新概念英语美文短文欣赏
《新概念英语》自出版以来受到了英语学习者的热烈欢迎，《新概念英语》的成功不仅在于其严密科学的英语语法体系,而且还在于其内涵丰富的文化体系。《新概念英语》展示了二语教材中语言和文化相互交融的关系。下面是本站小编带来的新概念英语美文短文欣赏，欢迎阅读!
Archaeology
考古学
Archaeology is a source of history, not just a humble auxiliary discipline. Archaeological data are historical documents in their own right, not mere illustrations to written texts. Just as much as any other historian, an archaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute the process that has created the human world in which we live -- and us ourselves in so far as we are each creatures of our age and social environment.
考古学是历史学的一个来源，而不是地位卑微的辅助学科。 考古资料本身也是一种历史文献，而不仅仅是文字资料的例证。正像任何一位历史学家那样，考古学家研究调查并尽力去重构一个过程，这个过程创造了我们生活的人类世界，也创造了我们自身，因为我们都是我们所处的时代和社会环境的产物。
Archaeological data are all changes in the material world resulting from human action or, more succinctly, the fossilized results of human behavior. The sum total of these constitutes what may be called the archaeological record. This record exhibits certain peculiarities and deficiencies the consequences of which produce a rather superficial contrast between archaeological history and the more familiar kind based upon written records.
考古学的资料就是人类行为所造成的物质变化。更简洁地说，是石化了的人类行为。这些变化的总和构成了我们所说的考古学记录。这些记录自有其独特和不足之处，因而导致人们对考古历史和更熟悉的文字记载历史进行相当肤浅的对比。
Not all human behavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear as vibrations in the air are certainly human changes in the material world and may be of great historical significance. Yet they leave no sort of trace in the archaeological records unless they are captured by a dictaphone or written down by a clerk.
并不是所有的人类行为都留下化石。我说的话，你通过空气振动听见，这当然是人类造成的物质变化，也可能有重大的历史意义，但这些话在考古学中未留下丝毫痕迹，除非有人用录音机录下来或文书把这些话写了下来。
The movement of troops on the battlefield may "change the course of history," but this is equally ephemeral from the archaeologist's standpoint. What is perhaps worse, most organic materials are perishable. Everything made of wood, hide, wool, linen, grass, hair, and similar materials will decay and vanish in dust in a few years or centuries, save under very exceptional conditions. In a relatively brief period the archaeological record is reduced to mere scraps of stone, bone, glass, metal, and earthenware. Still modern archaeology, by applying appropriate techniques and comparative methods, aided by a few lucky finds from peat-bogs, deserts, and frozen soils, is able to fill up a good deal of the gap.
战场上军队的行动可能“改变历史的进程”，但从考古学的观点来看，这同样是难以捕捉的;可能更糟的是，多数有机物质会腐烂。任何由木头、生皮、绒线、亚麻、草、毛发以及相似物质做成的东西除非在一些非常特殊的条件下，几年或几个世纪以后，会在尘土中腐烂并消失。在短时期内，能留下考古记录的东西也都会退化为石头、骨头、玻璃、金属和陶器的碎片。 然而，现代考古学通过运用适当的技术和比较的方法，在从泥炭、沙漠和冻土中所获得的一些幸运发现的辅助下，能够填充这个空缺的很大部分。
新概念英语美文短文欣赏篇二A Rare Fossil Record
罕见的化石记录
The preservation of embryos and juveniles is a rate occurrence in the fossil record. The tiny, delicate skeletons are usually scattered by scavengers or destroyed by weathering before they can be fossilized. Ichthyosaurs had a higher chance of being preserved than did terrestrial creatures because, as marine animals, they tended to live in environments less subject to erosion. Still, their fossilization required a suite of factors: a slow rate of decay of soft tissues, little scavenging by other animals, a lack of swift currents and waves to jumble and carry away small bones, and fairly rapid burial. Given these factors, some areas have become a treasury of well-preserved ichthyosaur fossils.
