萬物歷史與未來——時間：英語精讀講義

Time makes sense in small pieces. 片語搭配

時間在小片段裡是說得通的。

But when you look at huge stretches of time,

但當你著眼於大段的時間跨度時，

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

幾乎是不可能理解它的。

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

所以，讓我們從小處著手，從分鐘、小時、天開始。

You probably spent the last 24 hours mostly sleeping and working

過去的24小時，你可能大部分時間都在睡覺和工作，

with some coffee in there somewhere.

中間還喝了點咖啡。

Please watch less TV.

請少看點電視。

Now, let's look at 2013.

現在，讓我們來看看2013年。

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

鮮為人知的是，希特勒的保鑣在96歲時去世了，

while in June, Edward Snowden started the NSA scandal.

而在6月，艾德華·史諾登引發了美國國家安全局的醜聞。

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

稍微倒回一點，21世紀還相當年輕，

and largely shaped by the attacks on 9/11

很大程度上受9/11事件的影響，

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

這一事件最終導致了第三次伊拉克戰爭。

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

喔，還有Facebook和智慧型手機接管了我們的生活。

But we're just getting started. 片語搭配

但這僅僅是個開始。

Let's back up further. 片語動詞

讓我們再往回追溯。

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

20世紀也經歷了許多衝突。

After two devastating World Wars,

在兩次毀滅性的世界大戰之後，

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

冷戰幾乎持續了20世紀的整個下半葉。

An average human lifespan covers most of this stuff

一個普通人的壽命涵蓋了其中的大部分事件，

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

還有網際網路的誕生以及資訊時代的開始。

The oldest living person on Earth is currently Misao Okawa,

地球上最長壽的人目前是Misao Okawa（大川美佐緒），

who was born in 1898,

她出生於1898年，

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

這意味著相較於今天，

than to the current day.

她出生的年代離拿破崙統治歐洲的時期更近。

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

過去500年的人類歷史給我們的生活方式帶來了巨大的變化。

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

工業化催生了共產主義等新思想。

Farmers became workers and knowledge became easier to distribute.

農民變成了工人，知識也變得更容易傳播。

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

演化論改變了我們看待自己和所處世界的方式，

all in a few hundred years.

這些都發生在短短幾百年內。

The 15th century was very eventful.

15世紀發生了很多大事。

Columbus's discovery of America

哥倫布發現美洲

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

以及君士坦丁堡的陷落標誌著中世紀的結束。

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

中世紀的人們非常熱衷於為領土和宗教而戰，

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

但黑死病比戰爭有效得多，

killing every third European in 6 years. 文法

6年內奪去了三分之一歐洲人的生命。

Arriving in the Common Era, 文化背景

來到西元時代，

let's take a look where we came from.

讓我們看看我們從何而來。

Our current century is tiny

相比之下，我們現在的世紀非常短暫，

and 2013 is barely visible.

而2013年幾乎微乎其微。

This is recorded human history.

這是有人類紀錄的歷史。

The pyramids were constructed 4,500 years ago.

金字塔建於4500年前。

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

羅馬帝國的鼎盛時期是在2000年前。

So, to the Romans,

所以，對羅馬人來說，

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

金字塔的古老程度，就如同羅馬人對今天的我們一樣。

History starts with writing.

歷史從文字開始。

But what happened before that?

但在那之前發生了什麼？

About 12,000 years ago,

大約12000年前，

the agricultural revolution took place. 片語搭配

農業革命發生了。

Mankind began farming,

人類開始了農業耕作，

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

這促使了城市和更大社區的出現。

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

人類對地球的統治真正從這裡開始了。

90,000 years ago,

9萬年前，

Neanderthals and humans coexisted in Europe.

尼安德塔人和現代人在歐洲共存。

Fun fact,

有趣的是，

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

這大致是現代太空船到達最近恆星所需的時間。

Homo sapiens, the modern human,

智人，即現代人類，

evolved 200,000 years ago.

在20萬年前演化出來。

Looking at all of human history, 文法

縱觀整個人類歷史，

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

我們所謂的西元似乎顯得微不足道，不是嗎？

6 million years ago,

600萬年前，

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

我們的祖先和現代黑猩猩最後一次擁有共同的祖先。

And for 2.75 million years,

而在長達275萬年的時間裡，

stone tools were all the rage. 慣用語

石器一直風靡一時。

A mere 65 million years ago, 用詞

僅僅在6500萬年前，

the age of the dinosaurs ended in an enormous explosion,

恐龍時代在一場巨大的爆炸中結束了，

which paved the way for the rise of mammals. 慣用語

這為哺乳動物的崛起鋪平了道路。

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

但恐龍統治地球的時間長得令人難以置信，

over 165 million years.

