时间：万物的历史与未来 – 重制版：英语精读讲义

Time makes sense in small pieces.

时间在很短的片段里很容易理解。

But when you look at huge stretches of time,

但当你放眼于极其漫长的岁月时，

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

脑海里就几乎无法想象了。

So, let's start small with minutes,

所以，让我们从微小的分钟开始，

hours, days.

小时、天数。

You probably spent the last 24 hours mostly sleeping and working,

过去 24 小时你多半在睡觉和工作，

and you probably wasted a good chunk of yesterday on the internet. 短語搭配

昨天你也可能把大把时间荒废在了网上。

Days become weeks,

日积月累变成了周，

weeks become months,

几周变成了几个月，

and then we have a year.

然后就是一整年。

Let's look at 2017.

让我们回看 2017 年。

France started to train eagles to hunt terrorist drones.

法国开始训练老鹰来捕捉恐怖分子的无人机。

A Czech nuclear power plant held a bikini contest to pick their new intern,

捷克一家核电站举办了比基尼比赛来挑选新实习生，

and people on the internet made a challenge out of eating bleach. 語法

而网民们则发起了一项吃漂白剂的挑战。

You know,

你懂的，

the usual stuff. 語氣意圖

都是些常规操作。

Let's go back further. 表達脈絡

让我们追溯到更早以前。

A kid born in the first year of the 21st century is 18 years old now.

21世纪第一年出生的孩子现在已经 18 岁了。

But the century is still young,

但这个世纪还很年轻，

even if you're not. 語法

即使你已经不再年轻。

It was largely shaped by the attacks on 9/11, 短語搭配

9/11 袭击在很大程度上塑造了这个世纪，

which led to the war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. 短語搭配

它导致了阿富汗战争和伊拉克入侵。

In March 2011,

2011 年 3 月，

the Syrian Civil War began

叙利亚内战爆发，

and is still ongoing after seven years.

历经七年至今仍在继续。

Most of us were born in the 20th century,

我们大多数人都出生在 20 世纪，

which had the two most devastating wars in human history and the Cold War.

这个世纪经历了人类历史上最具破坏性的两次战争，还有冷战。

For the first time ever, 短語搭配

这是史无前例的第一次，

we could destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons,

我们拥有了用核武器毁灭自己的能力，

and we almost did.

而且差一点就成了真。

But we also had a space race and left Earth for the first time.

但我们也展开了太空竞赛，并且首次离开地球。

The internet was also invented,

互联网也被发明了出来，

which led to memes,

从而诞生了网络迷因，

but also to Facebook and Twitter.

也诞生了 Facebook 和 Twitter。

So, all in all, 表達脈絡

总而言之，

we're not sure if this was a good development.

我们不确定这究竟是不是一个好的发展。

The average human lives about 79 years,

人类平均寿命大约 79 岁，

which covers a good chunk of recent history.

这涵盖了近代史的很大一部分。

The oldest living person on Earth is currently Celino Jaramillo,

地球上最长寿的在世老人是塞利诺·哈拉米略（Celino Jaramillo），

who was born in 1896,

他出生于 1896 年，

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

这意味着他的出生年份距离拿破仑统治欧洲的时间

than to the current day.

比距离今天还要近。

Only 250 years ago,

就在 250 年前，

the Industrial Revolution turned the world into a progress machine. 語法

工业革命将世界变成了一台进步的机器。

Farmers became workers,

农民变成了工人，

and knowledge became easier to distribute.

知识变得更容易传播。

Around this time,

大约在那个时候，

we started the progress that is causing climate change today.

我们开启了导致今天气候变化的进程。

Not that long ago, actually. 用詞

实际上距离现在并不遥远。

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

进化论改变了我们看待自身和所处世界的方式。

Newton wrote down his theory of gravity. 短語動詞

牛顿写下了他的万有引力定律。

We discovered distant stars and very close bacteria.

我们发现了遥远的恒星和极其微小的细菌。

The 15th century was very eventful.

15 世纪充满了各种大事件。

Columbus's discovery of America and the fall of Constantinople

哥伦布发现美洲以及君士坦丁堡的陷落，

marked the end of the Middle Ages.

标志着中世纪的结束。

War was all the rage in the Middle Ages, 習語

虽然中世纪时战争司空见惯，

but the number one killer was disease.

但头号杀手其实是疾病。

The Black Death plague killed every third European in just six years. 語法

黑死病在短短六年内就杀死了三分之一的欧洲人。

Around 2,000 years ago,

大约 2000 年前，

we set the arbitrary year one of our calendar 文化背景

我们将日历随意设定了元年，

that most of the world follows today.

而这套日历至今仍被世界大多数国家所使用。

But to a Roman,

但对一个罗马人来说，

the world was already ancient.

当时的世界就已经很古老了。

The Great Pyramids were constructed 4,500 years ago.

大金字塔建于 4500 年前。

So, to a Roman,

因此，对罗马人来说，

the Pyramids were older than the Romans are to us today. 表達脈絡

金字塔比今天的罗马人对我们来说还要古老。

So long ago

历史如此久远，

that there were still living mammoths on Earth.

以至于那时地球上还有活着的猛犸象。

A lot of history happened before that even.

在那之前甚至发生过更多的历史。

Around 7,000 years ago,

大约 7000 年前，

humans began writing things down.

人类开始用文字记录事物。

About 12,000 years ago,

大约 12000 年前，

human organization exploded.

人类组织爆发式增长。

We built our first temple,

我们建造了第一座神庙，

and around the world mankind began farming,

世界各地的人类开始进行农业耕作，

which enabled the rise of larger communities. 短語搭配

这促成了更庞大社区的崛起。

Our dominance over planet Earth really begins here.

