『新东方在线托福阅读』为托福考生准备了ETS托福TPO/Official 39 Passage 1阅读练习：Why does the author mention a cuneiform text that documents “an early sighting of Halley’s Comet, from September 22 to September 28, 164 B.C.E.”?真题题目及答案解析，TPO/Official 39 Passage 1阅读原文范文音频翻译

托福TPO/Official 39 Passage 1阅读原文Why does the author mention a cuneiform text that documents “an early sighting of Halley’s Comet, from September 22 to September 28, 164 B.C.E.”?题目答案及解析-新东方托福官方网校手机版

学者们一致认为，书写起源于大约在公元前4000年左右的中东的某个地区，很有可能是美索不达米亚。

Scholars agree that writing originated somewhere in the Middle East, probably Mesopotamia, around the fourth millennium B.C.E.

文字产生于这片古老土地的图书馆和词库之中。

It is from the great libraries and word-hoards of these ancient lands that the first texts emerged.

它们被用楔形（类似于V字形状的）小木棍写在潮湿的黏土板上；因为在拉丁语中，楔形物被称作是cunea，所以这些文字也被称作是楔形文字。

They were written on damp clay tablets with a wedged (or V-shaped) stick; since the Latin word for wedge is cunea, the texts are called cuneiform.

这些黏土板通常不会被火烤；晒干通常被认为就足以去保护这些文字以供使用了。

The clay tablets usually were not fired; sun drying was probably reckoned enough to preserve the text for as long as it was being used.

当很多它们所在的建筑物着火时他们也被点着，但是幸运的是，很多的平板依然保存下来了。

Fortunately, however, many tablets survived because they were accidentally fired when the buildings they were stored in burned.

楔形文字持续了大约三千年，跨越了苏美尔、古巴比伦阿卡德区、亚述帝国、尼尼微城、巴比伦，在现如今的伊拉克、叙利亚和伊朗西部地区，为人类保存下来了15种语言。

Cuneiform writing lasted for some 3,000 years, in a vast line of succession that ran through Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Nineveh, and Babylon, and preserved for us fifteen languages in an area represented by modern-day Iraq, Syria, and western Iran.

最古老的楔形文字记录了收税人和商人之间的交易，记录了在都市化社会买卖交易的收据和账单。

The oldest cuneiform texts recorded the transactions of tax collectors and merchants, the receipts and bills of sale of an urban society.

这些都是和谷物，山羊和地产相关。

They had to do with things like grain, goats, and real estate.

后来，巴比伦的抄书吏记载了法律，同时也保存了其他种类的记录。

Later, Babylonian scribes recorded the laws and kept other kinds of records.

因此，抄书吏确定了他们自己的神尼沙巴，后来尼沙巴又被博尔西帕的纳布神取代了，纳布神的标志既不是武器也不是龙，而是更加让人害怕的东西——楔形文字的棍子。

As a result, the scribes were assigned their own goddess, Nisaba, later replaced by the god Nabu of Borsippa, whose symbol is neither weapon nor dragon but something far more fearsome, the cuneiform stick.

关于科学，天文学，药学和数学的楔形文字大量存在，令人吃惊的是有些还提供了精确的数据。

Cuneiform texts on science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics abound, some offering astoundingly precise data.

一块平板上记载了超过248天的月球运转速度；另外一块记载了公元前164年9月22到9月28目睹了哈雷彗星的存在。

One tablet records the speed of the Moon over 248 days; another documents an early sighting of Halley’s Comet, from September 22 to September 28, 164 B.C.E.

一些更加深奥的文字试图去解释古巴比伦文明的习俗，比如，治疗病人的步骤，包括在病人的门上涂柏油和石膏，以及在病人的床脚画个符号。

More esoteric texts attempt to explain old Babylonian customs, such as the procedure for curing someone who is ill, which included rubbing tar and gypsum on the sick person’s door and drawing a design at the foot of the person’s bed.