胚胎与幼体被保存下来在化石记录中是少见的事情。微小纤细的骨骼通常在石化前就被食腐肉的动物拆散了，或者被风化作用破坏掉了。鱼龙比起陆地的动物有更大的几率被保存下来，因为它们作为海洋动物常生活在腐蚀性较小的环境中。但是它们的石化需要一系列因素：软组织的腐烂速度缓慢，很少被其他动物残食，缺少混杂、冲走小骨头的快速水流和波浪，以及相当快地被掩埋。当这些因素存在时，某些地区就会变成一个充满保存完好的鱼龙化石的宝库。
The deposits at Holzmaden, Germany, present an interesting case for analysis. The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marine shales deposited about 190 million years ago. Over the years, thousands of specimens of marine reptiles, fish and invertebrates have been recovered from these rocks. The quality of preservation is outstanding, but what is even more impressive is the number of ichthyosaur fossils containing preserved embryos. Ichthyosaurs with embryos have been reported from 6 different levels of the shale in a small area around Holzmaden, suggesting that a specific site was used by large numbers of ichthyosaurs repeatedly over time. The embryos are quite advanced in their physical development; their paddles, for example, are already well formed. One specimen is even preserved in the birth canal. In addition, the shale contains the remains of many newborns that are between 20 and 30 inches long.
在德国获尔兹梅登，那儿的沉积物给人们提出了一个有趣的分析案例。人们在黑色的、含沥青的海洋页岩中发现了约19，000年前沉积下来的鱼龙化石。几年时间内，在这些岩石中取得了数以千计的海洋爬行动物、鱼类以及无脊椎动物的标本。它们的保存质量非常的好，但更令人称奇的是保存下来的育有胚胎的鱼龙化石数目。在获尔兹梅登附近一个小地区的六个不同的页岩层中分别发现了育有胚胎的鱼龙化石。这表明大量的鱼龙经年累月重复使用一个特定的地点。那些胚胎已经发育得相当完整了。比如，它们的蹼桨已经完全形成了。有一个标本甚至被保存在产道中。而且，那块页岩包含着很多在20到30英寸之间的新生幼体的化石。
Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when they are so rare elsewhere? The quality of preservation is almost unmatched and quarry operations have been carried out carefully with an awareness of the value of the fossils. But these factors do not account for the interesting question of how there came to be such a concentration of pregnant ichthyosaurs in a particular place very close to their time of giving birth.
为什么在其他地方那么稀少的怀孕雌兽和幼体在获尔兹梅登却那么多呢? 因为其保存质量几乎举世无双，采集工作的进行一直是一丝不苟的。大家都认识到这些化石的价值极其珍贵，但这些因素并不能解释这个有趣的问题：为什么在一个特定的地点会如此集中地出现即将临产的怀孕鱼龙群呢?
新概念英语美文短文欣赏篇三The Nobel Academy
诺贝尔委员会
For the last 82 years, Sweden's Nobel Academy has decided who will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, thereby determining who will be elevated from the great and the near great to the immortal. But today the Academy is coming under heavy criticism both from the without and from within.
在过去的82年里，瑞典的诺贝尔委员会决定了谁将获得诺贝尔文学奖，因此也就决定了谁将从伟大或近乎伟大荣升为不朽。但在今天，该委员会却遭到了评选委员会内外的猛烈批评。
Critics contend that the selection of the winners often has less to do with true writing ability than with the peculiar internal politics of the Academy and of Sweden itself. According to Ingmar Bjorksten, the cultural editor for one of the country's two major newspapers, the prize continues to represent "what people call a very Swedish exercise: reflecting Swedish tastes".
批评者们争论说：评选获奖者时，起作用更大的不是真实的写作能力，而是该委员会以及瑞典特有的内部政治。按照瑞典两家主要报纸之一的文化版编辑Ingmar Bjorksten的说法，该文学奖仍然是“人们所说的一种非常瑞典式的做为：反映瑞典口味”。
The Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism in its selection by asserting that its physical distance from the great literary capitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from outside influences. This may well be true, but critics respond that this very distance may also be responsible for the Academy's inability to perceive accurately authentic trends in the literary world.
对于其评选过程中目光短浅的指责，该委员会辩护说，该委员会与世界几大文学之都相距遥远，实际上使该委员会免受外来的干扰。这也许是对的，但批评者们反驳说，也正因为相距如此遥远，该委员会才不能准确地把握文学界的真正趋势。
Regardless of concerns over the selection process, however, it seems that the prize will continue to survive both as an indicator of the literature that we most highly praise, and as an elusive goal that writers seek. If for no other reason, the prize will continue to be desirable for the financial rewards that accompany it; not only is the cash prize itself considerable, but it also dramatically increases sales of an author's books.
尽管对评选程序存在着关注，该文学奖将继续作为世人最为推崇的文学的标志而存在，并将继续是作家们难以达到却又会不断追逐的目标。如果不考虑其他因素，而仅仅考虑与之俱来的经济利益，该奖也将继续为人所渴求：这不仅因为该奖本身就是一笔可观的现金收入，而且该奖还将极大地增加一个作家的著作的销量。
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