2014年8月16日托福阅读真题P2+题目+答案：Written Records

2014年8月16日托福阅读真题P2+题目+答案：Written Records

For those ancient civilizations that used writing—for instance, all the great civilizations in Mesoamerica, China, Egypt, and the Near East—written historical records can answer many social questions. A prime goal of the archaeologist studying these societies is therefore to find appropriate texts. Many of the early excavations of the great sites of the Near East had the recovery of clay writing tablets as the main goal. Major finds of this kind are still being made—for example, at the ancient city of Ebla (Tell Mardikh) in Syria, where an archive of 5,000 clay tablets written in an early dialect of Akkadian (Babylonian) was discovered in the 1970s.

1. The word "appropriate" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.ancient

B.suitable

C.new

D.complete

答案：B

2. According to paragraph 1, why did many early excavations of sites of the great civilizations of the Near East have the recovery of clay writing tablets as the main goal?

A.Archaeologists wanted to determine the writing systems used by the ancient societies that once inhabited those sites.

B.Archaeologists wanted to show that early literate civilizations used clay tablets for their historical records.

C.Archaeologists hoped that the clay tablets would answer many of their questions about the ancient societies that once inhabited those sites.

D.Archaeologists hoped to find evidence that languages other than early Akkadian had been used by the ancient societies that once inhabited those sites.

答案：C

In each early literate society, writing had its own function and purpose. For instance, the clay tablets of Mycenaean Greece, dating from around 1200 B.C., were all, without exception, primarily records of commercial transactions (goods coming in or going out) at the Mycenaean palaces. This discovery gives us an impression of many aspects of the Mycenaean economy and a glimpse into craft organization (through the names for the different kinds of craftspeople), as well as introducing the names of the offices of state. But here, as in other cases, accidents of preservation may be important. It could be that the Mycenaeans wrote on clay only for their commercial records and used other perishable materials for literary or historical texts now lost to us. It is certainly true that for the Classical Greek and Roman civilizations, it is mainly official decrees inscribed on marble that have survived. Fragile rolls of papyrus—the predecessor of modern paper—with literary texts on them, have usually remained intact only when retained in the dry air of Egypt, or when buried beneath the volcanic ash covering Pompeii.

3. According to paragraph 2, the writing on Mycenaean clay tablets helped to reveal all of the following about Mycenaean society EXCEPT:

A.the flow of goods entering and leaving palaces

B.the names for various types of craftspeople

C.the names of government offices

D.the kinds of materials used to build Mycenaean palaces

答案：D

4. The phrase "a glimpse into" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.new evidence of

B.surprising information about

C.a brief view of

D.a complete picture of

答案：C

5. The word "perishable" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.likely to decay

B.difficult to repair

C.valuable

D.hard to find

答案：A

6. In paragraph 2, why does the author discuss writing from the Classical Greek and Roman civilizations?

A.To help explain why early civilizations wrote mainly on stone and clay tablets

B.To explain how the role of physical material in the preservation of texts can affect our understanding of ancient societies

C.To compare the function of writing in Classical Greek and Roman civilizations

D.To show that some texts on papyrus survived as long as texts inscribed on marble

答案：B

Coins also provide a valuable source of written records: they can reveal information about the location where they are found, which can provide evidence about trade practices there, and their inscriptions can be informative about the issuing authority, whether they were city-states (as in ancient Greece) or sole rulers (as in Imperial Rome or in the kingdoms of medieval Europe).

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