托福閱讀真題Official 46 Passage 1（三）

托福閱讀真題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

正確答案：C

題目詳解

題型分類：修辭目的題

題干分析：根據(jù)題干中的關(guān)鍵詞the Egyptian use of papyrus as a writing material，我們可以定位到原文中的第二句話。根據(jù)“修辭目的題”的特點，這句話作為例子是問了印證前文所要表達的觀點，那么觀點就看段首句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該句在but后轉(zhuǎn)折，強調(diào)了原文埃及人所使用的書寫材料易腐蝕，因此無法詳細(xì)地追溯其歷史（文字書寫發(fā)展的歷史）。

選項分析：

所有選項中設(shè)計和歷史相關(guān)的選項只有C，故為正確選項。

A選項屬于無中生有，原文中并沒有將papyrus和leather，wood作為書寫材料進行比較。

B選項屬于無中生有，原文中并沒有將Egypt和Mesopotamia進行比較。

D選項屬于無中生有，原文中并沒有直接說明蘇美爾人為什么更青睞clay作為書寫材料。

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.

正確答案：C

題目詳解

題型分類：否定事實信息題

原文定位：根據(jù)關(guān)鍵詞cuneiform writing定位到原文的第二句話。

選項分析：

看整個cuneiform所處的文段我們可以發(fā)現(xiàn)關(guān)它的幾個主要特點：1.Sumerians對于在黏土上的書寫模式（既楔形文字）很熟練：the Sumerians perfected a style of writing suited to clay；2.楔形文字的書寫形式很簡單：this script consists of simple shapes...；3.書寫容易，可以用簡單地用reed或者wooden stylus雕刻incised in soft clay；4.盡管書寫形式簡單，但組合形式多，且圖形復(fù)雜hundreds of combinations...;complex sings required long trainings and much practices，只有少部分專業(yè)的作家才精通其文字literacy was largely limited to a small professional class,the scribes。

C選項與特點3的描述相矛盾，答案為C。

A選項符合特點2的描述。

B選項符合特點1的描述。

D選項符合特點4的描述。

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