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.

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.

2 . 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。

A complete skeleton (骨架) of an animal, which was later confirmed to be that of a giant panda, was unearthed at     1     end of 2021 in Xi’an. It was the first time in history that giant panda remains had been unearthed from a tomb     2     (date) back to the Western Han Dynasty.

The skeleton had well-developed teeth, and was placed within a neatly     3     (lay) brick structure facing towards the direction of the tomb, with its tail pointing westward. After comparing the skeleton     4     existing giant pandas’, researchers discovered that it     5     (actual) belonged to a giant panda.

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     6     (warm) than today.

Back in 1975, a buried giant panda     7     (discover) near the tomb of Empress Bo. Researchers said that it is not yet possible to conclude that Empress Bo had a special     8     (prefer) for giant pandas. It appeared to be a royal garden feature.

Besides the giant panda, the remains of other rare animals were also found in the tomb,     9     reflects the belief in the Han Dynasty that people would live a life in the underworld, similar to that when they     10     (be) alive.

4 . 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。

A Stone Age bird sculpture     1     (cover) in China could be a “missing link” in our understanding of prehistoric art.     2     (date) back almost 13,500 years, the sculpture is now the oldest known example of three-dimensional art in East Asia.

Described     3     being in “an exceptional state of preservation,” the sculpture was found at an archeological site in Lingjing, Henan Province. It was hand-carved from burned animal bone. Researchers say the sculpture depicts (刻画) a bird on a base, pointing to deliberate marks     4     the creature’s eyes and bill (嘴) would be. It is believed that the bird’s oversized tail was made     5     (prevent) the sculpture from leaning forward when     6     (lay) on a surface. This discovery identifies a(n)     7     (origin) artistic tradition and pushes back by more than 8,500 years the representation of birds in Chinese art. The sculpture differs     8     (technology) and stylistically from other sculptures found in Western Europe and Siberia, and it could be the missing link tracing the origin of Chinese statues back to the early part of the Stone Age. Li Zhanyang, who led     9     study, has contributed to other archeological findings in Lingjing, including various ancient     10     (tool) and two skulls belonging to an extinct species of early humans.

5 . A new study provides the earliest known evidence of amputation — the medical term for cutting off a part of a person’s body. Around 31,000 years ago, a young adult had his left foot and part of his left leg removed in what is modern-day Indonesia, the study suggests.

Scientists say the ancient surgery was performed when the person was a child — and that the individual went on to live for years. It suggests that humans were carrying out medical operations much earlier than scientists had thought.

Tim Maloney, the study’s lead researcher, said that researchers were exploring a cave in Borneo, a rainforest area known for ancient rock art, when they came across the person’s burial.

Although much of the skeleton(骨骼)remained, it was missing its left foot and the lower part of its left leg, Maloney explained. After examining the remains, the researchers concluded the foot bones were not missing from the burial or lost in an accident. Instead, the bones had been carefully removed. The remaining leg bone showed a clean cut that healed over, Maloney said. There were no signs of infection, which would be expected if the child had gotten its leg bitten off by a creature like a crocodile. And there were also no signs of a crushing fracture(粉碎性骨折),which would have been expected if the leg had been cut off in an accident.

The child appears to have lived for around six to nine more years after losing the limb, eventually dying from unknown causes as a young adult, researchers said.

The evidence suggests that the ancient people knew enough about medicine to perform the surgery without fatal blood loss or infection. Researchers do not know what kind of tool was used to perform the surgery, or how infection was prevented. But they believe that a sharp stone tool may have made the cut, and some of the plant life in the area could have been used for medical treatment.

“The discovery of this early surgery rewrites the history of human medical knowledge and developments,”Maloney said at a press conference.

1. What can we know about the ancient surgery?

A．It was discovered by accident.

B．It was later than scientists had thought.

C．Researchers have completely understood it.

D．The young adult died soon after receiving surgery.

2. What does the fourth paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The child’s miserable experience.

B．The reason for the child’s injury.

C．The evidence of amputation.

D．The significance of the discovery.

3. What does the underlined word“limb”in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Living environment.

B．Family and relatives.

C．One of the unknown causes.

D．Left foot and part of his left leg.

4. What’s Maloney’s attitude towards the discovery of the ancient surgery?

A．Doubtful.	B．Positive.
C．Puzzled.	D．Critical.

7 . 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.

2. Why do researchers think the footprints were unlike those of bears or chimps?

A．They are less chimplike.	B．They have toes sticking out.
C．They show relatively wide standing.	D．They possess features of cross-stepping.

3. What does William think of the new research finding?

A．It’s convincing.	B．It’s challenging.
C．It’s confusing.	D．It’s conflicting.

4. What is the purpose of the text?

A．To describe a major event.	B．To share a new discovery.
C．To introduce an unknown species.	D．To settle a huge disagreement.

8 . 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.

2. The findings at the Sanxingdui ruins have proved that ______.

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

3. What is a common challenge for the conservation of both ruins?

A．Damp weather.	B．Positioning of ruins.
C．High latitude.	D．Language barriers.

4. What is the focus of Santos quote in the last paragraph?

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.

10 . 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。

Digging up the past

Pottery (陶器) is an ancient art. It     1     (use) for thousands of years all over the world. Old pottery is usually found in pieces     2     (call) “potsherds (陶瓷碎片)”. Sometimes potsherds found in the same place can be put back together to recreate the     3     (origin) pot. Even in pieces, old pottery can teach us about the past. Archaeologists (考古学家)     4     (examine) pottery consider not only its appearance but what it was made of and how it was made. With this knowledge, they can gain     5     (benefit )information about people's lives in times past.

Pottery is made by first adding water to a kind of soil called clay. When     6     (get) wet, clay can be made into shapes. It is then heated. This hardens the clay and enables it     7     (keep) its shape. To make clay easier to shape and heat, potters use something called “temper”.

A pot's shape and     8     (decorate) can provide clues about the past. Painted pictures might show events from daily life or from myths and legends. Archaeologists know certain shapes and styles     9     were common in different times and places.

Archaeologists are absorbed     10     studying the differences in types of pottery closely. Because of their work, these ordinary objects can reveal some of the mysteries of the past.