1 . 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
2 . The Sanxingdui Museum in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province enjoyed huge popularity during the three-day Qingming Festival holiday, after the new archaeological discoveries brought international attention.
According to media reports, the museum saw over 15, 000 visitors on Saturday, the first day of the Qingming Festival holiday, breaking its record for daily visitors. And on the next day, more visitors flooded into the museum. To deal with the large flow of people, on Sunday afternoon, the official Weibo account of the Sanxingdui Museum recommended visitors to reschedule their visiting time and travel off-peak(非高峰期地).
The Sanxingdui Museum showcases various kinds of valuable cultural relics unearthed at the site. More than 500 important cultural relics have been unearthed in the six newly-found pits(深坑). Since the new discoveries were known to the public, the number of people visiting the Sanxingdui Museum has increased greatly.
The museum said the newly-found pits have not been unveiled yet and the newly-excavated cultural relics are still under repair and can’t meet the public at present. But a hall for cultural relic preservation and repair will be officially open on May 18. Visitors to it can see how the relics are repaired, according to Zhu Yarong, vice director of the Sanxingdui Museum.
Dating back about 3,000 years, the Sanxingdui Ruins site has been regarded as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the 20th century.
1. What did the Sanxingdui Museum do to deal with too many visitors?| A．It rescheduled its open time. |
| B．It closed the newly-found pits. |
| C．It opened an official Weibo account. |
| D．It advised visitors to avoid rush hours. |
| A．Opened. | B．Protected. | C．Ruined. | D．Tracked. |
| A．The Development of the Sanxingdui Museum. |
| B．The Cultural Relics of the Sanxingdui Ruins Site. |
| C．The Sanxingdui Ruins Site Has Gained International Fame. |
| D．New Discoveries Increase the Sanxingdui Museumˈs Popularity. |
| A．An official. | B．A diary. |
| C．A travel brochure. | D．A news report. |
More than 500 items were discovered at Sanxingdui Ruins site in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. These items, including remains of a gold mask,
Sanxingdui is believed to have sat at the heart of the Shu state,
Archaeologists(考古学家) realized they had just got
Over 2,500 pieces of cultural relics dating back up to 2,200 years were unearthed in Guang zhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, local authorities said Friday. The cultural relics were unearthed at
The
“The excavation outcomes are
One of the best-preserved fossils (化石) yet discovered has revealed that the young dinosaur used the same technique as baby birds
Since the 1990s scientists
In modern birds such postures are critical for
6 . Chinese archaeologists (考古学家) announced on Saturday that some new major discoveries have been made at the Sanxingdui Ruins site in Southwest China, helping uncover another start of the Chinese civilization.
Archaeologists have found six new sacrificial pits (祭祀坑) and unearthed more than 500 treasures dating back 3,000 years at the Sanxingdui Ruins in Sichuan Province. So far, archaeologists have unearthed masses of important cultural items from four of the pits, including pieces of gold masks, gold foil, bronze (青铜) masks, bronze trees and large numbers of ivories. The rest of the newly discovered pits are still being dug up.
“Surprisingly, we have unearthed some never-heard-of-before bronze items,”said Lei Yu, from the Sichuan Archaeology Research Institute. “For instance, some large and well-made bronze items have strange-looking dragon or cow designs on them.”
In another major discovery, relics of silk products were found for the first time at Sanxingdui, which shows “the ancient Shu Kingdom was one of the important starts of silk in ancient China” according to Tang Fei, head of the digging team.
The new pits sit next to two sacrificial pits discovered in 1986, with areas ranging between 30 square meters and 19 square meters. Together they form an area in which people of the ancient Shu civilization held ceremonies to offer sacrifices to heaven, earth and their forefathers, and prayed for good luck and peace.
The Sanxingdui Ruins is regarded as one of the greatest archaeological finds of mankind in the 20th century. The site was accidentally discovered by a farmer in the 1920s. The ruins are located in the city of Guanghan, about 60 kilometers from Chengdu and are believed to be the relics of the Shu Kingdom.
1. What can we learn from the second paragraph?| A．Totally there are 500 treasures unearthed. |
| B．Six new sacrificial pits are under repair. |
| C．The unearthed treasures date from 3000 years ago. |
| D．There are six sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui. |
| A．To celebrate festivals. | B．To store valuable items. |
| C．To bury important figures. | D．To hold sacrifice ceremonies. |
| A．A farmer. | B．Lei Yu. | C．Tang Fei. | D．Archaeologists. |
| A．Searched. | B．Considered. | C．Exploded. | D．Decorated |
The Sanxingdui Ruins in Southwest China’s Sichuan province, together with the Jinsha Ruins in Chengdu , will apply for World Cultural Heritage Status.
The Sanxingdui Ruins in the city of Guanghan, are thought to be one of the
The discovery of Sanxingdui raised an
Shakespeare’s plays were performed at several playhouses in London, though the rebuilt Globe is certainly the one most people connect with the Bard. But the remains of one least-documented theatre, the Curtain,
Heather Knight, senior archaeologist leading the dig, said, “We hope to find out more about the building of the theatre
“There is also the possibility of finding relics of props (道具), costumes or items used
9 . Humans evolved from apes. This is what we learned in biology class. But what came before apes? Chinese scientists have discovered fossils that could enrich the evolutionary story of how humans evolved from fish.
According to four articles published in the journal Nature in late September, Chinese researchers found fish fossils that provide the “missing link” about the origin of the jaw, a key feature that 99.8 percent of vertebrate (脊椎动物) species have.
Zhu Min, a lead researcher of the studies from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the findings drew a large amount of interest in the science world due to the importance of jaws in animal evolution.
However, the rise of the jaw had been a mystery due to a lack of sufficient fossil evidence to support that jawed vertebrates lived 450 million years ago.
The latest findings made by Zhu’s team presented a set of five surprisingly well-preserved fish fossils that included three whole-bodied fish, helping scientists paint a more accurate evolutionary picture of the origin of the jaw. The fish fossils were discovered at two sites in Chongqing and Guizhou, whose strata (岩层) date back to the Silurian Period that began around 440 million years ago.
These fossils show that jawed fish were already thriving (繁荣) in the world’s ancient oceans at that time. Later on, more diverse and larger jawed fish evolved and began to spread around the world, paving the way for some fish to eventually go on land and evolve into other animals — including humans.
“These fossils provide an unprecedented (前所未有的) opportunity to peek into the ‘dawn of fish’ and help scientists trace many human body structures back to these ancient fish thus filling some key gaps in the evolutionary history of how fish evolved into humans,” Zhu said.
1. In which column of a magazine will you most probably read the passage?| A．Your Voice. | B．Animals. |
| C．Science Study. | D．History. |
| A．Because jaws are a key trait of all vertebrate species. |
| B．Because jaws are significant in animal evolution. |
| C．Because the rise of the jaw had been a mystery. |
| D．Because there is a lack of sufficient evidence. |
| A．Around 440 million years ago. |
| B．Around 450 million years ago. |
| C．When jawed fish began to spread around the world. |
| D．When fish evolved into humans. |
| A．Who Are Our Ancestors? | B．What Came Before Apes? |
| C．The Origin of the Jaw | D．Key Gaps in Evolution |
10 . 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. |
