万物历史与未来——时间：英语精读讲义

Time makes sense in small pieces. 短語搭配

时间在小片段里是说得通的。

But when you look at huge stretches of time,

但当你着眼于大段的时间跨度时，

it's almost impossible to wrap your head around things. 習語

几乎是不可能理解它的。

So, let's start small with minutes, hours, days. 表達脈絡

所以，让我们从小处着手，从分钟、小时、天开始。

You probably spent the last 24 hours mostly sleeping and working

过去的24小时，你可能大部分时间都在睡觉和工作，

with some coffee in there somewhere.

中间还喝了点咖啡。

Please watch less TV.

请少看点电视。

Now, let's look at 2013.

现在，让我们来看看2013年。

Relatively unnoticed, Hitler's bodyguard died at the age of 96,

鲜为人知的是，希特勒的保镖在96岁时去世了，

while in June, Edward Snowden started the NSA scandal.

而在6月，爱德华·斯诺登引发了美国国家安全局的丑闻。

Moving back a bit, the 21st century is still pretty young 表達脈絡

稍微倒回一点，21世纪还相当年轻，

and largely shaped by the attacks on 9/11

很大程度上受9/11事件的影响，

that ultimately led to the third Iraq War. 短語搭配

这一事件最终导致了第三次伊拉克战争。

Oh, and Facebook and smartphones took over our lives. 短語動詞

哦，还有Facebook和智能手机接管了我们的生活。

But we're just getting started. 短語搭配

但这仅仅是个开始。

Let's back up further. 短語動詞

让我们再往回追溯。

The 20th century has seen its share of conflicts too. 習語

20世纪也经历了许多冲突。

After two devastating World Wars,

在两次毁灭性的世界大战之后，

the Cold War lasted for almost the whole second half of it.

冷战几乎持续了20世纪的整个下半叶。

An average human lifespan covers most of this stuff

一个普通人的寿命涵盖了其中的大部分事件，

as well as the birth of the Internet and the beginning of the information age. 短語搭配

还有互联网的诞生以及信息时代的开始。

The oldest living person on Earth is currently Misao Okawa,

地球上最长寿的人目前是Misao Okawa（大川美佐绪），

who was born in 1898,

她出生于1898年，

which means that her birth was closer to Napoleon ruling Europe 語法

这意味着相比于今天，

than to the current day.

她出生的年代离拿破仑统治欧洲的时期更近。

The last 500 years of human history brought enormous changes to our lifestyles.

过去500年的人类历史给我们的生活方式带来了巨大的变化。

Industrialization gave rise to new ideas like communism. 短語搭配

工业化催生了共产主义等新思想。

Farmers became workers and knowledge became easier to distribute.

农民变成了工人，知识也变得更容易传播。

The theory of evolution changed how we saw ourselves and the world we live in, 語法

进化论改变了我们看待自己和所处世界的方式，

all in a few hundred years.

这一切都发生在短短几百年内。

The 15th century was very eventful.

15世纪发生了很多大事。

Columbus's discovery of America

哥伦布发现美洲

and the fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Middle Ages. 短語搭配

以及君士坦丁堡的陷落标志着中世纪的结束。

People in the Middle Ages were super into war over territory and religion, 用詞

中世纪的人们非常热衷于为领土和宗教而战，

but the Black Death was far more efficient than war, 語法

但黑死病比战争有效得多，

killing every third European in 6 years. 語法

6年内夺去了三分之一欧洲人的生命。

Arriving in the Common Era, 文化背景

来到公元时代，

let's take a look where we came from.

让我们看看我们从何而来。

Our current century is tiny

相比之下，我们现在的世纪非常短暂，

and 2013 is barely visible.

而2013年几乎微乎其微。

This is recorded human history.

这是有记载的人类历史。

The pyramids were constructed 4,500 years ago.

金字塔建于4500年前。

The peak of the Roman Empire was 2,000 years ago.

罗马帝国的鼎盛时期是在2000年前。

So, to the Romans,

所以，对罗马人来说，

the pyramids were as old as the Romans are to us today. 語法

金字塔的古老程度，就如同罗马人对今天的我们一样。

History starts with writing.

历史从文字开始。

But what happened before that?

但在那之前发生了什么？

About 12,000 years ago,

大约12000年前，

the agricultural revolution took place. 短語搭配

农业革命发生了。

Mankind began farming,

人类开始了农业耕作，

which gave rise to the existence of cities and larger communities.

这促使了城市和更大社区的出现。

The dominance of the human species over planet Earth really started here.

人类对地球的统治真正从这里开始了。

90,000 years ago,

9万年前，

Neanderthals and humans coexisted in Europe.

尼安德特人和现代人在欧洲共存。

Fun fact,

有趣的是，

this is roughly the time period a modern spacecraft would need to reach the nearest star.

这大致是现代航天器到达最近恒星所需的时间。

Homo sapiens, the modern human,

智人，即现代人类，

evolved 200,000 years ago.

