新概念三册网上课程

新概念英语第四册知识点总结：Finding fossil man

1-5. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from.

【译文】人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛的波利尼西亚各民族的远祖来自何方。

【讲解】now living in the Pacific Islands是现在分词短语，作peoples的定语。

【单词和短语】

anthropologist：人类学家。anthropology意为“人类学”(the scientific study of people，their societies ，cultures，etc.)。相关词汇有sociology(社会学)和ethnology(人种学，民族学)。

remote ancestor：远祖(someone related to you，who lived a long time ago)。形容词remote的常用意为“遥远的，久远的”(far from towns or other places where people live)，

例如：

the remotest corners of the earth 天涯海角

a custom of remote antiquity 远古遗风

remote亦可作名词，常用意为“遥控器”(remote controller)。

people：people作“一国人民，民族”(the people who belong to a particular country，race，or area)解时为可数名词单数，复数为peoples或people。参照上下文，文中people译为“民族”。

另举例如下：

the peoples of the world 世界各国人民

a hardworking people 勤劳的民族

the Jewish people 犹太民族

Each people builds a culture adapted to its particular needs. 各民族都建立起一种适应其独特需要的文化。