1 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．A jade knife. | B．A golden mask. |
| C．A written record. | D．A turtle shell-shaped box. |
A complete skeleton (骨架) of an animal, which was later confirmed to be that of a giant panda, was unearthed at
The skeleton had well-developed teeth, and was placed within a neatly
The researchers thought this giant panda might have originated from the forests on the northern side of the Qinling Mountains, where the climate was possibly
Back in 1975, a buried giant panda
Besides the giant panda, the remains of other rare animals were also found in the tomb,
3 . An individual from an unknown hominid (原始人类) species walked across a field of wet, volcanic ash in what is now East Africa around 3.66 million years ago, leaving behind a handful of footprints.
Those five ancient footprints, largely ignored since they were partly unearthed at Tanzania’s Laetoli site in 1976, show features of upright walking by a hominid, a new study finds. Researchers had previously considered them hard to classify, possibly produced by a young bear that took a few steps while standing. But the latest analysis refutes that suggestion.
McNutt, DeSilva, who started the new investigation as a Dartmouth College graduate student, and their colleagues fully dug out and cleaned the five Laetoli footprints in June 2019. Then they measured, photographed and 3-D scanned the ancient tracks. McNutt’s group focused on two footprints that were particularly well-preserved. Foot shapes, sizes, and walking characteristics of the Laetoli individual differed in various ways from those of other hominid individuals at the same site. The prints also didn’t match those from modern black bears and modern chimps (黑猩猩) walking upright.
The Laetoli individual possessed a wider, more chimplike foot than humans, the researchers say. Its big toe stuck out slightly from the second toe (脚趾), but not to the degree observed in chimps. On one step, the Laetoli individual’s left leg crossed in front of the right leg, leaving a left footprint directly in front of the previous track. People may cross-step in this way when trying to regain balance. And bears and chimps assume a relatively wide standing due to knee and other bone arrangements that prevent them from walking like the Laetoli individual and probably from cross-stepping, the scientists say.
Given that only two of the ancient footprints are complete enough to analyze thoroughly, the possibility that a chimp other than a hominid made the Laetoli footprints can’t be ruled out, says William Harcourt Smith, a scientist at Lehman College. But evidence of cross-stepping is enough to prove that it was a hominid track maker, he says.
1. What does the underlined word “refutes” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Objects to. | B．Supports. | C．Puts forward. | D．Criticizes. |
| A．They are less chimplike. | B．They have toes sticking out. |
| C．They show relatively wide standing. | D．They possess features of cross-stepping. |
| A．It’s convincing. | B．It’s challenging. |
| C．It’s confusing. | D．It’s conflicting. |
| A．To describe a major event. | B．To share a new discovery. |
| C．To introduce an unknown species. | D．To settle a huge disagreement. |
The Sanxingdui Ruins site in Sichuan province is generally considered one of the most important archaeological
The site
Nevertheless, some new types of artifacts have been unearthed. In the No 6 pit, a wooden box covered in cinnabar（朱砂）
