A collection of tombs dating from the Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties period were discovered in Wulong District of Southwest China’s Chongqing. The tomb dating back
What is exciting about this
The tomb
Marine (海洋的) creatures have long attracted scientists. Recently, researchers described remains discovered in northeastern Spain,
Leviathanochelys swam in
Scientists found the Leviathanochelys remains near the village of Coll deNargo in Catalonia’s Alt Urgell area.
3 . Fossils are well preserved remains, impressions, or traces (痕迹) of animals and plants that lived long ago. Paleontologists (古生物学家) divide fossils into two main groups. Some fossils, called body fossils, show the structure of the plant or the animal. They form directly from the remains of plants and animals. Other fossils, called trace fossils. They record signs of animal or plant activities, such as walking, feeding, scratching, or even resting.
Most animals and plants don’t become fossils after they die. They break down into little bits or may be eaten by other animals. But some remains get buried too fast, avoiding those things happening. An animal might die near a body of water and sink to the bottom, where its remains get covered in sediment (沉积物). As sediment builds up, mineral-rich water seeps into the remains, leaving minerals in the tiny spaces of the bones and even replacing the original bones. The new minerals react with those in the animal’s remains and then harden into fossils.
Most fossils are buried deep in the Earth. As the Earth’s surface changes, scientists can dig up new fossils and learn more about past life and the Earth’s history. In rock that formed before a certain time, roughly 2.8 million years ago, scientists will not find human fossils.
Fossils are our keys to understanding prehistoric life and the Earth’s history. By studying fossils, we learn about a great variety of plants and animals that lived in the past. We can know what they looked like, how and where they moved and what they ate. By comparing fossils from different time periods, we can track the evolution of a species, see how it adapted to changes in its environment, and understand more about the climate and environment where the fossils were buried.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 1?A.Fossils are remains of plants and animals. |
B.Trace fossils only tell us the activities of animals. |
C.Trace fossils form directly from the remains of creatures. |
D.Body fossils show almost the original structure of creatures. |
A.Where we can find fossils. | B.How animals and plants become fossils. |
C.Different fossils have different features. | D.Which methods are used to study fossils. |
A.Engages in. | B.Succeeds in. | C.Delights in. | D.Sinks in. |
A.Ridiculous. | B.Complex. | C.Significant. | D.Inspiring. |
4 . Six “sacrificial pits(祭祀坑)”, dating back 3,200 to 4,000 yeas, were newly discovered in Sanxingdui Ruins site in Guanghan. Over 500 artifacts, including gold masks, bronze wares, ivories, jades and textiles were unearthed from the site. Sanxingdui site is located in Sanxingdui Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, on the south bank of Qianjiang River (Yangtze River), a tributary of Tuojiang River in the north of Chengdu Plain. The site covers an area of about 12 square kilometers, and the core area is the ancient city of Sanxingdui, with an area of about 3.6 square kilometers. It is the largest and highest-grade central site found in Sichuan Basin during the Xia and Shang period.
Sanxingdui site, first found in 1929, is generally considered as one of the most important archaeological sites along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. However, the work of excavation on the site only began in 1986, when two pits — widely believed for sacrificial ceremonies — were accidentally discovered.
Investigation in the area around No.1 and 2 pits was relaunched in October 2019, and No.3 pit was found in December 2019, according to Lei Yu, a researcher of Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute who heads the ongoing excavation. Thirty four research universities and research institutes have cooperated in this project. He said the new discoveries will help to better understand many unexplained findings in 1986.
More excavation followed in March 2020, and five more pits were found last year. And detailed research began in October. Excavation capsules with hi-tech equipment were set up in the pits in order to prevent the site from further damage.
According to the National Cultural Heritage Administration, studies of Sanxingdui site will become a crucial project in an ongoing program Archaeology China, which tries to explain the origins of Chinese civilization and how diverse cultures communicate and come together.
1. What does the underlined word “excavation” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?A.Check. | B.Dig. | C.Protection. | D.Extension. |
A.By conducting more experiments around the site. |
B.By dividing the task of excavation into several parts. |
C.By cooperating with research universities and institutes. |
D.By using excavation capsule armed with hi-tech equipment. |
A.There are 6 sacrificial pits discovered in Sanxingdui site in all. |
B.The size of the core zone is about 1/3 of Sanxingdui site. |
C.The discovery of Sanxingdui site only began in 2019. |
D.All sacrificial sites were discovered in the meantime. |
A.Sanxingdui site needed protecting. |
B.Hi-tech helped to explore Sanxingdui site. |
C.Sanxingdui discoveries reveal ancient China. |
D.Sacrificial pits were unearthed in Sanxingdui site. |
5 . Discoveries at the famous Sanxingdui ruins in Southwest China show that the region’s ancient Shu Kingdom Civilization shared similarities with the Maya.
The Sanxingdui ruins belonged to the Shu Kingdom that existed at least 4,800 years ago and lasted more than 2,000 years, while the Mayan civilization built its city-states around 200 AD.
