1、Unit 5Meeting your ancestors古文物中蕴含着过去人们丰富的生活,吸引着科学家们对它们进行各种各样的研究和揣摩。那么,一件古老的乐器又能透视给人们什么样的丰富内涵?科学家们又会对它做出怎样的研究呢?The well-preserved,nicely decorated conch1 shells found in Peru offered researchers a rare opportunity to look into primitive instruments.Researchers put their lips to ancient shells to fig
2、ure out how humans used these trumpets 3,000 years ago.Polished,painted and carved with symbols,the shells had well-formed mouthpieces2 and V-shaped cuts.The cuts may have been used as a rest for the players thumb or to allow the player to see over the instrument while playing.To record the sounds a
3、nd understand the occasion in which the instruments,called pututus,were played,researchers asked a shell musician to blow into the horn.They recorded the sounds path through four small microphones placed inside the players mouth,the shells mouthpiece,the shells main body and at the shells large open
4、ing,or the bell.The team used signal-processing software to analyse the acoustic3 features of each trumpet.Following the sounds path made it possible to reconstruct the ancient shells interior4 without damaging it.They also wanted to know how the sites ceremonial5 stone room changed the trumpets sou
5、nd.So the team arranged six microphones around the musician and reconstructed the sound patterns on a computer.If the trumpets were played inside the stone room in which they were found,the music would have sounded like it was coming from several different directions at once.In the dark religious ce
6、ntre,that could have created a sense of confusion.Were they used to scare people while they were there?There are still a lot of things left open.单词注释1.conch/knt/n.海螺壳;海螺2.mouthpiece/mapis/n.(乐器的)吹口3.acoustic/kustIk/adj.声音的;音响的4.interior/IntIrI/n.内部5.ceremonial/serImnIl/adj.礼仪的;礼节的难句剖析The well-preser
7、ved,nicely decorated conch shells found in Peru offered researchers a rare opportunity to look into primitive instruments.译文 这个在秘鲁发现的保存良好、装饰很漂亮的海螺号给研究人员提供了一次研究古代乐器的稀有机会。剖析 此句为复杂的简单句。句子主干是The conch shells offeredresearchers a rare opportunity,句中过去分词短语found in Peru做后置定语修饰conch shells;不定式to look into p
8、rimitive instruments做后置定语修饰a rare opportunity。导读诱思根据文章内容,判断下列句子的正误(T/F)。1.The research on the 3,000-year-old conch shell instruments may help people better understand the ancient civilization.()2.By analysing the acoustic features of the trumpet,the researchers were able to know about its structure.()3.The researchers have understood how the ancient shell trumpets were used in religious ceremonies 3,000 years ago by playing them again.()TTF
