ancient, ancestor

An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). Ancestor is "any person from whom one is descended. In law the person from whom an estate has been inherited."

descend与derive的例句[LDOCE]:
1. She claims to be descended from Abraham Lincoln. [be related to a person or group who lived a long time ago]
2. These ideas descend from those of ancient philosophers. [have developed from sth that existed in the past]
3. Do you derive great pleasure from your studies? [get]
4. The enzyme [酶] is derived from human blood. [get]
5. This word is derived from Latin. [develop or come from]
6. A derived class [派生类] is a class which takes some properties from its base class [基类]. 如class Person : public Animal {};
这两个词可能算近义词，像[汉典]:
a. 盖棺公论定,不泯是人心。——《可斋续稿后·挽史鲁公》
b. 人生盖棺论定，一日未死，即一日忧责未已。——《明史．卷一八二．刘大夏传》
c. 善恶在我，毁誉由人，盖棺定论，无藉于子孙之乞言耳。—— 明·吕坤《大明嘉议大夫刑部左侍郎新吾吕君墓志铭》

In evolutionary theory, species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other organisms capable of horizontal gene transfer.

The human species is more than 40 generations old, yet the number 2⁴⁰, approximately 10¹² or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans who have ever lived.

Some cultures confer reverence to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more youth-oriented cultural contexts display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek providence from their deceased ancestors; this practice is sometimes known as ancestor worship or, more accurately, ancestor veneration.

六级/考研单词: ancestor, descend, derive, bacteria, organism, horizon, trillion, dwarf, confer, elder, worship