In the center of Rome stands the Pantheon (万神庙) --- a temple dedicated to all gods. A mere 6,611 kilometers away, China has its own “pantheon” --- the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Northwest China’s Gansu province.

Mogao is a complex of caves cut out of the side of a sandstone and rock cliff that     1     (stretch) almost two kilometres beside a dry riverbed in the Gobi Desert.

Having been a key outpost on the ancient Silk Road for centuries, the city of Dunhuang provided shelter for tired traders along the route east to west or vice versa. And it is     2     its location that the Mogao Caves can also be called a pantheon. It is not just Buddhist art that decorates its walls. There are Taoist artworks, traditional Chinese mythological characters,     3     influences from Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

When I experienced the Mogao Caves and Dunhuang for the first time, the mighty weight of history was perceivable: the artworks awe-inspiring and the stories     4     (tell) beautifully.

For many, the feeling one gets when dipping their toes in the ocean or breathing crisp mountain air is a unique experience tied to the landscape. So     5     the unique feeling one experiences when in the desert.

Golden dunes stretch out into the distance, going up and down like the sea in a storm. Sand is whipped up by the wind and carried,     6     (spread) the desert’s influence further and further, The desert is one harsh and amazing environment. It has been months     7     my visit and I still have sand in my shoes.

It is remarkable that many of the artworks of Mogao exist today considering the relentless power of the desert and the climate     8     they were made in.

But here is     9     humans step in once more. Work, in turn, is relentlessly being carried out to preserve and protect the treasures of Mogao. Stakeholders such as the Dunhuang Academy, and others, work tirelessly to ensure     10     remains there today remains there for future generations, too.

In today’s lecture we will center on the people who lived five thousand years ago in the Sahara Desert. Most of these desert people moved across the countryside throughout the year. But if the journey was long, extra food and tools were sometimes stored in caves. One of these caves is now an exciting historic site. Even though the cave is very large, it was certainly too dark and dusty for people to live in, but it was a great place to hide things. And huge amounts of food supplies and daily tools have been found there. The food includes dried fish and nuts. Some decorations were also found in the caves. There are necklaces, earrings, and so on. Most of them are made of bone. From the above talk, we can see that there are really a lot of differences between ancient people’s lives and our lives today.

Welcomes all school groups to explore technology and the natural environment on a field trip designed to meet the learning needs of the students.

You can visit the museum from Monday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Groups must have at least one teacher for every ten students. Students must be supervised at all times, and teachers are responsible for their behavior inside the museum. Unsafe behavior is not permitted and will result in the entire group being asked to leave.

No backpacks, headphones, candy, gum, or lunches are allowed inside the museum. Lunches may be eaten outside in the park. We regret that the museum is unable to provide a place to have lunch indoors. In the event of bad weather, please plan to eat in your vehicle.

3 . Around 7,000 B.C. (during the Neolithic period), some hunters and gatherers began to rely chiefly on agriculture for their life. Indeed, agriculture itself evolved over the course of time and Neolithic peoples had long known how to grow crops. The real transformation of human life occurred when huge numbers of people began to rely primarily and permanently on the grain they grew and the animals they domesticated.

Agriculture made possible a more stable and secure life. With it Neolithic peoples developed, starting an energetic, creative time. They were responsible for many fundamental inventions and innovations that the modern world takes for granted. First is systematic agriculture – the reliance of Neolithic peoples on agriculture as their primary, not merely additional, source of food.

Thus they developed the primary economic activity of the entire ancient world and the basis of all modern life. With the settled routine of Neolithic farmers came the evolution of towns and eventually cities. Neolithic farmers usually raised more food than they could consume, and their surpluses permitted larger, healthier populations. Population growth in turn created an even greater reliance on settled farming, as only systematic agriculture could sustain the increased numbers of people. Since surpluses of food could also be traded for other goods, the Neolithic time witnessed the beginnings of large-scale exchange of goods. With the increasing complexity of Neolithic societies, writing emerged with the need to keep records and later by the urge to record experiences, learning, and beliefs.

The change to settled life also had a deep impact on the family. The shared needs and pressures that encourage extended-family ties are less urgent in settled than in nomadic (游牧的) societies. Ties to the extended family weakened. In towns and cities, the nuclear family was more dependent on its immediate neighbors than on distant relatives.

4 . Intrigued by Maya civilization from a very young age, 15-year-old Canadian William Gadoury thought he had made an incredible discovery from his study of ancient star charts. Through comparison, he found that the locations of the 117 known Maya cities correspond to the positions of the stars. Based on this, he believed he had spotted an unknown Maya city buried deep in the jungle.     1    

It isn’t difficult to see why. Extending south from parts of what we now know as Mexico into Central America, Maya civilization has been surrounded by mystery since its rediscovery in the 19th century. The Maya built impressive palaces and temples, including their representative step pyramids. What is most extraordinary about these complex structures is how they were built without the use of wheels, metal tools or even animal power. The Maya’s understanding of mathematics and astronomy was also quite amazing.     2    

The fact that Maya society was technologically primitive makes its achievements all the more incredible and mysterious.     3     By 700 AD, Maya civilization was at its peak. Yet, within just a couple of generations, it began to mysteriously decline. The cities were left to be taken back by the jungle. When Europeans arrived in Central America in the early 16th century to claim its riches, the remaining Maya people were living in small settlements.

Why Maya civilization collapsed remains a mystery. Was it a natural disaster? A deadly disease? Conflicts between cities? Or was it a combination of several different factors?     4     They had turned wetlands into fields for growing grains, and had dug huge canal systems. As their population expanded, yet more land was needed for agriculture and more trees for construction. By changing the landscape in this way, it is possible that the Maya people unknowingly reduced their ability to deal with natural disasters.

Whatever the reasons, Maya civilization largely disappeared within the deep jungle. Its once—great cities fell into ruin, leaving various mysteries for later people to solve.

Globalization is term used to describe how     1     and technology have made the world into a more connected and interdependent place.

When did globalization begin? Many scholars say it started with Columbus’s voyage 10 the New World in 1492. People traveled to nearby and faraway places well before Columbus’s voyage,     2     their ideas, products, and customs along the way. The Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes across China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean used between 50 B. C. E. and 250 C. E. is perhaps the most well-known early example. As globalization     3    , new technologies played a key role in the Silk Road trade. Advances in metallurgy (冶金术) led to the creation of coins; advances in transportation led to the building of roads connecting the major empires of the day; and increased     4     production meant more food could be trafficked between locales. Along with Chinese silk, Roman glass, and Arabian spices, ideas such as Buddhist beliefs and the secrets of paper-making also     5     via these tendrils of trade.

Unquestionably, these types of exchanges were     6     in the Age of Exploration, when European explorers were     7     new sea routes to the spices and silks of Asia. Again, technology played an important role in the maritime trade routes that flourished between old and newly discovered     8     Trade and idea exchange now extended to a previously unconnected part of the world, where ships carrying plants, animals, and Spanish silver between the Old World and the New also carried Christian missionaries.

The web of globalization     9     to spread out through the Age of Revolution, when ideas about liberty and equality spread like fire from America to France to Latin America and beyond. It rode the waves of industrialization, colonization, and war through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, powered by the invention of factories, railways, steamboats, cars, and planes.

With the Information Age, globalization went into overdrive. Advances in computer and communications technology launched a new global era and     10     what it meant to be “connected.”