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1、 The Story of Mankind 大圣老师-名著推荐系列 BY Hendrik van Loon 1 THE STORY OF MANKIND HIGH Up in the North in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It is a hundred miles high and a hundred miles wide. Once every thousand years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has t
2、hus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by. 1. THE SETTING OF THE STAGE WE live under the shadow of a gigantic question mark. Who are we? Where do we come from? Whither are we bound? Slowly, but with persistent courage, we have been pushing this question mark further and fur
3、ther towards that distant line, beyond the horizon, where we hope to find our answer. We have not gone very far. We still know very little but we have reached the point where (with a fair degree of accuracy) we can guess at many things. In this chapter I shall tell you how (according to our best bel
4、ief) the stage was set for the first appearance of man. If we represent the time during which it has been possible for animal life to exist upon our planet by a line of this length, then the tiny line just below indicates the age during which man (or a creature more or less resembling man) has lived
5、 upon this earth. Man was the last to come but the first to use his brain for the purpose of conquering the forces of nature. That is the reason why we are going to study him, rather than cats or dogs or horses or any of the other animals, who, all in their own way, have a very interesting historica
6、l development behind them. In the beginning, the planet upon which we live was (as far as we now know) a large ball of flaming matter, a tiny cloud of smoke in the endless ocean of space. Gradually, in the course of millions of years, the surface burned itself out, and was covered with a thin layer
7、of rocks. Upon these lifeless rocks the rain descended in endless torrents, wearing out the hard granite and carrying the dust to the valleys that lay hidden between the high cliffs of the steaming earth. 批注批注 i1: v. 使锋利 批注批注 i2: n. 鸟嘴 批注批注 i3: be worn away 被风化，被侵蚀 EG: Rocks can be worn away by wate
8、r, ice, and wind. 批注批注 i4: n. 永恒 批注批注 i5: 在阴影之下 批注批注 i6: 问号 批注批注 i7: adj. 持久的 批注批注 i8: 超越地平线 批注批注 i9: n. 精准，精确 批注批注 i10: n. 出现 批注批注 i11: v. 代表 批注批注 i12: n. 生物，创造物 批注批注 i13: v. 征服，战胜 I come. I see. I conquer. 批注批注 i14: 而不是 would do rather than do prefer to do rather than do 宁愿做也不 批注批注 i15: =during 在期
9、间;在的过程当中 批注批注 i16: v. 下降 The Story of Mankind 大圣老师-名著推荐系列 BY Hendrik van Loon 2 Finally the hour came when the sun broke through the clouds and saw how this little planet was covered with a few small puddles which were to develop into the mighty oceans of the eastern and western hemispheres. Then on
10、e day the great wonder happened. What had been dead, gave birth to life. The first living cell floated upon the waters of the sea. For millions of years it drifted aimlessly with the currents. But during all that time it was developing certain habits that it might survive more easily upon the inhosp
11、itable earth. Some of these cells were happiest in the dark depths of the lakes and the pools. They took root in the slimy sediments which had been carried down from the tops of the hills and they became plants. Others preferred to move about and they grew strange jointed legs, like scorpions and be
12、gan to crawl along the bottom of the sea amidst the plants and the pale green things that looked like jelly-fishes. Still others (covered with scales) depended upon a swimming motion to go from place to place in their search for food, and gradually they populated the ocean with myriads of fishes. Me
13、anwhile the plants had increased in number and they had to search for new dwelling places. There was no more room for them at the bottom of the sea. Reluctantly they left the water and made a new home in the marshes and on the mud-banks that lay at the foot of the mountains. Twice a day the tides of
14、 the ocean covered them with their brine. For the rest of the time, the plants made the best of their uncomfortable situation and tried to survive in the thin air which surrounded the surface of the planet. After centuries of training, they learned how to live as comfortably in the air as they had d
15、one in the water. They increased in size and became shrubs and trees and at last they learned how to grow lovely flowers which attracted the attention of the busy big bumble-bees and the birds who carried the seeds far and wide until the whole earth had become covered with green pastures, or lay dar
16、k under the shadow of the big trees. But some of the fishes too had begun to leave the sea, and they had learned how to breathe with lungs as well as with gills. We call such creatures amphibious, which means that they are able to live with equal ease on the land and in the water. The first frog who crosses your path can tell you all about the pleasures of the double existence of the amphibian. Once outside of the water, the
