北美托福机经英文版原文(3)

　　1. 一个在Iran伊朗的上古聚落，人类最早的城市，简单介绍这个城市，城市成长依靠旁边的卫星城市（农业），介绍一个观念，多余的粮食导致专精技工的产生。
　　三段讨论这个观念并分别举例生产的专精生产的东西：
　　瓷器 (pottery) 有标准规格，所以规格选择较少；
　　纺织 (textile) 专业组织；
　　矿业 (mental)；
　　立体印章 (cylinder seal) 强调比石器时代的印章还要精致，并强调东西已经到专家级水准。
　　关于Mesopotamia美索不达米亚文化，最开始说它农业发展很好，然后说其实它的craft类的也比较不错，由开始的自己家里人做慢慢转到专业的人生产，但生产的pottery等东西没装饰，纯使用，并且有基本相同的standard。最后一段说它也有一些cylinder seal什么的，它们的surface显示生产他们的人也是会专业技巧的。总体都在强调那些craftsman都是有专业的technical skill的。
　　单字题：intact =undamaged
　　Civilization emerged in Mesopotamia because the soil provided a surplus of food. With this surplus, people could settle down to village life and with these new settlements, towns and cities began to make their appearance, a process known as urbanization. With settlements and a surplus of food came an increase in the population, a well-defined division of labor, organization, cooperation and kingship. The emergence of cities involved interaction between people. Most cities evolved from smaller farming villages and with the practice of irrigation, which was necessary for villages distant from the Tigris and Euphrates, a stable food supply was produced. This, in turn, allowed increases in the number of people who inhabited each settlement.
　　Because the land closest to the river was the most fertile, there was a variation in terms of the wealth of these early farmers, which led to distinct social classes. At the same time, the construction of canals, ditches and dikes essential to irrigation demanded cooperation between different social groups. Decision-making, regulation and control of all food production and herding meant cooperation. And because more food could be produced by less people, some people gave up farming and became craftsmen, laborers, merchants and officials and this too required cooperation. The Mesopotamians built massive temples or ziggurats which housed the priestly class, the human representatives of the gods. The priests controlled the religious life of the community, the economy, land ownership, the employment of workers as well as the management of long distance trade.
　　Mesopotamian villages and towns eventually evolved into independent and nearly self-sufficient city-states. Although largely economically dependent on one another, these city-states were independent political entities and retained very strong isolationist tendencies. This isolationism hindered the unification of the Mesopotamian city-states, which eventually grew to twelve in number.
　　By 3000 B.C., Mesopotamian civilization had made contact with other cultures of the Fertile Crescent (a term first coined by James Breasted in 1916), an extensive trade network connecting Mesopotamia with the rest of Ancient Western Asia. Again, it was the two rivers which served as both trade and transportation routes.
　　The achievements of Mesopotamian civilization were numerous. Agriculture, thanks to the construction of irrigation ditches, became the primary method of subsistence. Farming was further simplified by the introduction of the plow. We also find the use of wheel-made pottery. Between 3000 and 2900 B.C. craft specialization and industries began to emerge (ceramic pottery, metallurgy and textiles). Evidence for this exists in the careful planning and construction of the monumental buildings such as the temples and ziggurats. During this period (roughly 3000 B.C.), cylinder seals became common. These cylindrical stone seals were five inches in height and engraved with images. These images were reproduced by rolling the cylinder over wet clay. The language of these seals remained unknown until to 20th century. But, scholars now agree that the language of these tablets was Sumerian.
　　2. 说人们可以通过研究海里板块运动什么的可以知道那些海上小岛和continent怎么形成的和什么时候形成的，好像还跟火山喷发什么的有关。
　　举了夏威夷里的a series of islands为例。又说了俩人，分别对板块漂移学说做出了贡献，因为他俩分别做了一些相关research来证明自己的假设。最后说这种发放有局限性 只能通过新形成的来测飘的trail，老的就不行了，因为它们存在时间短。
　　传统观点是说火山总在plate接壤的地方形成，但文章说夏威夷的火山就在海洋的中间，而不是接壤处。之后提到两个学者的研先后的研究，有题问道他们的研究之间是什么关系。后来提到火山的年龄，和一个hot spots，貌似能影响火山，最后说火山的年龄可以从xxxx中反映出来（有题）。
　　辞汇，converge=get closer，approximately=roughly，eroded=worn down。
　　3. 捕食者和被捕食的动物的关系。中心句说他们不是简单的捕食和被捕的关系，而是和整个环境还有食物链有关。之后开始举例，说他们做的实验，总体是捕食者和被捕者的数量反向相关，还提到在一个环境中，有食物的影响或有捕食者的影响生物才能生存，如果完全没有这两个因素的限制就不能生存。最后说在海洋环境中，海星和它的竞争者必须同时生存，如果让其中一种独占环境，就会迅速死亡。
　　prey-predator circle。先说一种动物的redundancy circle不光与predator有关，还跟其他有关，像食物什么的。然后是举了hare为例吧，hare吃了branches，然后数量长了，但是树少了它们就得吃low-quality food，数量就又少了。大概10年一周期。它们的predator，好像是wolf？数量跟他们同方向变化，紧跟他们后面。还有人做了一实验，移了wolf还给食物的话，hare的数量涨到一个数量就不长了，保持，circle没了。但是若单独给食物或单独留wolf，他们的circle就会变。最后讲了一个什么概念，举例，在海洋里，你移了海星，它们的prey就增了，最有竞争力的那个prey会占最多资源，把其他的less competitors挤掉。所以diversity就减少了。