世界小史 第16章:危險的地方

Because forests were dangerous places in those days, home to large numbers of wild animals such as wolves and bears,

因為當時的森林是非常危險的地方，住著許多野獸，如狼和熊，

people in several places (and this is often the case with inventors) had the same excellent idea:

許多來自不同地方的史前人類(這里指的是有些擅長發(fā)明創(chuàng)造的人)都想到了同一個了不起的念頭：

they built 'pile dwellings' in the middle of lakes, huts on stilts rammed deep in the mud.

他們把房屋建在水中央，建在打進地基的木樁上。

By this time they were masters at shaping and polishing their tools and used a different, harder stone to bore holes in their axe-heads for handles.

到這時，他們已經(jīng)把他們的石頭工具打造和磨制得十分精致，而且他們另外用一塊更堅硬的石頭在他們的斧頭上鉆孔做成把手。

That must have been hard work! Work which could take the whole of the winter.

這是一樁多么艱難的工作!他們多半要干一整個冬季。

Imagine how often the axe-head must have broken at the last minute, so that they had to start all over again.

想象一下斧頭一定常常在中間就崩裂了，于是他們只得從頭再來。

The next thing these people discovered was how to make pots out of clay, which they soon learnt to decorate with patterns and fire in ovens,

后來這些史前人類發(fā)現(xiàn)了如何把泥土燒成瓦罐，他們很快學會了在上面裝飾花紋和在烤爐里燒制，

although by this time, in the late Stone Age, they had stopped painting pictures of animals.

雖然到這個時候，較后期的石器時期，他們已經(jīng)不再畫動物圖畫了。