欧洲人有七个女性祖先（一）
Europe's seven female founders

Everyone in Europe is descended from just seven women. Arriving at different times during the last 45,000 years, they survived wolves, bears and ice ages to form different clans that eventually became today's population. These are the claims of Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University.

*descend：这个词的本意是“下来、下降”，这里引申为“是……的后裔”，后跟介词“from”。如文中所说，整个欧洲人都可归成七个女子的后裔。
*clan：宗族，部落，氏族。在过去的4500年里，他们得以幸存，并形成不同宗族，最终成为现在的人群。
*genetics：遗传学。以上所有观点是牛津大学一位人类遗传学教授伯莱恩·塞克斯提出的。

Calling them "The Seven Daughters of Eve", Professor Sykes has individually named them Ursula, Xenia, Tara, Helena, Katrine, Valda and Jasmine. Professor Sykes arrived at his conclusion by studying mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down from mothers to children. From 6000 random samples, and allowing for naturally occurring mutations, he established seven different clusters of DNA.

* mitochondrial：线粒体的。
*random：本意是“胡乱的，任意的”，在统计学里是“随机的”意思。比如：random sampling（随机取样）。
*mutation：原指“变化，转变”，这里是一个生物学名词，指细胞等的“突变”。
*cluster：指“串、丛、群”等，聚集在一起的一簇。这里指（人或物的）群，组。比如：a cluster of tourists（一群游客）。

"It follows that the seven clusters must have sprung from one woman each," he told the BBC. Professor Sykes says that the ancestry of 99% of Europeans can now be traced back to the seven women who founded the clans. He has also been quick to realise the commercial aspects of his project, founding a company, Oxford Ancestors, which offers to trace anyone's maternal ancestry.

*ancestry：（总称）祖先。比如：His ancestry settled in American in the 1620's.（他的祖先于17世纪20年代定居美洲。）
*maternal：母系的，母亲一方的。塞克斯教授很敏感地意识到其研究的商业价值，于是成立了一家公司，专门替人寻查母系祖先。

[画外音]
　　伯莱恩·塞克斯给这七个女子分别起的名字有什么说法？他的研究对现代人类起源又有什么意义呢……

（to be continued）