从这些大量的文字中可以清楚的知道（大约两万块黏土板在尼尼微城的亚述巴尼拔国王的图书馆中被发现），抄书吏对于他们的书写和学识很引以为豪。

What is clear from the vast body of texts (some 20,000 tablets were found in King Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh) is that scribes took pride in their writing and knowledge.

最重要的楔形文字，巴比伦的《吉尔伽美什史诗》，是关于人类想要去征服时间的。

The foremost cuneiform text, the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, deals with humankind’s attempts to conquer time.

在那里面，既是国王也是战士的吉尔伽美什因为他最好朋友的死去而心碎，于是他开启了冒险之旅，这也就是古希腊传说的神话英雄比如说赫居里士的雏形。

In it, Gilgamesh, king and warrior, is crushed by the death of his best friend and so sets out on adventures that prefigure mythical heroes of ancient Greek legends such as Hercules.

他的目标不仅仅是经受住这些考验，也是给生活带来意义。

His goal is not just to survive his ordeals but to make sense of this life.

值得注意的是，《吉尔伽美什史诗》的不同版本横跨了从公元前2100年到公元前600年的1500年，使得这成了整个巴比伦文明的史诗。

Remarkably, versions of Gilgamesh span 1,500 years, between 2100 B.C.E and 600 B.C.E., making the story the epic of an entire civilization.

古埃及人发明出来了一种不同的书写方式，去写在一种新的东西—--纸莎草纸上面，纸莎草纸是纸的前身，是从湿地植物制作出来的。

The ancient Egyptians invented a different way of writing and a new substance to write on—papyrus, a precursor of paper, made from a wetland plant.

希腊人给这种书写起了个特殊的名字—象形文字，字面意思是“神圣的书写”。

The Greeks had a special name for this writing: hiero glyphic, literally “sacred writing.”

他们觉得这是适用于神的文字，这也就解释了为什么象形文字刻在金字塔墙上和其他一些宗教建筑上。

This, they thought, was language fit for the gods, which explains why it was carved on walls of pyramids and other religious structures.

可能象形文字是埃及对于书写历史的巨大贡献：在公元前3100年到公元394年期间使用的象形文字形成了了美术作品和通讯交流的文本。

Perhaps hieroglyphics are Egypt’s great contribution to the history of writing: hieroglyphic writing, in use from 3100 B.C.E. until 394 C.E., resulted in the creation of texts that were fine art as well as communication.

埃及给我们留下了一种关于抄书吏的传统印象，抄书吏不仅仅是受教育的人，同时也是艺术家和书法家。

Egypt gave us the tradition of the scribe not just as educated person but as artist and calligrapher.

学者在埃及书写的历史中发现了6000个单独的象形文字字符，但是在任何一个时期，都不超过一千个字符会被使用。

Scholars have detected some 6,000 separate hieroglyphic characters in use over the history of Egyptian writing, but it appears that never more than a thousand were in use during any one period.

似乎还有很多字符需要去找回，但是文字的美感和丰富性却足够来填补在效率上的损失。

It still seems a lot to recall, but what was lost in efficiency was more than made up for in the beauty and richness of the texts.

书写本来就是用巨大的创造性本身来制造视觉效果的。

Writing was meant to impress the eye with the vastness of creation itself.

每一个符号或者字符都是件微小的艺术品—美人蕉（发音如同I），猫头鹰（发音如同M），小鹌鹑（发音如同W），等等。

Each symbol or glyph—the flowering reed (pronounced like “i”), the owl (“m”), the quail chick (“w”), etcetera—was a tiny work of art.

手稿与文字的整体设计相符合。

Manuscripts were compiled with an eye to the overall design.

埃及古物学家注意到，有时组成每个字的字符被随机安插，这样使得视觉上文字更加好看，但文字发音或者意义却很少被关注。

Egyptologists have noticed that the glyphs that constitute individual words were sometimes shuffled to make the text more pleasing to the eye with little regard for sound or sense.

According to paragraph 1, the name of the earliest form of writing reflects the fact that this writing was

Select the TWO answer choices that, according to paragraph 2, indicate why cuneiform writing was important in societies of the Middle East. To obtain credit you must select TWO answer choices.

