No one is sure how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids near Cairo. But a new study suggests they used a little rock‘n’roll. Long-ago builders could have attached wooden poles to the stones and rolled them across the sand, the scientists say.
“Technically, I think what they’re proposing is possible,” physicist Daniel Bonn said.
People have long puzzled over how the Egyptians moved such huge rocks. And there’s no obvious answer. On average, each of the two million big stones weighed about as much as a large pickup truck. The Egyptians somehow moved the stone blocks to the pyramid site from about one kilometer away.
The most popular view is that Egyptian workers slid the blocks along smooth paths. Many scientists suspect wokers first would have put the blocks on sleds(滑板). Then they would have dragged them along paths. To make the work easier, workers may have lubricated the paths either with wet clay or with the fat from cattle. Bonn has now tested this idea by building small sleds and dragging heavy objects over sand.
Evidence from the sand supports this idea. Researchers found small amounts of fat, as well as a large amount of stone and the remains of paths.
However , physicist Joseph West think there might have been a simpler way , who led the new study . West said , “I was inspired while watching a television program showing how sleds might have helped with pyramid construction . I thought , “Why don’t they just try rolling the things ? ” A square could be turned into a rough sort of wheel by attaching wooden poles to its sides , he realized . That , he notes , should make a block of stone “a lot easier to roll than a square”.
So he tried it.
He and his students tied some poles to each of four sides of a 30-kilogram stone block.That action turned the block into somewhat a wheel.Then they placed the block on the ground.
They wrapped one end of a rope around the block and pulled.The researchers found they could easily roll the block along different kinds of paths.They calculated that rolling the block required about as much force as moving it along a slippery(滑的)path.
West hasn’t tested his idea on larger blocks,but he thinks rolling has clear advantages over sliding.At least,workers wouldn’t have needed to carry cattle fat or water to smooth the paths.
1.It’s widely believed that the stone blocks were moved to the pyramid site by ______.
A.rolling them on roads
B.pushing them over the sand
C. dragging them on some poles
D. sliding them on smooth paths
2.What does the underlined word “it”in Paragraph 7 refer to?
A. rolling the blocks with fat.
B.Rolling the blocks on wooden wheels.
C.Rolling poles to move the blocks.
D. Rolling the blocks with poles attached.
3.Why is rolling better than sliding according to West ?
A. Because more force is needed for sliding.
B. Because less preparation on path is needed for rolling.
C. Because sliding on smooth road is more dangerous.
D. Because rolling work can be done by fewer cattle.
4.What is the text mainly about ?
A. An experiment on ways of moving blocks to the pyramid site.
B. An argument about different methods of moving blocks to the pyramid site.
C. An application of the method of moving blocks to the pyramid site.
D. An introduction to a possible new way of moving blocks to the pyramid site.
When you meet someone for the first time, you will form an impression in your mind of that person in the first moment. Your reactions to other people, however, are really just barometers (晴雨表) for how you perceive(理解) yourself. Your reactions to others say more about you than they do about others. You cannot really love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you love or hate yourself. We are usually drawn to those who are most like us and tend to dislike those who display those aspects of ourselves that we dislike.
Therefore, you can allow others to be the mirror to illuminate (阐明;照亮) more clearly your own feelings of self-worth. Conversely, you can view the people you judge negatively as mirrors to show you what you are not accepting about yourself.
To survive together peacefully with others, you will need to learn tolerance. A big challenge is to shift your perspective from judgment of others to a lifelong exploration of yourself. Your task is to assess all the decisions, judgments you make onto others and to begin to view them as clues to how you can heal yourself and become whole.
Several days ago I had a business lunch with a man who displayed objectionable table manners. My first reaction was to judge him as rude and his table manners as annoying. When I noticed that I was judging him, I stopped and asked myself what I was feeling. I discovered that I was embarrassed to be seen with someone who was chewing with his mouth open and loudly blowing his nose. I was astonished to find how much I cared about how the other people in the restaurant perceived me.
Remember that your judgment of someone will not serve as a protective shield against you becoming like him. Just because I judge my lunch partner as rude does not prevent me from ever looking or acting like him. In the same way, extending tolerance to him would not cause me to suddenly begin chewing my food with my mouth open.
When you approach life in this manner, those with whom you have the greatest dissatisfactions as well as those you admire and love can be seen as mirrors, guiding you to discover parts of yourself that you reject and to embrace your greatest quality.
1.The purpose of the author writing this passage is to advise people to _______.
A．avoid inappropriate manners
B．judge others favorably in any case
C．pay attention to others’ needs and feelings
D．learn tolerance towards others
2.The underlined word “objectionable” in Paragraph 4 has the closest meaning to __________.
A．disgusting B．disappointing
C．discouraging D．disturbing
3.According to the passage, the following statements are all true except ______.
A．The moment we see a stranger, our mind forms an impression of that person.
B．We are easily attracted by someone who is similar to us.
C．Our first judgment of a person mostly comes from our personal opinion.
D．You can’t really love or hate others if they are similar to you.
4.It can be implied from the text that __________.
