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1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上2005年10月12日开始第一次加试Sumerian CivilizationIt is an astonishing fact that human civilization should have emerged into the light of history in two separate places at just about the same time. Between 3,500 and 3,000 B.C. when Egypt was being united under pharaonic rule, another great civiliz
2、ation arose in Mesopotamia, the “land between the rivers”. And for close to three thousand years, the two rival centers retained their distinct characters, even though they had contact with each other from their earliest beginnings, and their destinies were interwoven in many ways. The pressure that
3、 forced the inhabitants of both regions to abandon the pattern of Neolithic village life may well have been the same. But the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, unlike that of the Nile, is not a narrow fertile strip protected by desert on either side. It resembles a wide, shallow trough with
4、 few natural defenses, crisscrossed by two great rivers and their tributaries, and is easily encroached upon from any direction. P2: Thus the facts of geography tend to discourage the idea of uniting the entire Mesopotamian area under a single head. Rulers who had this ambition did not appear, so fa
5、r as we know, until about a thousand years after the beginnings of Mesopotamian civilization, and they succeeded in carrying it out only for brief periods and at the cost of almost continuous warfare. As a consequence, the political history of ancient Mesopotamia has no underlying theme of the sort
6、that divine kingship provides for Egypt. Local rivalries, foreign incursions, the sudden upsurge and equally sudden collapse of military power these are its substance. P3: The origin of the Sumerians remains obscure. Their language is unrelated to any other known tongue. Sometimes before 4,000 B.C.
7、they came to southern Mesopotamia, from Persia, and there, within the next thousand years, they founded a number of city-states and developed their distinctive form of writing in cuneiform (wedge-shaped) characters on clay tablets. Unfortunately, the tangible remains of Sumerian civilization are ext
8、remely scanty compared to those of ancient Egypt. Building stone being unavailable in Mesopotamia, the Sumerians used mud brick and wood, so that almost nothing is left of their architecture except the foundation. Nor did they share the Egyptians concern with the hereafter, although some richly endo
9、wed tombs in the shape of vaulted chambers below ground from the early dynastic period have been found in the city of Ur. Our knowledge of Sumerian Civilization thus depends very largely on chance fragments brought to light by excavation, including vast numbers of inscribed clay tablets. Yet we have
10、 learned enough to form a general picture of this vigorous, inventive, and disciplined people.P4: Each Sumerian city-state had its own local god, who was regarded as its king and owner. It also had a human ruler, the steward of the divine sovereign, who led the people in serving the deity. The local
11、 god, in turn, was expected to plead the cause of his subjects among his follow deities who controlled the forces of nature such as wind and weather, water, fertility, and the heavenly bodies. Nor was the idea of divine ownership treated as a mere pious fiction. The god was quite literally believed
12、to own not only the territory of the city-state but also the labor power of the population and its products. All these were subject to his commands, transmitted to people by his human steward. The result was an economic system. The temple controlled the pooling of labor and resources for communal en
13、terprises, such as the building of dikes or irrigation ditches, and it collected and distributed a considerable part of the harvest. All this required the keeping of detailed written records. Hence, we need not be surprised to find that the texts of early Sumerian inscriptions deal very largely with
14、 economic and administrative rather than religious matters, although writing was a priestly privilege.P1: 令人惊异的是从历史的角度看人类文明同时在两个不同的地方产生。公元前3500到3000年之间，当埃及在法老统治下统一时，另一个伟大的文明在美索不达米亚（河间地）产生。在后来将近3000年的时间里，尽管两个对立的文化中心一直相互联系并且他们的命运在很多方面交织在一起，它们保持了各自独有的特点。迫使两个地区的居民抛弃新石器时代乡村生活模式的也很有可能是同样的压力。埃及文化仰仗尼罗河，河水孕育
15、了富饶的土地，两岸有沙漠作为自然屏障。但是两河流域和尼罗河不同的地方在于它不是两边有沙漠屏障的细长的富饶河流，而是一个不具备天然屏障的宽（narrow）而浅的水槽。交织在两条大河及支流间，美索不达米亚很容易被从任意方向侵占。P2：所以，地理事实很多时候会阻碍把整个美索不达米亚地区联合在一个首领下的想法。有这种野心的统治者，据我们考证，直至美索不达米亚文明开始之后一千年都没有出现。而这种统治者的统治也只成功执行了很短一段时间，并以不断地战争为代价。当初美索不达米亚的居民生活好像挺好的，所以一直没有人提出统一的想法，很久以后才有，可是由于大量的花费在战争上什么的，很快就覆灭了。后来又变成苏美尔了，