The bronze-made remains of tress unearthed at the ruins of the Shu Kingdom resemble the sacred ceiba tree, which symbolized the union of heaven, earth and the underworld in the Mayan civilization. “They are very important similarities,” says Santos, a Mexican archaeologist (考古学家) stressing that “the representations of tress in both cultures provide a symbolism that is very similar”.
The findings at the Sanxingdui ruins, considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, also show a new aspect of Bronze Age culture, indicating the ancient civilization already had technologies that were thought to have been developed much later.
While the lime span between the Shu kingdom and the Mayan culture is great, the findings highlight the closeness between the two civilizations. They developed in areas with comparable climates and reflected their worldview through related symbols. “In the end, man is still man, independent of time and space. What we have is that, at this latitude (纬度), both the Shu people and the Mayans looked at the same sky and had the same stars on the horizon,” the expert says.
One notable feature of the recent discoveries at Sanxingdui was the cross-subject work and technology applied by teams of Chinese archaeologists, which allowed the unearthing of artifacts as fragile as silk remains, which other types of less careful digging methods would not have been able to register.
Cooperation between Chinese and Mexican archaeologists could benefit projects in the Mayan world, where the rainy climate and humidity are problematic for the conservation of ruins.
“Every time our cultural knowledge increases, regardless of whether we speak one language or another, what it shows us is that we continue to be sister cultures and, therefore, the exchange of such knowledge is fundamental,” says Santos.
1. What is a similarity between the Shu Kingdom and Maya civilization?A.Their starting time. |
B.Their historical origins. |
C.Their cultural symbols. |
D.Their ceremony traditions. |
A.silk was a common clothing material then |
B.some technologies were developed much earlier |
C.the Bronze Age started earlier than previously assumed |
D.the Shu Kingdom and the Mayan world had close contact |
A.Damp weather. | B.Positioning of ruins. |
C.High latitude. | D.Language barriers. |
A.The future of the China-Mexico cooperation. |
B.The benefits of speaking a different language. |
C.The importance of the exchange of cultural knowledge. |
D.The increasing sisterhood in culture between China and Mexico. |
6 . As early as the twelfth century AD, the settlements of Chaco Canyon in Mexico in the American Southwest were notable for “their great houses” massive stone buildings that contain hundreds of rooms and often stand three or four stories high.
One theory holds that the Chaco structures were purely residential.
A third theory proposes that houses were used as ceremonial centers. Close to one house, called Pueblo Alto, excavations of the mound revealed deposits containing a surprisingly large number of broken pots.
A.Almost every structure houses hundreds of people. |
B.Some experts think the Chaco structures were used to store food supplies. |
C.Archaeologists have been trying to determine how the buildings were used. |
D.The size of the great houses would make them very suitable for the purpose. |
E.Such ceremonies have been documented for other Native American cultures. |
F.Archaeologists identified an enormous mound formed by a pile of old material. |
G.This finding has been interpreted that people gathered at Pueblo Alto for special ceremonies. |
7 . Bears do it. Bats do it. Even European hedgehogs do it. And now it turns out that early human beings may also have been at it. They hibernated - slept through winter, according to fossil experts.
Evidence from the bones found at one of the world's most important fossil sites suggests that our primitive ancestors may have dealt with extreme cold hundreds of thousands of years ago by hibernating.
The conclusion is based on excavations in a cave called Sima de los Hueso—the pit(坑) of bones—at Atapuerca, in northern Spain. The fossils date back more than 400,000 years and were probably from early Neanderthals or their ancestors.
In a paper published in the journal L'Anthropologie, Juan-Luis Arsuaga and Antonis Bartsiokas argue that the fossils found there show seasonal variations that suggest that bone growth was interrupted for several months of each year.
The pattern of lesions(病变) found in the human bones at the Sima cave are consistent with that found in bones of hibernating mammals, including cave bears. "A strategy of hibernation would have been the only solution for them to survive having to spend months in a cave due to the chilly conditions," the authors state.
They examine several opposite arguments. Modern Inuit and Sami people—although living in equally harsh, cold conditions—do not hibernate. So why did the people in the Sima cave do it?
The answer, say Arsuaga and Bartsiokas, is that fatty fish and reindeer fat provide Inuit and Sami people with food during winter and so preclude the need for them to hibernate. In contrast, the area around the Sima site half a million years ago would not have provided anything like enough food.
1. Why are bears and bats taken as an example?A.To arouse readers' curiosity about the animals' fossils. |
B.To lead to the similarity between early humans and them. |
C.To make the conclusion of the fossil experts reasonable. |
D.To prove our primitive ancestors hibernated. |
A.Their bone pattern was similar to that of cave bears. |
B.They lived in a more freezing area than Sami people. |
C.They might have hibernated to avoid the cold. |
D.Their life was threatened by other mammals in winter. |
A.It's unsuitable. | B.It's helpful. |
C.It's important. | D.It's unnecessary. |
A.Hibernating to Survive Winter | B.Adapting to Seasonal Change |
C.Disturbance to Bone Growth in Winter | D.Fish and Fat to Help Live |