小编寄语：英语四级六级考试，阅读是不可或缺的一大部分，生词多，理解难，时间少，是不少考生抱怨的问题。要想在考场上做好阅读理解，必须在平常多阅读，掌握新词汇，提高阅读速度。而沪江小编就为大家准备了阅读材料系列，供大家练习。

我们的这个阅读系列旨在为大家提供一些阅读材料，不一定跟四六级考试的难度、篇幅、内容完全一样。对于很多童鞋纠结这是四级还是六级范围的阅读，其实没有必要。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^

【今日推荐阅读】

All languages stem from the same source, claim scientists, after tracing origins of speech to sub-Saharan Africa around 150,000 years ago.

Using sophisticated analysis of hundreds of languages, the researchers have managed to trace back their beginnings to the same place and the same time.

They now believe that language may have been one of the "tools" that boosted humanity and led to the colonisation of the whole planet.

"We think that this language was a stepping stone in civilisation which led to better co-ordination and co-operation that might have led us to expand," said Dr Quentin Atkinson, at the University of Auckland and Oxford University.

"It could have also led to competition that would have given us a push."

Dr Atkinson analysed 504 languages to see how many phonemes – particular sounds – they contained.

To his surprise he found a direct correlation between the age of the civilisation and the number of phonemes in its language.

So while many African languages had more than 100 phonemes, Hawaiian language had as few as 13. English, French and German had about 45 each.

The analysis, which used the World Atlas of Language Structure as the main resource, relies on the theory that older civilisations have picked up more linguistic diversity as they age – from genes to language.

It then used this to extrapolate back the origins of language to Africa.

It pinpointed the time as around 150,000 years ago as this was when cave art – one of the earliest forms of communication – began.

It is thought that early man then left Africa around 80,000 years go – taking with him some of the diversification but not all of it.

In general, the areas of the globe that were most recently colonised incorporate fewer phonemes into the local languages whereas the areas that have hosted human life for millennia still use the most phonemes, the report concluded.

"The evidence suggests that there was a single origin of language rather than a number that happened independently," said Dr Atkinson.

"I was pretty surprised."

The research is published in the journal Science.

【内容简介】

本文开篇介绍了科学家们的研究发现——所有语言发源于同一个地方。

接着，文章介绍了语言对于全球文明的促进作用及弊端。

然后文章论述了学者们认定人类语言起源于非洲的原因。

最后文章介绍该研究发现已被载入《科学》杂志，以证明其权威性和可信度。

【词汇短语讲解】

①stem from  来源，源自于；某事由……导致

②trace既可以作名词表示痕迹、踪迹，也可作动词，表示根据线索或足迹进行跟踪。用于抽象意义时指知道到某事物的根源。在本文中即是找到语言起源的根源。

trace back   追溯

③co-ordination  n. 协调co-operation  n. 合作  correlation  n. 相互联系

我们可以看到这几个词前面都有字母co，这里co就是前缀，它表示一起、共同、相互，联合，同类型的词还有coincide  一致、符合  coordinate  协调。

【快速阅读支招】

这类科研类文章通常会有一些生词和长句，为了便于理解，首先就要攻克这两个难关。

对于很专业的学术名我们不需要了解太多，这些一般不会成为出题点，而对于上文中colonisation、phoneme等这类词，可以先看单词结构，如colonisation这个词，它的前半部分跟colony 殖民地这个词很像，再联想这篇文章提到非洲，极有可能跟殖民有关，而tion这个后缀一般表示名词，由此我们可以猜测colonisation这个词表示殖民，再结合整句话理解可以确定该词的意思就是殖民、殖民地化。

第二种理解单词意思的方法就是结合上下文意思猜测，比如文中提到phoneme这个词时后面用破折号加了注解particular sounds，说话时发出的特殊声音，对语言学稍有了解的同学可能会想到“音素”这一专有名词，即使不知道这个名词的中文翻译，至少我们了解了它的意思。

而对于英语长句，我们首先要搞清楚长句之所以长的原因：①修饰语过多；②并列成分多；③语言结构层次多。所以在分析时我们可以采取以下办法：

（1）找出句子的基本成分，即主谓宾，从整体上把握句子结构。

（2）找出句中的所有谓语结构、非谓语动词、介词短语和从句引导词。

（3）分析从句和短语在句子中的功能，从句到底是主语从句，宾语从句，定语从句还是表语从句，它表示的是原因、时间、结果还是条件等。

（4）分析单词、短语和从句之间的关系。

（5）注意剧中插入语等成分，在不影响理解的前提下，分析时可先将这部分置于一边

（6）注意观察句子中的固定搭配和短语。

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