托福阅读真题Official 46 Passage 1（三）

托福阅读真题Official 46 Passage 1（三）

The Origin of Writing

It was in Egypt and Mesopotamia(modern-day Iraq)that civilization arose,and it is there that we find the earliest examples of that key feature of civilization,writing.These examples,in the form of inscribed clay tablets that date to shortly before 3000 B.C.E.,have been discovered among the archaeological remains of the Sumerians,a gifted people settled in southern Mesopotamia.

The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing,but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material.In ancient times the banks of the Nile were lined with papyrus plants,and from the papyrus reeds the Egyptians made a form of paper;it was excellent in quality but,like any paper,fragile.Mesopotamia’s rivers boasted no such useful reeds,but its land did provide good clay,and as a consequence the clay tablet became the standard material.Though clumsy and bulky it has a virtue dear to archaeologists:it is durable.Fire,for example,which is death to papyrus paper or other writing materials such as leather and wood,simply bakes it hard,thereby making it even more durable.So when a conqueror set a Mesopotamian palace ablaze,he helped ensure the survival of any clay tablets in it.Clay,moreover,is cheap,and forming it into tablets is easy,factors that helped the clay tablet become the preferred writing material not only throughout Mesopotamia but far outside it as well,in Syria,Asia Minor,Persia,and even for a while in Crete and Greece.Excavators have unearthed clay tablets in all these lands.In the Near East they remained in use for more than two and a half millennia,and in certain areas they lasted down to the beginning of the common era until finally yielding,once and for all,to more convenient alternatives.

The Sumerians perfected a style of writing suited to clay.This script consists of simple shapes,basically just wedge shapes and lines that could easily be incised in soft clay with a reed or wooden stylus;scholars have dubbed it cuneiform from the wedge-shaped marks(cunei in Latin)that are its hallmark.Although the ingredients are merely wedges and lines,there are hundreds of combinations of these basic forms that stand for different sounds or words.Learning these complex signs required long training and much practice;inevitably,literacy was largely limited to a small professional class,the scribes.

The Akkadians conquered the Sumerians around the middle of the third millennium B.C.E.,and they took over the various cuneiform signs used for writing Sumerian and gave them sound and word values that fit their own language.The Babylonians and Assyrians did the same,and so did peoples in Syria and Asia Minor.The literature of the Sumerians was treasured throughout the Near East,and long after Sumerian ceased to be spoken,the Babylonians and Assyrians and others kept it alive as a literary language,the way Europeans kept Latin alive after the fall of Rome.For the scribes of these non-Sumerian languages,training was doubly demanding since they had to know the values of the various cuneiform signs for Sumerian as well as for their own language.

The contents of the earliest clay tablets are simple notations of numbers of commodities—animals,jars,baskets,etc.Writing,it would appear,started as a primitive form of bookkeeping.Its use soon widened to document the multitudinous things and acts that are involved in daily life,from simple inventories of commodities to complicated governmental rules and regulations.

Archaeologists frequently find clay tablets in batches.The batches,some of which contain thousands of tablets,consist for the most part of documents of the types just mentioned:bills,deliveries,receipts,inventories,loans,marriage contracts,divorce settlements,court judgments,and so on.These records of factual matters were kept in storage to be available for reference—they were,in effect,files,or,to use the term preferred by specialists in the ancient Near East,archives.Now and then these files include pieces of writing that are of a distinctly different order,writings that do not merely record some matter of fact but involve creative intellectual activity.They range from simple textbook material to literature—and they make an appearance very early,even from the third millennium B.C.E.

Question 5 of 14

In paragraph 2,why does the author discuss the Egyptian use of papyrus as a writing material?

A.To describe the superiority of papyrus over leather and wood as a writing material

B.To explain why writing in Egypt did not develop as quickly as it did Mesopotamia

C.To explain why archaeologists’knowledge of the early history of writing relies mainly on Sumerian cuneiform

D.To explain why the Sumerians preferred clay tablets for writing over papyrus

正确答案：C

题目详解

题型分类：修辞目的题

题干分析：根据题干中的关键词the Egyptian use of papyrus as a writing material，我们可以定位到原文中的第二句话。根据“修辞目的题”的特点，这句话作为例子是问了印证前文所要表达的观点，那么观点就看段首句The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing,but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material该句在but后转折，强调了原文埃及人所使用的书写材料易腐蚀，因此无法详细地追溯其历史（文字书写发展的历史）。

选项分析：

所有选项中设计和历史相关的选项只有C，故为正确选项。

A选项属于无中生有，原文中并没有将papyrus和leather，wood作为书写材料进行比较。

B选项属于无中生有，原文中并没有将Egypt和Mesopotamia进行比较。

D选项属于无中生有，原文中并没有直接说明苏美尔人为什么更青睐clay作为书写材料。

Question 6 of 14

According to paragraph 3,all of the following are true of cuneiform writing EXCEPT:

A.It was composed of very simple shapes.

B.It was perfected by the ancient Sumerians.

C.It influenced the choice of material on which it was written.

D.It was understood by very few Sumerians.

正确答案：C

题目详解

题型分类：否定事实信息题

原文定位：根据关键词cuneiform writing定位到原文的第二句话。

选项分析：

看整个cuneiform所处的文段我们可以发现关它的几个主要特点：1.Sumerians对于在黏土上的书写模式（既楔形文字）很熟练：the Sumerians perfected a style of writing suited to clay；2.楔形文字的书写形式很简单：this script consists of simple shapes...；3.书写容易，可以用简单地用reed或者wooden stylus雕刻incised in soft clay；4.尽管书写形式简单，但组合形式多，且图形复杂hundreds of combinations...;complex sings required long trainings and much practices，只有少部分专业的作家才精通其文字literacy was largely limited to a small professional class,the scribes。

C选项与特点3的描述相矛盾，答案为C。

A选项符合特点2的描述。

B选项符合特点1的描述。

D选项符合特点4的描述。

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