TPO 26 阅读+答案+译文+解析

12、The word \obvious significant necessary common

13、Look at the four squares [ ■ ]that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.

City life was diverse, and the population was engaged in a variety of occupations. PARAGRAPH 3

It used to be believed that before 3000 B.C.E. the political and economic life of the cities was centered on their temples, but it now seems probable that the cities had secular rulers from earliest times. ■ Within the city lived administrators, craftspeople, and merchants. (Trading was important, as so many raw materials, the semiprecious stones for the decoration of the temples, timbers for roofs, and all metals, had to be imported.) ■ An increasingly

sophisticated system of administration led in about 3300 B.C.E. to the appearance of writing. ■ The earliest script was based on logograms, with a symbol being used to express a whole word. ■ The logograms were incised on damp clay tablets with a stylus with a wedge shape at its end. (The Romans called the shape cuneus and this gives the script its name of cuneiform.) Two thousand logograms have been recorded from these early centuries of writing. A more economical approach was to use a sign to express not a whole word but a single syllable. (To take an example: the Sumerian word for\syllable in which the sound \express that syllable with the remaining syllables of the word expressed by other signs.) By 2300 B.C.E. the number of signs required had been reduced to 600, and the range of words that could be expressed had widened. Texts dealing with economic matters predominated, as they always had done; but at this point works of theology, g literature, history, and law also appeared.

14、Direction: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most

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important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

Irrigation made it possible for the civilization known as sumer to arise on the Mesopotamian plain in the fifth millennium B.C.E. Answer Choices

A. The scarcity of natural resources on the plain made it necessary for a powerful elite to emerge and take charge of trade and imports.

B. The economy of each city was based on a craft such as pottery or metal working, and the city of Eridu was

known for its saws, scythes and weapons.

C. Writing appeared in the form of logograms and later developed into a system using signs to represent syllables rather than whole words.

D. Priests were powerful figures in the ancient civilization and controlled the political and economic life of the cities.

E. The earliest city states had one or more patron gods and were built around central temple complexes.

F. The development of the wheel and the creation of bronze were important innovations in Sumer

Sumer and the First Cities of the Ancient Near East 苏美尔和古代近东的第一个城市 翻译by陈鹏飞 文章词汇总结

?城邦国家city state ?近东Near East

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?文明civilization ?耕种cultivate ?灌溉irrigation ?铜copper ?木材timber ?陶瓷pottery ?石器时代Stone Age ?青铜器时代Bronze Age ?铁器时代the Iron Age

文章中英文对照翻译

The earliest of the city states of the ancient Near East appeared at the southern end of the Mesopotamian plain, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. It was here that the civilization known as Sumer emerged in its earliest form in the fifth millennium. At first sight, the plain did not appear to be a likely home for a civilization. There were few natural resources, no timber, stone, or metals. Rainfall was limited, and what water there was rushed across the plain in the annual flood of melted snow. As the plain fell only 20 meters in 500 kilometers, the beds of the rivers shifted constantly. It was this that made the organization of irrigation, particularly the building of canals to channel and preserve the water, essential. Once this was done and the silt carried down by the rivers was planted, the rewards were rich: four to five times what rain-fed earth would produce. It was these conditions that allowed elite to emerge, probably as an organizing class, and to sustain itself through the control of surplus crops.

古代近东地区最早的城邦出现在美索不达米亚平原的南端。在底格里斯河和幼发拉底河之间的这片区域就是现在的伊拉克。在公元前五千年苏美尔等文明的早期形式从这里崛起。乍一看，这个平原并不像是一个文明的摇篮。这里的自然资源有限，缺乏木材、石料和金属，降水量有限，而由于融雪造成的洪水每年都会在平原上泛滥。因为美索不达米亚平原在500公里内置只下降20米，平原的河床不断在发生变化。正是这点使得灌溉系统，尤其是建立水渠来引导和保护水资源变得尤为重要。一旦这些灌溉工程完成，由河流冲击下来的淤泥就会沉积在此处，带来了丰厚的回报：产生4-5倍雨水滋润的土

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壤。正是这种环境允许一个可能是管理阶层的精英社会的出现，他们通过对余粮的控制利用来养活自己。

It is difficult to isolate the factors that led to the next development—the emergence of urban settlements. The earliest, that of Eridu, about 4500 B.C.E., and Uruk, a thousand years later, center on impressive temple complexes built of mud brick. In some way, the elite had associated themselves with the power of the gods. Uruk, for instance, had two patron gods—Anu, the god of the sky and sovereign of all other gods, and Inanna, a goddess of love and war—and there were others, patrons of different cities. Human beings were at their mercy. The biblical story of the Flood may originate in Sumer. In the earliest version, the gods destroy the human race because its clamor had been so disturbing to them.

促使苏美尔文明进一步发展的一个要素是城市定居点的兴起，把这一点隔开来是很难的。公元前4500年的最早的城市埃利都以及一千年后兴起的城市乌鲁克的城市中心建有泥砖砌成的雄伟的庙宇建筑。在某种意义上，这些精英阶层把自己与神灵的力量结合在一起。例如乌鲁克有两个守护神：作为天神以及众神首领的安努和爱与战争的女神伊南娜，不同的城市还有其他的守护神。人在神的掌控下生存。圣经中关于洪水的故事可能起源于苏美尔，在这个故事的早期版本中，因为人类太喧闹令人不安，所以神毁灭人类。

It used to be believed that before 3000 B.C.E. the political and economic life of the cities was centered on their temples, but it now seems probable that the cities had secular rulers from earliest times. City life was diverse, and the population was engaged in a variety of occupations. Within the city lived administrators, craftspeople, and merchants. (Trading was important, as so many raw materials, the semiprecious stones for the decoration of the temples, timbers for roofs, and all metals, had to be imported.)

人们曾经认为公元3000前城市的政治和经济制度的中心是寺庙，但是现在人们认为这些城市早期就有世俗的统治者。城市的生活是丰富多彩的，市民从事着各种职业，城市里住着行政官员、手工艺者和商人。 贸（易占有着重要的地位，因为很多原材料，寺庙装饰用的次等宝石，屋顶的木材以及所有的金属都必须进口）。

An increasingly sophisticated system of administration led in about 3300 B.C.E. to the appearance of writing. The earliest script was based on logograms, with a symbol being used

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