1 . Stonehenge is hiding a secret: the source of one of its stones.

Researchers know that the prehistoric circle’s outer stones come from nearby areas in England. But even after a century of study, the Altar Stone near the center of Stonehenge remains difficult to understand.

The Altar Stone belongs to a group of Stonehenge building blocks known as the bluestones, which came from areas far from Stonehenge. Researchers have found that some of the bluestones come from as far as 225 kilometers away.

“It’s a massive job of transport,” says Richard Bevins, an earth scientist at Aberystwyth University in Wales. His team is looking for the source of the Altar Stone. Uncovering the stone’s origins could suggest which ancient groups of people contributed to the building.

Scientists have been working to find the rock’s origins since 1923. A report about the Altar Stone’s minerals back then suggested it might have come from a set of rocks in Wales near where other bluestones cane from. Bevins’ team decided to revisit the rock’s riddle with modern techniques.

In 2021, the team analyzed (分析) the Altar Stone’s chemical makeup using X-rays. The X-ray method showed that the Altar Stone has high levels of the element barium (钡). But the stone’s makeup didn’t seem to match the rocks in Wales.

In the new study, the team collected 58 samples (样本) from a wider area in England and Wales. Of the 58 sample stones, four had high barium levels similar to the Altar Stone. The team then compared the overall mineral makeup of those four stones with the Altar Stone. But none were a match.

“Maybe we’ve been looking in the wrong area, and maybe we’ve possibly been looking at rocks of the wrong age,” Bevins says, “It’s not clear exactly how old the Altar Stone is.” So scientists may need to consider stone sources that are younger than the ones they have looked at so far.

1. Where do the outer stones of Stonehenge come from?

A．Wales,

B．Scotland.

C．Ireland.

D．England.

2. What does paragraph 7 mainly tell us about the new study?

A．Its sample.

B．Its finding.

C．Its preparation.

D．Its application.

3. What will Bevins’ team probably do in the follow-up study?

A．Date the Altar Stone.	B．Make the 1923 report public.
C．Sell the sample stones.	D．Move their office to the UK.

4. What can we learn about the Altar Stone?

A．It looks pretty young.	B．It was built by the locals,.
C．Its origin remains unknown.	D．Its makeup is the same as others’.

2 . Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed a Sphinx statue (狮身人面像) with a smiley face near the Hathor Temple, one of the country’s best preserved ancient sites. The smiling Sphinx is much smaller than the famous Sphinx in Giza, which is 20 metres high. The stone work of art, believed to be a stylized representation of an ancient Roman emperor, was found inside a two-level tomb near the temple in southern Egypt.

Next to the beautifully and accurately carved Sphinx, researchers had found a Roman stone written in hieroglyph (象形文字). Once fully translated, the stone may unveil the identity of the sculpted ruler, who could be Emperor Claudius.

The smiling Sphinx is among a series of discoveries announced over the past few months. The country has uncovered major archaeological discoveries in recent months, primarily in the Saqqara cemetery (墓地) south of Cairo as well as in Giza, home to the only surviving structure of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Recently, Egypt announced the discovery of a hidden nine-metre passage inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, which may lead to the actual burial room of pharaoh (法老) Khufu, or Cheops. Further south, in Luxor, archaeologists had discovered a 1,800-year-old complete residential city from the Roman times.

Hathor Temple, about 500 kilometres south of the capital Cairo, was home to the Dendera Zodiac, a heavenly map which has been displayed at the Louvre in Paris for more than a century. Since Frenchman Sebastien Louis Saulnier took it out of the temple in 1922, Egypt has been attempting to get it back.

Some experts see such announcements as having more political and economic weight than scientific, as Egypt is counting on tourism to revive its vital tourism industry in a severe economic crisis. The government aims to draw in 30 million tourists a year by 2028.

1. What do we know about the smiling Sphinx?

A．Its owner was confirmed as an ancient Roman ruler.

B．It has been the best-preserved Sphinx till now.

C．It is as high as 20 metres like the Sphinx of Giza.

D．It was discovered close to the Hathor Temple.

2. What does the underlined word “unveil” in paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Reveal.

B．Seek.

C．Deny.

D．Maintain.

3. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．The diversity of cultural relics in Egypt.

B．The discoveries made recently in Egypt.

C．The status of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

D．The new discovery about pharaoh Khufu.

4. What does Egypt expect most from the recent discoveries?

A．Scientific progress.

B．Political position.

C．Economic advance.

D．Cultural exchange.

