The Tree of Knowledge

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语言词汇

When the same group heard a recording of the second call, the lion warning, they quickly scrambled up a tree.

1.V-IIf you scramble over rocks or up a hill, you move quickly over them or up it using your hands to help you. 攀爬

例：Tourists were scrambling over the rocks looking for the perfect camera angle.

例：First, since 1945 Britain has received large numbers of immigrants who do not fit easily into existing notions of class and may have their own pyramids to scramble up.

例：Nor is it everyone's idea of a good time to scramble up to the snowline on the 3, 200-metre Kitzsteinhorn peak, just to hear an avant-garde work by an American, George Lopez, delivered by plucky players perched like mountain goats along the cliffs nearby.

2.V-IIf you scramble to a different place or position, you move there in a hurried, awkward way. 仓促行动

例：Ann threw back the covers and scrambled out of bed.

3. V-T/V-IIf a number of people scramble for something, they compete energetically with each other for it. 争夺 Scramble is also a noun. 争夺

例：More than three million fans are expected to scramble for tickets.

例：...the scramble for jobs.

A parrot can say anything Albert Einstein could say, as well as mimicking the sounds of phones ringing, doors slamming and sirens wailing.

1. V If someone wails, they make long, loud, high-pitched cries which express sorrow or pain. 哀号 Wail is also a noun. 悲鸣声

例：The women began to wail in mourning.

例：Wails of grief were heard as visitors filed past the site of the disaster.

2. V-IIf something such as a siren or an alarm wails, it makes a long, loud, high-pitched sound. (汽笛、警报等) 长鸣

例：Police cars, their sirens wailing, accompanied the trucks.警车警笛长鸣，与卡车相随。

To that end, he set up a limited liability company. 为此

例：To that end, line talkers ask as many questions as they do when providing answers.

例：To that end, Najib has loosened the quota system that has limited foreign ownership.

Much of history revolves around this question: how does one convince millions of people to believe particular stories about gods, or nations, or limited liability companies?

It all revolved around telling stories, and convincing people to believe them.

1. V-IIf you say that one thing revolves around another thing, you mean that the second thing is the main feature or focus of the first thing. 以…为中心

例：Since childhood, her life has revolved around tennis.

2. V-IIf a discussion or conversation revolves around a particular topic, it is mainly about that topic. 围绕 (某个主题)

例：The debate revolves around specific accounting techniques.

3.V-IIf one object revolves around another object, the first object turns in a circle around the second object. 围绕…转

例：The satellite revolves around the earth once every hundred minutes.

4. V-T/V-IWhen something revolves or when you revolve it, it moves or turns in a circle around a central point or line. 使旋转; 旋转

例：Overhead, the fan revolved slowly.

As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as gods, nations, and corporations.

N-UNCOUNTIn Christianity and some other religions, grace is the kindness that God shows to people because He loves them. (上帝的) 恩惠

例：It was only by the grace of God that no one died. 正是承蒙上帝的恩惠才没有人死去。

Whereas chimpanzee alpha males use their power to have sex with as many females as possible – and consequently sire a large proportion of their troop’s young – the Catholic alpha male abstains completely from sexual intercourse and childcare.

1.V-IIf you abstain from something, usually something you want to do, you deliberately do not do it. 对…节制[正式]

例：Abstain from sex or use condoms.

例：Patrons are requested to abstain from smoking in the restaurant.

2.V-IIf you abstain during a vote, you do not use your vote. 弃权

例：Three countries abstained in the vote.

例：The leaders asked their representatives to abstain from voting.

If archaic Sapiens believing in such ɹctions traded shells and obsidian, it stands to reason that they could also have traded information, thus creating a much denser and wider knowledge network than the one that served Neanderthals and other archaic humans. 我们有理由相信...

例：So it doesn't stand to reason that they suddenly are not interested in dealing with it.

例：We're living longer and getting married later, so it would only stand to reason that we alter the age window to reflect those changes.

例：Professor FOUAD AJAMI (Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies): Well, first of all, it would stand to reason that Zbigniew Brzezinski would say so, and I think Mr. Brzezinski should know something about getting lost in the alleyways of the Middle East.

汉英积累

不具有明显的优势 do not enjoy any marked advantage over

恶劣的天气 inclement weather/climate

改变了智人大脑神经的连接方式 changed the inner wiring of the brains of Sapiens

食物所在 the whereabouts of food

集思广益 put their heads together

背后议论他人是非 talking behind each other’s backs

一连几小时 hours on end

编故事 weave a stoy/myth..

废铜烂铁/非金属 scrap metal

卖子为奴 sell his children into servitude

...不是...的对手 ...were no match for...

Fifty Neanderthals cooperating in traditional and static patterns were no match for 500 versatile and innovative Sapiens.

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内容

最近好忙不画图了，大概写点内容吧...

许多年前智人基因的多次突变，改变了人脑结构，拉开了认知革命的序幕。这场革命的核心是：语言。

智人语言或许起源于同伴间的一般信息交换，又或许是起源于八卦。但不论智人语言是如何发展起来的，是他们独特的语言最终使得智人站在了食物链的顶端，主宰万物的命运。

智人语言的独特之处不在于其对事物精准的表述，而在于其表述虚构事物的能力。智人语言特有的虚构能力使得宗教、国家、法律、公司等仅在概念上存在的东西得以诞生，于是，与猩猩狮子等其他动物不一样的是，那些信仰同一虚构概念的人自发地、有序地联合在一了起：成千上万的人可以在互不相识的情况下相互信任，可以在互不了解的情况下相互合作，也可以在互不亏欠的情况下相互帮助。由此凝聚而成的巨大力量最终帮助人类成为了“万物的主宰”。

认知革命后，想要了解智人这一种族，仅仅从生物学的角度出发是远远不够的，对智人意识形态、思考方式、社会结构等虚构之物的理解同样重要。当然，我们也不能否认生物学对于我们的的意义。因此在此列出认知革命后智人生物学特性和历史的关系：

1. 智人的生物学特性为历史的发展演化设定了一个基本范围。

2. 但是，这一范围足以让智人创造出种种令人惊异的奇迹。人类虚构事物的能力，使得人类得以制定更加复杂的“游戏”规则，并在一代代的实践中，通过不断的改进创造出更加精巧的“游戏”。

3. 因此，想要理解智人的行为，就必须关注智人行为的历史演化。只关注其生物学特性，实为舍本逐末。

What Happened in the Cognitive Revolution?

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喜欢的片段

Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens has thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as gods, nations and corporations.

In 1789 the French population switched almost overnight from believing in the myth of the divine right of kings to believing in the myth of the sovereignty of the people. Consequently, ever since the Cognitive Revolution Homo sapiens has been able to revise its behaviour rapidly in accordance with changing needs. This opened a fast lane of cultural evolution, bypassing the traffic jams of genetic evolution. Speeding down this fast lane, Homo sapiens soon far outstripped all other human and animal species in its ability to cooperate.