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2 . Some 30, 000 years ago, artists who lived in caves in Europe painted pictures of the animals around them.The paintings were highly realistic. Some even showed movement.The artwork is considered the oldest group of human cave drawings that have ever been discovered. The drawings were created tens of thousands of years ago before human history was written. They were preserved because the cave was closed off for more or less 23,000 years.
Fast forward to December 18, 1994, a group of French cave scientists were exploring caves in southern France. Jean-Marie Chauvet, who led the group then, described the process of discovering the cave paintings.“At that time I was in the front, Eliette just walked behind me, Christian behind.Eliette said she saw two marks made with red ochre and she said, ‘They came here.’ And at this very moment everything began. The drawings and everything were linked to the parietal art. That is where it started.” Cave art expert Jean Clottes reviewed the paintings.“I was amazed at the number of paintings there and their quality.”
The Chauvet Cave has been named after the explorer who first entered it. However, its environment and drawings are too fragile to be visited by human beings. So the cave is closed, and only people there for scientific purposes can go inside and see the artwork.
However, French authorities asked experts to create an exact copy of the cave, called the Pont d’Arc Cavern. The copy cost more than 59 million dollars to build.Pascal Terrasse is the president of the cave. He says everyone will be able to experience the thrill of looking at drawings made by the first humans in Europe. He says the place is magic because it is done so well.
1. Who is the first scientist to enter the cave?A.Christian. | B.Eliette. |
C.Jean Clottes. | D.Jean-Marie Chauvet. |
A.Elegant and abstract. | B.Vivid and superior. |
C.Complicated and creative. | D.Delicate and colourful. |
A.It was closed off for some 30, 000 years. |
B.It’s the origin of modern parietal art. |
C.The artwork is very easy to damage. |
D.No one is given access to it now. |
A.To show admiration for early artists in Europe. |
B.To arouse visitors’ awareness of protecting art. |
C.To offer visitors chances to enjoy the artwork. |
D.To collect money for preserving the cave. |
3 . Researchers in Norway say they have found what they believe is the world’s oldest runestone (符文石)—a stone with ancient writing on it.
Runes are the characters in several Germanic letters. These characters were used in northern Europe from ancient times until the change to the Latin letters. The origin of runic writing is unclear. The Norwegian researchers say the writing on the runestone could be up to 2,000 years old.
The runestone is square and flat. The runes carved into it may show the earliest example of recorded words in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic writings ever found” and “the oldest runestone ever found in the world”.
Kristel Zilmer is a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part. Zilmer said, “This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone.”
Runes have been found on stones and on home goods. Older runes have been found on other objects, also, but not on stones. The oldest known runic writing is on a hair tool made from bone. Zilmer said that the ancient writer might have used a knife or needle to make the runes.
Measuring 31 centimeters by 32 centimeters, the stone has several kinds of writings. Not all of them make sense. Eight runes on the front of the stone read “idiberug”—which could be the name of a person or family but not sure.
There is still a lot of research to be done on the rock, named Svingerud stone after where it was found.
The Museum of Cultural History is going to hold a public showing of the runestone for a month. The museum holds Norway’s largest collection of historical objects, from ancient times to the modern day.
1. Where have the oldest runes been found?A.On a bone. | B.On a stone. | C.On the iron. | D.On home goods. |
A.The content on it. | B.The person who found it. |
C.The place where it was discovered. | D.The date when it was found. |
A.The origin of the runes. | B.The shape and size of the runestone. |
C.The meaning of all the runes. | D.The exact age of the runestone. |
A.Origin of Latin Has Been Discovered |
B.Runestones Show Life of Ancient People |
C.Stone with Ancient Writing on It Is on Show |
D.Researchers Discover World’s Oldest Runestone |
4 . A seven-word sentence was discovered on a 3,700-year-old comb (梳子),which is likely the oldest known sentence written in letters,according to a new study. The sentence is in Canaanite (迦南语),which is the source (来源) of later letter systems in European languages.
The comb was first discovered in 2016 in Israeli. However,it wasn’t until 2021 that a researcher from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem first noticed the words when checking the photo of the comb. The researchers were not able to directly date the comb. They believed it dated from around 1700 BC based on comparison of the letters with those on pottery (陶器) with a known age.