3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Sanxingdui Museum, located at the city of Guanghan,     1     (recognize) as the most important ancient remains of the Sichuan region for its vast size, long lasting period     2     plentiful cultural heritages. It is known as one of the greatest archaeological (考古学的) discoveries of humankind in the 20th century. The unique and delicate shapes make it hard for you     3     (imagine) that people could make these things thousands of years ago. Even experts can’t explain how the ancient Shu people did it. Although Sanxingdui Museum is a little far from the downtown area of Chengdu, it is really worth     4     (visit).

Sanxingdui were first discovered by     5     farmer in 1929 when he dug a big hole in his field. Since then more than 10,000 relics, some of     6     date back to 3,000 to 5,000 years, have been unearthed. But up to now they remain     7     (mystery) as no texts is found about it, nor there is any mention of this culture in the records of other     8     (state), either during or after the late Shang Dynasty.

The people who     9     (make) splendid bronze ware (器皿) in Sanxingdui 3,000 years ago created a dominant (占支配地位的) power in the Ancient Shu Kingdom. The Sanxingdui Ruins serve     10     convincing proof that the origins of Chinese civilization are diverse.

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Two young Chinese athletes placed a torch in the center of a giant snowflake during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. One of the two athletes, Dinigeer Yilamujiang, was born in the Altay Prefecture,    1    (locate) in the northern part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,    2    (wide) acknowledged as the birthplace of human skiing.

In earlier times, artifacts from Scandinavian and Russian archaeology proved the    3    (exist) of ancient skiing, with the oldest found in Russia    4    (date) back to 7,000-8,000 years ago. In 2005,the record    5    (break). A group of farmers in the Altay region went to a cave to hide from the rain,only    6    (find) cave paintings describing men stepping on twin snowboards    7    prey（猎物）carried on their backs. It turned out that， according to archaeologists’ analyses, the cave paintings were drawn 12,000 years ago, some 4,000 years     8     the artifacts from Russia that were believed to have been made.

After Beijing’s successful bid to host the Winter Olympics, experts from 18 countries including Norway and Russia paid a visit to Altay to study the “potential origin of human skiing activity, ” after    9    they jointly issued a declaration in 2015, recognizing Xinjiang's Altay as the    10    (early) skiing region in the world.

6 . The researchers say they have discovered two huge magma chambers (岩浆库) under Wei Mountain in Heilongjiang. If it is true, it will be a surprising discovery since the volcano last erupted over 500,000 years ago.

Zhang Haijiang and his team visited nearly 100 sites across Wei Mountain. They were looking for magma, and they found an unusual signal from 15km underground, followed by another one at 8km. Their computer modelling suggested there could be two huge magma chambers with a depth of more than 9km. According to their research, 15 percent of the upper chamber is now filled with molten (熔化的) rock. Some studies have suggested that a volcanic eruption could take place when a chamber is filled to 40 percent magma.

They suggested that the volcanic activity in northeast China is likely to be in an active stage, and the active volcanic monitoring is needed to further understand the magma system in this area.

Xu Jiandong, director of the volcanic research, said seismic (地震的) stations had been monitoring this area for many years. "If there are really huge magma chambers in the area, we should have found some related seismic activities—When the lower chamber fills the upper one, there should be some movement," he said. "But so far, after decades of monitoring on the site, we've picked up almost nothing. The whole area has been very, very quiet," he added.

So did the researchers really find huge magma chambers? While the unusual signals found by Zhang's team looked like magma chambers, they could also have been caused by other things.

But what is for sure is that the area is active. It's like porridge boiling in a pot. But since the studies in recent years have suggested a low risk of immediate eruption in the area, the government has not set up seismic stations around. And it is certain that they aren't prepared for a big eruption over there.

1. What do Zhang Haijiang and his team say they've found under Wei Mountain?

A．Lots of frozen rocks.	B．Two magma chambers.
C．Nearly 100 volcanic sites.	D．A huge magma system.

2. What do we learn from Xu Jiandong's words?

A．They don't find any seismic activities.

B．The active volcanic monitoring is needed.

C．Their efforts to monitor volcanoes are useless.

D．Volcanic eruptions never happened in this area.

3. What does the underlined word "they" in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Volcanic eruptions.	B．Zhang's team members.
C．The seismic stations.	D．The unusual signals.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．What Can Cause Volcanoes to Erupt in Northeast China?

B．Is Chinese Government Ready for Volcanic Eruptions?

C．Are There Magma Chambers Under Wei Mountain?

D．Is Active Volcanic Monitoring Needed in China?