a***a
发帖数: 12425 | 1 CharlesSong网友提供的新概念英语上的La Brea Tar Pit文章。重温一下吧（虽然我以
前只看了Puma一篇文）。
【 以下文字转载自 History 讨论区 】
发信人: CharlesSong (每只猫咪都需要定期体检), 信区: History
标 题: 地球上的昔日生命(新概念英语第四册26课)
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Wed Sep 26 10:54:16 2012, 美东)
你提到的La Brea tar pit,想起来在高中学新概念英语的时候看到过，怀念一下年轻时
的岁月：
L. G. Alexander: New Concept English, Book IV
19/49
It is animals and plants which lived in or near water whose remains are
most likely to be preserved, for one of the necessary conditions of
preservation is quick burial, and it is only in the seas and rivers, and
sometimes lakes, where mud and silt have been continuously deposited, that
bodies and the like can be rapidly covered over and preserved.But even in
the most favorable circumstances only a small fraction of the creatures that
die are preserved in this way before decay sets in or, even more likely,
before scavengers eat them. After all, all living creatures live by feeding
on something else, whether it be plant or animal, dead or alive, and it is
only by chance that such a fate is avoided. The remains of plants and
animals that lived on land are much more rarely preserved, for there is
seldom anything to cover them over. When you think of the innumerable birds
that one sees flying about, not to mention the equally numerous
small animals like field mice and voles which you do not see, it is very
rarely that one comes across a dead body, except, of course, on the roads.
They decompose and are quickly destroyed by the weather or eaten by some
other creature.It is almost always due to some very special circumstances
that traces of land animals survive, as by falling into inaccessible caves,
or into an ice crevasse, like the Siberian mammoths, when the whole animal
is sometimes preserved, as in a refrigerator. This is what happened to the
famous Beresovka mammoth which was found preserved and in good condition. In
his mouth were the remains of fir trees—the last meal that he had before
he fell into the crevasse and broke his back. The mammoth has now been
restored in the Paleontological Museum in Leningrad. Other animals were
trapped in tar pits, like the elephants, sabretoothed cats, and numerous
other creatures that are found at Rancho la Brea, which is now just a suburb
of Los Angeles. Apparently what happened was that water collected on these
tar pits, and the bigger animals like the elephants ventured out on to the
apparently firm surface to drink, and were promptly bogged in the tar. And
then, when they were dead, the carnivores, like the sabre-toothed cats and
the giant wolves, came out to feed and suffered exactly the same fate.There
are also endless numbers of birds in the tar as well. | a***a
发帖数: 12425 | 2 The Past Life of the Earth
【参考译文】
地球上的昔日生命
只有生活在水中或水边的动植物尸体最有可能被保存下来，因为保存的必要条件之一是
迅速掩埋，所以只有在泥沙不停淤积的海洋和江河里，有时在湖泊里，尸体之类的东西
才能被迅速地覆盖而保存下来。
即使是在最有利的环境中，死去的生物中也只有一小部分能在开始腐烂前，或更可能在
被食腐动物吃掉之前，被这样保存下来。因为一切生物都是靠吃别的东西来活命的，不
管这种东西是植物还是动物，死的还是活的，因此，生物偶尔才能避免被吃掉的命运。
曾在陆地上生活过的动植物的遗体被保存下来的更为罕见，因为陆地上几乎没有什么东
西覆盖它们。你可以想象出天上有看得见的飞来飞去、数不清的鸟，地上有不显眼的无
数的老鼠和田鼠之类的小动物，但是，除非在路上，很少有人遇到这些动物的尸体，因
为它们腐败之后很快就被风化掉，或被别的动物吃掉了。
几乎总是由于某些特殊的条件，陆地动物的遗体才被存下来，如掉进难以到达的洞穴，
或掉进冰河裂缝里，或者像西伯利亚长毛象那样掉进冰窟中，有时整个动物像被放在冰
箱里一样被保存下来，著名的那林索夫卡长毛象就是这样被保存下来的，而且保存得很
好。它嘴里还留着冷杉 -- 它掉进冰河裂隙折断脊椎柱之前的最后一顿饭。这头长毛象
已被修复，现存于圣彼得堡古生物学博物馆。有的动物掉进天然沥清坑里被保存下来，
如在兰桥.拉.布里 -- 现在是洛杉矶的郊区发现的大象、剑齿虎和许多其他动物。显然
，事情的经过是这样：沥青坑里积存了水，大象那样的大动物冒险到似乎坚固的水面上
去饮水，立即掉进了沥青坑。大象死后，一些食肉动物，如剑齿虎和大灰狼就来吃大象
，结果遭到了同样的命运。沥青坑里还有无数只鸟的尸体。 | h*h
发帖数: 18873 | 3 去那看过，不错的博物馆，和洛杉矶郡艺术博物馆相邻。 | a***a
发帖数: 12425 | 4 赞！
【在 h*h 的大作中提到】
: 去那看过，不错的博物馆，和洛杉矶郡艺术博物馆相邻。
| S**********e
发帖数: 173 | 5 reminds me of the old days... |
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