请听我说1. Listen to me, please.你跟我一样，是智人2. Youre like me, a Homo sapiens.一个有智慧的人3. A wise human.生命是宇宙的奇迹4. Life, a miracle in the universe,出现于约四十亿年前5. appeared around four billion years ago,而我们人类只有二十万年历史6. and we humans only 200,000 years ago.但是我们却破坏了7. Yet we have succeeded in disrupting the balance.地球生命赖以生存的平衡8. that is so essential to life on Earth.请细听这个不寻常的的故事，你的故事9. Listen carefully to this extraordinary story, which is yours,然后决定你应该做什么10. and decide what you want to do with it.这是我们的起源的轨迹11. These are traces of our origins.最初，我们的星球不过是一个浑沌的火球12. At the beginning, our planet was no more than a chaos of fire,伴随它的恒星-太阳诞生而形成的13. formed in the wake of its star, the sun.一团粘聚的尘埃颗粒14. A cloud of agglutinated dust particles,就像宇宙里面许多类似的星云15. similar to so many similar clusters in the universe.然而生命的奇迹就在此诞生16. Yet this was where the miracle of life occurred.今天，我们的生命17. Today, life- our life-是地球上无数生物形成的生命链中的一环18. is just a link in a chain of innumerable living beings.在近40亿年里，这些生物被彼此继承取代19. that have succeeded one another on Earth over nearly four billion years.即使到了今天，新的火山继续改变我们的景观20. And even today, new volcanoes continue to sculpt our landscapes.它们让我们目睹了盘古初开时地球的样子21. They offer a glimpse of what our Earth was like at its birth熔石从深处涌出22. molten rock surging from the depths,开始凝固，裂开23. solidifying, cracking,冒着泡，或摊开形成薄的外壳24. blistering or spreading in a thin crust,然后再休眠一段时间25. before fabling dormant for a time.这些从地球内部吐出缭绕的烟圈26. These wreaths of smoke curling from the bowels of the Earth.是地球原始大气层的见证27. bear witness to the Earths original atmosphere.一个没有氧气的大气层28. An atmosphere devoid of oxygen.稠密的大气层，充满水蒸气和二氧化碳29. A dense atmosphere, thick with water vapor,30. full of carbon dioxide.一个熔炉31. A furnace.因为有水，地球有了一个与众不同的未来32. But the Earth had an exceptional future, offered to it by water.地球与太阳之间的距离适中 不太远，不太近33. At the right distance from the sun not too far, not too near因此地球上的水能够处于液体状态34. the Earth was able to conserve water in liquid form.水蒸气凝结后形成滂沱大雨降落在地球上35. Water vapor condensed and fell in torrential downpours on Earth,河流出现了36. and rivers appeared.河流改变了地球表面37. The rivers shaped the surface of the Earth,刻削着河道38. cutting their channels,并冲刷出山谷39. furrowing out valleys.它们流向地球上最低洼的地方形成海洋40. They ran toward the lowest places on the globe to form the oceans.水溶解了岩石的矿物质41. They tore minerals from the rocks,渐渐的，海洋中的淡水42. and gradually the freshwater of the oceans.变成了咸水43. became heavy with salt.水是生命必需的液体44. Water is a vital liquid.它灌溉了这些广阔的不毛之地45. It irrigated these sterile expanses.水流就像人体的血管46. The paths it traced are like the veins of a body,树木的枝丫，是让大地苏醒的液体导管47. the branches of a tree, the vessels of the sap that it brought to the Earth.40亿年后48. Nearly four billion years later,地球上的某些地方还能找到这样的艺术创作49. somewhere on Earth can still be found these works of art,火山灰混合着来自冰岛冰川的水50. left by the volcanoes ash, mixed with water from Icelands glaciers.就是它们，物质和水51. There they are- matter and water,水和物质52. water and matter-软硬组合，这对地球上所有生物都是至关重要的53. soft and hard combined, the crucial alliance shared by every life-form on our planet.金属矿物元素比地球还要古老54. Minerals and metals are even older than the Earth.它们是星尘55. They are stardust.它们让地球五彩斑斓56. They provide the Earths colors.红色是铁，黑色是碳57. Red from iron, black from carbon,蓝色是铜，黄色则是硫58. blue from copper, yellow from sulfur.我们来自什么哪里？59. Where do we come from?生命火花从哪里迸发？60. Where did life first spark into being?一个时光奇迹61. A miracle of time,地球上的温泉仍然有原始的生命存活62. primitive life-forms still exist in the globes hot springs.它们赋予温泉颜色63. They give them their colors.它们叫做“古细菌”64. Theyre called archaeobacteria.它们都依靠地球热能生存65. They all feed off the Earths heat除了蓝细菌，或是蓝绿藻以外66. all except the cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.只有它们可以向着太阳来吸取其能量67. They alone have the capacity to turn to the sun to capture its energy.它们是古今所有植种的最重要的祖先68. They are a vital ancestor of all yesterdays and todays plant species.这些微小的细菌69. These tiny bacteria.及其数以亿计的后代70. and their billions of descendants.改变了地球的命运71. changed the destiny of our planet.是它们改造了地球的大气层72. They transformed its atmosphere.毒害大气层的碳去了哪里？73. What happened to the carbon that poisoned the atmosphere?它还存在，只是被“囚禁”在地壳74. Its still here, imprisoned in the Earths crust.想要了解地球历史的这一篇章75. We can read this chapter of the Earths history.卡罗拉多大峡谷的峭壁是最好的选择76. nowhere better than on the walls of Colorados Grand Canyon.它们展现了地球近20亿年的历史77. They reveal nearby two billion years of the Earths history.大峡谷曾经是一个聚居着微生物的海洋78. Once upon a time, the Grand Canyon was a sea inhabited by microorganisms.它们汲取从大气层溶解到海洋里的碳79. They grew their shells by tapping into carbon from the atmosphere.并长出外壳80. dissolved in the ocean.它们死后81. When they died, the shells sank.外壳沉到