在20万年前进化出来。

Looking at all of human history, 語法

纵观整个人类历史，

what we call A.D. seems pretty small, doesn't it? 講解

我们所谓的公元似乎显得微不足道，不是吗？

6 million years ago,

600万年前，

our ancestors and the modern chimpanzee shared a common ancestor for the last time. 短語搭配

我们的祖先和现代黑猩猩最后一次拥有共同的祖先。

And for 2.75 million years,

而在长达275万年的时间里，

stone tools were all the rage. 習語

石器一直风靡一时。

A mere 65 million years ago, 用詞

仅仅在6500万年前，

the age of the dinosaurs ended in an enormous explosion,

恐龙时代在一场巨大的爆炸中结束了，

which paved the way for the rise of mammals. 習語

这为哺乳动物的崛起铺平了道路。

But the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for an incredibly long time,

但恐龙统治地球的时间长得令人难以置信，

over 165 million years.

超过了1.65亿年。

That's so long that it means a T-Rex that lived 65 million years ago

这么长的时间意味着，生活在6500万年前的一头霸王龙，

is closer to seeing a live Miley Cyrus concert

离看一场麦莉·赛勒斯的现场演唱会，

than to seeing a live Stegosaurus.

比看一头活生生的剑龙还要近。

Animal life on this planet started 600 million years ago.

地球上的动物生命始于6亿年前。

The earliest animals were fish and other small simple sea creatures.

最早的动物是鱼类和其他简单的海洋小生物。

Then came insects,

接着出现了昆虫，

then reptiles,

然后是爬行动物，

and finally, around 200 million years ago,

终于，在大约2亿年前，

mammals joined the party. 習語

哺乳动物加入了这个行列。

Life itself began much farther back,

生命本身的起源则要久远得多，

3.6 billion years ago.

在36亿年前。

Before any animals appeared,

在任何动物出现之前，

there were 2.4 billion years when life consisted only of tiny microbes, 短語搭配

有24亿年的时间里，生命只由微小的微生物组成，

countless single-celled bacteria.

也就是无数的单细胞细菌。

For 3 billion years,

在长达30亿年的时间里，

all life on Earth was invisible to the naked eye. 短語搭配

地球上所有的生命都是肉眼看不见的。

It's hard to understand how single-celled organisms

很难想象单细胞生物

could develop into complex life forms like fish or sloths.

是如何发展成鱼类或树懒这样复杂的生命形态的。

The answer is time,

答案是时间，

a whole lot of time. 用詞

极其漫长的时间。

2.4 billion years is a lot of time to work with.

24亿年可是相当长的一段演化时间。

4.6 billion years ago,

46亿年前，

the Sun was born from the remnants of a giant explosion.

太阳诞生于一场巨大爆炸的残骸中。

60 million years later,

6000万年后，

Earth formed.

地球形成了。

In those early years,

在那些早期的岁月里，

frequent bombardment by comets and asteroids supplied the Earth with large oceans 短語搭配

彗星和小行星的频繁轰击为地球带来了广阔的海洋，

and a moon to send spaceships to. 語法

还有了一个可以用来发射宇宙飞船的月球。

But as far as the whole universe goes, 短語搭配

但就整个宇宙而言，

our solar system is pretty new. 用詞

我们的太阳系还很年轻。

13.75 billion years ago,

137.5亿年前，

the universe was born and 600 million years later,

宇宙诞生了，6亿年后，

our own galaxy formed from billions of stars.

我们所在的星系由数十亿颗恒星形成。

But what was before the Big Bang?

但是大爆炸之前是什么呢？

The truth is, 表達脈絡

事实是，

we don't know that yet and maybe we never will. 語法

我们目前还不知道，也许我们永远都不会知道。

But we gave it some color, 習語

但我们给它涂上了颜色，

so at least we have that. 表達脈絡

所以至少我们还有这个。

And there you have it, the past. 表達脈絡

这就是关于过去的一切。

Now, let's take a look at what we know about the future.

现在，让我们来看看我们所知道的未来。

In roughly 1 billion years,

大约在10亿年后，

the Sun will be so hot that life on Earth becomes impossible. 語法

太阳会变得非常热，以至于地球上的生命无法生存。

The death of the Sun 4 billion years later

40亿年后太阳的死亡

marks the end of the solar system.

将标志着太阳系的终结。

Okay, so no more solar system.

好了，没有太阳系了。

And what happens after that?

那之后会发生什么呢？

A few trillion years from now, 短語搭配

从现在起几万亿年后，

star production will cease.

恒星的产生将会停止。

And one day,

总有一天，

the last star in the universe will die.

宇宙中最后一颗恒星将会消亡。

The universe will turn dark,

宇宙将会变暗，

inhabited only by black holes. 語法

里面只有黑洞。

Long after the last black hole has evaporated, 語法

在最后一个黑洞蒸发很久之后，

our universe reaches its final stage,

我们的宇宙将进入其最后阶段，

something called heat death. 文化背景

也就是所谓的“热寂”。

Nothing changes anymore,

不会再有任何变化，

the universe is dead, forever.

宇宙永远地死了。

Now, you're feeling some pretty weird feelings right now,

现在，你是不是感觉到有些奇怪的感觉，

aren't you? 語氣意圖

对吧？

We are too.

我们也是。

It's only natural. 短語搭配

这很自然。

The good news is, 表達脈絡

好消息是，

this is all far, far away. 表達脈絡

这一切还很遥远、很遥远。

The only time that actually matters is now. 語法

真正重要的唯一时间，就是现在。

That cute girl you like,

那个你喜欢的可爱女孩，

ask her out. 短語動詞

约她出去吧。

Time is precious.

时间很宝贵。

Make it count. 習語

让它过得有意义。