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  3. Sumerian Contributions P1: Before about 4500 B.C., lower Mesopotamia, the whole plain between and on either side of the Tigris a

Sumerian Contributions P1: Before about 4500 B.C., lower Mesopotamia, the whole plain between and on either side of the Tigris a

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问题 Sumerian Contributions
P1: Before about 4500 B.C., lower Mesopotamia, the whole plain between and on either side of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was much less densely populated than other inhabited regions of the Near and Middle East. Each year the two great rivers were swollen with the winter snows of the northern mountains, and each year at flood stage they spread a thick layer of immensely fertile silt across the flood plain where they approached the Persian Gulf. But without domestic animals and beasts, this swampy delta was not suited to the primitive hoe-centric tilling culture of early agriculture. Besides, the Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. However, it was in this unpromising area, between 3500 and 3000 B. C, that agricultural settlers created a wealth of city-states that constituted Sumer, of which the best known is Ur. The Sumerians appeared at the dawn of history as a fully developed society with a technology and organization that was distinct from and superior to other societies of the time. Even civilization itself seems to have stemmed from this alien and mysterious people.
P2: This delta, a land of swamps rich in fish, wildlife, and date palms, was the most challenging and rewarding of the three natural units into which the river valleys were divided. Reasons for their being challenging lie in that the rivers not only sustained life, but they also destroyed it with frequent floods that ravaged entire cities. Although land nearer to the rivers was fertile and good for crops, portions of land farther from the water were dry and largely uninhabitable. Therefore, the development of drainage and irrigation systems was essential for Sumerians to harness the full productivity of this land,which in turn required a large and well-disciplined workforce, as well as skilled management and supervision—the latter were supplied by a class of priests and warriors who ruled a large population of peasants and artisans.
P3: The economy that sustained the people of Sumer relied on agriculture and trade. To support agriculture, Sumerians created sophisticated water transport systems that would both irrigate crops during dry periods and control flooding during the spring. This water management enabled them to build up a food surplus for trading. They exchanged barley and wheat to supplement a scarcity of stone and lumber, as well as copper and bronze, thereby contributing to the diffusion of Sumerian civilization. In Sumerian cities, stone imported by sea through the Persian Gulf from Oman and downriver from the mountains of Anatolia and the Caucasus had to complete with imported copper, and the latter proved more economical and effective for a variety of uses. Sumerians would have plowed with stone and cut with clay sickles, and went on to using metal plows with the development of metal-working skills.
P4: One of the greatest accomplishments of the Sumerian people was the invention of a writing system, likely growing out of commercial record keeping. Each Sumerian city rose up around the shrine of a local god. As a reflection of a city’s wealth, its temple became an elaborate structure. Both economic and religious organizations centered on the temple of the local patron deity, represented by a priestly hierarchy, in which a corporation run by priests became the greatest landowners among the Sumerians. Common Sumerians remained illiterate and without power, while kings, once elected by common people, became monarchs. Common people were obliged to pay taxes to the government in the form of a percentage of their crops, which the city could either sell or use to feed its soldiers and others it supported. In order to keep records of the sources and uses of this tribute, simple pictographs on clay tablets appeared sometime before 3000 B.C. By about 2800 B.C., the pictographs had been stylized into the system of writing known as cuneiform, a distinctive characteristic of Mesopotamian civilization. It is one of the few examples in history of a significant innovation from a bureaucratic organization.
P5: Whether the Sumerians were the first to develop writing is uncertain, but theirs is the oldest known system of writing. The clay tablets on which they wrote were very durable when baked. Archaeologists have dug up many thousands of them—some dated earlier than 3000 B.C. The cuneiform texts recorded messages and historical events as well as commercial transactions. They evolved into producing written sagas such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world’s oldest surviving literary work.
P4: One of the greatest accomplishments of the Sumerian people was the invention of a writing system, likely growing out of commercial record keeping. Each Sumerian city rose up around the shrine of a local god. As a reflection of a city’s wealth, its temple became an elaborate structure. ■ Both economic and religious organizations centered on the temple of the local patron deity, represented by a priestly hierarchy, in which a corporation run by priests became the greatest landowners among the Sumerians. ■ Common Sumerians remained illiterate and without power, while kings, once elected by common people, became monarchs. ■ Common people were obliged to pay taxes to the government in the form of a percentage of their crops, which the city could either sell or use to feed its soldiers and others it supported. ■ In order to keep records of the sources and uses of this tribute, simple pictographs on clay tablets appeared sometime before 3000 B.C. By about 2800 B.C., the pictographs had been stylized into the system of writing known as cuneiform, a distinctive characteristic of Mesopotamian civilization. It is one of the few examples in history of a significant innovation from a bureaucratic organization.
According to paragraph 5, which of the following was true of Sumerian writing ?
选项 A、Knowledge of it was limited to the temple-centered administration.
B、It was used for purposes beyond those for which it was first created.
C、It was used primarily to help keep the traditional leadership in power.
D、It led to further technological developments by 2800 B.C.
答案B
解析 【事实信息题】末句提到楔形文字被用来记载消息以及历史事件，甚至发展出文学，这些都超出了它原本的目的。
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