2014年職稱英語(理工類)教材閱讀理解文章及譯文9

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　Egypt Felled by Famine

　　Even ancient Egypts mighty pyramid builders were powerless in the face of the famine that helped bring down their civilian around 2180BC. Now evidence gleaned from mud deposited by the River Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blem -- and the same or worse could happen today.

　　The ancient Egyptians depended on the Niles annual floods to irrigate their crops. But any change in climate that pushed the African monsoons southwards out of Ethiopia would have diminished these floods.

　　Dwindling rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to establish the soil. When rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into Egypt, along with sediment from the White Nile.

　　The Blue Nile mud has a different isotope signature from that of the White Nile. So by analyzing isotope differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta, Michael Krom of leeds University worked out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river.

　　Krom reasons that during periods of drought, the amount of the Blue Nile mud in the river would be relatively high. He found that one of these periods, from 4,500 to 4,200 years ago, immediately predates the fall of the Egypts Old Kingdom.

　　The weakened waters would have been catastrophic for the Egyptians. Changes that affect food supply dont have to be very large to have a ripple effect in societies, says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in New York.

　　Similar events today could be even more devastating, says team member Daniel Stanley, a geoarchaeologist from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. Anything humans do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system because the populations have increased dramatically.

　　詞匯：

　　glean 搜集 monsoon 季風

　　dwindle 逐漸變少，逐漸變小;使變少，使變小

　　isotope 同位素;核素

　　geoarchaeologist 地質(zhì)考古學家

　　sediment 沉積;沉積物

　　signature 簽名;特征

　　observatory 天文臺

　　注釋：

　　1.the River Nile：尼羅河

　　2.Ethiopia：埃塞俄比亞

　　3.the Blue Nile：青尼羅河

　　4.the White Nile：白尼羅河

　　5.the Smithsonian Institution：史密森學會(由英國化學家、礦物學家James Smithson捐款，于1846年在美國首都華盛頓創(chuàng)建)

　　1. Why does the author mention pyramid builders?

　　A. because they once worked miracles.

　　B. because they were well-built

　　C. because they were actually very weak

　　D. because even they were unable to rescue their civilization

　　2. Which of the following factors was ultimately responsible for the fall of the civilization of ancient Egypt?

　　A. Change of climate

　　B. famine

　　C. food

　　D. population growth

　　3. Which of the following statements is true?

　　A. The White Nile is the trunk of the River Nile

　　B. The White Nile is the trunk of the Blue Bile

　　C. The White Nile a branch of the Blue Nile

　　D. The White Nile and the Blue Nile are branches of the River Nile

　　4. According to Krom, Egypts Old Kingdom fell

　　A. immediately after a period of drought

　　B. immediately after a period of flood

　　C. just before a drought struck

　　D. just before a flood struck

　　5. The word devastating in the last paragraph could be best replaced by

　　A. frustrating

　　B. damaging

　　C. defeating

　　D. worrying

　　答案與題解：

　　1.D 這道題問的是：作者為什么提及“建筑金字塔的人”?文章開頭有這么一句話，中文意思是：即使古埃及偉大的金字塔建筑者面對那場在公元前2180年促使他們的文明毀滅的饑荒也無能為力。D說的是：甚至是他們也不能挽救他們的文明。因此D是正確的答案。A說的是：他們曾創(chuàng)造過奇跡。B說的是：他們很強壯。C說的是：他們其實很弱。

　　2.A 這道題問的是：下面列出的幾種因素中哪一種因素是造成古埃及文明毀滅的根本性因素?A說的是：氣候的變化。第一段中有這樣一個子句：…a shift in climate…wasultimately to blame…最終須歸咎于氣候的變化。在第一題的題解中，我們提到了“饑荒”與 “古埃及文明毀滅’的關(guān)系。但“饑荒”是表層的因素，“氣候的變化”才是古埃及文明毀滅的深層的因素。因此，A是正確的答案。B：饑荒。C：水災。D：人口增長。

