Question

    The ruins of a Maya city have been discovered in Guatemala with the help of the remote sensing technique LiDAR. This lost city envelops sites like Tikal, Holmul, and Witzna, but shows that these famous areas are a small part of this lost urban network.

Hidden under the jungles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve site, more than 60,000 human-made features — homes, canals, highways, and more — have been identified in aerial (从飞机上的)images collected by some international researchers headed by the PAGUNAM Foundation, a Maya cultural and natural heritage organization. Those have experts rethinking the outlines and complexity of the Maya Empire.

These ancient peoples obviously created these imaginative cultures based on their known relics (遗迹), but the new research has suggested that the size of this lost society is far beyond what experts imagined. The findings will be explored in a one-hour documentary called “Lost Treasures of the Maya Snake Kings”, to be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel.

This breakthrough was possible thanks to LiDAR sensors, which can survey lands in 3D by bouncing pulses off the ground from unmanned air vehicles and others. LiDAR is exceptionally useful for detecting archeological(考古的)sites, as it gets through jungles and other features that hold up exploration on the ground. The technique has made many discoveries become a reality in recent years. For instance, major finds at Angkor, Cambodia and Caracol, Belize can explain what it did. The final goal is to survey Guatemala’s lowlands with it.

“There are entire cities we didn't know about now showing up in the survey data,” Francisco Estrada-Belli, one of the lead archeologists on the project, said in Nat Geo's coming documentary. “There are 20,000 square kilometres more to be explored and there are going to be hundreds of cities about the mysterious people who built this urban network there that we don’t know about, and we will push back the frontiers with the technology,” he added.

1.What does the underlined word "Those" in paragraph 2 refer to?

A.Jungles. B.Human-made features.

C.Researchers. D.Aerial images.

2.What does the author want to convey in paragraph 4?

A.The working principle of LiDAR sensors.

B.The process of researching Maya civilization.

C.Great importance of Guatemalans lowlands.

D.LiDAR’s contribution to discovering the relics.

3.Which words can best describe the lost Maya city?

A.Small and hidden. B.Famous and high-tech.

C.Vast and complex. D.Fully-explored and imaginative.

4.What will the archeologists do next?

A.Continue to explore the unknown. B.Upgrade the LiDAR technology.

C.Study the documentary carefully. D.Build a massive urban network,

Answer

1.B

2.D

3.C

4.A

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章介绍了在遥感技术激光雷达的帮助下，在危地马拉发现了一座玛雅城市的废墟，新的研究表明这个失落的社会的规模远远超出了专家的想象，还有2万平方公里的土地有待探索。

1.词义猜测题。根据第二段中Hidden under the jungles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve site, more than 60,000 human-made features — homes, canals, highways, and more — have been identified in aerial (从飞机上的)images collected by some international researchers headed by the PAGUNAM Foundation, a Maya cultural and natural heritage organization. 隐藏在玛雅生物圈保护区的丛林之下，由帕格纳姆基金会(一个玛雅文化和自然遗产组织)领导的一些国际研究人员收集的航拍图像中发现了6万多处人类活动场所——房屋、运河、公路等。可知，代词those指的是人造景观，包括房屋、运河、公路等，故Those指Human-made features。故选B项。

2.主旨大意题。根据第四段中This breakthrough was possible thanks to LiDAR sensors, which can survey lands in 3D by bouncing pulses off the ground from unmanned air vehicles and others. …The technique has made many discoveries become a reality in recent years. 这一突破之所以成为可能，是因为激光雷达传感器，它可以通过无人机和其他设备发射的脉冲从地面反弹，以3D方式测量地面……近年来，这项技术的许多发现已成为现实。可知，本段主要介绍了LiDAR技术在发现遗址方面起到的重大作用，旨在突出这一技术的贡献和重要性。故选D项。

3.推理判断题。根据第一段中This lost city envelops sites like Tikal, Holmul, and Witzna, but shows that these famous areas are a small part of this lost urban network. 这个失落的城市包围着像蒂卡尔、霍尔木尔和威茨纳这样的地方，但也表明这些著名的地区只是这个失落的城市网格的一小部分；第三段中but the new research has suggested that the size of this lost society is far beyond what experts imagined. 但新的研究表明，这个失落的社会的规模远远超出了专家的想象；以及最后一段中There are 20,000 square kilometres more to be explored and there are going to be hundreds of cities about the mysterious people who built this urban network there that we don’t know about还有2万平方公里的土地有待探索，将会有数百个城市的神秘人在那里建立了我们不知道的城市网络。可判断，玛雅城是广袤的；根据第二段中Those have experts rethinking the outlines and complexity of the Maya Empire.这些让专家们重新思考玛雅帝国的轮廓和复杂性。可判断出，玛雅城是复杂的。因此，玛雅城是广袤和复杂的。故选C项。

4.推理判断题。根据最后一段中There are 20,000 square kilometres more to be explored and there are going to be hundreds of cities about the mysterious people who built this urban network there that we don’t know about, and we will push lack the frontiers with the technology. 还有2万平方公里的土地有待探索，将会有数百个城市的神秘人在那里建立了我们不知道的城市网格，我们将利用这一技术把它推广到新的领域。由此判断出，这些考古学家们将继续利用这一技术开拓新的领域，探索未知的地方。故选A项。