In paragraph 2, why does the author point out that Babylonian scribes were assigned their own goddess?

The word “astoundingly” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Why does the author mention a cuneiform text that documents “an early sighting of Halley’s Comet, from September 22 to September 28, 164 B.C.E.”?

The word “foremost” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Paragraph 5 supports all of the following statements about Egyptian hieroglyphics EXCEPT:

The word “detected” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

Directions: Select from the seven phrases below the phrases that correctly characterize cuneiform writing and the phrases that correctly characterize hieroglyphic writing. Drag each phrase you select into the appropriate column of the table. Two of the phrases will NOT be used. This question is worth 3 points.

Early Writing Systems Scholars agree that writing originated somewhere in the Middle East, probably Mesopotamia, around the fourth millennium B.C.E. It is from the great libraries and word-hoards of these ancient lands that the first texts emerged. They were written on damp clay tablets with a wedged (or V-shaped) stick; since the Latin word for wedge is cunea, the texts are called cuneiform. The clay tablets usually were not fired; sun drying was probably reckoned enough to preserve the text for as long as it was being used. Fortunately, however, many tablets survived because they were accidentally fired when the buildings they were stored in burned. Cuneiform writing lasted for some 3,000 years, in a vast line of succession that ran through Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Nineveh, and Babylon, and preserved for us fifteen languages in an area represented by modern-day Iraq, Syria, and western Iran. The oldest cuneiform texts recorded the transactions of tax collectors and merchants, the receipts and bills of sale of an urban society. They had to do with things like grain, goats, and real estate. Later, Babylonian scribes recorded the laws and kept other kinds of records. Knowledge conferred power. As a result, the scribes were assigned their own goddess, Nisaba, later replaced by the god Nabu of Borsippa, whose symbol is neither weapon nor dragon but something far more fearsome, the cuneiform stick. Cuneiform texts on science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics abound, some offering astoundingly precise data. One tablet records the speed of the Moon over 248 days; another documents an early sighting of Halley’s Comet, from September 22 to September 28, 164 B.C.E. More esoteric texts attempt to explain old Babylonian customs, such as the procedure for curing someone who is ill, which included rubbing tar and gypsum on the sick person’s door and drawing a design at the foot of the person’s bed. What is clear from the vast body of texts (some 20,000 tablets were found in King Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh) is that scribes took pride in their writing and knowledge. The foremost cuneiform text, the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, deals with humankind’s attempts to conquer time. In it, Gilgamesh, king and warrior, is crushed by the death of his best friend and so sets out on adventures that prefigure mythical heroes of ancient Greek legends such as Hercules. His goal is not just to survive his ordeals but to make sense of this life. Remarkably, versions of Gilgamesh span 1,500 years, between 2100 B.C.E and 600 B.C.E., making the story the epic of an entire civilization. The ancient Egyptians invented a different way of writing and a new substance to write on—papyrus, a precursor of paper, made from a wetland plant. The Greeks had a special name for this writing: hiero glyphic, literally “sacred writing.” This, they thought, was language fit for the gods, which explains why it was carved on walls of pyramids and other religious structures. Perhaps hieroglyphics are Egypt’s great contribution to the history of writing: hieroglyphic writing, in use from 3100 B.C.E. until 394 C.E., resulted in the creation of texts that were fine art as well as communication. Egypt gave us the tradition of the scribe not just as educated person but as artist and calligrapher. Scholars have detected some 6,000 separate hieroglyphic characters in use over the history of Egyptian writing, but it appears that never more than a thousand were in use during any one period. It still seems a lot to recall, but what was lost in efficiency was more than made up for in the beauty and richness of the texts. Writing was meant to impress the eye with the vastness of creation itself. Each symbol or glyph—the flowering reed (pronounced like “i”), the owl (“m”), the quail chick (“w”), etcetera—was a tiny work of art. Manuscripts were compiled with an eye to the overall design. Egyptologists have noticed that the glyphs that constitute individual words were sometimes shuffled to make the text more pleasing to the eye with little regard for sound or sense.