Ancient Egyptian Calendar托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

Ancient Egyptian Calendar托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

一、Ancient Egyptian Calendar托福聽力原文：

Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a history class.The professor has been discussing ancient Egypt.

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Ok,so one of the challenges that faced ancient civilizations like Egypt was timekeeping...calendars.When you have to grow food for whole cities of people,it's important to plant your crops at the right time.And when you start having financial obligations—rents,taxes—you have to keep track of how often you pay.

So today we'll look at how the Egyptians addressed these problems.In fact,they ended up using two different calendars,one to keep track of the natural world,or their,uh,their agricultural concerns,and another one that was used to keep track of the business functions of the kingdom.So,let’s take a look at the hows and whys of one ancient Egyptian calendar system...starting with the Nile River.

Why the Nile?Well,there's no other way to put it:Egyptian life basically revolved around the mysterious rise and fall of the river.The success of their agricultural system,um,depended upon them knowing when the river would change.So naturally,their first calendar was divided up into three seasons,each based on the river’s changes:inundation,subsidence,and harvest.

The first season was the flooding,or inundation,when the Nile Valley was essentially submerged in water for a few months or so.And afterwards,during the season of subsidence,the water would subside—or,recede—revealing a new layer of fertile black silt,and allowing for the planting of various crops.And finally,the time of the year would arrive when the valley would produce crops such as wheat,barley,fruit...all ready to harvest.OK?So it was very important to the ancient Egyptians to know when their Nile-based seasons would occur—their way of life depended upon it.

Now,the way they used to count time was based on the phases of the moon—which regularly and predictably goes through a cycle starting with the new moon then to a full moon and back again to the new moon.Now,this cycle was then used to determine the length of their months.So,uh,one lunar cycle was one Egyptian month and about four of the months would constitute a season.Now,twelve of these months was an approximately 354 day year.So they had a 354-day agricultural calendar that was designed to help them determine,uh,when the Nile would inundate the land.

Well,of course it had to be more complicated than that.The average amount of time between floodings wasn’t actually 354 days.I mean,although it varies,the average was clearly longer than 354 days.So how did they keep this shorter calendar in step with the actual flooding of the Nile?

Well,their astronomers had discovered that,uh,at a certain time of year the brightest star,Sirius,would disappear—actually,it’d be hidden in the glare of the Sun.And then,uh,a couple of months later,one morning,in the eastern sky just before dawn,Sirius would reappear.And it happened regularly,uh,about every 365 days.Even more significantly,the reappearance of Sirius would occur,uh,around the same time as the Nile's flooding.And this annual event—is called a heliacal rising...

The heliacal rising was a fair indicator of when the Nile would flood.The next new Moon,uh,after the heliacal rising of Sirius,which happened in the last month of the calendar year,marked the New Year.And because the ancient Egyptians were using the lunar cycle in combination with this heliacal rising,some years ended up having twelve lunar months,while others had thirteen lunar months—if Sirius didn't rise in the twelfth month.

Even though the length of the agricultural calendar still fluctuated,with some years having twelve months and others having thirteen,it ended up being much more reliable than it was before.They continually adjusted to the heliacal rising of Sirius ensuring that they never got too far off in their seasons.This new calendar was ideal because,well,it worked well for agricultural purposes as well as for knowing when to have traditional religious festivals.So,that was their first calendar.

But...was it any way to run a government?They didn't think so.For administrative purposes it was very inconvenient to have years of different lengths.So another calendar was introduced—an administrative one,probably soon after 3000 B.C.They declared a 365-day year with twelve-months per year with exactly 30 days each month,with an extra 5 days at the end of each year.

This administrative calendar existed alongside the earlier,agricultural and religious calendar,uh,that depended on the heliacal rising of Sirius.This administrative calendar was much easier to use for things like scheduling taxes and…and other things that had to be paid on time.Over time the calendar got out of step with seasons and the flooding of the Nile—but for bureaucratic purposes,they didn’t mind.

二、Ancient Egyptian Calendar托福聽力中文翻譯：

旁白：在歷史課上聽一節(jié)課的一部分。教授一直在討論古埃及。

女教授：好的，像埃及這樣的古代文明所面臨的挑戰(zhàn)之一就是計時。。。日歷。當你必須為整個城市的人們種植糧食時，在正確的時間種植作物是很重要的。當你開始承擔財務義務時，租金、稅費你必須記錄你多久支付一次。

今天我們來看看埃及人是如何解決這些問題的。事實上，他們最終使用了兩種不同的日歷，一種是用來記錄自然世界，或者他們的農(nóng)業(yè)問題，另一種是用來記錄王國的商業(yè)功能。那么，讓我們來看看一個古埃及歷法系統(tǒng)是如何和為什么的。。。從尼羅河開始。

為什么是尼羅河？好吧，沒有別的說法了：埃及人的生活基本上圍繞著這條河神秘的漲落。他們農(nóng)業(yè)系統(tǒng)的成功，嗯，取決于他們知道河流何時會改變。因此，自然地，他們的第一個日歷分為三個季節(jié)，每個季節(jié)都基于河流的變化：洪水、沉降和收獲。

