2014年职称英语(理工类)教材阅读理解文章及译文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.

　　词汇：

　　glean 搜集 monsoon 季风

　　dwindle 逐渐变少，逐渐变小;使变少，使变小

　　isotope 同位素;核素

　　geoarchaeologist 地质考古学家

　　sediment 沉积;沉积物

　　signature 签名;特征

　　observatory 天文台

　　注释：

　　1.the River Nile：尼罗河

　　2.Ethiopia：埃塞俄比亚

　　3.the Blue Nile：青尼罗河

　　4.the White Nile：白尼罗河

　　5.the Smithsonian Institution：史密森学会(由英国化学家、矿物学家James Smithson捐款，于1846年在美国首都华盛顿创建)

　　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

　　答案与题解：

　　1.D 这道题问的是：作者为什么提及“建筑金字塔的人”?文章开头有这么一句话，中文意思是：即使古埃及伟大的金字塔建筑者面对那场在公元前2180年促使他们的文明毁灭的饥荒也无能为力。D说的是：甚至是他们也不能挽救他们的文明。因此D是正确的答案。A说的是：他们曾创造过奇迹。B说的是：他们很强壮。C说的是：他们其实很弱。

　　2.A 这道题问的是：下面列出的几种因素中哪一种因素是造成古埃及文明毁灭的根本性因素?A说的是：气候的变化。第一段中有这样一个子句：…a shift in climate…wasultimately to blame…最终须归咎于气候的变化。在第一题的题解中，我们提到了“饥荒”与 “古埃及文明毁灭’的关系。但“饥荒”是表层的因素，“气候的变化”才是古埃及文明毁灭的深层的因素。因此，A是正确的答案。B：饥荒。C：水灾。D：人口增长。

　　3.D 　这道题问的是：下面列出的几种陈述哪一种是正确的?D说的是：青尼罗河和白尼罗河是尼罗河的支流。第四段中的最后一句话是这么说的：…worked out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river.……找到了来自河的每条支流的沉积物的比例。这里的“河”是指“尼罗河”，“每条支流”是指上文所说的“青尼罗河”和“白尼罗河”。因此，D是正确的答案。A：白尼罗河是尼罗河的干流。B：白尼罗河是青尼罗河的干流。C：白尼罗河是青尼罗河的支流。显然，这些都不是答案。

　　4.A 这道题问的是：根据克罗姆所说古埃及王国毁灭发生在什么时候?A说的是：就在一个时期的干旱之后。第五段有这么一个句子：…one of these periods…immediately predates the fall of the Egypt’s old Kingdom.其中的一个时期……就发生在古埃及王国毁灭之前。可以看出，A应该是正确的答案。B：就在一个时期的水灾之后。C：就在遇到一次旱灾之前。D：就在遇到一次水灾之前。

　　5.B devastate是及物动词，意思是：使荒芜;破坏。devastating既是现在分词，又是形容词，此处不是动词devastate的现在分词，因为它后面不跟名词短语。因此只能是形容词。它的意思是：破坏性的。frustrate是动词，意思是：使受挫;受挫。frustrating是现在分词，同时也是形容词。作形容词时，它的意思是：.令人失望的。可以看出，它跟devastating的意思相差很远。It was frustrating to be out of government for the next four years.damage：破坏，毁灭。damaging是它的现在分词，但它本身也是形容词，意思是：破坏的或毁灭的。跟devastating意思相近，是合适的选择。defeat：击败。His guerrillas defeated the colonial army in 1954.worry：担忧，发愁。worrying：令人担忧的，令人发愁的。It is very worrying that petrol bombs have been brought into a fight between two secondary schools.

　　译文： 埃及饱受饥饿折磨

　　即使古埃及伟大的金字塔建筑者面对那场在公元前2180年促使他们的文明毁灭的饥荒也无能为力，从尼罗河沉淀的泥沙中收集来的证据表明，南面数千公里处的气候的变化是最终的罪魁祸首―同样的或更坏的饥荒在今天仍有可能再次出现。

　　古代的埃及人依赖于尼罗河每年的洪水来灌溉他们的庄稼。但是，气候的任何变化会促使非洲季风往南吹，直至到埃塞俄比亚外。这些变化可能减弱那些洪水。

　　埃塞俄比亚高原中降雨量的减少可能意味着用以保持水土的植被的减少。当雨真正下来后，它又可能将大量的土壤冲刷至青尼罗河和埃及，沿途也带上了来自白尼罗河的沉淀物。

　　青尼罗河里的泥土带有一种不同于白尼罗河泥土的同位素。因此，里德大学的迈克?克罗姆通过分析尼罗河一带沉积泥土同位素的差异计算出来来自不同支流各自沉积物的比例。

　　克罗姆推理说，在干旱的季节里，青尼罗河里的泥沙相对来说较高。他发现，4200年前-4500年前其中的这样一个时期的干旱后立即跟着发生了古埃及及国王的毁灭。

　　水势的减弱对埃及人来说具有灾难性的。纽约Lamont Doherty 地球天文台的比尔?雷恩说：“影响食物供应的气候变化不必太大就可以对社会产生‘涟漪式’影响.”

　　来自华盛顿Smithsonian学会的地质考古学家丹尼尔?斯坦利说：“类似的事件如果发生在今天可能会带来更大的破坏。人类做的任何可以引起气候带转移的事在今天会对尼罗河一带的体系带来更坏的影响，因为那儿的人口数目已经有了非常惊人的、迅速的增长。”

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