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
Mummies capture our imaginations and our hearts. Full of secrets and magic, they were once people who lived and loved, just as w
Mummies capture our imaginations and our hearts. Full of secrets and magic, they were once people who lived and loved, just as w
admin
2011-04-11
32
问题
Mummies capture our imaginations and our hearts. Full of secrets and magic, they were once people who lived and loved, just as we do today. I believe we should honor these ancient dead and let them rest in peace.
There are some secrets of the pharaohs, however, that can be revealed only by studying their mummies. By carrying out CT scans of King Tutankhamun’s mummy, we were able in 2005 to show that he did not die from a blow to the head, as many people believed. Our analysis revealed that a hole in the back of his skull had been made during the mummification process. The study also showed that Tutankhamun died when he was only 19—perhaps soon after he suffered a fracture to his left leg. But there are mysteries surrounding Tutankhamun that even a CT scanner cannot reveal. Now we have probed even deeper into his mummy and returned with extraordinary revelations about his life, his birth, and his death.
Ten years after ascending the throne, Tutankhamun is dead, leaving no heirs to succeed him. He is hastily buried in a small tomb, designed originally for a private person rather than a king. In a backlash against Akhenaten’s heresy, his successors manage to delete from history nearly all traces of the Amarna kings, including Tutankhamun.
Ironically, this attempt to erase his memory preserved Tutankhamun for all time. Less than a century after his death, the location of his tomb had been forgotten. Hidden from robbers by structures built directly above, it remained virtually untouched until its discovery in 1922. More than 5,000 artifacts were found inside the tomb. But the archaeological record has so far failed to illuminate the young king’s most intimate family relationships. Who were his mother and father? What became of his widow, Ankhesenamun? Are the two mummified fetuses found in his tomb King Tutankhamun’s own prematurely born children, or tokens of purity to accompany him into the afterlife?
To answer these questions, we decided to analyze Tutankhamun’s DNA, along with that of ten other mummies suspected to be members of his immediate family. In the past I had been against genetic studies of royal mummies. The chance of obtaining workable samples while avoiding contamination from modern DNA seemed too small to justify disturbing these sacred remains. But in 2008 several geneticists convinced me that the field had advanced far enough to give us a good chance of getting useful results. We set up two state-of-the-art DNA-sequencing labs, one in the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the other at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University. The research would be led by Egyptian scientists: Yehia Gad and Somaia Ismail from the National Research Center in Cairo. We also decided to carry out CT scans of all the mummies, under the direction of Ashraf Selim and Sahar Saleem of the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University. Three international experts served as consultants: Carsten Pusch of the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen, Germany; Albert Zink of the EURAC-Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy; and Paul Gostner of the Central Hospital Bolzano.
The identities of four of the mummies were known. These included Tutankhamun himself, still in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and three mummies on display at the Egyptian Museum: Amenhotep III, and Yuya and Tuyu, the parents of Amenhotep Ill’s great queen, Tiye. Among the unidentified mummies was a male found in a mysterious tomb in the Valley of the Kings known as KV55. Archaeological and textual evidence suggested this mummy was most likely Akhenaten or Smenkhkare.
Our search for Tutankhamun’s mother and wife focused on four unidentified females. Two of these, nicknamed the "Elder Lady" and the "Younger Lady," had been discovered in 1898, unwrapped and casually laid on the floor of a side chamber in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) , evidently hidden there by priests after the end of the New Kingdom, around 1000 B. C. The other two anonymous females were from a small tomb (KV21) in the Valley of the Kings. The architecture of this tomb suggests a date in the 18th dynasty, and both mummies hold their left fist against their chest in what is generally interpreted as a queenly pose.
Finally, we would attempt to obtain DNA from the fetuses in Tutankhamun’s tomb—not a promising prospect given the extremely poor condition of these mummies. But if we succeeded, we might be able to fill in the missing pieces to a royal puzzle extending over five generations.
To obtain workable samples, the geneticists extracted tissue from several different locations in each mummy, always from deep within the bone, where there was no chance the specimen would be contaminated by the DNA of previous archaeologists—or of the Egyptian priests who had performed the mummification. Extreme care was also taken to avoid any contamination by the researchers themselves. After the samples were extracted, the DNA had to be separated from unwanted substances, including the unguents and resins the priests had used to preserve the bodies. Since the embalming material varied with each mummy, so did the steps needed to purify the DNA. In each case the fragile material could be destroyed at every step.
What does "fetus" mean in the fourth paragraph?
选项
A、a baby before it is born
B、a young baby
C、a youth
D、an adult
答案
A
解析
文章第四段中的“fetus”指的是什么?该题考查考生的词汇量和对上下文的理解。下文中有提及“prematurely born children”,所以我们可以得知“fetus”指的是“a baby before it is born”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/uNYO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
InanewbookcalledPredictions,someoftheworld’sgreatestthinkerspresentavisionofthefuturewithovertonesofascien
Sinceancienttimes,peoplehavedreamedofleavingtheirhomeplanetandexploringotherworlds.Inthelaterhalfofthe20th
______looksatlanguagefromapsychologicalpointofview,andtohim,competenceisapropertyofthemindofeachindividual
Maslow’sHierarchyofNeedsAbrahamMaslowhasdevelopedafamoustheoryofhumanneeds,whichcanbearrangedinorderofim
Northernmarshesarebeingturnedintoempty,desecratedmudflatwasteland.Theculprit?Snowgeese.Thesemarshesaretheb
InBritainthelaststageforabilltobecomelawasActsofParliamentiscalled______.
Haveyoueverthoughtofthesimilaritiesbetweenthecinemaandthetheatre?Thecinemahaslearntagreatdealfromthetheat
TheidealseasonforplantingthecropinthemainfieldisJuly-AugustorNovember-December.Plantingisdoneonraisedbedsof
ThoughnottheidealshapeforaChristmasstocking,thisslimlittlevolumecouldneverthelessmakeawelcomeseasonalgift.La
《圣经》在英语的发展过程中对英语的影响可谓深远。她不仅对英语的词汇的补充和习惯用语的形成功不可没,人们在日常交往中对其的引用更是无处不见。美国有位词汇学教授曾经说过,难以想像一个没有读过《圣经》的人能够学好英语。我们无意去讨论这位教授的话对错与否,但我们对
随机试题
符合法定条件、标准的,申请人有依法取得行政许可的平等权利,行政机关不得歧视()
对鉴别是否肾小球源性血尿最有意义的是
选择产品定价的特点是()。
气浮过程的必要条件不包括()。
工程网络计划按工作持续时间的特点可划分为( )网络计划。
S有限责任公司系外商投资企业,确定的记账本位币为人民币。20×7年1月2日,S有限责任公司收到外商投入的外币资本400000欧元,当日的即期汇率为:1欧元=10元人民币。中外双方签订的投资合同中约定汇率为:1欧元=9.8元人民币。当月的平均汇率为1欧元=1
“超额贷款损失准备可计入部分”属于商业银行资本中的()。
简述音乐的审美特征
【H1】【H12】
A、TheinaccessibleInternet.B、Theservicequality.C、Theannualincome.D、Therailnetwork.B
最新回复
(
0
)