Chins 下巴
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Rob...
大家好，歡迎收聽六分鐘英語，我是羅伯。
And I’m Neil. Hello.
大家好，我是尼爾。
Hi there, Neil. Hardly a day goes by without hearing someone talking about some aspect of our bodies. Do you know what I mean, Neil?
嗨，尼爾。沒有一天人們不談及自己身體的。你明白我說的是什麼吧？
Oh, yes, Rob. Almost every part of our anatomy seems to be the subject of endless debate. It could be our stomachs and what we eat. It could be our posture and how we stand. It could be our skin and how we should look after it.
沒錯。我們身體的每一部分都能引發無休止的爭論。無論是我們的胃，還是我們吃了什麼；我們的姿勢和如何站立；我們的皮膚以及如果保養，都會引發熱議。
Yes, I know, it gets very tedious – that means boring – so I don’t really take any notice, as you can see! But there’s one part of our body you don’t hear much about – and that is the chin.
恩，這些爭論乏味單調，也就是說無聊，所以我真的不關注這些。但是我們身體中有一個部分人們談論的並不多，那就是下巴。
The chin? You mean the small bit of bone under the mouth? It’s not the most interesting part, is it Rob? I mean, it doesn’t do anything, does it? I must admit I』ve never even thought about it. What’s it for, anyway?
下巴？你是指嘴下面那塊小骨頭嗎？它沒什麼意思，不是嗎？我的意思是，它沒有什麼作用，不是嗎？我必須承認從來沒有考慮過這個。它到底有什麼用呢？
Well, some people think it’s very useful for folding up large sheets and towels. You know, you hold one end under your chin like that with it…
一些人認為下巴可以用來疊被單和毛巾。把一端抵在下巴下……
Come on, Rob, you’re not being serious!
得了，羅伯，你不能嚴肅點嗎？
Of course not. But seriously, the more you think about it, the more interesting the chin becomes.
好吧，嚴肅地說，你了解得越多，會越覺得下巴很有意思。
You』ve still got to convince me, Rob. A chin is just a chin.That’s all there is to it.
那你得說服我。下巴只是下巴。僅此而已。
Not so fast, Neil.The chin may turn out to be a more important part of the body than you think. But before we get into that, let’s turn to the quiz. Chin up, Neil.
別這麼快下結論。下巴的作用比你想像得重要。說到這個之前，我們先來看看今天的問題。振奮起來吧，尼爾。
A good phrase - it means stay positive and optimistic.
這個短語不錯，它是指保持積極和樂觀。
OK well how optimistic are you about getting this question right? How long ago do you think humans developed chins? Was it...a) 150,000 years ago? b) 2 million years ago? c) 5 million years ago?
沒錯，對於答對這道題，你有多大把握呢？你認為多少年前人類才進化出下巴？a) 十五萬年前? b) 兩百萬年前? c) 五百萬年前?
Hmm. I have no idea. They all sound far-fetched to me. Far-fetched means something is difficult to believe. But I think I』ll go for 2 million years ago.
我不知道。這些選項跟我八竿子打不著。意思是很難想像。但是我選兩百萬年前。
』B』. Okay. Well, we』ll find out if you’re right or wrong later on. But the first thing to say is that humans are the only animals to have developed a chin. Let’s listen to Dr James Pampush from the University of Florida. What word does he use to mean it sticks out?
選B，好吧，之後我們再看你回答的是否正確。首先要講的是人類是唯一有下巴的動物。讓我們聽聽佛羅裡達大學James Pampush教授的觀點。他用了什麼詞來表示突出？
Humans are the only animal that have a chin and by that I mean, you have this bony projection underneath your teeth that sticks out past your teeth on the lower portion of your jaw and it’s such an unusual feature, that in a way it sort of helps define what it means to be human.
人類是唯一有下巴的動物，我指的是牙齒下面這種突出的骨質結構，在頜下部比牙齒位置突出的那塊骨頭，這是一種特殊的特徵，這也可以看出它對人類有什麼意義。
So he used the word projection which means something that sticks out from the main surface.
他用了「突出」來表示某物超出表面。
And the word jaw is used to describe the lower part of the face, which the chin is part of. So, we now know exactly what the chin is. But why did it develop?
