職稱英語考試:閱讀判斷human knowledge

2012-10-30 來自于：課評集

　　閱讀判斷human knowledge

　　Botany， the study of plants， occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. We dont know what our Stone Age1 ancestors knew about plants， but from what we can observe of preindustrial societies that still exist， a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient2. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things， even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people， not only for food， but also for clothing， weapons， tools， dyes3， medicines， shelter， and many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon4 recognize hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them botany has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all.

　　Unfortunately， the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants， and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge5， and few people will fail to recognize a rose， an apple， or an orchid6. When our Neolithic7 ancestors， living in the Middle East about 10，000 years ago， discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season， the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture： cultivated crops. From then on， humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants， rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away8 。

　　詞匯：

　　botany [b？t？ni] n.植物學

　　yield [ji：ld] n. 產量，收益

　　detailed [di：teild] adj.詳細的，詳盡的

　　marvel [mɑ：v？l] n. 令人驚奇的事（人），奇跡

　　property [pr？p？ti] n. （1）特征（2）財產，資產

　　logical [l？d？ik？l] adj. 邏輯的，合乎邏輯的

　　variety [v？rai？ti] n.（1）品種，變種（2）變化，多樣化

　　pyramid [pir？mid] n.金字塔

　　welfare [welfε？] n. 福利，幸福，康樂

　　accumulate [？kju：mjuleit] vt.積累，積聚

　　intimacy [intim？si] n. 親近，親密

　　注釋：

　　1. Stone Age：石器時代

　　2. …a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient：…… 對植物及其特點的詳細了解一定非常久遠。

　　3. dye ：染料

　　4. the Amazon ：亞馬孫河

　　5. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge … 而每個人都會在無意識中獲得大量的植物知識，……come on ：（偶然）遇見；（偶然）發現。又如：I came on this idea by pure chance. 我有這個想法純偶然。

　　6. orchid：蘭花

　　7. Neolithic：新石器時代

　　8. From then on， humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants， rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away：從那時起，人類就越來越多地從可控制的幾種植物的種植中獲取生計，而不是從野生的眾多種類中東采一點，西摘一點。在數萬年的經驗中積累起來的知識以及與大自然中各種植物的緊密聯系也就開始消失。 take their living from…：靠……過活。

　　1. It is logical that a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient.(一段)