征服六級講座聽力：講座篇之Lecture 2 星空導航

我們將主要體會各個學科的講座特點，我們要達到的目標是：

 1. 瞭解講座中常用的專業術語。

 2. 熟悉講座的基本結構和語言特點。

3. 體會講座聽力中的高頻考點。

 4. 熟悉講座聽力考試中常見提問方式。

Word tips

civilization  n. 文明 

seafarer  n. 船員

Viking  n. 維京人

navigation  n. 導航，航行

Polynesian  n. 波利尼西亞人

Micronesian  n.米克羅尼西亞人

Equator n. 赤道　

zenith   n. 天頂（太陽或月亮在天空中的最高點）

Columbus  n. 哥倫布

Listen to the following recording and answer Questions 1-3.

1) A. How the seafaring skills of Polynesians resembled those of the Vikings.

    B. How Pacific Islanders were able to navigate with the aid of stars.

C. How the patterns of stars differ to the north and south of the equator.

D. How navigational instruments developed over time.

2) A. Both could help identify a location relative to the equator.

    B. Both seem to have been used to determine the positioning of stone canoes.

    C. Both were first developed by the Vikings.

    D. Both were used as calendars to help keep track of the seasons.

3) A. strong body and determination

    B. advanced navigational tools

    C. the ability to keep track of the seasons

    D. expert knowledge of astronomy as well as navigation

聽力原文

OK, last time we talked about ancient agricultural civilizations that observed the stars and then used those observations to keep track of the seasons. But today I want to talk about the importance of stars for early seafarers, about how the fixed patterns of stars were used as navigational aids.

OK, you've all heard about the Vikings and their impressive navigation skills, but the seafaring people of the pacific islands, the Polynesians and the Micronesians, were quite possibly the world's greatest navigators. Long before the development of, uh, advanced navigational tools in Europe, pacific islanders were travelling from New Zealand to Hawaii and back again, using nothing but the stars as their navigational instruments.

One important way the Polynesians had for orienting themselves was by using zenith stars. A zenith star was a really bright star that would pass directly overhead at particular latitude…at a particular distance from the equator, often at a latitude associate with some particular pacific island. So the Polynesians could estimate their latitude just by looking straight up, by observing whether a certain zenith star passed directly overhead at night, they'd know if they have reached the same latitude as a particular island they were trying to get to. 

Um, another technique used by the Polynesians was to look for a star pair, that's two stars that rise at the same time, or set at the same time, and navigators could use these pairs of stars as reference points, because they rise or set together only at specific latitudes. So navigators might see one star pair setting together. And, uh…would know how far north or south of the equator they were. 

And if they kept on going, and the next night they saw the pairs of stars setting separately, then they would know that they were at a different degree of latitude. So looking at rising and setting star pairs is a good technique. Um… actually it makes more sense with setting stars; they can be watched instead of trying to guess when they'll rise.

Uh, OK, I think all this shows that navigating doesn't really require fancy navigational instruments; the peoples of the pacific islands had such expert knowledge of astronomy as well as navigation that they were able to navigate over vast stretches of Open Ocean. Uh, it's even possible that Polynesian navigators had already sailed to the Americas, centuries before Columbus.

Questions:

1. What does the professor mainly discuss?

2. What did the technique using zenith stars have in common with the technique using star pairs?

3. According to the professor, what made the pacific islanders able to navigate over vast stretches of Open Ocean?

參考譯文：

好的，上次我們談到古代農業文明，說到古人通過觀察星象，利用觀察結果來追蹤季節變化。但是今天我要講的是早期星象對船員的重要性，關於人們如何利用固定的星象模式作爲航海的導航工具。 

好的，你們都已經聽過維京人和他們令人驚歎的航海技術，但是太平洋島嶼上的船員們，即波利尼西亞人和密克羅尼西亞人，他們可能是世界上最爲偉大的航海家了。遠在歐洲先進的航海工具被開發出來之前，太平洋島上的居民就已在新西蘭到夏威夷之間穿梭，僅僅靠星星來作爲他們的導航工具。  

波利尼西亞人用以導航的重要方法之一便是利用天頂星。天頂星是一顆很亮的星星，它會在距離赤道某一距離的某個緯度上直接從頭上經過。通常這一緯度是和某一太平洋島嶼相聯繫的。因此波利尼西亞人要知道所處緯度多少，只需要仰望天空，晚上觀察天際是否有某一顆天頂星經過頭頂，他們便知道自己是否到達了與他們想抵達的某一島嶼相同的緯度。

波利尼西亞人使用的另一種技巧是通過觀察星對，也就是指兩顆同時升空的星星，或是同時降落的星星。導航員可以把這些星對當作參考點，因爲它們只在固定的某一緯度同時升起或降落。所以導航員可能會到觀察一對星的降落，呃，他們便知道了自己離赤道北邊或南邊多遠。而如果他們繼續前行，在第二個夜晚，他們看到星對分開降落，他們便知道自己處在不同的緯度上。所以觀察星對的上升或降落來導航是一個不錯的技巧。嗯，事實上，當看到降落的星對時更有用。只要看着星對降落就行，而不用猜測他們何時會升起。

嗯，好的，我想所有這些顯示了導航真的不需要多麼奇特的導航工具。太平洋島嶼上的居民有着如此專業的天文學知識以及導航技術，這使得他們能夠在廣闊的海洋上自由航行。額，甚至有可能的是，波利尼西亞船員們早在哥倫比亞發現新大陸幾個世紀前就到過美洲大陸了。

參考答案：

1. B   2. A   3. D