PARAGRAPH 2
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.
4、According to paragraph 2, Eridu and Uruk are examples of urban settlements that
lacked the features usually found in other early urban settlements f
developed around religious buildings
grew much more rapidly than most of the urban settlements found in Sumer
were mysteriously destroyed and abandoned
5、The word "sovereign" in the passage is closest in meaning to
counselor
master
defender
creator
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" head" was "sag." Whenever a word including a syllable in which the sound "sag" was to be written, the sign for "sag" could be used to 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.
6、According to paragraph 3, which of the following led to the appearance of writing?
An increasingly sophisticated administrative system
Coordination between secular and religious leaders
The large volume of trade, particularly imports
A rapidly expanding and changing population Paragraph 3 is marked with
7、 In paragraph 3, why does the author provide the information that the number of signs in use had dropped from 2,000 to 600 by 2300 B.C.E.?
To argue that the development of writing involved periods of growth followed by periods of decline
To demonstrate that earlier written texts used a larger vocabulary than later texts, which were aimed at a broader audience |
To support the claim that the range of words expressed by logograms varied widely depending on time period and type of text
To provide evidence for the increased efficiency of using signs to express syllables rather than whole words
8、According to paragraph 3, ancient texts most commonly dealt with
theology
literature
economics
law
PARAGRAPH 4
Other innovations of the late fourth millennium include the wheel, probably developed first as a more efficient way of making pottery and then transferred to transport. A tablet engraved about 3000 B.C.E. provides the earliest known example from Sumer, a roofed boxlike sledge mounted on four solid wheels. A major development was the discovery, again about 3000 B.C.E., that if copper, which had been known in Mesopotamia since about 3500 B.C.E., was mixed with tin, a much harder metal, bronze, would result. Although copper and stone tools continued to be used, bronze was far more successful in creating sharp edges that could be used as anything from saws and scythes to weapons. The period from 3000 to 1000 B.C.E., when the use of bronze became I widespread, is normally referred to as the Bronze Age.
9、According to paragraph 4, the earliest wheels probably
were first developed in areas outside Mesopotamia
were used to make pottery
appeared on boxlike sledges
were used to transport goods between cities
10、The word "engraved* in the passage is closest in meaning to
carved
produced
dated
discovered
