Sumerian Civilization
It is an astonishing fact that human civilizationshould have emerged into the light of history in two separateplaces at just about the same time. Between 3500 and 3000 B.C. whenEgypt was being united under pharaonic rule other greatcivilization arose in Mesopotamia the “land between the rivers.”And for close to three thousand years, the two rival centersretained their distinct characters, even though they had contactwith each other from their earliest beginnings, and their destinieswere interwoven in many ways. The pressure that forced theinhabitants of both regions to abandon the pattern of Neolithicvillage life may well have been the same. But the valley of theTigris and Euphrates rivers, unlike that of the Nile, is not anarrow fertile strip protected by desert on either side. Itresembles a wide, shallow trough with few natural defenses,crisscrossed by two great rivers and their tributaries, and iseasily encroached upon from any direction.
Thus the facts of geography tended to discouragethe idea of uniting the entire Mesopotamian area under a singlehead. Rulers who had this ambition did not appear, so far as weknow, until about one thousand years after the beginning ofMesopotamian civilization, and they succeeded in carrying it outonly for brief periods and at the cost of almost continuouswarfare. As a consequence, the political history of ancientMesopotamia has no underlying theme of the sort that divinekingship provides for Egypt. Local rivalries foreign incursions,the sudden upsurge and equally sudden collapse of militarypower–those are its substance. Against such a disturbed background,the continuity of cultural and artistic traditions seems all themore remarkable. This common heritage is very largely the creationof the founders of Mesopotamian Civilization, whom we callSumerians after the region of Sumer, which they inhabited, near theconfluence of the Tigris and Euphrates.
The origin of the Sumerians remains obscure. Theirlanguage is unrelated to any other known tongue. Sometimes before4,000 B.C. they came to southern Mesopotamia, from Persia, andthere, within the next thousand years, they founded a number ofcity-states and developed their distinctive form of writing incuneiform (wedge-shaped) characters on clay tablets.nUnfortunately, the tangible remains of Sumerian civilization areextremely scanty compared to those of ancient Egypt. nBuildingstone being unavailable in Mesopotamia, the Sumerians used mudbrick and wood, so that almost nothing is left of theirarchitecture except the foundation. nNor did they share theEgyptians' concern with the hereafter, although some richly endowedtombs in the shape of vaulted chambers below ground from the earlydynastic period have been found in the city of Ur. nOur knowledgeof Sumerian Civilization thus depends very largely on chancefragments brought to light by excavation, including vast numbers ofinscribed clay tablets. Yet we have learned enough to form ageneral picture of this vigorous, inventive, and disciplinedpeople.
Each Sumerian city-state had its own local god, whowas regarded as its king and owner. It also had a human ruler, thesteward of the divine sovereign, who led the people in serving thedeity. The local god, in return, was expected to plead the cause ofhis subjects among his fellow deities who controlled the forces ofnature such as wind and weather, water, fertility, and the heavenlybodies. Nor was the idea of divine ownership treated as a merepious fiction. The god was quite literally believed to own not onlythe territory of the city-state but also the labor power of thepopulation and its products. All these were subject to hiscommands, transmitted to the people by his human steward. Theresult was an economic system that has been dubbed “theocraticsocialism”, a planned society whose administrative center was thetemple. The temple controlled the pooling of labor and resourcesfor communal enterprises, such as the building of dikes orirrigation ditches, and it collected and distributed a considerablepart of the harvest. All this required the keeping of detailedwritten records. Hence, we need not be surprised to find that thetexts of early Sumerian inscriptions deal very largely witheconomic and administrative rather than religious matters, althoughwriting was a priestly privilege.
中文大意：
主要在讲苏美文明civilization 还和埃及比较了一下。
二个文明同时出现在不同的地区，十分令人惊讶astonishing（词汇题）。
一是法老统治的埃及；一是苏美（二河流域）。二者有交流，但各自保有各自的特色。（句子同义改写）
在地理条件方面，埃及有沙漠屏障，而两河流域四面受敌，因此两河流域很难被统一。
两河文明发迹后，曾短暂的统一，不过结果是外患内战，突然掘起、突然衰败的军事力量，成为两河文明的本质（指代题）。不过如此纷乱的背景，反而衬托出他们非凡的文化及艺术传统。
苏美文明的起源仍然不明obscure（词汇题），和埃及相比，留下的遗迹也很少。因为缺少石头，所以他们建筑使用泥砖和木头。虽然在Ur有发现一些墓穴，不过他们不像埃及人这么重视来世（题目）。我们对苏美文明的了解来自偶然挖出的大量vast（词汇题）泥板。
苏美各国城邦都有不同的god和human ruler。humanruler带领人们进行祭神的活动。god不仅呼风唤雨，对土地有所有权，而且能够分配人力及资源。庙宇是管理的中心，可以集中、分配很多的considerable（词汇题）作物，这些都需要详细的记录，所以，虽然书写是神职人员的特权，但大多数的记录都和管理及经济有关，反而不是记录宗教的事务。
考题及答案：
（1）The word “astonishing” in the passage is closestin meaning to
答案：(C) amazing。
（2） Which of the sentences below best expresses theessential information in the highlighted sentence in the passageIncorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave outessential information.
答案：(C) A great civilization arose in Mesopotamiabetween 3500 and 3000 B.C. at the same time that ancient Egypt wasbeing united.
（3） The phrase "its substance" in the passagerefers to
答案：(A) the political history of ancientMesopotamia
（4）The word “obscure” in the passage is closest inmeaning to
答案： (A) unclear。
（5）The author mentions Nor did they share theEgyptians’ concern with the hereafter, in order to
答案：(A) To provide one explanation for therelatively few physical remains of ancient Sumerian society.
（6） It can be inferred that the City of Ur islocated in
答案：(D) near the confluence of Tigris andEuphrates
（7）The word “vast ” in the passage is closest inmeaning to
答案：(B) very large
（8）According to paragraph 2 and 3, the physicalcharacteristics of Mesopotamia affected Sumerian civilization inall of the following ways EXCEPT
答案：(C) Continuity of cultural and artistictraditions could not be achieved.
（9） Look at the four squares that indicate wherethe following sentence could be added to the passage.Despite theseachievements, scholars know much less about Sumerian life than theywould like.
答案：(D) 第四个方块。
（10）In the above paragraph, what evidence is usedto support the claim that the idea of divine ownership was not a “amere pious fiction”
答案：(D) The idea of divine ownership served asthe basis for the economic organization of Sumeriansociety.
（11）The word “considerable ” in the passage isclosest in meaning to
答案：(A) substantial
（12）In the above passage, all of the following weretrue of the local god EXCEPT
答案：(D) The local god sometimes fought against thelocal gods of rival city-states.
（13）分类题。
Ancient Egyptian Civilization SumerianCivilization
政治统一了很久时间
有相当多建筑物遗址城邦国家是一个特色
从文件中所记载
这一个文明受到外部的侵略