頜是指面部的最下端，下巴是其中一部分。現在我們知道下巴是指哪了。但是為什麼會長下巴呢？
Now from what I understand, Rob, it has a lot to do with when humans started to cook their food, so the food they ate became much softer. Therefore, our ancestors – that’s the people related to us from a long time ago – they didn’t need powerful jaws or sharp teeth anymore. And, strangely, that made the jaw drop and produced that odd piece of bone we know as the chin.
就我的理解來看，這與人類開始烹飪食物有關，人類食用的食物越來越柔軟。因此，我們的祖先，就是很久之前與我們相關的人類，他們不再需要強有力的頜以及尖銳的牙齒。之後，神奇的便是頜降低，長出了奇怪的骨頭，也就是我們所知道的下巴。
But some time later the chin became associated with sexual attraction in men. Males with prominent – that means easy to see - jaws were supposed to be attractive to women.And men with small chins were thought to be unattractive or weak people. They were even called chinless wonders sometimes.
一段時間之後，下巴與男人的吸引力扯上了關係。有突出下巴的男人對女人來說更具吸引力。下巴比較小的男人魅力缺失，甚至被認為虛弱。有時甚至有人稱他們為蠢貨。
Chinless wonder, an interesting phrase! So, let’s have a look at yours, Rob. Are you a chinless wonder? Mmm. Looks pretty normal to me. How about mine?
蠢貨，有趣的短語。讓我看看你的下巴。看你是不是蠢貨？恩，挺正常的。我的下巴怎麼樣？
Well, Neil, your chin is rather pointed if you don’t mind me saying. But I’m not sure what that means, to be honest. So, let’s move swiftly on.Let’s hear what Dr Pampush has to say about this. He uses a word that means this theory is likely to be true.
如果你不介意的，我想說你的下巴非常尖。但是老實說我不確定這代表什麼。我們繼續說吧。聽一聽Pampush的看法。他用了一個詞表示這個理論有可能是真的。
It seems plausible to me that chins emerged as some kind of feature and then later were selected to be sex ornaments. But not the presence of the chin but, rather, the shape of the chin being some kind of marker for sexual identity.
下巴是某種象徵，甚至後來成為吸引力的標誌，這種說法在我看來似乎是可信的。但並不是下巴的存在，而是下巴的形狀是一種性認同的標誌。
The word he used was plausible meaning something that is acceptable or believable.
他用了「似乎是可信的」這種表達，表示某件事情可以接受或可以相信。
The word chin has also given us some interesting expressions. A double chin, for example, describes loose skin hanging beneath the chin which makes people look like they』ve got two chins!It’s something that people don’t like and often try to get rid of.
下巴有很多有意思的表達。例如，雙下巴，下巴處鬆弛的皮膚使得人們看起來像有兩個下巴。這是人們不願意或者極力想要避免的事情。
And then there’s the verb to chinwag. That means to talk a lot or to chat in a relaxed way with friends. A chinwag tends to be a conversation about things that aren’t very important– but our conversation about chins is very important!
還有個相關的動詞，叫做聊天。這是指聊很久或者與朋友輕鬆長談。這個詞大多表示談話內容不是很重要，但是今天我們關於下巴的談話是很重要的！
I guess so Neil, OK – so how about the answer to that question I asked you earlier? I asked you how long ago did humans develop chins? Was it a) 150,000 years ago? b) 2 million years ago or c) 5 million years ago?
我也這麼認為。好了，回到節目開始我問你的問題吧？多少年前人類才進化出下巴？a) 十五萬年前?b) 兩百萬年前? 還是c) 五百萬年前?
And I said 2 million years ago.
我選的是兩百萬年前。
You know your chins, you were right. Well done!
你很了解你的下巴，回答正確！不錯！
Chins really have been around for a long time.Now, before we go, it’s time to remind ourselves of some of the vocabulary that we』ve heard today. Neil.
下巴確實已經存在了很久了。節目結束前，我們也該回憶一下今天聽到的單詞了。
tedious
單調乏味的
chin up
振奮起來
far-fetched
八竿子打不著的
projection
突出
jaw
頜
ancestors
祖先
prominent
突出的
chinless wonder
蠢貨
plausible
似乎可信的
double chin
雙下巴
chinwag
聊天
Thanks Neil. Well, that brings us to the end of today’s 6 Minute English. We hope you』ve enjoyed the programme. You can hear plenty more on our website at bbclearningenglish.com. Please join us again soon.
謝謝。今天的六分鐘英語就到這裡。希望你喜歡這個節目。登陸我們的網站bbclearningenglish.com可以收聽更多節目。下次節目再會！
Goodbye.
再見！