首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
From the air, the lines etched in the floor of the desert were hard to see, like drawings left in the sun too long. As our pilot
From the air, the lines etched in the floor of the desert were hard to see, like drawings left in the sun too long. As our pilot
admin
2012-12-01
32
问题
From the air, the lines etched in the floor of the desert were hard to see, like drawings left in the sun too long. As our pilot cut tight turns over a desert plateau in Southern Peru, north of the town of Nasca, I could just make out a succession of beautifully crafted figures.
"Orca!" shouted Johny Isla, a Peruvian archaeologist, over the roar of the engine. He pointed down at the form of a killer whale. "jMono!" he said moments later, when the famous Nasca monkey came into view. "Colibri!" The hummingbird.
Since they became widely known in the late 1920s, when commercial air travel was introduced between Lima and the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa, the mysterious desert drawings known as the Nasca lines have puzzled archaeologists, anthropologists, and anyone fascinated by ancient cultures in the Americas. For just as long, waves of scientists—and amateurs—have inflicted various interpretations on the lines, as if they were the world’s largest set of Rorschach inkblots. At one time or another, they have been explained as Inca roads, irrigation plans, images to be appreciated from primitive hot-air balloons, and, most laughably, landing strips for alien spacecraft.
After World War II a German-born teacher named Maria Reiche made the first formal surveys of the lines and figures—called geoglyphs—outside Nasca and the nearby town of Palpa. For half a century, until her death in 1998, Reiche played a critically important role in conserving the geoglyphs. But her own preferred theory—that the lines represented settings on an astronomical calendar—has also been largely discredited. The ferocity with which she protected the lines from outsiders has been adopted by their caretakers today, so that even scientists have a hard time gaining access to the most famous animal figures on the plain, or pampa, immediately northwest of Nasca.
Since 1997, however, a large Peruvian-German research collaboration has been under way near the town of Palpa, farther to the north. Directed by Isla and Markus Reindel of the German Archaeological Institute, the Nasca-Palpa Project has mounted a systematic, multidisciplinary study of the ancient people of the region, starting with where and how the Nasca lived, why they disappeared, and what was the meaning of the strange designs they left behind in the desert sand.
As our plane banked into another turn, Isla, a native of the highlands who works at the Andean Institute of Archaeological Studies, kept his broad, high-cheeked face pressed to the window. "Trapezoid!" he shouted, pointing out a huge geometrical clearing looming into sight. "Platform!" he added, gesturing with his finger. "Platform!"
Platform? He was pointing at a small heap of stones at one end of the trapezoid. If Isla and his colleagues are right, such unprepossessing structures may hold a key to understanding the true purpose of the Nasca lines. The story begins, and ends, with water.
The coastal region of Southern Peru and Northern Chile is one of the driest places on Earth. In the small, protected basin where the Nasca culture arose, ten rivers descend from the Andes, to the east, most of them dry at least part of the year. These ten fragile ribbons of green, surrounded by a thousand shades of brown, offered a fertile hot spot for the emergence of an early civilization, much as the Nile Delta or the rivers of Mesopotamia did. "It was the perfect place for human settlement, because it had water," says geographer Bernhard Eitel, a member of the Nasca-Palpa Project. "But it was a high-risk environment—a very high-risk environment."
According to Eitel and his University of Heidelberg colleague Bertil Machtle, the microclimate in the Nasca region has oscillated dramatically over the past 5,000 years. When a high-pressure system over central South America called the Bolivian High moves to the north, more rain falls on the western slopes of the Andes. When the high shifts southward, precipitation decreases, and the rivers in the Nasca valleys run dry.
Despite the risky conditions, the Nasca flourished for eight centuries. Around 200 BC, the Nasca people emerged out of a previous culture known as the Paracas, settling along the river valleys and cultivating crops such as cotton, beans, tubers, lucuma (a fruit), and a short-eared form of corn. Renowned for their distinctive pottery, they invented a new technique of mixing about a dozen different mineral pigments in a thin wash of clay so that colors could be baked into the pottery. A famous ceramic tableau known as the Tello plaque—showing several Nasca strolling while blowing their panpipes, surrounded by dancing dogs—has been viewed as an iconic snapshot of a peaceful people whose rituals embraced music, dance, and sacred walks.
Which of the following words best matches the meaning of the word "oscillate" in Paragraph 9?
选项
A、Move back and forth.
B、Go up and down.
C、Climb high and low.
D、Shift right and left.
答案
A
解析
辨词题。文中出现的“oscillate”一词指的是“来回移动”,故A项正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/XUaO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
AgeStructuresinMexicoandSwedenAgestructurereferstothepercentageofthepopulationindifferentage【1】______Mexico’
Weallbelieveinsomethingorsomeone.Wemustbelieve,justaswemusteat,sleep,andreproduce.Mankindhasaninsatiablene
LearningalanguageLinguistsareinterestedintheabilitiesthatpeoplehavetolearnlanguageandaretryingtosolvethepr
A、Becausesomecivilprisonerswereplanningtobreaktheprison.B、BecausetheyfoundamajorIraqicriminalinthebuilding.C
Itisalongtimeforalargemountofbigcorporationsorinternationalcompaniestopaymuchattentiontoanever-importantsu
TheroadfromMilduratoMerbein,innorth-westVictoria,isasadsight.Manyofitsfarmsarecoveredwithwinegrapes,dying
TheAmericanFamilyWe’lllearntheAmericanfamiliesfromthefollowingfiveaspects:1.Familystructures1)Immediatefamily
Thewaysofhistoryaresointricateandthemotivationsofhumanactionssocomplexthatitisalwayshazardoustoattempttor
SOMETHINGABOUTNAPLESjustseemsmadeforcomedy.Thenamealoneconjuresuppizza,andlovable,incorrigibleinnocentswarblin
朋友A君,四十余岁,自认为是引导新潮流的电影理论家。实际上成“家”还差那么一丁点。最近著系列小文,专论电影艺术的“物质还原性”。举凡“物质还原性”与吾国电影艺术发展十大关系。因其系列而引起电影理论界注意。何谓电影艺术的“物质还原性”,则未加阐明。更显“十大
随机试题
德育过程的基本矛盾是()
石膏使用注意事项为
在直接或间接持有上市公司已发行股份的()以上的股东单位或者在上市公司前五名股东单位任职的人员及其直系亲属不能担任独立董事。
上海文坛上耕耘不息的通俗小说大家是()。
按产生的原因.金融风险可分为信用风险、利率风险、汇率风险、()。
现代科技成果创造了发达的医学,延长了人的寿命,降低了新生婴儿的死亡率,加上第二次世界大战后长期的和平环境,一些国家很晚才实行计划生育政策,这给人类造成了一个稳定的生育时代。世界人口迅速增长,预计本世纪初将达到64亿。这句话主要支持了这样一个论点,即()
某公司发生盗窃案件,经过调查,得到如下情况:(1)窃贼是甲或者乙;(2)如果甲是窃贼,则作案时间不在零点之前;(3)零点时公司的灯光已经灭了;(4)若乙的证词正确,则作案时间在零点前;(5)
简述教育研究范式的发展历程。
资本主义生产方式的发展迄今为止经历了
某软件公司欲开发一个在线交易系统。为了能够精确表达用户与系统的复杂交互过程,应该采用UML的(17)进行交互过程建模。
最新回复
(
0
)