1 . Human faces cut into stone up to 2,000 years ago have again been found on a rocky area along the Amazon River in northern Brazil. The stone carvings (雕刻品) appeared as a result of a big drop in water levels because of dry weather in parts of northern Brazil. The water level had dropped to the lowest level in the history of the river.

“People had reported some of the stone carvings before during periods when water levels were low. But now a greater number have been identified. That will help researchers establish the history of the carvings, and more secrets of historical relics will come to light,” researcher Jaime de Santana Oliveira said recently.

One area shows smooth marks in the rock thought to be where natives once sharpened their tools such   as arrows and spears before European settlers arrived.

“The carvings are prehistoric, or precolonial (殖民地时期前的). We can’t be sure of their precise date but based on the evidence of human living places of the area, we believe they are about 1, 000 to 2, 000 years old.” Oliveira said.

The rocky area is on the north shore of the Amazon River near the place where the Rio Negro River joins it.

Oliveira said the carvings were first seen in 2010, but this year’s drought has been more serious than earlier dry periods. The Rio Negro’s levels have dropped 15 meters since July, uncovering large areas of rocks and sand where there had been no beaches.

“This time we found not just more carvings, but the statue of a human face cut into the rock,” said Oliveira, who works for the Brazilian government’s National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute. The organization watches the care of historic places in Brazil.

1. What plays a key role in finding the stone carvings?

A．People’s report.	B．Natural disaster.
C．High technology.	D．Researchers’ effort.

2. What can researchers do with more identified stone carvings?

A．Explore the history of historical sites.	B．Move the valuable carvings to safety.
C．Discover more underwater stone carvings.	D．Make the carvings popular among visitors.

3. What does the underlined word “precise” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Fixed.

B．Exact.

C．Best.

D．Future.

4. What does Oliveira stress in the last paragraph?

A．The human face stone carvings.	B．The number of stone carvings.
C．The real value of stone carvings.	D．The place where stone carvings were found.

2 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个恰当的单词， 在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

The Terracotta Army (兵马俑) was found in 1974 near Xi’an. It is formed of more than 8,000 sculptures, which     1     (bury) alongside the emperor Qin Shi Huang more than 2,200 years ago. Now, researchers have recreated the shoes of one soldier and analysis of them     2     (suggest) that shoes worn by the terracotta sculptures were surprisingly flexible and slip resistant. If the recreated shoes     3     (true) reflect the real ones, they can help build a better picture of     4     Qin dynasty soldiers wore and how this might have aided them in battles.

3 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. What was the man doing when he found the statue?

A．He was fishing.

B．He was swimming.

C．He was hunting.

2. When was the statue built according to experts?

A．In the 1300s.

B．In the 1600s.

C．In the 1800s.

3. How will the man deal with the statue?

A．He’ll keep it to himself.

B．He’ll give it to a museum.

C．He’ll make money from it.

6 . Lingjiatan Ancient Cultural Site

Position

Lingjiatan site is located in Lingjiatan village, Hanshan County, Anhui Province.

Status

·With a history of about 5,600 years, it is the largest and best preserved Neolithic settlement site found in Chaohu Lake Basin in the lower reaches of the Changjiang River.

·The unearthed area is 2,200 square meters, including 1 altar in the late Neolithic age, 66 tombs, 1 relic built with large-area red pottery blocks, 1 house site, and 1,300 precious cultural relics such as delicate jade ritual vessels, stone tools and pottery, of which jade accounted for more than half.

Importance

·The “Stonehenge” unearthed at the site is the only site found so far that there are Stonehenge remains in the Neolithic period in China, and its construction age is about 1,000 years earlier than that of Stonehenge in Britain.

·Unearthed “jade dragon”, the flat round jade dragon connected end to end is called “the first dragon in China”.

·The unearthed stone drill is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the Neolithic Age in China in the 20th century.

Research value

·Studying urban elements

Lingjiatan site is the first settlement site in China with hierarchical architecture based on terrain. It plays a noticeable role in studying the evolution of Chinese ancient society and the exchange and collision of East, West, North and South cultures.

·Moving the history of Chinese cities forward for more than 1,000 years.