Garfinkel,a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,said,“The Canaanites invented the letters. Nowadays every person in the world can read and write using the letter system. This is really one of the most important achievements of humankind. When you are writing in English,you’re really using Canaanite.”
Small groups of Canaanite letters discovered on broken pieces of pottery before did not leave much room for further research on the lives of the Canaanites. But this find of a sentence written in the first letter-based language opens up the debate about the history during the ancient time period.
Garfinkel said,“The sentence was found on an ivory comb in the ancient city’s palace and temple area,which could suggest that only wealthy men were able to read and write.” The earliest writing system started around 5,000 years ago,which relied on hundreds of pictographs (象形文字) to represent words,ideas and sounds. Canaanites were the first to use letters in their writing system. “It shows that even in the most ancient times there were full sentences,which further suggests that Canaanites stood out among the early civilizations in their use of the written word.”
1. What do we know about Canaanite?A.It has a history of 3,700 years. | B.It is the oldest known language. |
C.Its sentences are in many languages. | D.Its letters are still in use at present. |
A.It was discovered on some pottery. | B.It was identified on a comb in 2016. |
C.It was recognized when dating the comb. | D.It was recognized on a photo of the comb. |
A.The influence of Canaanite letters. |
B.The rules of using Canaanite letters. |
C.The problem in identifying the Canaanite sentence. |
D.The explanation of the discovered Canaanite sentence. |
A.Useless. | B.Meaningful. | C.Confusing. | D.Unacceptable. |
Around 200 more warriors from ancient China’s Terracotta Army (兵马俑) have been unearthed at the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. The discovery was made during the
Shen Maosheng, who led the dig, said most of the newly found warriors can be divided into two groups. One group is carrying poles, while
The Terracotta Army,
It was first discovered in 1974 by farmers
Archaeologists started a new excavation at No.1 Pit in 2009. The 200 new warriors
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. |
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. |
A.Volcanic eruptions. | B.Zhang's team members. |
C.The seismic stations. | D.The unusual signals. |
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? |
7 . In April 2018, a group of Canadian scientists flying in a helicopter (直升飞机) discovered something they didn't expect to see — a huge, unknown cave with an opening the size of a football field.
The cave was discovered in the northern part of Wells Gray Provincial Park, in a wild, faraway area of Canada's Cariboo Mountains. The area is hard to get to and even harder to travel through. It is covered with snow for much of the year.
The group told Catherine Hickson, a scientist who studies rocks, about the cave. Dr. Hickson got a team of researchers together to study it. In September, they went for a closer look after most of the snow melted (融化). The cave is one of the largest in Canada. Not only is the opening to the cave larger than a football field, the cave is also deep. The team couldn't measure (测量) all the way to the bottom, but they think it may be more than 180 meters deep. The cave is tens of thousands of years old. But the rock in the cave is made of used to be at the bottom of an ocean (海洋). It is hundreds of millions of years old.
A small, but fast river of melting snow leads into the cave on one side, creating a waterfall near the top and a river at the bottom. The water comes out again a long way away. The exit (出口) is about 2.1 kilometers away and about l/2 kilometer lower down.
The cave will have to wait to get an official name. For now, the cave is being called "Sarlacc's Pit "because it looks similar to the home of the Sarlacc, a person in the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi.
For Dr. Hickson, there's a lesson to be learned from the cave. "It shows you that you don't know everything, "she says." There are things yet to be discovered."
1. Why did the cave remain unknown in the past?A.It is in a wild mountain area. | B.It has been there for just a few years. |
C.Its opening is too small to be noticed. | D.The weather there is cold all year round. |
A.The history of the cave. | B.Some facts about the cave. |
C.The value of studying the cave. | D.The methods of studying the cave. |
A.The snow. | B.The river. | C.The ocean. | D.The rock. |
A.local culture | B.its discoverers | C.the way it looks | D.the name of a film star |
8 . An ancient tomb was recently discovered in southern Siberia in which there may be treasure, priceless objects, and the 3, 000-year-old remains of an ice mummy.
Swiss scientist Gino Caspari with the University of Bern was looking carefully at the pictures of the area in the Russian Tuva Republic, when he came across what appeared to be a tomb. It is a tomb of the Scythians, an ancient group of Eurasians.
This summer, together with researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Hermitage Museum, a dig at the site not only proved Caspari's idea, but told us the site is the largest and oldest of its kind ever discovered in what's increasingly known as the “Siberian Valley of the Kings.”
