應(yīng)該不超出以下五種：貓是我第一個(gè)猜想，帆船或者汽車是第二個(gè)猜想，房子是第三個(gè)猜想。如果我還沒(méi)有猜中的話，樹(shù)或花是第四個(gè)猜想，而人是第五個(gè)猜想。除此之外，還有別的嗎？

Well， the cave men drew pictures of only one kind of thing. Not men or women or trees or flowers or scenery. They drew chiefly pictures of animals. And what kind of animals， do you suppose？ Dogs？ No， not dogs. Horses？ No， not horses. Lions？ No， not lions. They were usually big animals and strange animals. But they were pretty well drawn， so that we know what the animals looked like. Here is a picture a cave man drew thousands of years ago.

事實(shí)上，穴居人只畫一種東西。不是男人，不是女人，不是樹(shù)，不是花，也不是景色。他們畫的主要是動(dòng)物。那么你認(rèn)為會(huì)是哪種動(dòng)物呢？狗？不是的。馬？也不是。獅子？還不是。他們畫的動(dòng)物通常很大，很奇怪。但是他們并沒(méi)有亂畫，相反，這些動(dòng)物都畫得很好，所以直到今天我們都可以看出它們的樣子來(lái)。上圖就是一張穴居人在幾千年前畫的圖畫。

You know its a picture of some animal， and its not a cat or a caterpillar. It is some animal of the kind they had in those days. It looks like an elephant and it was a kind of elephant—a huge elephant. But its ears were not big like our elephants ears and it had long hair. Elephants now have skin or hide， but hardly any hair. This animal we call a mammoth. It had long hair because the country was cold in those days and the hair kept the animal warm. And it was much， much bigger even than our elephants.

看得出這張圖畫畫的是某種動(dòng)物，而且這種動(dòng)物不是貓也不是毛毛蟲(chóng)，這是一種真實(shí)存在于遠(yuǎn)古穴居人那個(gè)時(shí)代的動(dòng)物。它看起來(lái)很像大象，事實(shí)上也是一種巨型象，但它的耳朵沒(méi)有現(xiàn)在大象的耳朵長(zhǎng)，而且它的毛發(fā)非常長(zhǎng)。現(xiàn)在的大象雖然有獸皮，但幾乎沒(méi)有毛發(fā)。根據(jù)這個(gè)特征，我們將這種生活在遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)期的動(dòng)物叫作長(zhǎng)毛象。長(zhǎng)毛象的毛發(fā)很長(zhǎng)，因?yàn)槟莻€(gè)時(shí)候地球的氣候非常寒冷，長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的毛發(fā)可以保暖。另外，長(zhǎng)毛象比現(xiàn)在的大象要大很多很多。

There are no mammoths alive now， but men have found their bones and they have put these bones together to form huge skeletons. We still call any very big thing “mammoth”. Youve probably heard of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. It was called Mammoth， not because mammoths lived in it， because they didnt， but just because it is such a huge cave.

可惜現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)沒(méi)有存活的長(zhǎng)毛象了。但是現(xiàn)代人找到了它們的骨頭，并且將這些骨頭拼接起來(lái)，組成了大型骨架。如今還有人把非常龐大的東西叫作“長(zhǎng)毛象”。你可能聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)美國(guó)肯塔基州的長(zhǎng)毛象洞，事實(shí)上那里以前從來(lái)沒(méi)有長(zhǎng)毛象居住過(guò)，這個(gè)洞之所以叫這個(gè)名字只是因?yàn)樗浅４蟆?/p>

Word Study

chiefly /'t?i?fli/ adv.主要地;首要地

We are chiefly concerned with improving educational standards.

