河南省翻译竞赛试题(非英语专业类)(3)

How did men first measure time? We can picture ourselves how our ancestors turned their eyes in wonder to the great sun; how they watched him rising higher and higher till he reached his noonday strength, then sinking lower and lower until he disappeared beneath the western horizon and left the world to darkness.

The great sun has sunk to rest, and in his place have come the gentle moon and thousands of twinkling stars. But again the sun rises, shines, and sets. Again he is followed by moon and stars. Man’s first lesson in time has now been learned: the light he calls day, the darkness night.

Of all the heavenly bodies, the moon is the only one that seems to change its form and size. At one time it is a mere crescent, at another it is a full circle. Man counts the days from new moon to new moon, or from full moon to full moon, and calls the period a month

He next observes changes in the length of the days and in the heat of the sun. He sees the flowers spring up, blossom, and decay, and the trees put on their gray garments of green, change them to sober brown, and finally lose them altogether. His ideas of seed-time, harvest, and winter are formed, and he begins to count the moons from seed-time to seed-time, or from winter to winter, and makes the grand discovery----“Twelve months make one year.”In such a way as this men got their first notions of year, and month, and day.

2. Translate the Following Passage into English (50%)

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