1-5. Anthropologists wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples now living in the Pacific Islands came from.

【译文】人类学家过去不清楚如今生活在太平洋诸岛的波利尼西亚各民族的远祖来自何方。

【讲解】now living in the Pacific Islands是现在分词短语，作peoples的定语。

【单词和短语】

anthropologist：人类学家。anthropology意为“人类学”（the scientific study of people，their societies ，cultures，etc.）。相关词汇有sociology（社会学）和ethnology（人种学，民族学）。

remote ancestor：远祖（someone related to you，who lived a long time ago）。形容词remote的常用意为“遥远的，久远的”（far from towns or other places where people live），

例如：

the remotest corners of the earth 天涯海角
a custom of remote antiquity 远古遗风
remote亦可作名词，常用意为“遥控器”（remote controller）。

people：people作“一国人民，民族”（the people who belong to a particular country，race，or area）解时为可数名词单数，复数为peoples或people。参照上下文，文中people译为“民族”。

另举例如下：

the peoples of the world 世界各国人民
a hardworking people 勤劳的民族
the Jewish people 犹太民族
Each people builds a culture adapted to its particular needs. 各民族都建立起一种适应其独特需要的文化。

1-6. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.

【译文】当地人的种种传说向世人解释了其中一些民族约在两千年前迁自印度尼西亚。

【单词和短语】

saga:传说（a long story about events that happen over many year）。

1-7. But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are forgotten.

【译文】但是，和我们相似的原始人生活的年代太久远了，因此有关他们的传说，即使存在，如今也失传了。

1-8. So archaeologists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first 'modern men' came from.

【译文】于是，考古学家既无历史记载，亦无口头传说来帮助他们弄清首批“现代人”来自何方。

【单词和短语】

legend:传说（an old，well-known story，often about brave people, adventures, or magical events）。形容词为legendary。

1-9. Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, especially flint, because this is easier to shape than other kinds.

【译文】然而，幸运的是，远古人用制作石器，特别是燧石器，因为燧石比其他石头更易成形。

【讲解】other kinds后面省略了of stones。

【单词和短语】

flint：燧石（a type of smooth hard stone that makes a small flame when you hit it with steel）。

1-10. They may also have used wood and skins, but these have rotted away.

【译文】他们也可能用过木头和兽皮，但这两类东西早已腐烂殆尽。

【讲解】may also have used意为“可能使用过”，may＋完成时结构表示对过去情况的推测。these指wood and skins。

【单词和短语】

rot: 腐败，腐烂（to decay by a gradual natural process, or to make something to do this）。

1-11. Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who made them have disappeared without trace.

【译文】石头不会腐烂。因此，虽然制造这些工具的人的骨头早已荡然无存，但远古时代的石器却保存至今。

【讲解】

when even the bones … trace相当于让步从句，when意即“虽然，尽管”，又如：

We sometimes expect gratitude when we are not entitled to it.
有时虽然我们不值得感激，我们却期望别人感激。

While he has a house of his own, his brother lives in a flat.
尽管他有自己的房子，他弟弟却住在公寓里。