Mysteries to be solved

·Did the Youchao people master the metal smelting technology at that time? Have they produced the most primitive text symbols?

·After the discovery of Lingjiatan site, does Youchao’s birthplace lie in Chaohu Lake Basin?

1. How many precious cultural relics were unearthed according to the text?

A．1,000.

B．1,300.

C．2,200.

D．5,600.

2. Why is Lingjiatan site important?

A．There exists the only Stonehenge in the world.

B．The jade dragon is considered as “the first dragon in China”.

C．The stone drill is the most important archaeological discovery in history.

D．Moving the history of Chinese history forward for more than 1,000 years.

3. Which has proved true about Lingjiatan site?

A．Youchao’s birthplace lies in Chaohu Lake Basin.

B．The Youchao people mastered the metal smelting technology.

C．Lingjiatan site was the first settlement site for the ancient people.

D．The exchange of four-direction cultures ever happened in Lingjiatan site.

7 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What did the divers do when they found the objects?

A．They gave them to their company.

B．They kept on digging deeper.

C．They told a historical expert.

2. How did Ambrose know the sinking time of the ship?

A．By doing research in museums.

B．By analyzing the goods on the ship.

C．By collecting information from a story.

3. What was the ship used for according to Ambrose?

A．Looking for gold.

B．Delivering big guns.

C．Seeking metal.

8 . Every day people joined archaeologists and artists in finding some of the year’s most dramatic discoveries. Below are some examples of 2023.

“Naughty pupils”-ancient punishment method resurfaces

Archaeologists discovered 18,000 ink-carved pieces of pottery-known as “ostraca”—at the site of Athribis early this year, and among them were hundreds of fragments(碎片)with a single symbol repeated front and back.

Those scribbles(潦草的文字)are evidence of ‘naughty “pupils” being made to write lines, according to researchers a Germany’s University of Tuebingen. The fragments also included receipts, school texts, trade information and lists of names.

Van Gogh peers out in hidden portrait

There is one more known van Gogh’s self-portrait in the world, and it was hidden behind a painting of a peasant woman. People made the discovery when they took an X-ray of one of his portraits from 1885 and discovered the artist’s own image behind layers of cardboard and glue. While X-rays often reveal how artists-changed their compositions, the full self-portrait of van Gogh came as a huge surprise, who was known to reuse canvase(画布)to save money.

Another treasure collection from Sanxingdui

The Sanxingdui archaeological site has produced thousands of relics. The latest discovery, reported by Chinese state media in June includes 3,155 objects, a turtle shell-shaped box and a sacrificial altar among them. A team has been digging six places of the site, turning up more than 13,000 objects so far. Last year, the relics they uncovered included a golden mask, ivory artifacts(手工艺品)and a jade knife. The Sanxingdui culture still remains mysterious, as it left behind no written records or human remains, though many believe it to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu, which ruled along the upper stream of the Yangtze River until it was conquered in 316 BC.

1. What led to the researchers’ conclusion about the fragments?

A．The repeated symbol.	B．Trade information.
C．Lists of pupils’ names.	D．The mark of ink.

2. Why did van Gogh hide his self-portrait in a painting?

A．To keep away from X-rays.

B．To save money.

C．To make his works more mysterious.

D．To help people find his composition.

3. Which is the newly-unearthed relic of 2023 in Sanxingdui site?

A．A jade knife.	B．A golden mask.
C．A written record.	D．A turtle shell-shaped box.

9 . The Nazca Lines are a collection of giant geoglyphs (地画), located in the Peruvian coastal plain about 250 miles south of Lima, Peru. Created by the ancient Nazca culture in South America, the 2, 000 ­year ­old Nazca Lines can only be fully viewed from the air given their massive size.

There are three basic types of the Nazca Lines: straight lines, geometric designs and pictorial (图画的) representations. More than 800 straight lines are found on the coastal plain, some of which are 30 miles long. Additionally, there are over 300 geometric designs, which include basic shapes such as triangles, rectangles, as well as arrows, zigzags and wavy lines. The Nazca Lines are perhaps best known for the representations of about 70 animals and plants, some of which measure up to 1, 200 feet long. Examples include a spider, hummingbird, monkey, whale, dog, duck, flower, and tree.