我们对地球的统治权才真正由此开始。

Homo sapiens sapiens, 語法

晚期智人，

the modern human,

也就是现代人类，

evolved at least 200,000 years ago.

至少在 20 万年前进化而成。

50,000 years ago,

5 万年前，

the Cognitive Revolution expanded our minds and innovation. 文化背景

认知革命扩展了我们的心智与创新能力。

Back then,

在那时，

we shared Earth with at least five other human species

我们与至少五种其他人种共享地球，

that either died out or were killed by us. 短語動詞

这些人种要么灭绝了，要么被我们消灭了。

At least 2 million years ago,

至少在 200 万年前，

our ancestors already had control over fire 短語搭配

我们的祖先就已经掌握了火，

and constructed tools from wood and stone.

并用木头和石头制造了工具。

And 6 million years ago,

到了 600 万年前，

the last common ancestors of chimpanzees and humans existed.

黑猩猩和人类的最后共同祖先仍还存在。

So,

所以，

this graph is all of human history.

这张图代表了整个人类历史。

Our close relative Homo erectus

我们的近亲直立人，

survived 10 times longer than we have existed. 語法

存活的时间比我们的存在长了 10 倍。

This tiny part is the human era.

这一小部分才是人类时代。

We have to zoom in a lot 短語動詞

我们必须放大很多，

to even see your lifetime.

才能勉强看到你的一生。

Still, all of human history is not that long.

尽管如此，整个人类历史其实并没有那么长。

65 million years ago,

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终结。

The dinosaurs ruled the Earth for over 165 million years.

恐龙统治地球长达 1.65 亿年。

27 times as long as all humans. 語法

是整个人类历史的 27 倍之长。

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

这段时间如此漫长，意味着生活在 6500 万年前的霸王龙，

is closer to us today

距离我们今天的时间，

than to a live stegosaurus.

甚至比距离一只活着的剑龙还要近。

Dinosaurs in the form of mighty chickens 習語

恐龙以强大鸡形生物的形式，

are still around today. 用詞

至今仍存在于我们身边。

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微小简单的海洋生物。

Then came insects, 語法

然后出现了昆虫，

then reptiles,

接着是爬行动物，

and finally, around 200 million years ago,

最终，大约在 2 亿年前，

mammals joined the party. 習語

哺乳动物加入了这个大家庭。

Life itself began much further back.

而生命本身的起源还要久远得多。

There is evidence that it appeared up to 4.1 billion years ago. 講解

有证据表明生命在 41 亿年前就出现了。

For at least 3.5 billion years,

在至少 35 亿年的时间里，

life consisted only of single-celled organisms. 短語搭配

生命仅仅由单细胞生物组成。

4.5 billion years ago,

45 亿年前，

the sun was born from a gigantic imploding gas cloud.

太阳从一团巨大的坍缩气体云中诞生。

60 million years later,

6000 万年后，

Earth formed.

地球形成了。

In those early years,

在那些早期岁月中，

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。

But as far as the whole universe goes, 表達脈絡

但就整个宇宙而言，

our solar system is pretty new. 用詞

我们的太阳系还是相当年轻的。

13.75 billion years ago,

137.5 亿年前，

the universe was born,

宇宙诞生了，

and about half a billion years later,

大约 5 亿年后，

our own galaxy formed from billions of stars.

我们自己的星系由数十亿颗恒星形成。

But what came before the Big Bang?

但在大爆炸之前发生了什么？

The truth is,

事实是，

we don't know,

我们不知道，

and maybe we never will. 語法

也许我们永远也不会知道。

And there you have it, 習語

那么这就是，

the past.

过去。

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

现在，让我们来看看我们对未来的了解。

In roughly 1 billion years,

大约 10 亿年后，

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

太阳将变得极其炎热，以至于地球上无法存在生命。

The death of the sun 4 billion years later

40 亿年后太阳的死亡，

marks the end of life in the solar system. 短語搭配

标志着太阳系生命的终结。

If we want to have a chance to survive,

如果我们想要有一线生机，

we need to have ventured to the stars. 語法

就必须已经向星际进发。

And what happens after that?

那之后会发生什么呢？

In the next 100 billion years,

在接下来的 1000 亿年里，

most of the biggest stars around will die.

周围大多数最大的恒星都会死亡。

The universe becomes dimmer and dimmer, 語法

宇宙变得越来越暗，

illuminated only by smaller red and white dwarfs.

只被较小的红矮星和白矮星照亮。

But they too will eventually burn out, 短語動詞

但它们最终也会燃烧殆尽，

and one day the last star in the universe will die.

总有一天，宇宙中的最后一颗恒星将会死去。

The universe will turn dark.

宇宙将陷入黑暗。

And at some point,

而到了某个时刻，

even black holes will evaporate and die.

甚至黑洞也会蒸发并消亡。

When they do, 語法

当它们消亡时，

our universe will reach its final stage, 短語搭配

我们的宇宙将进入其最后阶段——

heat death. 文化背景

热寂。

Nothing changes anymore.

一切都不会再改变。

The universe is dead.

宇宙彻底死了。

Forever.

直到永远。

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

此刻，你的心里肯定五味杂陈，

aren't you? 語氣意圖

对吧？

We are too.

我们也一样。

It's only natural. 語氣意圖

这是很自然的。

The good news is, 表達脈絡

好消息是，

this is all far, far away.

这所有的一切都还无比遥远。

The only time that actually matters is now. 語法

真正重要的时间只有现在。

That cute girl or boy you like,

那个你喜欢的可爱女孩或男孩，

ask them out. 短語動詞

去约他们出来吧。

Time is precious.

时间是宝贵的。

Make it count. 習語

让它变得有意义。