超過了1.65億年。

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

這麼長的時間意味著，生活在6500萬年前的一頭暴龍，

is closer to seeing a live Miley Cyrus concert

離看一場麥莉·希拉（Miley Cyrus）的現場演唱會，

than to seeing a live Stegosaurus.

比看一頭活生生的劍龍還要近。

Animal life on this planet started 600 million years ago.

地球上的動物生命始於6億年前。

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

最早的動物是魚類和其他簡單的海洋小生物。

Then came insects,

接著出現了昆蟲，

then reptiles,

然後是爬行動物，

and finally, around 200 million years ago,

終於，在大約2億年前，

mammals joined the party. 慣用語

哺乳動物加入了這個行列。

Life itself began much farther back,

生命本身的起源則要久遠得多，

3.6 billion years ago.

在36億年前。

Before any animals appeared,

在任何動物出現之前，

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

有24億年的時間裡，生命只由微小的微生物組成，

countless single-celled bacteria.

也就是無數的單細胞細菌。

For 3 billion years,

在長達30億年的時間裡，

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

地球上所有的生命都是肉眼看不見的。

It's hard to understand how single-celled organisms

很難想像單細胞生物

could develop into complex life forms like fish or sloths.

是如何發展成魚類或樹懶這樣複雜的生命形態的。

The answer is time,

答案是時間，

a whole lot of time. 用詞

極其漫長的時間。

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

24億年可是相當長的一段演化時間。

4.6 billion years ago,

46億年前，

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

太陽誕生於一場巨大爆炸的殘骸中。

60 million years later,

6000萬年後，

Earth formed.

地球形成了。

In those early years,

在那些早期的歲月裡，

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

彗星和小行星的頻繁轟擊為地球帶來了廣闊的海洋，

and a moon to send spaceships to. 文法

還有了一個可以用來發射太空船的月亮。

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

但就整個宇宙而言，

our solar system is pretty new. 用詞

我們的太陽系還很年輕。

13.75 billion years ago,

137.5億年前，

the universe was born and 600 million years later,

宇宙誕生了，6億年後，

our own galaxy formed from billions of stars.

我們所在的星系由數十億顆恆星形成。

But what was before the Big Bang?

但是大爆炸之前是什麼呢？

The truth is, 表達脈絡

事實是，

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

我們目前還不知道，也許我們永遠都不會知道。

But we gave it some color, 慣用語

但我們給它塗上了顏色，

so at least we have that. 表達脈絡

所以至少我們還有這個。

And there you have it, the past. 表達脈絡

這就是關於過去的一切。

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

現在，讓我們來看看我們所知道的未來。

In roughly 1 billion years,

大約在10億年後，

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

太陽會變得非常熱，以至於地球上的生命無法生存。

The death of the Sun 4 billion years later

40億年後太陽的死亡

marks the end of the solar system.

將標誌著太陽系的終結。

Okay, so no more solar system.

好了，沒有太陽系了。

And what happens after that?

那之後會發生什麼呢？

A few trillion years from now, 片語搭配

從現在起幾兆年後，

star production will cease.

恆星的產生將會停止。

And one day,

總有一天，

the last star in the universe will die.

宇宙中最後一棵恆星將會消亡。

The universe will turn dark,

宇宙將會變暗，

inhabited only by black holes. 文法

裡面只有黑洞。

Long after the last black hole has evaporated, 文法

在最後一個黑洞蒸發很久之後，

our universe reaches its final stage,

我們的宇宙將進入其最後階段，

something called heat death. 文化背景

也就是所謂的「熱寂」。

Nothing changes anymore,

不會再有任何變化，

the universe is dead, forever.

宇宙永遠地死了。

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

現在，你是不是感覺到有些奇怪的感覺，

aren't you? 語氣意圖

對吧？

We are too.

我們也是。

It's only natural. 片語搭配

這很自然。

The good news is, 表達脈絡

好消息是，

this is all far, far away. 表達脈絡

這一切還很遙遠、很遙遠。

The only time that actually matters is now. 文法

真正重要的唯一時間，就是現在。

That cute girl you like,

那個你喜歡的可愛女孩，

ask her out. 片語動詞

約她出去吧。

Time is precious.

時間很寶貴。

Make it count. 慣用語

讓它過得有意義。