1 . 阅读短文内容，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

When it comes to ancient civilizations, most people think of the Greeks and Romans. It’s understandable as both     1     (shape) modern society in some way so far, whether it be their social, cultural, or political influences. However, dozens of civilizations had been around long     2     the Greeks and Romans, the lesser-known Jiahu people     3     (include).

The Jiahu settlement is located in the central plain of ancient China,     4     area known today as the Henan Province. The people created the country’s oldest recognized civilization. The area is rich in artifacts,     5     (make) it an archaeologist’s dream. Apart from the usual finds, people have uncovered records of the earliest examples of Chinese writing and proof     6     they were producers of the world’s oldest wine. Another remarkable discoveries was the oldest working bone flutes (长笛).     7     (typical) carved from the wing bone of a crane, they were most likely used in special ceremonies. Rough weaving tools and bone needles also     8     (unearth) from the site, indicating that Jiahu residents may have possessed basic weaving and sewing skills 8,500 years ago.

The settlement’s end came around 5700 BCE when the nearby rivers overflowed and flooded the area. It is assumed that the Jiahu people left their home     9     (settle) elsewhere, even though there is no indication as to     10     that might have been.

2 . 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.

3 . A seven-word sentence was discovered on a 3,700-year-old comb (梳子),which is likely the oldest known sentence written in letters,according to a new study. The sentence is in Canaanite (迦南语),which is the source (来源) of later letter systems in European languages.

The comb was first discovered in 2016 in Israeli. However,it wasn’t until 2021 that a researcher from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem first noticed the words when checking the photo of the comb. The researchers were not able to directly date the comb. They believed it dated from around 1700 BC based on comparison of the letters with those on pottery (陶器) with a known age.

Garfinkel,a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,said,“The Canaanites invented the letters. Nowadays every person in the world can read and write using the letter system. This is really one of the most important achievements of humankind. When you are writing in English,you’re really using Canaanite.”

Small groups of Canaanite letters discovered on broken pieces of pottery before did not leave much room for further research on the lives of the Canaanites. But this find of a sentence written in the first letter-based language opens up the debate about the history during the ancient time period.

Garfinkel said,“The sentence was found on an ivory comb in the ancient city’s palace and temple area,which could suggest that only wealthy men were able to read and write.” The earliest writing system started around 5,000 years ago,which relied on hundreds of pictographs (象形文字) to represent words,ideas and sounds. Canaanites were the first to use letters in their writing system. “It shows that even in the most ancient times there were full sentences,which further suggests that Canaanites stood out among the early civilizations in their use of the written word.”

1. What do we know about Canaanite?

A．It has a history of 3,700 years.	B．It is the oldest known language.
C．Its sentences are in many languages.	D．Its letters are still in use at present.

2. How was the complete sentence in Canaanite found?

A．It was discovered on some pottery.	B．It was identified on a comb in 2016.
C．It was recognized when dating the comb.	D．It was recognized on a photo of the comb.

3. What does paragraph 3 mainly focus on?

A．The influence of Canaanite letters.

B．The rules of using Canaanite letters.

C．The problem in identifying the Canaanite sentence.

D．The explanation of the discovered Canaanite sentence.

4. What does Garfinkel think of the new discovery in the last paragraph?

A．Useless.

B．Meaningful.

C．Confusing.

D．Unacceptable.

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.

2. How did scientists get the accurate age of “Mrs Ples”?

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.

3. What can we infer from the new study?

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.

4. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

A．Historical Puzzle Unsolved	B．Ancestor Mystery Solved
C．Mrs Ples: The Earliest Human Being	D．Mrs Ples: A Famous Skull

7 . Two thousand years ago, the ancient Roman city of Caesarea had the largest harbor on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a wonder of engineering for its time. Then disaster struck. Written records say a huge wave destroyed the harbor. What kind of wave caused it? Did it ally happen? No one had ever found the evidence of the wave... until now.

Dr Goodman is part of a team of scientists studying samples at Caesarea to figure out what happened in the past. A sample is taken by striking a tube into the seafloor. When the tube is pulled up, it contains sediments (沉淀物) that have collected on the seafloor for hundreds or thousands of years. Looking down through the mixture of sand, stones and other sediments is like looking back in time.

That’s what Dr. Goodman was doing when she found something astonishing. It was a layer (层) of shells — all came from the time the harbor was destroyed. Dr. Goodman knew this shell layer had a story to tell.

Usually, shells are part of the mixture of sediments collected on the seafloor. A shell layer is as thin as your finger. Yet Dr. Goodman was staring at a layer nearly 1 meter thick! Almost all the shells were broken.

The thick layer of broken shells meant a sudden, powerful event swept these shells into the area. The broken shells were evidence that a huge wave really did destroy the harbor. Dr. Goodman could even tell the direction of the wave from the way the shells lined up.

