阅读试题

Passage 18
A study conducted by an Australian science agency has discovered signs that the country’s ancient Aborigines may have been the world’s first astronomers, _1_ Stonehenge (巨石阵）in Britain by more than a thousand years.
Professor Ray Norris, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO), said _2_ knowledge of the stars through songs and stories had been passed down through generations by the Aboriginal people, whose history dates back tens of thousands of years.
“We know there are many stories about the sky: songs, legends, myths to mark out the seasons， so they are very _3_,” Norris said. “People _4_ changed settlement, so when Pleiades (the Seven Sisters star _5_ ) was up they would move to where the nuts and berries are. Another sign and it would be time to move to the rivers to fish for barramundi, and so on.”
Norris, who has studied Aboriginal culture _6_ and has made several journeys to Arnhem Land in Australia’s Outback, said the research also _7_ more detailed astronomical thought. “Clearly some thinker in the past has been sitting down in the bush, watching the _8_ and trying to figure out how it works,” he said. “Those thoughts are then encoded in the songs and ceremonies.” Norris is now looking for _9_ that might date the earliest signs of Aboriginal astronomy, such as a stone carving of a meteor strike or comet.
Norris is confident that the Aborigines pre-dated European astronomers, including Stonehenge and Egypt’s great pyramid Giza, both of which are _10_ at around 3100 BC. “We’ve established there is all this astronomy, what I don’t know is how far back this goes. If it goes back 10,000 or 20,000 years, that makes Aborigines the world’s first astronomers,” he said.
A) detailed B) boosted C) eclipse D) vigorous
E) practical F) evidence G) revealed H) estimated
I) regularly J) routine K) cluster L) preceding
M) extensively N) rectifying O) respectively

解题思路

Passage 18
解题思路
1.[L]空格所在部分意为“比英国的巨石阵要……一千多年”,结合前面的the world’s first,可推断填入空格的词应含“早于，先于”之义。词库中现在分词preceding“先于……发生”符合句法和句意，preceding…years在句中作状语。
2.[A]空格处需要一个名词、形容词或分词修饰knowledge，词库中的形容词detailed最符合上下文的意思，表示“详细的星象知识”。由于本段没有提及土著人的星象学怎么有用，因此practical不如detailed合适。
3.[E]空格在they are very之后，应为形容词或分词。空格前的连词so表明此部分内容与前一分句存在因果关系。前面说到土著有许多描绘季节如何更替的歌谣、传说和神话，可见这些故事都很“实用”，故此处应选 practical。
4. [I]空格在主语和动词之间，应为副词。根据so分句提到的“他们会迁移到有坚果和架果的地方”可知，土著人会随季节变换迁移居所，regularly能体现迁移的规律性，符合文中语境。
5.[K] the Seven Sisters star...是对Pleiades的进一步解说。空格有可能是分词或形容词作后置定语，修饰名词star;也有可能是名词，star作其定语。词库中，名词cluster可以与star搭配，意为“星团”，符合句子语境。
6.[M]空格所在的定语从句已有谓语动词和宾语，因此空格最有可能填入副词。Norris是研究土著文化的专家，extensively最切文意，表示Norris“大量、深人”地研究过土著文化。regularly填入句中，句法虽正确但不足以说明Norris在这方面的权威，故排除。
7.[G]从句the research... astronomical thought缺少谓语动词，根据主句谓语said判断该动词应为过去式。此处应选用revealed，表示“研究揭示了土著人对于天文学的更多想法”。
8.[C]承接上一句，本句的内容应该也与“天文”有关。根据空格后的“努力弄明白它是怎么运行的”，可推知填入空格的名词可能是某个天文现象。eclipse“日食，月食”为本题答案。
9.[F] for提示空格处应填入名词。根据后面内容“可以追溯土著天文学的最早标记，比如记录流星撞击或彗星的石刻”,可知Norris正在寻找的是证据，evidence符合句意。
10.[H] around 3100 BC提示空格所在从句补充说明巨石阵和吉萨金字塔的年代，但对于它们的建造年代并没有确切的记录，只能推测，estimated符合句意，与系动词are构成被动语态。