Question

帮忙翻译成中文，用软件的不要进，谢谢

If we were asked exactly what we were doing a year ago, we should probably have
to say that
we could not remember. But if we had kept a book and had written in it what we did each day, we
should be able to give an answer to the question.
It is the same in history. Many things have been forgotten because we do not have any written account of them. Sometimes men did keep a record of the most important happenings in their country, but often it was destroyed by fire or in a war. Sometimes there was never any written record at all because the people of that time and place did not know how to write. For example, we know a good deal about the people who lived in china 4,000 years ago, because they could write and leave written records for those who lived after them. But we know almost nothing about the people who lived even 200 years ago in central Africa, because they had not learned to write.
Sometimes, of course, even if the people, and often songs and dances and stories have been made about the most important happenings, and these have been sung and acted and told for many generations, for most people are proud to tell what their fathers did in the past. This we may call 'remembered history'. Some of it had now been written down. It is not m exact or so valuable to us as written history is, because words are much more easily changed when used again and again in speech than when copied in writing. But where there are no written records, such spoken stories are often very helpful.

Answer 1

如果我们被问一年前我们在做什么，我们也许会说不记得了。但是如果我们有一个本子然后把我们每一天做的事情记录在上面，那么我们就能回答诸如此类的问题了。而历史就是如同这样，很多史实之所以被我们忘记就是因为我们没有对它们进行记录说明。有时人们会对发生在他们国家的重要的事进行记录，但是通常它们（记录）会因为火灾或战争而被毁坏；有时因为处于那个时间和环境的人因为不会写字，根本就从来没有任何的记录。例如我们对中国4千年的历史知之甚详，因为他们会写字并把那些纪实的笔录留给了他们的后代。但是我们对200多年前的中非的历史缺几乎一无所知，因为他们那时还没有学会书写。有时，当然人们会对已经发生的重要的事情会有歌谣、舞蹈、故事的形式进行传送，这些会被一代一代的歌唱、表演、讲诉，对于大多数人而言他们会很自豪讲诉他们的先辈的历史。我们通常对这称“记忆中的历史”。它们中有一些被记录下来了，对我们而言这种历史（记忆中的历史）没有被记录下来的（有记录）历史准确和有价值，因为相对于记录下来的文字这种被一次次讲诉的口述中的词汇更容易发生变化。但是在一些没有可查询的有记录的历史记载，这类的口述的故事通常是有用的。