　　3.D 　這道題問的是：下面列出的幾種陳述哪一種是正確的?D說的是：青尼羅河和白尼羅河是尼羅河的支流。第四段中的最后一句話是這么說的：…worked out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river.……找到了來自河的每條支流的沉積物的比例。這里的“河”是指“尼羅河”，“每條支流”是指上文所說的“青尼羅河”和“白尼羅河”。因此，D是正確的答案。A：白尼羅河是尼羅河的干流。B：白尼羅河是青尼羅河的干流。C：白尼羅河是青尼羅河的支流。顯然，這些都不是答案。

　　4.A 這道題問的是：根據(jù)克羅姆所說古埃及王國毀滅發(fā)生在什么時候?A說的是：就在一個時期的干旱之后。第五段有這么一個句子：…one of these periods…immediately predates the fall of the Egypt’s old Kingdom.其中的一個時期……就發(fā)生在古埃及王國毀滅之前?？梢钥闯觯珹應該是正確的答案。B：就在一個時期的水災之后。C：就在遇到一次旱災之前。D：就在遇到一次水災之前。

　　5.B devastate是及物動詞，意思是：使荒蕪;破壞。devastating既是現(xiàn)在分詞，又是形容詞，此處不是動詞devastate的現(xiàn)在分詞，因為它后面不跟名詞短語。因此只能是形容詞。它的意思是：破壞性的。frustrate是動詞，意思是：使受挫;受挫。frustrating是現(xiàn)在分詞，同時也是形容詞。作形容詞時，它的意思是：.令人失望的?？梢钥闯觯鷇evastating的意思相差很遠。It was frustrating to be out of government for the next four years.damage：破壞，毀滅。damaging是它的現(xiàn)在分詞，但它本身也是形容詞，意思是：破壞的或毀滅的。跟devastating意思相近，是合適的選擇。defeat：擊敗。His guerrillas defeated the colonial army in 1954.worry：擔憂，發(fā)愁。worrying：令人擔憂的，令人發(fā)愁的。It is very worrying that petrol bombs have been brought into a fight between two secondary schools.

　　譯文： 埃及飽受饑餓折磨

　　即使古埃及偉大的金字塔建筑者面對那場在公元前2180年促使他們的文明毀滅的饑荒也無能為力，從尼羅河沉淀的泥沙中收集來的證據(jù)表明，南面數(shù)千公里處的氣候的變化是最終的罪魁禍首―同樣的或更壞的饑荒在今天仍有可能再次出現(xiàn)。

　　古代的埃及人依賴于尼羅河每年的洪水來灌溉他們的莊稼。但是，氣候的任何變化會促使非洲季風往南吹，直至到埃塞俄比亞外。這些變化可能減弱那些洪水。

　　埃塞俄比亞高原中降雨量的減少可能意味著用以保持水土的植被的減少。當雨真正下來后，它又可能將大量的土壤沖刷至青尼羅河和埃及，沿途也帶上了來自白尼羅河的沉淀物。

　　青尼羅河里的泥土帶有一種不同于白尼羅河泥土的同位素。因此，里德大學的邁克?克羅姆通過分析尼羅河一帶沉積泥土同位素的差異計算出來來自不同支流各自沉積物的比例。

　　克羅姆推理說，在干旱的季節(jié)里，青尼羅河里的泥沙相對來說較高。他發(fā)現(xiàn)，4200年前-4500年前其中的這樣一個時期的干旱后立即跟著發(fā)生了古埃及及國王的毀滅。

　　水勢的減弱對埃及人來說具有災難性的。紐約Lamont Doherty 地球天文臺的比爾?雷恩說：“影響食物供應的氣候變化不必太大就可以對社會產(chǎn)生‘漣漪式’影響.”

　　來自華盛頓Smithsonian學會的地質(zhì)考古學家丹尼爾?斯坦利說：“類似的事件如果發(fā)生在今天可能會帶來更大的破壞。人類做的任何可以引起氣候帶轉(zhuǎn)移的事在今天會對尼羅河一帶的體系帶來更壞的影響，因為那兒的人口數(shù)目已經(jīng)有了非常驚人的、迅速的增長。”

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