caterpillar /'k?t?p?l?（r）/ n.毛蟲(chóng)，蠋（蝴蝶或蛾的幼蟲(chóng)）

mammoth /'m?m?θ/ n.猛犸（象）;毛象

adj.極其巨大的;龐大的

Thecavemendrewother animals besides the mammoth. One was the bison ， a kind of buffalo . You can see a picture of a buffalo on our five-cent piece. It looks something like a bull. A little girl had gone to a cave in Spain with her father， who was searching for arrow-heads. While he was looking on the ground， she was looking at the ceiling of the cave and she saw what she thought was a herd of bulls painted there . She called out， “See the bulls！” and her father， thinking she had seen real bulls， cried， “Where？ Where？”

除了長(zhǎng)毛象，穴居人也畫其他動(dòng)物，包括美洲野牛，是水牛的一種。在美國(guó)的五分硬幣上就能看到美洲野牛的樣子，它看起來(lái)和公牛差不多。以前在西班牙，有一個(gè)小女孩跟著她的爸爸進(jìn)了一個(gè)洞穴去找箭頭玩。當(dāng)她爸爸在地上尋找時(shí)，小女孩往洞的頂上望了一下，她發(fā)現(xiàn)洞頂上畫著一些東西，看起來(lái)很像一群公牛。小女孩就叫道：“爸爸，快看，有公牛！”她爸爸以為女兒見(jiàn)到了真的公牛，大驚失色，慌忙叫著：“在哪？在哪？”

Other animals they drew were like those we have now—reindeer， deer with big antlers， and bears and wolves.

雖然長(zhǎng)毛象滅絕了，但是其他的很多動(dòng)物還存在，所以穴居人畫的其他動(dòng)物很多也跟今天的動(dòng)物差不多，比如馴鹿、長(zhǎng)角鹿、熊和狼。

It was quite dark in the caves where the cave men drew these pictures， for of course there were no windows， and the only light was a smoky flame from a kind of lamp. Why， then， did they make pictures at all？ Such pictures couldnt have been just for wall decorations， like those you have on your walls， because it was so dark in the cave. We think the pictures were made just for good luck. Or perhaps they were to tell a story or make a record of some animal the cave man had killed. But perhaps the cave man just had to draw something， as boys and girls nowadays draw pictures on the walls of a shed or even sometimes on the walls of their own houses or， worse yet， on their desk tops.

穴居人在畫這些圖畫時(shí)，洞穴里非常暗。因?yàn)槟菚r(shí)的洞穴肯定是沒(méi)有窗戶的，唯一的光線就是火把所發(fā)出的昏暗的光。那么，他們?yōu)槭裁匆嬤@些畫呢？這些圖畫絕不僅僅像你用來(lái)裝飾墻壁的裝飾畫那么簡(jiǎn)單，因?yàn)槟菚r(shí)候洞穴里很暗。我們認(rèn)為那時(shí)的人們畫這些畫是為了祈求好運(yùn)。當(dāng)然，他們也可能是希望講述一個(gè)故事，或者記錄下他們?cè)讱⒌哪撤N動(dòng)物。不過(guò)要是讓我猜，我就會(huì)覺(jué)得其實(shí)穴居人就是忍不住想畫點(diǎn)什么，就像今天的孩子們一樣，總是忍不住在車庫(kù)墻上涂抹點(diǎn)東西，甚至有時(shí)候畫在自家房子的墻上，又或者，畫在了課桌上……

The pictures made by these wild men—bearded and hairy cave men— are the oldest pictures in the world， and the artists who made them have been dead thousands of years . Can you think of anything you might ever make that would last as long as that？

這些原始人——長(zhǎng)須長(zhǎng)頭發(fā)的穴居人——他們所作的畫是世界上最古老的圖畫，這些畫的畫家早在幾千年前就去世了。你能想出有什么東西可以像這些圖畫一樣保存這么長(zhǎng)時(shí)間嗎？

Word Study

bison /'ba?sn/ n.野牛（分北美野牛和歐洲野牛兩類） buffalo /'b?f?l??/ n.水牛（分非洲水牛和亞洲水牛兩種） herd /h??d/ n.獸群;牧群

lamp /l?mp/ n.燈;發(fā)熱燈;照射燈

decoration /'dek?'re??n/ n.裝飾;裝飾風(fēng)格;裝飾品;勛章