1 . According to a new research, published in the journal Nature by a team from the University of Liverpool, humans were building structures made of wood, dating back at least 476,000 years ago. The research team found well-preserved wood at the site of Kalambo Falls, Zambia. Stone tool cut-marks on the wood show that these early humans shaped and joined two large logs (原木) to make a structure, probably the foundation of a platform. This is the earliest evidence in the world of the designed arrangement of logs to fit together.
Until now, evidence for the human use of wood was limited to its use for making fire, digging sticks and other tools. Wood is rarely found in such ancient sites as it usually rots and disappears, but at Kalambo Falls permanently high water levels kept the wood.
This discovery challenges the prevailing view that Stone Age humans were moving around. Here humans not only had a constant source of water, but the forest around them provided enough food to enable them to settle and make structures. Professor Larry Barham, from the University of Liverpool, who leads the “Deep Roots of Humanity” research project said, “This find has changed how I think about our early ancestors. They used their intelligence, imagination, and skills to create something they’d never seen before, something that had never previously existed.”
The special new luminescence (冷光) dating technique was carried out by experts, which explains the last time materials in the sand surrounding the finds were exposed to sunlight, to determine their age. This research forms part of the pioneering “Deep Roots of Humanity” project. Professor Barham added, “Kalambo Falls is an extraordinary site in Zambia. The Deep Roots team is looking forward to more exciting discoveries coming from its waterlogged sands.”
1. What is the finding of the new research?| A．Wood was used for construction. | B．Wood pieces were joined for fun. |
| C．Ancestors were good at architecture. | D．Ancient people designed wood products. |
| A．Obvious. | B．Common. | C．Deep. | D．Strong. |
| A．Energy-saving. | B．Time-consuming. | C．Ground-breaking. | D．Problem-solving. |
| A．More discoveries come from Kalambo Falls. | B．Something can be done to protect Zambia. |
| C．The sands used for research can be saved. | D．The site is set aside for further studies. |
Come and see the Terracotta Army: more than 8,000 statues were made in the
3 . How far back does your family tree go? A hundred years? A thousand years? What about 6 to 7 million years?
An ancient skull (颅骨) found in Africa suggests that the human family might be that old. Discovered in 2001 in the desert of Chad, the skull was nicknamed Toumai by scientists. Toumai is a rare find. The skull is nearly complete and it even includes a few teeth. The Toumai skull is estimated to be between 6 and 7 million years old. Scientists are debating whether the skull is linked to humans.
The finding is not without controversy. Some scientists think that Toumai is the oldest known hominid (人科), or primitive human ancestor, ever found. Others say Toumai is an ape. Most hominids that scientists are aware of lived millions of years after Toumai. The most famous one is called Lucy. She lived in Ethiopia about 3.5 million years ago. While Lucy’s face looked like the face of a chimpanzee, Toumai’s skull has both human and ape-like features. Because Toumai’s skull looks different from other hominid skulls, some scientists think Toumai represents a whole new species.
Scientists were surprised to find a human-like face on a skull as old as Toumai’s. They thought hominids turned into humans step by step overtime. Scientists marked those changes on a timeline starting with a chimpanzee-like ancestor and ending with modern humans. Toumai’s human-like face and chimp-sized brain suggest that the development of hominids was not so simple. There may not be a direct line leading from Toumai to Lucy to us. Instead, the timeline might be like a tree with lots of branches. Different species in different places could have evolved human-like features at different times.
Scientists aren’t sure where exactly Toumai belongs on our family tree. Toumai could be like a great-great grandfather or just a distant cousin. Toumai could also be one of many types of hominids who wandered Earth millions of years ago.
1. What can be inferred about the skull found in Africa?| A．It is connected with humans. | B．It was named after a scientist. |
| C．It may be the oldest chimpanzee. | D．It is almost complete and unusual. |
| A．Promotion. | B．Cooperation. | C．Argument. | D．Prospect. |
| A．They evolved in various ways. | B．They developed like a tree with branches. |
| C．They followed a direct line from Lucy to us. | D．They had similar features in different places. |
| A．Toumai is probably the primitive human ancestor. |
| B．A skull has an ape-like face and a human-like brain. |
| C．How does Toumai skull fit into the human family tree? |
| D．How did a species evolve human-like features overtime? |
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
5 . Scientists have solved a puzzle about modern humans, after research showed that a famous skull of a human ancestor found in South Africa is a million years older than experts thought. This discovery has changed what we know of human history.
The skull, which scientists have named “Mrs Ples”, is from an ape-like human relative from a species called Australopithecus africanus (南方古猿). It was found near Johannesburg in 1947 and, based on evidence from its surroundings, was thought to be between 2. 1 and 2. 6 million years old. This puzzled scientists, because although Mrs Ples looks like a possible early ancestor of early humans, the first true humans had already evolved by the time she apparently lived. For this reason, scientists had decided that Australopithecus afarensis, a similar species from East Africa that lived about 3.5 million years ago, was our most likely ancestor instead.
To get a more accurate age for Mrs Ples, a team led by Professor Darryl Granger of Purdue University in Indiana, US, used a new method to date the sandy rocks where the skull lay. They measured the amount of certain chemicals in rocks, which form at a steady rate when they are exposed to cosmic rays (宇宙射线) on Earth’s surface. Once rocks are buried, these chemicals stop forming and slowly disappear;the surviving amount reveals how much time has passed since the rock (or bones) were on the surface.
The new study shows that Mrs Ples and other australopithecine bones nearby are between 3.4 and 3.7 million years old. This means they lived at the same time as their East African relatives, so that either group could have given rise to modern humans. However, team member Dr Laurent Bruxelles pointed out that over millions of years, at only 2,500 miles away, these groups had plenty of time to travel and to breed with each other. In other words, the groups could quite easily have met, had children together and both been part of the history of modern humans.
1. What can we learn about Mrs Ples from the first two paragraphs?| A．It is a skull found in East Africa. |
| B．It is the most possible ancestor of humans. |
| C．It is a million years older than scientists expected. |
| D．It is proved to live between 2.1 and 2.6 million years ago. |
| A．By studying the effect of cosmic rays. |
| B．By calculating the forming rate of chemicals. |
| C．By locating the sandy rocks where the skull lay. |
| D．By measuring the surviving amount of chemicals. |
| A．Modern humans came into being in East Africa. |
| B．Mrs Ples travelled and had children with East African relatives. |
| C．The history of modern humans might begin 3.5 million years ago. |
| D．Ape-like species from Africa could have interacted with each other. |
| A．Historical Puzzle Unsolved | B．Ancestor Mystery Solved |
| C．Mrs Ples: The Earliest Human Being | D．Mrs Ples: A Famous Skull |
6 . People all around the world have enjoyed noodles for thousands of years.
Archaeologists discovered an upside-down clay bowl in the ruins of an ancient Chinese village.
Some people claim that Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy. The tale says that when he visited China, he tried noodles for the first time and liked them so much that he took the recipe home.
So who REALLY invented noodles? We may never know—the history of noodles is as twisted as a bowl of spaghetti. But whoever invented them, we’re sure glad they did!
| A．Who made the very first noodle? |
| B．But it is probably not true! |
| C．Who planted wheat first? |
| D．They were tasty, easy to carry, and never went bad. |
| E．When they lifted it, they found a 4,000-year-old noodle. |
| F．However, dried noodles have many disadvantages |
| G．So, if Marco Polo did not bring noodles to Italy, who did? |
An ancient culture dating back more than 5,000 years proved China’s early exchanges with other societies, experts say.
Experts believe the Majiayao culture had a close
Swedish expert Johan first
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