A Rich King Of Old Egypt
The kings of old Egypt were very rich and powerful,and their tombs tell much about their lives.Archeologists2 have looked for these tombs formany years. One man — Lord Carnarvon of England— was not an archeologist. But he was very muchinterested in the way people lived in Egypt long ago.He was given permission to dig for some of the oldtombs in a place called the Valley of the Kings. 3 He hired4 an archeologist named HowardCarter to take charge . 5
For more than five years, the two men worked there with a group of diggers, but they foundvery little . Lord Carnarvon went back to England. Carter had almost lost hope of making animportant discovery. But he kept on with the work.
Then one day in the fall of 1922 , one of his workers uncovered something that looked like astep cut into a rocky hill. He brushed away6 some loose stones and saw a second step below.It took four days to clear sixteen steps leading down into the hill. At the bottom of the steps,there was a wall of stone blocks. On the wall, they found the seal of a king called Tutankhamen.
When Lord Carnarvon heard the news, he sailed on the first ship to Egypt. They began thework of clearing out7 the tomb. It had to be done so carefully that it took six years to finish thejob!
There were four rooms in the tomb. Three of them were piled high with boxes, vases, jewels,and many other beautiful things. There was a golden throne, several golden chariots, the king’shunting bows, and even his gold-trimmed sandals. All these things were put near the king incase he should need them in his own special afterworld.
The fourth room held a huge , carved coffin. In it, there were three more coffins, one inside theother. The last one was made of gold, and in it was the body of Tutankhamen. The body hadbeen prepared with chemicals and was tightly wrapped in cloth. A body that is protected in thisway is called a mummy. There were three layers of cloth wrappings on the body, and a mask ofpure gold.
All the things found in the tomb were taken to museums, andarcheologists have been studyingthem ever since. Because Tutankhamen was a king, everything he left behind is very beautifuland very valuable . The gold itself is worth millions of dollars.
But most important of all is the meaning of the objects themselves. They show how people livedin Egypt more than 3 , 000 years ago.
閱讀自測(cè)
Ⅰ. The following a re the meanings of the words in the passage , and try to fin d the correctwords:
1. to employ———
2. to fold, bind———
3. to collect, gather———
4. agreement, approval———
5. to go by river, set out on a voyage———
Ⅱ. According to the p as sage , fill in the blanks with proper words or phrases :
1. Lord Carnarvon, who was not an_______ , employed Howard Carter to take_______ .
2. Without finding anything, Lord Carnavon went back to England while Carter_______ with it.
3. In the fall of _______, Carter and his workers found the tomb of Tutankhamen. The tombwas_______ with many valuable things, which were put near the king in case he should needthem in his special_______ .
4. It was really a tough job to_______ the tomb for it took them six years to finish it.
5. The body that is protected with chemicals and tightly wrapped in cloth is called a_______ .
6. All the things found in the tomb were taken to_______ to let the archaeologists study. Itssignificance is that the objects show how people lived in_______ more than 3 , 000 years ago.
參考答案
Ⅰ. 1. hire 2 . wrap 3. pile 4 . permission 5 . sail
Ⅱ. 1. archeologist / charge 2 . kept on 3 . 1922 /piled / afterworld 4. clear out 5. mummy 6 .museums / Egypt
參考譯文
古埃及陵墓之謎
古埃及的國(guó)王們非常有錢有勢(shì)，而且他們的陵墓也顯現(xiàn)出他們的生活狀況?？脊艑W(xué)家們已經(jīng)尋找這些墓群好多年了。有一個(gè)人英格蘭的卡納馮勛爵，并不是考古學(xué)家，可他對(duì)遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)期埃及居民的生活方式非常感興趣。他獲得許可，在一個(gè)叫帝王谷的地方發(fā) 掘某些古墓，還雇了一位名叫霍華德· 卡特的考古學(xué)家來(lái)負(fù)責(zé)此事。
這兩人與一群挖掘工在那兒工作了五年多，可收獲甚微?？{馮勛爵返回了英格蘭。雖然卡特對(duì)發(fā)現(xiàn)重要文物幾乎不抱什么希望了，但是他仍繼續(xù)工作。
1922 年秋季的一天，一個(gè)工人挖到一些東西，那東西看起來(lái)很像是切入巖石山的一級(jí)臺(tái)階。霍華德?lián)荛_一些松動(dòng)的石塊，看到下面又有一級(jí)臺(tái)階。清理出通向小山深處的地下的十六級(jí)臺(tái)階花去了四天的時(shí)間。在最下面的一級(jí)臺(tái)階旁，有一堵石墻。在這堵墻上，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了圖坦卡蒙國(guó)王的封戳。
卡納馮勛爵一聽到這個(gè)消息就搭乘最早一班航船駛回埃及。隨后，他們開始對(duì)文物進(jìn)行挖掘清理。他們清理得非常仔細(xì)，總共花了六年的時(shí)間才完工!
陵墓內(nèi)有四間墓室，其中三間都堆滿了箱子、花瓶、珠寶和其他許多漂亮的物品，還有一把金御座，很多輛金戰(zhàn)車，國(guó)王狩獵用的弓，甚至還有鑲金邊的拖鞋。所有這些都放在國(guó)王身旁，以備他自己在與眾不同的陰世生活所需。
第四間墓室內(nèi)存放著一口巨大的帶有雕刻圖案的棺材。這口棺材里面一個(gè)套一個(gè)地放了三層棺材。最內(nèi)層的那個(gè)由黃金制成，里面放著圖坦卡蒙的尸體。尸體經(jīng)過(guò)化學(xué)物品的處理，緊緊地裹在布里。以這種方式保存的尸體就是木乃伊。圖坦卡蒙的尸體裹了三層 布，臉上戴著一幅純金面具。
在陵墓里發(fā)現(xiàn)的所有物品都被送到了博物館，從此考古學(xué)家們一直致力于此項(xiàng)研究。因?yàn)閳D坦卡蒙是位國(guó)王，他遺留下的所有東西都很漂亮也很貴重，黃金本身就價(jià)值不菲。但是，最重要的還是物品本身的內(nèi)涵。這些物品展現(xiàn)了三千多年前埃及人民的生活狀況。