While any discovery dating back to a period between the Iron Age and Bronze Age is exciting, it's the nature of this site that makes scientists want to begin carefully clearing away the layers of rock and earth. First, the tomb appears to have never been dug, because it is in a Siberian wetland faraway from the nearest place where people live. Second, and most important, is its possible resting place under a thick layer of permafrost.
“There's permafrost in the area,” Caspari said. “There are really only a handful of permafrost tombs and very few that have not been damaged, where there have been ice mummies in good condition, and all the things in the tomb are untouched.”
While not as large, other tombs discovered in the area have produced fantastical treasures and objects, including thousands of gold objects and other things about the past. By studying all these tombs, researchers hope to have a better understanding of the Scythian people.
Caspari said his team is in a race against time to uncover the tomb and find out its secrets. “We now have to act fast,” he said, “because with the rising temperatures, the permafrost could melt and damage all the things in that tomb. And these are things that are over 3,000 years old, that look like new, like they were put there yesterday.”
1. How did Caspari discover the tomb?A.By studying pictures. | B.By visiting a Russian area. |
C.By talking with Russian researchers. | D.By comparing other scientists, ideas. |
A.It is covered by a lot of rocks. | B.It is well kept by the Scythians. |
C.It is too small to draw attention. | D.It is hidden in a wild cold place. |
A.To better protect the tomb. | B.To save the treasures inside. |
C.To learn more about the Scythians. | D.To have a good understanding of mummies. |
A.The tomb is too old. | B.It is getting hotter and hotter. |
C.Some treasures are being damaged. | D.They want to save time for other tombs. |
9 . No one is sure how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids near Cairo. But a new study suggests they used a little rock ‘n’ roll. Long-ago builders could have attached wooden poles to the stones and rolled them across the sand, the scientists say.
“Technically, I think what they're proposing is possible,” physicist Daniel Bonn said.
People have long puzzled over how the Egyptians moved such huge rocks. And there's no obvious answer. On average, each of the two million big stones weighed about as much as a large pickup truck. The Egyptians somehow moved the stone blocks to the pyramid site from about one kilometer away.
The most popular view is that Egyptian workers slid the blocks along smooth paths. Many scientists suspect workers first would have put the blocks on sleds(滑板). Then they would have dragged them along paths. To make the work easier, workers may have lubricated the paths either with wet clay or with the fat from cattle. Bonn has now tested this idea by building small sleds and dragging heavy objects over sand. .
Evidence from the sand supports this idea. Researchers found small amounts of fat, as well as a large amount of stone and the remains of paths.
However, physicist Joseph West, who led the new study, thinks there might have been a simpler way. West said, “I was inspired while watching a television program showing how sleds might have helped with pyramid construction. I thought, ‘Why don't they just try rolling the things?’” A square could be turned into a rough sort of wheel by attaching wooden poles to its sides, he realized. That, he noted, should make a block of stone “a lot easier to roll than a square”.
So he tried it. He and his students tied some poles to each of four sides of a 30-kilogram stone block. That action turned the block into somewhat a wheel. Then they placed the block on the ground.
They wrapped one end of a rope around the block and pulled. The researchers found they could easily roll the block along different kinds of paths. They calculated that rolling the block required about as much force as moving it along a slippery(滑的) path.
West hasn't tested his idea on larger blocks, but he thinks rolling has clear advantages over sliding. At least, workers wouldn't have needed to carry cattle fat or water to smooth the paths.
1. It's widely believed that the stone blocks were moved to the pyramid site by _________.A.rolling them on roads | B.pushing them over the sand |
C.sliding them on smooth paths | D.dragging them on some poles |
A.Made the paths wet. | B.Made the paths hard. |
C.Made the paths wide. | D.Made the paths slippery. |
A.Because more force is needed for sliding. |
B.Because rolling work can be done by fewer cattle. |
C.Because sliding on smooth roads is more dangerous. |
D.Because less preparation on paths is needed for rolling. |
A.An experiment on ways of moving blocks to the pyramid site. |
B.An application of the method of moving blocks to the pyramid site. |
C.An argument about different methods of moving blocks to the pyramid site. |
D.An introduction to a possible new way of moving blocks to the pyramid site. |