Finding fossil man
新概念英语－听录音，并回答问题
Why are legends handed down by storytellers useful?新概念英语－课文
We can read of things that happened 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where people first learned to write. But there are some parts of the world where even now people cannot write. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas — legends handed down from one generation of storytellers to another. These legends are useful because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down what they did. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.
But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten. So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first 'modern men' came from.
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away. Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.
ROBIN PLACE Finding fossil man新概念英语－单词与短语
新概念英语－翻译
我们从书籍中可读到5,000 年前近东发生的事情，那里的人最早学会了写字。但直到现在，世界上有些地方，人们还不会书写。他们保存历史的唯一办法是将历史当作传说讲述，由讲述人一代接一代地将史实描述为传奇故事口传下来。这些传说是很有用的，因为它们能告诉我们以往人们迁居的情况。但是，没有人能把他们当时做的事记载下来。人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛上的波利尼西亚人的祖先来自何方， 当地人的传说却告诉人们：其中一部分是约在2,000年前从印度尼西亚迁来的。
但是，和我们相似的原始人生活的年代太久远了，因此，有关他们的传说既使有如今也失传了。于是，考古学家们既缺乏历史记载，又无口头传说来帮助他们弄清最早的“现代人”是从哪里来的。
然而，幸运的是，远古人用石头制作了工具，特别是用燧石，因为燧石较之其他石头更容易成形。他们也可能用过木头和兽皮，但这类东西早已腐烂殆尽。石头是不会腐烂的。因此，尽管制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存，但远古时代的石头工具却保存了下来。
小编笔记：
这篇文章似乎是一个关于通过石器来考证现代人起源的长文的开始节选部分，这部分的主要内容是说，世界上有些地方的部族至今不会书写文字，其历史依赖口口相传的传说，这些传说虽然不能告诉我们具体的历史事件但也部分地揭示了这些部族可能的迁移历史。比这更早的古人类的活动既没有成文的历史也没有口头的传说来，但幸运的是古人类留下了石器。
复杂的长句是这篇文章乃至后续第四册其他文章的特点，这个也是英语的特点，通过长句，一方面表达主要的观点，一方面辅以相关的说明和阐述。。