第一個季節(jié)是洪水泛濫，尼羅河流域基本上被淹沒了幾個月左右。然后，在下沉季節(jié)，水會下沉，或者退去，露出一層新的肥沃的黑色淤泥，可以種植各種作物。最后，一年中的某個時候，山谷將種植小麥、大麥、水果。。。一切都準備好了。好啊因此，對于古埃及人來說，了解尼羅河季節(jié)何時到來是非常重要的，他們的生活方式依賴于此。

現(xiàn)在，他們用來計算時間的方法是基于月亮的相位，它有規(guī)律地、可預測地經(jīng)歷一個周期，從新月開始，然后到滿月，再回到新月。現(xiàn)在，這個周期被用來確定他們的月份長度。所以，呃，一個月球周期是一個埃及月，其中大約四個月將構(gòu)成一個季節(jié)。現(xiàn)在，其中12個月大約是354天。所以他們有一個354天的農(nóng)業(yè)日歷，旨在幫助他們確定尼羅河何時會淹沒土地。

當然，事情要比這復雜得多。洪水之間的平均間隔時間實際上不是354天。我的意思是，雖然它有所不同，但平均時間明顯超過354天。那么，他們是如何使這個較短的日歷與尼羅河的實際洪水保持一致的呢？

嗯，他們的天文學家發(fā)現(xiàn)，呃，在一年中的某個時候，最亮的恒星，天狼星，會消失，實際上，它會隱藏在陽光下。然后，呃，幾個月后的一天早上，在黎明前的東方天空，小天狼星會再次出現(xiàn)。這種情況經(jīng)常發(fā)生，呃，大約每365天一次。更重要的是，小天狼星的再次出現(xiàn)將發(fā)生在尼羅河泛濫的同時。這個一年一度的活動被稱為heliacal rising。。。

希拉克河的上漲是尼羅河何時泛濫的一個合理指標。下一個新月，呃，在天狼星的希拉克上升之后，發(fā)生在日歷年的最后一個月，標志著新年。由于古埃及人將月球周期與這種希拉克上升相結(jié)合，一些年份最終有十二個月，而其他年份則有十三個月，如果天狼星不在第十二個月上升。

盡管農(nóng)歷的長度仍在波動，有些年份有12個月，有些年份有13個月，但它最終比以前可靠得多。他們不斷地適應天狼星的上升，以確保他們在賽季中不會走得太遠。這種新的日歷很理想，因為它很適合農(nóng)業(yè)用途，也很適合知道什么時候舉行傳統(tǒng)的宗教節(jié)日。這是他們的第一個日歷。

但是這是管理政府的方式嗎？他們不這么認為。出于行政目的，不同長度的年份非常不方便。因此，另一種歷法被引入了行政歷法，可能是在公元前3000年之后不久。他們宣布一年365天，每年12個月，每月正好30天，每年年底額外增加5天。

這個行政日歷與早期的農(nóng)業(yè)和宗教日歷同時存在，呃，這取決于天狼星的希拉克崛起。這個管理日歷更容易用于安排稅收和其他必須按時支付的事情。隨著時間的推移，日歷與季節(jié)和尼羅河洪水不協(xié)調(diào)，但出于官僚目的，他們并不介意。

三、Ancient Egyptian Calendar托福聽力問題：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A.Differences between modern and ancient calendars

B.The importance of astronomy in Egyptian religion

C.The timekeeping systems of ancient Egypt

D.How to use agriculture as a method of timekeeping

Q2:2.Why does the professor mention the names of the seasons in ancient Egypt?

A.To explain the importance of religion

B.To emphasize the significance of the Nile River

C.To indicate when different types of crops were harvested

D.To describe early discoveries in astronomy

Q3:3.Why was the heliacal rising of Sirius important to the Egyptians?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.It helped determine the beginning of the New Year.

B.It was used to calculate the length of the month.

C.It marked the beginning of harvest time.

D.It indicated when the Nile would flood.

Q4:4.Once the Egyptians realized the significance of the heliacal rising of Sirius,what change did they make to their agricultural calendar?

A.They made each month exactly 30 days.

B.They shortened the length of the year.

C.They added a religious festival date to celebrate the heliacal rising of Sirius.

D.They allowed the number of months in the year to vary.

Q5:5.What are two points the professor makes about the administrative calendar?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.It included more religious festivals than did the other calendar.

B.It was used for scheduling tax payments.

C.It had the same number of days every year.

D.It used the Moon to determine the beginning of the year.

Q6:6.What is the professor explaining when she says this:

A.The weakness of the Egyptian bureaucracy.

B.The Egyptian's motivations for developing a second calendar.

C.The importance of accurately predicting when the Nile would flood.

D.The problems that result from using two calendars.

四、Ancient Egyptian Calendar托福聽力答案：

A1:正確答案：C

A2:正確答案：B

A3:正確答案：AD

A4:正確答案：D

A5:正確答案：BC

A6:正確答案：B

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