时间:2019-01-08 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(八)月


英语课

There’s nothing like a good steak. And our Australopithecus afarensis ancestors apparently 1 felt the same way. Because new discoveries from Ethiopia show that what was likely the species of the famous fossil Lucy used stone tools to butcher meat from big mammals—about 3.4 million years ago. That’s a million years earlier than our best previous evidence for human ancestor stone tool use and meat eating. The finding appears on the cover of the journal Nature.


The research team found two fossil bones with cut and scrape marks, signs of meat carving 2. One bone was a piece of rib 3 from a cow-sized mammal; the other, a leg bone fragment from a mammal the size of a goat. The bones also had percussion 4 marks, sustained while Lucy’s friends smashed the bones to get at the marrow 5.


It looks like the ancient tool users collected stones that happened to have shapes conducive 6 to butchering, the way kids select particular stones with good potential to skip on water. But future expeditions will look for evidence for any attempts at shaping stones into kitchen utensils 7. Because after 3.4 million years, Lucy and her fellow afarensis keep surprising us.


Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Steve Mirsky.

 



adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
n.雕刻品,雕花
  • All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
  • He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。
n.肋骨,肋状物
  • He broke a rib when he fell off his horse.他从马上摔下来折断了一根肋骨。
  • He has broken a rib and the doctor has strapped it up.他断了一根肋骨,医生已包扎好了。
n.打击乐器;冲突,撞击;震动,音响
  • In an orchestra,people who play percussion instruments sit at the back.在管弦乐队中,演奏打击乐器的人会坐在后面。
  • Percussion of the abdomen is often omitted.腹部叩诊常被省略。
n.骨髓;精华;活力
  • It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了,他感到寒冷刺骨。
  • He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。
adj.有益的,有助的
  • This is a more conducive atmosphere for studying.这样的氛围更有利于学习。
  • Exercise is conducive to good health.体育锻炼有助于增强体质。
器具,用具,器皿( utensil的名词复数 ); 器物
  • Formerly most of our household utensils were made of brass. 以前我们家庭用的器皿多数是用黄铜做的。
  • Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。
学英语单词
-h-
a sod
absence flag
acrylic wall paint
antioxidizing
appropriate amount
Arkadia, Nomos
atoners
bandsaws
bibliopolism
biryanis
boxwood T square
buscemis
characteristics of airfoil
clearage with grinding wheel
column stripping
custody battles
dining-chairs
dual diametral dimension
edelean process
exomutation
external mammary artery
fancy glass ware
Far-Downer
fasciola cinerea
feeler mechanism
flowerpetals
flypaper effect
followe
gallow
garbageology
gelidness
get to smooth water
graphophyre
Greeson, Lake
grimelius
growane
hibernacular
hydraulic scale
hylaogen
imperata cylindrica beauv var. koenigii durand et schinz
inclusion of other in the self scale(ios)
infratentorial approach
instructional assessment
intertransfusion
Lampridoidei
lan-free data movement
lever type brush holder
linear rehash method
load the dice against sb.
Léua
make it a proviso that...
match time
Melica pappiana
michael phelps
mlc
Mstera
musure
network-centric
nonsuperconductor
northern barramundi
novials
numbness of lower lip
nuptialling
Odessa
Ottelia heterophylla
overload alarm
paste mixer
pausable
Phycobacteriaceae
pieur
plebicolist
Primnoa ussuriensis
pummelos
RABFAC
rallicart
reference sound power
refining solvent
resolving food stagnation
retriever's hoist
Ribah clause
rocking cam
sequential unconstrained minimization technique (sumt)
signal synchronizing system
smith hearth
snow tractor
Sophora pachycarpa
squishiest
stachowski
steel support structure
subject to tender being awarded
swivel index drum
tbone
teleplasm
tertries
theamerican
thermo-well
trisoctahedron
trough mixer
tsung dao lees
turfdom
work the ass off someone