【TED ED 中英双语】 P4
A brief history of alcohol
This chimpanzee stumbles across a windfall（横财） of overripe plums.
Many of them have split（分裂） open,
drawing him to their intoxicating fruity odor（气味）.
He gorges himself
and begins to experience some… strange effects.
This unwitting ape has stumbled on a process
that humans will eventually harness
to create beer, wine, and other alcoholic drinks.
这只黑猩猩偶然发现了 一堆熟透了的李子。（stumble 绊倒 ； stumbles across 偶然发现 ）
好多已经烂熟得咧开了口子， 飘出醉人的水果香气。
它不由得狼吞虎咽起来， 然后一些……奇怪的感觉产生了。
这只不知情的黑猩猩 碰巧经历了一种作用过程，
这一过程后来被人类 所运用于制造啤酒、
红酒和其他酒精饮料。
The sugars in overripe fruit attract microscopic organisms
known as yeasts.
As the yeasts feed on the fruit sugars they produce a compound called ethanol—
the type of alcohol in alcoholic beverages.
This process is called fermentation.
熟透的水果里的糖分 吸引来一些名为酵母的微生物。
当酵母进食果糖后， 便产出一种名为乙醇的化合物，
即酒精饮料里的酒精。
这个过程被称为发酵。
Nobody knows exactly when
humans began to create fermented beverages.
The earliest known evidence comes from , 7,000 BCE in China,
where residue in clay pots
has revealed that people were making an alcoholic beverage
from fermented rice, millet, grapes, and honey.
我们不知道人类第一次 制作发酵饮料的确切时间。
已有的证据显示 最早可追溯到公元前7000年的中国，
出土陶罐中的残留物表明
那时人们已经开始利用经过发酵的 稻米、粟米、葡萄和蜂蜜
制作酒精饮料了。
Within a few thousand years,
cultures all over the world were fermenting their own drinks.
Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians made beer throughout the year
from stored cereal grains.
This beer was available to all social classes,
and workers even received it in their daily rations（给养、配给）.
在几千年间，
世界上各个文明利用发酵， 制造着属于自己的饮品。
古代美索不达米亚和埃及地区
一年到头都在 利用储存的谷物酿造啤酒。
这种啤酒向社会各个阶层开放，
甚至每日向工人们定量发放。
They also made wine,
but because the climate wasn’t ideal for growing grapes,
it was a rare and expensive delicacy（美味；精致）.
By contrast, in Greece and Rome, where grapes grew more easily,
wine was as readily available as beer was in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Because yeasts will ferment basically any plant sugars,
ancient peoples made alcohol
from whatever crops and plants grew where they lived.
他们还制作红酒，
但由于当地气候不适宜种植葡萄，
那是一种稀有而昂贵的佳酿。
相反，希腊和罗马的环境 适合葡萄生长，
那儿的红酒就如同埃及和 美索不达米亚的啤酒一般平常。
由于酵母几乎能使 任何一种植物糖发酵，
古人就利用当地的 各种农作物和植物酿酒。
In South America, people made chicha from grains,
sometimes adding hallucinogenic herbs.
In what’s now Mexico, pulque, made from cactus sap（（植物）汁、液）,
was the drink of choice,
while East Africans made banana and palm beer.
And in the area that’s now Japan, people made sake（利益；目的；清酒） from rice.
Almost every region of the globe had its own fermented drinks.
在南美洲，人们用粮食酿奇恰酒，
有时还添加致幻草药。
在墨西哥，由仙人掌汁液制成的 龙舌兰酒也大受欢迎。
东非的人们制作 香蕉啤酒和棕榈啤酒，
而在如今是日本的地区， 人们用大米制成清酒。
世界上几乎各个角落都 创造了其独属的酒饮。
As alcohol consumption became part of everyday life,
some authorities latched（占有、锁住） onto effects they perceived as positive—
Greek physicians considered wine to be good for health,
and poets testified to its creative qualities.
Others were more concerned about alcohol’s potential for abuse.
随着饮酒成为了一项生活日常，
权威们对酒精带来的积极效用 产生了浓厚的兴趣。（latch onto 紧抓；明白）
希腊医师们宣称 红酒有益于身体健康，
诗人们也赞叹 酒精对创造力的显著裨益。
其他人则对酒精的滥用表达了隐忧。
Greek philosophers promoted temperance.
