2026年考研英语一阅读 Text 1 原文翻译及答案解析

For thousands of years, donkeys have been critical for propelling human civilizations forward. They've helped pull wheeled vehicles, carry travelers and move goods across the world. But where and when these animals first became intertwined with humans has been a mystery. Now, researchers have used genomes of over 200 donkeys to trace their domestication back to a single event around 7,000 years ago in East Africa — about 3,000 years before humans tamed horses. The team published their findings in the journal Science this month.

数千年来，驴一直是推动人类文明向前发展的关键。它们帮助拉动轮式车辆、运送旅客和货物遍布全球。但这些动物最初与人类交织在一起的地点和时间一直是个谜。如今，研究人员利用超过200头驴的基因组，追溯到大约7000年前在东非的一次单一驯化事件——比人类驯化马早了大约3000年。该团队本月在《科学》杂志上发表了他们的发现。

“Through their DNA, the animals are telling their history themselves,” co-author Samantha Brooks, an equine researcher at the University of Florida, says in a statement. “We usually only get the human's side of history through written accounts, but of course written history does not always record exactly how something happened. Looking at these DNA sequences, we get a biological testimony to the environment these animals lived in and the experiences they survived.”

“通过它们的DNA，这些动物自己讲述着它们的历史，”该研究的合著者、佛罗里达大学的马类研究员萨曼莎·布鲁克斯在一份声明中说。“我们通常只能通过书面记录了解人类历史，但当然书面历史并不总是准确记录事件的经过。通过查看这些DNA序列，我们获得了这些动物所生存环境和所经历事件的生物学证据。”

The researchers examined 207 genomes from modern donkeys living in 31 countries across the globe. They also looked at genomes from 15 wild equids and 31 earlier donkeys that lived between about 4,000 and 100 years ago. The team reconstructed the animals' evolutionary tree and used computer models to pinpoint the domestication event: when herders in Kenya and the Horn of Africa tamed wild asses. They then traced how the animals spread across the rest of the continent into Europe and Asia about 2,500 years later.

研究人员检查了来自全球31个国家的207头现代驴的基因组。他们还研究了来自15头野生马科动物和31头生活在约4000年至100年前的早期驴的基因组。该团队重建了动物的进化树，并使用计算机模型来确定驯化事件：当肯尼亚和非洲之角的牧民驯化野驴时。然后，他们追踪了这些动物如何在大约2500年后传播到非洲大陆其他地区，并进入欧洲和亚洲。

Though it's still unclear why the original domestication happened, Science News' Freda Kreier reports that the event coincided with the Sahara growing larger and drier. “Donkeys are champions when it comes to carrying stuff and are good at going at Paul Sabin deserts,” co-author Ludovic Orlando, an evolutionary biologist at Paul Sabin University in France, tells the publication. Prehistoric humans may have tamed donkeys' help to navigate the expanding Sahara.

尽管最初驯化发生的原因尚不清楚，但《科学新闻》的弗雷达·克赖尔报告说，该事件与撒哈拉沙漠变得更大、更干燥相吻合。“驴在搬运货物方面是冠军，并且擅长在保罗·萨宾沙漠中行走，”合著者、法国保罗·萨宾大学的进化生物学家卢多维克·奥兰多告诉该出版物。史前人类可能驯化驴来帮助穿越不断扩张的撒哈拉沙漠。

Researchers say these findings could help put donkeys in the spotlight. The animals could benefit from more research: Currently, there are no published genomes from donkeys located south of the Equator in Africa. But understanding where the animals were first domesticated could guide archaeologists to a narrow region to search for insights about the original tamed donkeys.

研究人员表示，这些发现可能有助于让驴成为焦点。这些动物可能受益于更多研究：目前，没有发表过非洲赤道以南驴的基因组。但了解这些动物最初被驯化的地点可以指导考古学家在一个狭窄地区搜索关于最初驯化驴的见解。

Not only does human-understanding the equines' genetic makeup help reveal their contribution to human history, but it also might improve their management in the future, as climate change alters the planet's environment, write the authors.

作者写道，人类了解这些马科动物的遗传构成不仅有助于揭示它们对人类历史的贡献，而且随着气候变化改变地球环境，还可能改善未来对它们的管理。