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万物简史(MP3+中英字幕) 第483期:多灾多难的生命进程(3)

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If you imagine the 4,500-million-odd years of Earth's history compressed into a normal earthly day, then life begins very early, about 4 A.M., with the rise of the first simple, single-celled organisms, but then advances no further for the next sixteen hours. Not until almost 8:30 in the evening, with the day five-sixths over, has Earth anything to show the universe but a restless skin of microbes. Then, finally, the first sea plants appear, followed twenty minutes later by the first jellyfish and the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna first seen by Reginald Sprigg in Australia. At 9:04 P.M. trilobites swim onto the scene, followed more or less immediately by the shapely creatures of the Burgess Shale. Just before 10 P.M. plants begin to pop up on the land. Soon after, with less than two hours left in the day, the first land creatures follow.

请你想像一下。把地球的45亿年历史压缩成普通的一天。那么,生命起始很早,出现第一批最简单的单细胞生物大约是在上午4点钟,但在此后的l6个小时里没有取得多大进展。直到晚上差不多8点30分,这一天已经过去六分之五的时候,地球才向宇宙拿出点成绩,但也不过是一层静不下来的微生物。然后,终于出现了第一批海生植物。20分钟以后,又出现了第一批水母以及雷金纳德·斯普里格最先在澳大利亚看到的那个神秘的埃迪亚卡拉动物群。晚上9点4分,三叶虫登场了,几乎紧接着出场的是布尔吉斯页岩那些形状美观的动物。快到l0点钟的时候,植物开始出现在大地上。过不多久,在这一天还剩下不足两个小时的时候,第一批陆生动物接着出现了。
埃迪亚卡拉

Thanks to ten minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10:24 the Earth is covered in the great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all our coal, and the first winged insects are evident. Dinosaurs plod onto the scene just before 11 P.M. and hold sway for about three-quarters of an hour. At twenty-one minutes to midnight they vanish and the age of mammals begins. Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight. The whole of our recorded history, on this scale, would be no more than a few seconds, a single human lifetime barely an instant.

由于l0分钟左右的好天气,到了10点24分,地球上已经覆盖着石炭纪的大森林,它们的残留物变成了我们的煤。第一批有翼的昆虫亮了相。晚上11点刚过,恐龙迈着缓慢的脚步登上了舞台,支配世界达三刻钟左右。午夜前20分钟,它们消失了,哺乳动物的时代开始了。人类在午夜前1分l7秒出现。按照这个比例,我们全部有记录的历史不过几秒钟长,一个人的一生仅仅是刹那工夫。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
scene [si:n]

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n. 场,景,情景

 
universe ['ju:nivə:s]

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n. 宇宙,万物,世界

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sway [swei]

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v. 摇摆,摇动,支配,影响
n. 摇摆,动摇

 
shale [ʃeil]

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n. 页岩,泥板岩

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earthly ['ə:θli]

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adj. 地球的,俗世的,可能的

 
vanish ['væniʃ]

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vi. 消失,不见了,绝迹
vt. 消失

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scale [skeil]

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n. 鳞,刻度,衡量,数值范围
v. 依比例决

 
enigmatic [.enig'mætik]

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adj. 谜的,莫明其妙的,不可思议的

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emerge [i'mə:dʒ]

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vi. 浮现,(由某种状态)脱出,(事实)显现出来

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balmy ['bɑ:mi]

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adj. 芳香的,温和的,疯狂的,古怪的

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