16、这是从外面迁徙过来的民族。直到一种苏美尔人来统一，苏美尔人的来源和历史，他们建立了一种苏美尔文明，但因为美索不达米亚文化的地域限制一直没有统一。Egypt的体制根两河的政治体制不一样，一个united under 一个联合体制下，另外一个则由于地理条件的制约不存在united format联合体制。结果是，古代美索不达米亚的政治历史没有像神的王权为埃及所提供的那种内在主题。地方斗争，外国侵略，突然暴乱和军队瓦解，这是美索不达米亚政治历史的实质。即使美索不达米亚这么乱，它的culture and artistic continuity are remarkable.P3:“苏美尔人的起源仍然不清
17、。他们的语言和其他任何已知语言无关。他们大约在公元前4000年从波斯来到美索不达米亚平原南部，从此在那里以后的数千年中，他们建立了许多城邦并且形成了他们与众不同的梭形文字。不幸的是，苏美尔文明的实际遗迹与埃及相比极为稀少。因为美索不达米亚没有建筑石材，苏美尔人用的材料是泥砖和石材。这就造成了他们的建筑除了地基几乎所剩无几。他们也不像埃及人那样关心来生，尽管乌尔城发现了王朝时期早期的地下拱形厅式的厚葬陵墓。所以我们对苏美尔文明的了解很大程度上依赖偶然挖掘来的残片，包括刻有大量碑文的泥板。即使这样，我们已经掌握了足够证据，可以大致描画出这个生机勃勃，善于创造并且纪律严明的民族。（虽然学者们对M地的
18、研究取得了如此成就，我们对美索不达米亚人的生活了解仍然非常有限。）P4: 每个苏美尔城邦都有自己的土地神，它被认作是国王和所有者。另外有一个人类统治者，他是神权的执行者，带领人民进行祭拜神的活动。而土地神的职责是恳求其他掌管着自然力量（天气，风水， 生育，天体等）的众神满足他臣民的要求。神圣王权的概念并没有被仅仅当作是一个宗教神话。毫不夸张地说，土地神不仅拥有城邦的领土，还拥有人民的劳动力和产品。所有一切都听他调配，人类执行者负责传话。其结果是一个经济系统。神庙操纵公共事业需要的劳力和资源的共享，例如建设堤防和沟灌，并且收集和分发了收成的一大部分。这些都需要详尽的书面记录。所以，我们会发现尽管
19、碑文是牧师的特权，苏美尔早期的碑文涉及大量的经济和管理方面的内容而非宗教内容。1. The word “astonishing” in the passage is closest in meaning to_(A) important(B) unknown(C) amazing(D) interesting答案: C2. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices chang
20、e the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.(A) A great civilization arose in Mesopotamia, the “land between the rivers”under pharaonic rule. (B) Egypt and another great civilization both developed in Mesopotamia between 3500 and 3000 B.C.(C)A great civilization arose in Mesop
21、otamia between 3500 and 3000 B.C. at the same time that ancient Egypt was being united. (D) As Egypt was being united under pharaonic rule, a great civilization arose there. 答案：C3. The phrase “its substitute” refers to (A) the political history of ancient Mesopotamia(B) divine kingship(C) Egypt(D)th
22、e sudden collapse of military power答案：A4. The word “obscure” in the passage is closest in meaning to_(A) unclear(B) unique(C) controversial(D) important答案： A解析：感情线索：否定：线索1. unrelated to any other known tongue，2. unfortunately。5. The author mentions “Nor did they share the Egyptians concern with the
23、hereafter”in order to(A) To provide one explanation for the relatively few physical remains of ancient Sumerian society. (B) To explain why ancient Sumerian built with mud brick and wood rather than with stone.(C) To help account for the fact that tombs and vaulted chambers have been found only in U
24、r. (D) To counter the claim that all ancient societies paid great attention to the afterlife. 答案： A6. According to the passage, it can be inferred that the City of Ur is located in (A) Egypt(B)Persia(C) northern Mesopotamia(D) near the confluence of Tigris and Euphrates答案：D7：The word “vast” in the p
25、assage is closest in meaning to_(A) random(B) very large(C) surprising(D) relatively small答案：B8. According to paragraph 2 and 3, the physical characteristics of Mesopotamia affected Sumerian civilization in all of the following ways EXCEPT:(A) Foreign invasions were made easy.(B) Creating and mainta
26、ining political stability was made difficult.(C) Continuity of cultural and artistic traditions could not be achieved.(D)Sumerian architecture could not produce long-lasting structures答案：C9. Look at the four that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Despite these achi
27、evements, scholars know much less about Sumerian life than they would like. Click on a square to add the sentence to the passage. Where would the sentence best fit?答案：D10. According to paragraph 4, what evidence is used to support the claim that the idea of divine ownership was not “a mere pious fic
28、tion”？(A) The idea of divine ownership originated with the kings of Sumerian city-state. (B)The idea of divine ownership eventually came to replace “theocratic socialism”.(C)The idea of divine ownership eventually came to replace “theocratic socialism”.(D)The idea of divine ownership served as the b
29、asis for the economic organization of Sumerian society.答案：D11. The word considerable in the passage is closest in meaning to_(A) substantial(B) fixed(C) valuable(D) limited答案：A12. In the above passage, all of the following were true of the local god EXCEPT(A) The local god owned everything and every
30、one in the city-state.(B)The local god represented the subjects of the city-state to other gods.(C)The local god communicated with the people of the city-state through a human ruler.(D) The local god sometimes fought against the local gods of rival city-states答案：D（13） 考察全文主要内容的多项选择。 Ancient Egyptian Civilization 政治统一了很久时间 Politics有相当多建筑物遗址 Architecture remains/relicsSumerian Civilization 城邦国家是一个特色 City-state is Characteristic/feature/trait从文件中所记载Documentation这一个文明受到外部的侵略invasion/incursionCCAAA DBCDD AD af/cdg专心-专注-专业