More recent research suggested that the Nazca Lines’ purpose was related to water, a valuable thing in the desert. The geoglyphs weren’t used as an irrigation system or a guide to find water, but rather as part of a ritual (仪式) to pray to the gods — an effort to bring much­ needed rain.

The Nazca Lines are located in the desert plains of the Rio Grande de Nasca river basin. The desert floor is covered in a layer of deep red color rocks. The ancient people created their designs by removing the top 12 to 15 inches of rock, revealing the lighter-colored sand below. They likely began with small­ scale models and carefully increased the models’ proportions (规模) to create the large designs.

Given the small amount of rain, wind and erosion in the desert, the geoglyphs have remained largely unharmed throughout the centuries. But the geoglyphs aren’t completely safe. In 2009, the Nazca Lines suffered the first recorded rain damage. Five years later, the environmental group Greenpeace damaged an area near the hummingbird geoglyph during a media stunt.

1. Why should the geoglyphs only be fully appreciated from the air?

A．The geoglyphs occupy a massive area of land.

B．The geoglyphs are in the centre of the desert.

C．The geoglyphs are only accessible by plane.

D．The geoglyphs are so diverse in design.

2. What was the geoglyphs’ purpose?

A．To record ancient culture.

B．To guide water to the land.

C．To pray to the gods for rain.

D．To show ancient people’s talents.

3. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．How the geoglyphs were created.

B．Where the geoglyphs are located.

C．Why the geoglyphs were created.

D．What the proportion of the geoglyphs is.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The geoglyphs are damage­free.

B．The geoglyphs need protection.

C．The geoglyphs are in perfect condition.

D．The geoglyphs get media’s protection.

10 . Nearly 13,000 cultural relics have been unearthed from six pits (坑) of the Sanxingdui Ruins site, including many objects and statues never seen before, and they help present a more complete view of the culture of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

The digging work mainly aimed at the sacrificial (献祭的) area of the ruins and six newly discovered pits. From 2020 to 2022, a total area of 1,834 square meters was explored in the sacrificial area, which covered a total area of nearly 13,000 square meters.

The significant discoveries include thousands of cultural relics made of different materials such as bronze, gold and jade and unearthed in six new pits, ruins of architecture, time of building the pits and the proof of exchanges between the ancient Shu Kingdom and the Central Plains in the Shang dynasty. Among the cultural relics newly unearthed, archaeologists found 3,155 comparatively complete relics.

“All cultural relics have significant meanings for archaeological research. If I have to choose one, I want to select the crowned bronze statue with a snake’s body,” said Ran Honglin, director of the Sanxingdui Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute. He noted that the relics prove the diversity of Chinese culture and offer another powerful example of Chinese civilization’s unity in diversity, because the bronze statue’s shape melted cultural factors of different areas in China during ancient times.       

Researchers used Carbon-14 dating to confirm that nearly 200 samples unearthed in different pits were made from 1131 BC to 1012 BC, so they concluded that in addition to the fifth and sixth pits appearing later, the rest of the pits should have been built in the late Shang dynasty, dating from 3,000 to 3,200 years ago. The discovery has solved an argument over the age of sacrificial pits found in the past three decades.

“The digging and research work is continuing. There will be more discoveries with further work.” Ran said.

1. What is the significance of the newly unearthed relics?

A．They are the first complete relics to be unearthed.

B．They are helpful in protecting the Sanxingdui Ruins site.

C．They prove statues appeared first in the ancient Shu Kingdom.

D．They help better understand the culture of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

2. What makes the crowned bronze statue an example of Chinese civilization’s unity in diversity?

A．Its origin.

B．Its form.

C．Its material.

D．Its meaning.

3. In which aspect did archaeologists disagree about the pits before the exploration?

A．The time of building them.

B．The time of finding them.

C．The way of studying them.

D．The order of numbering them.

4. What is the purpose of this text?

A．To explain the meaning of cultural relics.

B．To remember an archeologist in Sanxingdui.

C．To introduce the new discoveries in Sanxingdui.

D．To recommend Sanxingdui as a tourist destination.