Early Jewish and Christian writers in Europe integrated wine into rituals
but considered excessive（过度） intoxication（中毒；陶醉；喝醉） a sin.
And in the middle east, Africa, and Spain,
an Islamic rule against praying while drunk
gradually solidified into a general ban on alcohol.
例如，希腊的哲学家们就提倡要节制慎饮。
早期的欧洲犹太教和基督教的 作家们将红酒融入礼教，
但将醉酒斥为罪孽。
在中东、非洲和西班牙，
一项伊斯兰律法从禁止醉酒时祈祷
逐渐演化成对酒精的全面抵制。
Ancient fermented beverages had relatively low alcohol content.
At about 13 % alcohol,
the by-products wild yeasts generate during fermentation
become toxic and kill them.
When the yeasts die,
fermentation stops and the alcohol content levels off.
So for thousands of years, alcohol content was limited.
古法发酵饮品的酒精浓度相对较低。
大约发酵到 13% 时，
野生酵母就会产生有毒副产品
并杀死酵母。
酵母失效后，发酵过程也终止了， 酒精浓度便随之稳定。
所以几千年来， 酒精浓度都是有限的。
That changed with the invention of a process
called distillation.
9th century Arabic writings describe boiling fermented liquids
to vaporize the alcohol in them.
Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water,
so it vaporizes first.
Capture this vapor, cool it down, and what’s left is liquid alcohol
much more concentrated than any fermented beverage.
而蒸馏的发明改变了这一切。
9世纪的阿拉伯文献有记载，
沸腾的发酵液体能挥发出酒精。
由于酒精的沸点比水低， 所以会首先挥发掉。
将挥发的气体收集起来，并冷却， 便能得到比任何发酵饮料
纯度高很多的液体酒精。
At first, these stronger spirits were used for medicinal purposes.
Then, spirits became an important trade commodity （商品）
because, unlike beer and wine, they didn’t spoil.
一开始，这些高浓度酒精被用于医疗中。
接着，它成了一种重要的交易品，
这是因为酒精 不像啤酒和红酒那样会变质。
Rum made from sugar
harvested in European colonies in the Caribbean
became a staple（主要产品） for sailors
and was traded to North America.
Europeans brought brandy and gin to Africa
and traded it for enslaved（使成为奴隶） people, land,
and goods like palm oil and rubber.
Spirits became a form of money in these regions.
欧洲在加勒比的殖民地 所收获的糖，发酵产生了朗姆酒，
并成为贸易中的主要商品， 被海员们卖到了北美。
欧洲人又将白兰地和金酒引进了非洲，
用它们来交换奴隶、土地和物品， 例如棕榈油和橡胶。
烈酒在这些地区成为了一种货币。
During the Age of Exploration,
spirits played a crucial role in long distance sea voyages.
Sailing from Europe to east Asia and the Americas could take months,
and keeping water fresh for the crews was a challenge.
Adding a bucket of brandy to a water barrel kept water fresh longer
because alcohol is a preservative that kills harmful microbes.
在大航海时代，
烈酒在长途航海中有着重要的作用。
从欧洲到东亚和美洲 常常要航行数月，
保持海员生存所需的淡水清洁， 是严峻的挑战。
往水桶中添加一勺白兰地 能延长淡水的保质期，
因为酒精作为一种防腐剂 能杀死有害微生物。
So by the 1600s,
alcohol had gone from simply giving animals a buzz
to fueling global trade and exploration— along with all their consequences.
As time went on,
its role in human society would only get more complicated.
到了 17 世纪，
酒精从一种能让动物感到晕眩的物质，
演变成全球贸易和探险开拓的重要产品， 同时带来了种种影响。
随着时间的推移，酒精在人类社会中的 角色将会变得越来越复杂。
（以下为字幕缺失部分）
Tracing the history of our industry and agriculture
gives us a fascinating look at what we value as the species
and how we end up where we are today.
Check out these two lessons for a super-specific and eye-opening look at why we're like this.
追溯我们的工业和农业的历史
让我们着迷地看待我们作为物种的价值
以及我们如何最终走到今天这一步。
看看这两节极其具体和令人大开眼界的课，了解我们为何会这样。
