1 . The discovery of the ruined palace in the Mosul Dam reservoir on the banks of the Tigris River inspired an archeological dig that would improve understanding of the Mittani Empire, one of the least-researched empires of the ancient Near East, a team of German researchers said. “The find is one of the most important archeological discoveries in the region in recent decades,” Kurdish archeologist(考古学家) Hasan Qasim said.

The palace would have originally stood just 65 feet from the river on a terrace(梯田). A terrace wall of mud bricks was later added to make the building stable. Ivana Puljiz, an archeologist from the University of Tübingen’s Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies, describes the palace, known as Kemune, as a carefully designed building with mud-brick walls up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) thick.

The team also found wall paintings in shades of red and blue, which were probably a common feature of palaces at the time but have rarely been found preserved. “Discovering wall paintings in Kemune is an archeological sensation,” Puljiz said in a press release, “Kemune is only the second site in the region where wall paintings of the Mittani period have been discovered.”

Ten clay tablets covered in cuneiform, an ancient system of writing, were also discovered and have been sent to Germany for translation. “From the texts we hope to gain information on the inner structure of the Mitani Empire, its economic organization, and the relationship of the Mittani capital with the administrative centers in the neighboring regions,” Puljiz added.

Archeologists first became aware of the site in 2010 when water levels in the reservoir were low, but this is the first time they have been able to dig. However, the site was submerged(淹没) shortly after the dig, Puljiz said, adding“It is unclear when it will come out of water again”.

World Philosophy Day is every year on the third Thursday of November. The day is     1     (celebrate) the importance and role of philosophy in our lives. This year, it fell on Nov 18.

The word “philosophy” comes from Greek,     2    (mean)“love of wisdom". Through philosophy, we try to find answers to basic questions about the world and     3     (we).

It may sound broad and profound, but in fact it arises out of our     4     (curious) and is shown     5    all aspects of our daily lives. Take the turtle in Kung Fu Panda as an example. He once said that: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is     6     it's called the present." He provides us with a new perspective of time. Can we say he is not a philosopher?

Philosophy     7     (bring) great social development so far. For thousands of years, people were doing what they     8     (tell) to. No one questioned if it was right or wrong.     9    2,500 years ago, Greek philosopher Socrates started to ask “Why?" and “Is this the best way?"     10     (gradual), humans entered a time of active and rational (理性的) thinking.

Originally constructed around 256 BCE by the State of Qin     1     an irrigation and flood control system, Dujiangyan is a remarkable example of ancient engineering skill and is still     2     use today.

During the Warring States period, people who lived along the banks of the Min River     3     (trouble) by annual flooding. Qin governor and irrigation engineer Li Bing investigated the problem thoroughly. He led a team     4     (construct) a levee(堤坝) to redirect a part of the river’s flow. Then they cut     5     channel through Mount Yulei to let the water flow through it. After the system was finished , no more floods     6     (occur). What’s more, it made Sichuan one of the most productive agricultural     7     (region) in China because the redirected water from the Min River could be used for irrigation. If you visit Dujiangyan, you will see an     8    (usual) construction that looks like a fish’s mouth. This famous attraction, Yuzui, together with two other important parts, namely, Feishayan and Baopingkou, was     9     (scientific) designed to control the water flow throughout the year.

    10     (recognize) as a UNESCO heritage site, Dujiangyan has irrigated farms while preventing floods for over 2,000 years.

The first underground in the world

During the first half of the 19th century, people in London were conveyed to and around the city centre by horse­drawn buses, trams, cabs and carriages. But the vehicles resulted in traffic jams,     1    led to the development of the underground system.

In 1854, the government     2    (give) approval to the construction of an underground railway. However, because     3    lack of money the digging was postponed until 1860. Then, another section was opened. As     4    (good) ways of digging tunnels were developed, more and more underground lines were constructed. Having seen the disadvantages of the underground lines     5    (belong) to different companies, Charles Yerkes undertook improving this situation by placing all the lines under the authority of     6    same board.

During World War Ⅱ， the underground system had some     7    (usual) uses, such as bomb shelters. After World War Ⅱ， it     8    (enlarge) to meet the need.

And the last line     9    (add) was constructed in honour of the 25th anniversary of Elizabeth Ⅱ becoming the queen. Today the network of the underground system has expanded     10    (great) and become more popular.

8 . Legend(传说) says that soap was first discovered on Sappo Hill in Rome. According to legend, a group of Roman women were washing their clothes in the River Tiber at the base of a hill. Then some fat from the dead animals ran down into the river.     1     The women soon found that using that thing made the clothes easier to wash.

    2     The evidence for this is Babylonian boxes dated at around 2800 B. C. Words on the boxes present the earliest known written soap recipe, which show how the product was made. They show the product was made from fat combined with wood ash(灰) and water.

    3     The Ebers Papyrus shows that ancient Egyptians combined both animal and vegetable oils with salts to produce a soap—like thing. According to Pliny the Elder, the Phoenicians made soap from goats’ fat and wood ash in 600 B. C.

Pompeii was one of the cities destroyed by the volcanic eruption (火山爆发)of Mt. Vesuvius in its ruins. The discovery suggests that the industry was started.     4     This is a big discovery for us to study the history of soap.

During the early century of the Common Era, although the Romans were well known for their public baths, generally soap was not used for personal cleaning; it was used for the treatment of disease.     5    

9 . Archaeologists(考古学家) have recently identified the oldest known human burial in Africa during field work, which uncovered the remains of a child laid carefully to rest in a grave(墓穴) nearly 80,000 years ago.

Researchers discovered the delicate and degraded bones while excavating(挖掘) the floor at the mouth of the Panga ya Saidi cave in the tropical uplands of Kenya's coastal plain about 10 miles from the shore. The team unearthed the edge of the grave and the first pieces of bone in 2013, but the bones were so fragile that they turned to dust when the scientists tried to remove them. Over the next four years, the researchers excavated the grave from above, discovering yet more bones, but even after applying some special material, it was still too weak to recover.

The researchers decided to dig around the circular pit, roughly 40cm wide and 13cm deep, and encase the whole grave in plaster(石 膏) so it could safely be lifted from the ground. The block was taken to the National Museum in Nairobi and on to a specialist lab in Spain where the material was excavated further and then imaged with 3D X-ray equipment. The images show that the child was laid on their right side with knees tied towards the chest. The bones had not fallen apart in the grave, leading the researchers to suspect the body was wrapped tightly before burial. Dating found the bones to be about 78,000 years old, according to the study published in Nature.

Archaeologists have also found age-old human burial sites outside Africa. Human remains recovered from burials in the Skhul cave on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel and Qafzeh cave near Nazareth are between 90,000 and 130,000 years old.