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Chapter 21
第21章
A Summary
總結
A short Summary of Chapters 1 to 20
有關文明起源的小結
Thus far, from the top of our high tower we have been looking eastward. But from this time on, the history of Egypt and Mesopotamia is going to grow less interesting and I must take you to study the western landscape.
以前我們站在歷史的高度看到了很多世界的東部發生的故事。但是從這個時期起，埃及和米索不達米亞地區的歷史將會變得不再那么重要和突出，我將要帶你去研究以一下世界西部的風土人情。
Before we do this, let us stop a moment and make clear to ourselves what we have seen.
在我們做這件事之前，我們先暫停一下來弄清楚我們在過去的幾章中都看到了什么。
First of all I showed you prehistoric man-a creature very simple in his habits and very unattractive in his manners. I told you how he was the most defenceless of the many animals that roamed through the early wilderness of the five continents, but being possessed of a larger and better brain, he managed to hold his own.
首先，我向你們展示了史前人類。史前人類是一種有著非常簡單的生活習慣和枯燥的規矩的物種。我告訴了你這些在早期地球上生存的物種中最沒有攻擊力但是卻擁有這更強大更聰明的大腦的史前人類是如何成功的把握住自己的命運的。
Then came the glaciers and the many centuries of cold weather, and life on this planet became so difficult that man was obliged to think three times as hard as ever before if he wished to survive.
然后來到了冰河世紀，那是好幾個世紀的寒冷的天氣，在這個星球上生活的物種的日子變得很難熬，于是他們如果想生存下來，必須花費比以前多兩倍的腦力去想辦法。
Since, however, that"wish to survive" was (and is) the mainspring which keeps every living being going full tilt to the last gasp of its breath, the brain of glacial man was set to work in all earnestness.
由于想活下來的念頭已經成為他們主要而且特別強烈的念頭，冰川時期的人類的大腦必須無休止的運轉著，
