Understanding Ancient Mesoamerican Art
Words & Phras
1. the ruins of ancient Mesoamerica：古代中美洲的废墟
2. unearthed civilizations increasingly remote in age：出土（年龄上越来越久远的）文明
unearth：v. 挖掘，出土
3. an earlier stratum of antiquity屈指：一个更早的古代岩层
Stratum: 岩层
扩展：Stratification: (尤指社会的)分层，形成阶层 Stratification is the division of something, especially society, into different class or layers
4. came upon Maya cities in the jungle：偶然遇到密林里的玛雅城市
Come upon：偶然碰到(或发现) If you come upon someone or something, you meet them o
r find them by chance.
5. workers installing sound and light equipment：安装音响和光照设备的工人
6. stumbled upon a remarkable cave：偶然发现一个极大的洞穴
Stumble：v. 跌跌撞撞走，结巴说
stumble upon：偶然发现
7. a royal burial chamber：一个皇室的埋葬密室
royal：adj. 皇室的
8. the excavation of pyramids：金字塔的挖掘
9. outlying structures rather than principal buildings：外围结构而非主要建筑物
Outlying：adj. 偏僻的；边远的；远离城市的 Outlying places are far away from the main cities of a country
10. initiated the excavations there: 引发了那个地方的考古挖掘
initiate= start= trigger 引发，开始
excavate = unearth v.挖掘
11. unravel the pre-Columbian past：解开(哥伦布发现美洲大陆之前的)过去
unravel: v. 解开绳套或谜团
pre-Columbian：adj. 哥伦布发现美洲大陆之前的
12. turned this process around：将该过程反转
turn around = rever 反转
13. to articulate their identity in the twenty-first century：去清晰地表达他们在21世纪的身份
articulate：v. 清晰表达
Syntax
1. It now scarcely ems possible that the frontiers of early Mesoamerican civilization can be pushed back any further, although new work—such as in Oaxaca, southern Mexico—will continue to fill in details of the picture.
2. In 1971 workers installing sound and light equipment under the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan stumbled upon a remarkable cave that太极拳教程 has since been interpreted by some scholars as a royal burial chamber.
3. Archaeology has its own fashions too: the isolation of new sites may be the prime goal in one decade and the excavation of pyramids the focus in the next.
4. At one point, reconstruction of pyramids to attract tourism may be desired; at another, archaeologists may be precluded from working at what has already become a tourist attraction.
Preclude：v. 排除在外，阻止=prevent
5. A Franciscan friar (member of the Roman Catholic religious order), Sahagún recorded for posterity many aspects of pre-Hispanic life in his 和山有关的成语encyclopedia of twelve books, including history, ideology, and cosmogony (theories of the origin of the univer), as well as detailed information on the materials and methods of the skilled native craft workers.
Catholic：adj. 天主教的
Posterity：n. 后代=offspring=descendant
Post-：后缀，意为后面，post-war：战后的
Encyclopedia：n. 百科全书
Ideology：意识形态;思想体系;思想方式 An ideology is a t of beliefs, especially the political beliefs on which people, parties, or countries ba their actions
Cosmogony：n. 宇宙的产生
Craft workers: 手工艺工人
6. During the past 40 years, scholars also have made great progress in deciphering and interpreting ancient Mesoamerican writing systems, a breakthrough that has transformed our understanding of the pre-Columbian mind.
Decipher：v. 破解密码=decode, cipher=code 密码
I我的第一桶金nterpret：v.解释，理解
Transform：v. 转变
7. Classic Maya inscriptions不停的近义词, for example—long thought to record only 制置使calendrical information and astrological incantations—can now be read, and we find that most of them glorify family and ancestry by displaying the right of individual sovereigns to rule.
Calendrical：历法的，日历的
astrological incantations：占星的咒语
incantation：咒语 An incantation is a ries of words that a person says or sings as a ma
gic spell
glorify：赞美；颂扬；吹捧；美化 To glorify something means to prai it or make it em good or special, usually when it is not
ancestry：n. <集合词>祖先； 世家，名门
sovereigns：n. 君主
8. Although scholars long believed that Mesoamerican artists did not sign their works, Mayanist scholar David Stuart’s 1986 deciphering of the Maya glyphs (written symbols) for “scribe” and “to write” opened a window on Maya practice; now we know at least one painter of ceramic vesls was the son of a king.
Mayanist：玛雅专家
decipher: 破译（密码）； 辨认（潦草字迹）； 解读； 解释（古代文学）
glyphs平衡法：象形文字
practice: n. 通常做法；常规；惯例 You can refer to something that people do regularly as a practice.
Ceramic vesls: 瓷器器皿
Vesl：n. 器皿；船只；血管
9. Thousands more small-scale objects are known now than in the twentieth century, although at a terrible cost to the ancient ruins from which they have been plundered.
At a …cost = at …expen 以…的代价
plunder：v. 抢劫，窃取
Abstract → Concrete
1. The process of discovery often shapes what we know about the history of Mesoamerican art.
