The Nile

The ancient Greek writer Herodotus once described Egypt-with some envy-as ‘the gift of the Nile’. The Egyptians depend on the river for food, for water and for life. The Ancient Egyptians were able to control and use the Nile, creating the earliest irrigation systems and developing a prosperous     1    .

Snaking through the deserts, the Nile would flood almost     2     each year in June. Once the water subsided, a rich deposit of sand was left behind, making an excellent topaoil. Seeds were sown, yielding wheat, barley, beans, lentils and leeks. Drought could spell disaster for the Egyptians, so during the dry seasons, they dug basins and channels to deliver water to their land. They also devised simple channels to transfer water at the peak of the flood.

An early system of     3    , a Nilometer, was used to de determine the size of the floods. Later, during the New Kingdom, a lifting system called a shaduf was used to raise water from the river--    4     to the way in which a well is used today.

The Egyptians took up some of the earliest trading missions. Without a(n)     5     system they exchanged goods, bringing back timber, precious stones, pottery, spices and animals. Their efforts in medicine were also     6     advanced: surgeons performed operations to remove cysts(囊肿). Mummification gave them great understanding of the human body-yet they also relied heavily on various medicines to prevent disease, and discoveries were often confused with superstition(迷信). And while a great deal of time was dedicated to     7     the Egyptians thought the stars were gods.

By the 16th century Egypt was under the Ottoman Empire until Britain seized control in 1882. What is now mostly Arabic Egypt only won     8     from Britain after World War Ⅱ. The Suez Canal, opened in 1869,     9    the country as a center for world transportation. But it, and the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971     10     the ecology of the Nile, which now struggles to satisfy the country’s rapidly growing population, currently more than 76 million-the largest in the Arab world.

The “Penny Black”, the first postage stamp issued in Britain and, more importantly, the first postage stamp issued anywhere,     1     the image of Queen Victoria, but the first British postal service didn’t originate in Victoria England. In 1860, William Dockwra started a public service that     2     the quick delivery of a letter anywhere in London. His system was quickly     3     with Dockwra in charge.   It was far from a perfect system,     4     with seemingly   improper charges that made it unreasonably expensive to send a letter. Worse still, recipients were expected to pay. As you might imagine, this     5     some problems—either people weren’t home or flat—out refused to pay. The system just didn’t work, but it remained in place for far too long.

About 50 years later, to do better, Rolland Hill argued for putting an end to the postal charges and replacing them with a single national rate of one penny, which would be paid by the sender. When the post office ignored Hill’s ideas, he self-published his essay and it quickly gained     6     among the public. Hill was then ordered by Postmaster General Lord Lichfield to discuss postal reform and ,during their subsequent meetings, the two men conceived of a gluy     7     that could be applied to the envelops to indicate payment. Though it had gained support with the public who longed for a affordably way to connect with distant friends and family, officials were still not convinced. Thankfully, Hill was far from alone in his passion for reform. He eventually earned enough support from other like-minded individuals to convince Parliament to     8     his system.

In 1839, Hill held a competition to design all the postal facility. The winning stamp     9     describing the young queen’s profile came from one William Wyon, who based the design on a medal he created to celebrate his first visit to London.

The“Penny Black”stamp went on sale on May 1, 1840. It was an immediate     10     Suddenly, the country seemed a lot smaller. The penny black’s design was so well received that it remained in use for forty year.

Renaissance

The French word renaissance means rebirth. It was first used in 1855 by the historian Jules Michelet in his History of France. Then it was adopted by historians of culture, by art historians, and eventually by music historians, all of whom     1     it to European culture during the 150 years from 1450 to 1600. The concept of rebirth was appropriate to this period of European history because of the     2     interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture that began in Italy and then spread throughout Europe. Scholars and artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries wanted to     3     the learning and ideals of the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome. To these scholars this meant a return to human rather than spiritual values. Fulfillment in life rather than concern about an afterlife became a desirable goal. Expressing the     4     range of human emotions and enjoying the pleasures of the senses were no longer looked down upon.

These changes in     5     deeply affected the musical culture of the Renaissance period--how people thought about music as well as the way music was composed, experienced, and discussed. They could see the     6     monuments, sculptures, plays, and poems that were being rediscovered , but they could not actually hear ancient music although they could read the writings of classical philosophers, poets, essayists, and music theorists that were becoming     7     in translation. They learned about the power of ancient music to move the listener and wondered why modern music did not have the same effect. For example, the influential religious leader Bernardino Cirillo expressed     8     with the learned music of his time. He urged musicians to follow the example of the sculptors, painters, architects, and scholars who had rediscovered ancient art and literature.

The musical Renaissance in Europe was more a general cultural movement and state of mind than a(n)     9     set of musical techniques. Furthermore, music changed so rapidly during this century and a half--though at different rates in different countries-that we cannot     10     a single Renaissance style.

5 . There are a few different stories behind the origin of the modern-day Christmas tree, although not all     1     (root) in fact. Evergreen trees were     2     (actual) used by people in winter festivals for thousands of years. During the winter solstice (冬至), evergreens signified the coming of spring. As Christianity spread throughout Europe, the trees began to be used as a symbol for Christmas. In mystery plays in Germany, they were often used as props (支柱),     3     (decorate) with apples to represent the Garden of Eden.

One legend credits 16th century Protestant reformer Martin Luther for     4     (bring) the Christmas tree into homes. Luther was supposedly walking through the forest on the night before Christmas when he looked up to see stars shine through the tree     5     (branch). He was so dazzled by the     6     (beauty) sight that he told his children it reminded him of Jesus and then put up     7     tree in his own home.

But it wasn’t until the mid-19th century           8     the Christmas tree as we now know it became custom. England’s Queen Victoria encouraged her husband to decorate a tree as he had back at home in     9     is now Germany. When a drawing of the royal family with their beautiful Christmas tree     10     (appear) in a London newspaper, the tradition also became popular throughout the UK and US.