A．the writer’s first reaction to the man was to judge him as offensive
B．we shouldn’t focus on judging others but should constantly reflect on our own
C．we will need to learn tolerance to co-exist with others
D．the writer didn’t care about other people’s view of him
Dogs Don't Tell Jokes - By Louis Sachar
Twelve-year-old Gary Boone knows he was born to be a comedian. He never stops joking, regardless of the fact that nobody laughs much and his classmates think he is stupid. Therefore he had no real friends at school. Due to being laughed at by his classmates, Gary Boone thought winning the school talent show would be his dream of proving himself to be a real comedian, but on the big night his dream went wrong with funny results. | Winners Never Quit - By Mia Hamm
Mia Hamm, American soccer champion, tells a true-to-life inspiring story of learning that winning and losing aren't as important as being part of a team. More than anyone, soccer superstar Mia Hamm knows the value of teamwork. She shares this lesson, paired with energetic pictures by Carol Thompson, and this story is perfect for soccer kids and their soccer moms. |
Shack let on s Incredible Voyage - By Alfred Lansing
The astonishing adventure of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's survival for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as Time t magazine put it, "defined heroism". To write the authoritative story, Lansing consulted with ten of the surviving members and gained access to diaries and personal accounts by eight others. The book has a first-hand account, expanded with maps and illustrations especially for this edition. | The Alchemist - By Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, continues to change the lives of its readers forever. It tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andulusian shepherd-boy (牧童) who desires to travel in search of treasure. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts and above all, following our dreams. |
1.From Shackletoris Incredible Voyage, we know the main character ______.
A. is a writer for Time magazine
B. is a survival of one polar exploration
C. has left a lot of diaries and accounts
D. has formed a close friendship with Alfred Lansing
2.If you want to know more about teamwork, you can read ______.
A. Dogs Don't Tell Jokes B. Shackletoris Incredible Voyage
C. Winners Never Quit D. The Alchemist
3.What do we know about The Alchemist?
A. It has an everlasting influence on its readers.
B. It gives people magical power over their dreams.
C. It tells a story of how to find treasures.
D. It is mainly about the wisdom of listening to others.
Why do young adult children become independent so much later than they did in 1970，when the average age of independent living was 21? Why have reduced class sizes and increased per-pupil expenditures (花销）not higher academic achievement levels? Why is the mental health of today’s kids so poor when ________with that of children in the 1960s and before? Why do today’s ________ become defensive when told by teachers that their children have misbehaved in school?
The answer in two words: parental ________. Those two words best summarize the ________ between “old” child raising and new, post-1960s parenting. Then, the overall philosophy was that parents shouldn’t be ________ involved with their kids. They were available ________ crisis, but they stood a (an) ________ distance from their kids and allowed them to ________ the benefits of the trial-and-error (反复试验)process. It was the child’s ________, back then, to keep his or her parents from getting involved. That was________ children learned to be responsible and determined.
Today’s parents help their kids with almost everything. These are parents who are ________ when it comes to an understanding of their purpose in their kids’lives. Their involvement leads them to personalize everything that happens to their kids; thus, the defensiveness. But considering that schools and mental health professionals have been pushing parent involvement for nearly four decades, the confusion and defensiveness are ________.
University researchers analyzed three decades of data relating to parent participation in children’s academics. Their conclusions ________ what I’ve been saying since the 1980s: parental help with homework________a child’s academic achievement and is not reflected on standardized tests.
Parents who manage a child’s social life affect the ________ of good social skills. Parents who manage a child’s after-school activities raise kids who don’t know how to ________ their own free time. Parents who get involved in their kids’ ________ with peers raise kids who don’t know how to avoid trouble.
These kids have anxieties and fears of all sorts and don’t want to leave their ________ . And their parents, when the time comes, don’t know how to ________ being parents. You can imagine what will become of their future.
1.A. counted on B. taken in C. touched on D. resulted in
2.A. connected B. linked C. compared D. matched
3.A. youths B. adolescents C. psychologists D. parents
4.A. assistance B. protection C. involvement D. preference
5.A. choices B. similarities C. differences D. relations
6.A. slightly B. passively C. fairly D. highly
7.A. in fear of B. in spite of C. in view of D. in case of
8.A. safe B. equal C. long D. short
9.A. experiment B. gain C. experience D. enjoy
10.A. fault B. job C. turn D. attitude
11.A. how B. when C. why D. what
12.A. amazed B. disappointed C. confused D. satisfied
13.A. unreasonable B. changeable C. understandable D. avoidable
14.A. realized B. convinced C. confirmed D. reflected
15.A. lowers B. decides C. helps D. promotes
16.A. development B. performance C. establishment D. appearance
17.A. fill B. devote C. value D. save
18.A. communication B. cooperation C. conflicts D. competitions
19.A. career B. school C. home D. profession
20.A. ignore B. stop C. consider D. Start
The increasing high housing price has become a serious problem among us young people, _______ the government hasn’t yet found a better solution to.
A. the one B. that C. one D. it
—How much did you spend on the new mobile phone?
—I _____ it would cost me 500 dollars, but I was so lucky to get it at a 15 percent discount.
A. expected B. would expect
C. had expected D. have expected