Here’s what Dr. Goodman thinks happened. First, an earthquake struck north of Caesarea along the coast. Energy from the movement of rock during the earthquake caused a tsunami. This huge wave raced across the sand and kicked up shells along the way and broke them into pieces. Finally, the wave crashed into the harbor and destroyed it.

Dr. Goodman plans to gather evidence for other ancient tsunamis along the Mediterranean coast. This will help her predict what areas are likely to be struck by future tsunamis. Then people can avoid building in these areas.

1. What can be learned about the Caesarea harbor?

A．It was the largest in the world.

B．It was destroyed by a tsunami.

C．It is a mystery whether it existed.

D．It is studied by many engineers now.

2. How did Dr. Goodman obtain the sample at Caesarea?

A．By studying underwater.	B．By analyzing the mixture.
C．By digging for ancient shells.	D．By collecting sediments in a tube.

3. Which is the evidence to solve the historical mystery?

A．The direction of the wave.	B．The diversity of sediments.
C．The way the shells lined up.	D．The thick layer of broken shells.

4. Which can be the best title of the passage?

A．Shells Tell the Story	B．Scientists Predict Disasters
C．Underwater Clues for Future	D．Sea Exploration of Mediterranean

8 . 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。

On the north bank of Fuxian Lake in Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province sits a straw-hat-shaped mountain     1     (call) Maotian Mountain,     2     a 512-hectare site is praised as a “world-class treasure trove of fossils” by the international scientific community. On July 1,1984, young paleontologists in China discovered a fossil of the arthropod (节肢动物化石) with a long tail in Maotian Mountain. “    3     we had studied in China were just shell of fossils. The arthropods, lifelike fossils with legs, which belonged to fossils of soft-bodied animals, are     4     game changer in the research of China’s paleontology (古生物学)”, Hou Xianguang, a paleontologist said.

Scientists have obtained a large number of research results on Chengjiang Fossil Site. The reason why Chengjiang fauna (动物群) is     5     great significance is that it is closely related to the emergence of the animal tree of life.

Up to now, more than 20 phyla and more than 280 species     6     (record)in the Chengjiang Fossil Site, of which, 80% are new species. On July 1, 2012, the Chengjiang Fossil Site     7     (be) inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO,     8     (become) China’ s first World Heritage Site for paleontological fossils.

The UNESCO evaluation says the Chengjiang Fossil Site is one of the     9     (early) records of a complex marine ecosystem of the early Cambrian communities. The property displays excellent quality of fossil     10     (preserve). It presents an exceptional record of the rapid diversification of life on Earth during the early Cambrian period.

10 . A waterworks maintenance team discovered a possible one-of-a-kind Roman road in a field in Worcestershire that may date back 2,000 years.

If asked to name a place where you might make a once-in-a-lifetime archaeological (考古的) discovery, your mind may go to the pyramids of Egypt or the peaks of the Andes...not a field in Worcestershire. But a field in Worcestershire is exactly where workmen recently discovered what is thought to be a Roman road up to 2,000 years old！

The road was discovered during routine (常规的) waterworks maintenance by Severn Trent. Archaeological experts from Wychavon District Council were called to the scene and immediately recognised the find’s significance.

Wychavon District Council’s archaeology officer Aidan Smyth said, “When I first saw it, it took my breath away. If proven to be from the first century AD, it would be beyond rare.”

Experts say it is constructed in a traditional Roman technique, with similar roads only being found in Rome and Pompeii. Ruts (车辙) in the stones show that it was used by carts for a long time. A team from Historic England is expected to investigate further to determine the exact origin of the structure.

This is actually not the first significant historical discovery in Worcestershire. A number of possible forts have been suggested in Worcestershire since the 1950s, and Worcestershire is thought to possibly have been the site for the Roman town of Vertis.

It is too early to say without 100 per cent certainty that the road is Roman, but even if it is a road in the Middle Ages, it will still be a nationally significant discovery. If it is indeed a first-century Roman road, then it is the only one of its kind in Britain.

1. Why does the author mention the pyramids of Egypt?

A．To make a comparison with the Andes.

B．To identify the importance of pyramids.

C．To show the find in Worcestershire is rare.

D．To prove the archaeological discovery is true.

2. What can the road discovery be described as?

A．Long expected archaeology news.

B．The result of a careful exploration.

C．The effort of world archaeologists.

D．An unexpected result of a repair service.

3. How does Aidan Smyth sound when called to the scene?

A．Excited.

B．Confused.

C．Annoyed.

D．Satisfied.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．A once-in-a-lifetime archaeological literature.

B．An unfortunate waterworks maintenance team.

C．A nationally significant event in ancient Rome.

D．A possible Roman road discovered in a field in Britain.