时间:2019-01-02 作者:英语课 分类:生命物语


英语课

Millions of years ago, the embryo 1 of a distant ancestor of ours would have shared with us many of these features. As well as giving rise to us, it gave rise to all sorts of other creatures. And in those creatures, these features we're looking at here have evolved quite differently. We can actually see it happening with the ear bones, because those very same grooves 2 that in us would have become our ear bones, in this creature become something else entirely 3. This is the embryo of a fish. Here is its heart. And it too has a curved spine 4 and the tiny grooves here, just a fraction of a millimeter long, have evolved to become not ear bones, but supports for its gills.

So, sometime long, long ago, this sort and I shared a common ancestor. And like them it too had little bones around its gills which helped it to breathe. But as we evolved, these little bones were adapted for an entirely different job purpose to become the intricate mechanism 5 of our ears.

And our ear bones are not the only things to have been transformed in this way. Such apparent miracles are in fact all around us. The rest of our ears that allow us to balance and walk upright as well as hear, our limbs and hands, our whole body has been shaped by the process of evolution.

Everything about the human body has been inherited and adapted from something our ancestors had a long time ago. Even though they may have used it for something entirely different, we are recycled from the past.

Once we begin to understand the source from which our bodies are derived, the way we look at ourselves can never be quite the same again. So every part of the human body bears a shadow from our distant past. Evolution has adapted our bodies from those of our ancestors, all the way back since life was as simple as that in the steaming pools of three billion years ago. It is incredible...

words and expressions

derive:To issue from a source; originate.起源于,来自



n.胚胎,萌芽的事物
  • They are engaging in an embryo research.他们正在进行一项胚胎研究。
  • The project was barely in embryo.该计划只是个雏形。
n.沟( groove的名词复数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏
  • Wheels leave grooves in a dirt road. 车轮在泥路上留下了凹痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Sliding doors move in grooves. 滑动门在槽沟中移动。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
n.脊柱,脊椎;(动植物的)刺;书脊
  • He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
  • His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。
n.机械装置;机构,结构
  • The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
  • The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取
  • Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
学英语单词
a shadow cabinet
account-opening
after conning position
agricultura
alt-az
alveolus dentis
author abstract
bar disintegrator
barrel organ
berge's inequality
boat capacity
bohai bay
carbaborane
cascade testing technique
chronic infantile convulsion
coach-load
cocked switch
compound signal element
control current
control equipment room
corn islands
counter-threats
cross-pit system
dark red heat
deforming agent
diamond-star
drove home
dubus
east-siders
effect of criminal law
electrolytic deburring machine
explosion hatches
finically
finishing rolls
flowering raspberry
foraminiferous
forest faunal group
Frontier County
FSIOP
Giraudoux, Jean
global online change
go-go-go
gould
guiding collar
Haarlemers
heteroxenous parasite
hires
immigration status
instruction marker control
Kalimantan
kanzi
karst gas explosion
knop yarn
ladderman
Lamarckianism
learning-employment sequence
left-luggage office
life-processes
limnometer
Maastricht Criteria
magnetic automatic calculator
marine radio
Mass-John
master production schedule (mps)
memoirists
Menemen
network service
non-equilibrium process
nonhipsters
olfactronics
opposite attract
polarographic wave
power-assisted hydraulic braking
preference changes
quartre
ramp beam
red, white, and blue
resolutioner
risograph
robert time filter
Saignelegier
seasonal profile
send off something
shafers
spring hay-fever
squeezable waveguide
Standard attribute
strung up
sulfinyldiacetic acid
syncolporate
thermal imager
time transformer
to call upon
tractory
traumatisations
treadplates
trescas
under-triage
ungraded school
Verkhnyaya Tarka
wire guy
Zero-One-Infinity Rule