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  3. In March 1974 one of the most astonishing archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century was unearthed in the county of Lin

In March 1974 one of the most astonishing archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century was unearthed in the county of Lin

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问题     In March 1974 one of the most astonishing archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century was unearthed in the county of Lintong, Shaanxi Province. An entire army of life-sized warriors and horses, buried for more than 2200 years, began to be uncovered. These replicas had been placed in trenches around the still-unexcavated tomb of Qinshihuang, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty(221-207 B.C.). Each of the many hundreds of life-sized warriors was constructed of baked clay and painted with a variety of colors. Most were obviously intended as individual portraits.
    The head shapes of these figures and the expressions on their faces were, more or less, individualized, and so each man could be identified as to his place of regional origin. The square-faced, broad-foreheaded, prominent-cheekboned, heavy-featured, big-mouthed and wide-cheeked ones were modeled after natives of central Shaanxi. The shorter, round-faced, sharp-chinned, and thin-lipped soldiers were modeled after persons from the province of Sichuan. Others were clearly from Gansu, and there were some who appeared to be members of various minorities in northwestern China. Each had its own hairdo: the ones with long hair had the knot at the right side of the head because the Qin people esteemed the right.
    To the surprise of both Chinese and Western archaeologists, a few of the clay soldiers showed non-Chinese characteristics possibly being persons from as far away as Arabia or Persia. This was particularly surprising because it had long been assumed that there were no persons from outside China living there in such ancient times.
    Yet a century later the historical record does indicate limited contact with foreigners. There is one report in the annals of the Eastern Han Dynasty(A.D. 25-220)of a Roman juggler who arrived in China by way of Burma in A. D. 109, and another of the arrival of an envoy from Macedonia at about the same time. And the Roman historian Lucjus Amnase Floras mentions the coming of a Chinese envoy to Rome as early as the reign of Augustus(27 B.C.-A. D. 14).
    But extensive contacts between China and the West didn’t really begin until the northern Silk Road was gradually developed after 138 B.C. This overland route started at present-day Xi’an and passed through the Western Corridor beyond the Yellow River, Xinjiang, Farghana(now Uzbekistan), Persia(Iran)and Tajik(Iraq)where it met western boundary of the Roman Empire.
    For more than a thousand years this northern Silk Road provided a route for caravans that brought to China dates, saffron powder and pistachio nuts from Persia; glass bottles from Egypt, and many other expensive and desirable goods from other parts of the world. And the caravans went home with their camels and horses loaded down by bolts of silk brocade and boxes filled with lacquer ware and porcelains.
    Another Silk Road, documented in the geography section of the History of Han Dynasty, was a sea route that began at the ports of Xuwen and Hepu on the Reizhou Peninsula in South China(near which the city of Beihai is now located), passed through the Malacca Strait and ended in Burma or the Huangchi Kingdom of southern India.
    More Chinese porcelains and silks reached Europe by this route than by the overland one because of pirates and storms at sea. Subsidiary branches of this Silk Road of the sea reached such places as Korea, Japan, and the Philippines to allow for the exchange of various goods not readily available over the land route. For example, as early as the third century A.D., the Philippines were shipping gold to China by this route.
In the passage "Silk Road" refers to______.
选项 A、a land route by which silk brocade was transported to the West
B、any route which connected China with other countries
C、flow of goods from China to other countries
D、Caravans that did business with China and other countries
答案B
解析 根据文章内容可知，作者介绍了古代中国和世界各国贸易往来的陆上和海上通道。“丝绸之路”最初指陆上通道，后来含义扩大，包括海上路道及其支路。据此判断，答案是B。
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