C17-Test 2-Passage 1

The Dead Sea Scrolls

In late 1946 or early 1947, three Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in what is now known as the West Bank. One of these young shepherds tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a shattering sound. He and his companions later entered the cave and stumbled across a collection of large clay jars, seven of which contained scrolls with writing on them. The teenagers took the seven scrolls to a nearby town where they were sold for a small sum to a local antiquities dealer. Word of the find spread, and Bedouins and archaeologists eventually unearthed tens of thousands of additional scroll fragments from 10 nearby caves; together they make up between 800 and 900 manuscripts. It soon became clear that this was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made.

The origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written around 2,000 years ago between 150 BCE and 70 CE, is still the subject of scholarly debate even today. According to the prevailing theory, they are the work of a population that inhabited the area until Roman troops destroyed the settlement around 70 CE. The area was known as Judea at that time, and the people are thought to have belonged to a group called the Essenes, a devout Jewish sect.

The majority of the texts on the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Hebrew, with some fragments written in an ancient version of its alphabet thought to have fallen out of use in the fifth century BCE. But there are other languages as well. Some scrolls are in Aramaic, the language spoken by many inhabitants of the region from the sixth century BCE to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. In addition, several texts feature translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from every book of the Old Testament of the Bible except for the Book of Esther. The only entire book of the Hebrew Bible preserved among the manuscripts from Qumran is Isaiah; this copy, dated to the first century BCE, is considered the earliest biblical manuscript still in existence. Along with biblical texts, the scrolls include documents about sectarian regulations and religious writings that do not appear in the Old Testament.

The writing on the Dead Sea Scrolls is mostly in black or occasionally red ink, and the scrolls themselves are nearly all made of either parchment (animal skin) or an early form of paper called 'papyrus'. The only exception is the scroll numbered 3Q15, which was created out of a combination of copper and tin. Known as the Copper Scroll, this curious document features letters chiselled onto metal - perhaps, as some have theorized, to better withstand the passage of time. One of the most intriguing manuscripts from Qumran, this is a sort of ancient treasure map that lists dozens of gold and silver caches. Using an unconventional vocabulary and odd spelling, it describes 64 underground hiding places that supposedly contain riches buried for safekeeping. None of these hoards have been recovered, possibly because the Romans pillaged Judea during the first century CE. According to various hypotheses, the treasure belonged to local people, or was rescued from the Second Temple before its destruction or never existed to begin with.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been on interesting journeys. In 1948, a Syrian Orthodox archbishop known as Mar Samuel acquired four of the original seven scrolls from a Jerusalem shoemaker and part-time antiquity dealer, paying less than $100 for them. He then travelled to the United States and unsuccessfully offered them to a number of universities, including Yale. Finally, in 1954, he placed an advertisement in the business newspaper The Wall Street Journal - under the category 'Miscellaneous Items for Sale' - that read: 'Biblical Manuscripts dating back to at least 200 B.C. are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group.' Fortunately, Israeli archaeologist and statesman Yigael Yadin negotiated their purchase and brought the scrolls back to Jerusalem, where they remain to this day.

In 2017, researchers from the University of Haifa restored and deciphered one of the last untranslated scrolls. The university's Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov spent one year reassembling the 60 fragments that make up the scroll. Deciphered from a band of coded text on parchment, the find provides insight into the community of people who wrote it and the 364-day calendar they would have used. The scroll names celebrations that indicate shifts in seasons and details two yearly religious events known from another Dead Sea Scroll. Only one more known scroll remains untranslated.

Questions 1-5

Complete the notes below.

ChooseONE WORD ONLYfrom the passage for each answer.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Discovery
Qumran, 1946/7

• Three Bedouin shepherds in their teens were near an opening on the side of a cliff.

• They heard a noise of breaking when one teenager threw arock.
题解：由题中信息可知，空处前为a，意味着空处应该填一个名词，并且还应该是单数形式。第一段中直接出现了an opening on the side of a cliff，紧接着原文出现了shattering sound。这个直接对应题中的noise of breaking，并且附近出现了tossed a rock，其中tossed直接对应了threw，也后量词a，所以第一题应该填写rock。

• The teenagers entered thecaveand found a number of containers made ofclay.
题解：由题目信息可知，第一处空格前是定冠词the，那么应该是跟随一个名词。然后第二个空出前是of，那么大概率也是一个名词。然后题中出现了一个动词entered，此时应该注意类似的同类替换，比如join之类的。还有一个定位点a number of containers，其中containers和a number of很可能会用其他词进行替换，需要多注意。看原文，出现了collection of large clay jars，这里直接对应了题目中的containers，并且量词也可以对应上，并且第二个空的答案也出来了那就是clay。在前面还找到了entered the cave，符合第一个空，那么答案就是cave。

The Scrolls

• Date from between 150 BCE and 70 CE

• Thought to have been written by a group known as theEssenes.
题解：定位到关键词a group，并且空处前十the，所以应该填名词。并且该处在原文中的位置应该是在Date from between 150 BCE and 70 CE后的，所以要注意年代相关的描述，然后可以确定的是，这是在描述The Scrolls。在原文出现了a group called the Essenes，那么答案就是Essenes。

• Written mainly in theHebrewlanguage.
题解：很明显，根据上下文可以判断出这是在问Scrolls用什么语言书写的，第三段中出现了majority of the texts，和题中的mainly对应。往后看，找到了答案in Hebrew，所以答案就是Hebrew。

• Most are on religious topics, created with ink on parchment or papyrus.

Questions 6-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

Choose:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

6. The Bedouin teenagers who found the scrolls were disappointed by how little money they received for them.

• TRUE
• FALSE
• NOT GIVEN
  题解：题目中提及到disappointed和little money they received，阅读原文，第一段确实是提及了sold for a small sum，但是并没有提及态度，也就是disappointed，看下一题。

7. There is agreement among academics about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

• TRUE
• FALSE
• NOT GIVEN 题解：最关键的点就是is agreement among academics和origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls，第二段提到了scholarly debate even today。推翻结论，所以该题是FALSE。并且因为判断题是顺序题，所以第一题的答案就是NOT GIVEN。

8. Most of the books of the Bible written on the scrolls are incomplete.

• TRUE
• FALSE
• NOT GIVEN 题解：首先这个题的关键点在于Most of和incomplete，第四段开头第一句说的很明显了fragments所以答案是TRUE。

9. The information on the Copper Scroll is written in an unusual way.

• TRUE
• FALSE
• NOT GIVEN 题解：关键点Copper Scroll和an unusual way，根据第五段的描述，可以得知Copper Scroll确实是用的不寻常的方法，答案为TRUE 。

10. Mar Samuel was given some of the scrolls as a gift.

• TRUE
• FALSE
• NOT GIVEN
  题解：出现了专有名词Mar Samuel，还有被动语态was given，然后是gift。文中找到了该人，然后明确写了paying less than $100 for them，是付了钱的，所以不是免费白嫖的gift。

11. In the early 1950s, a number of educational establishments in the US were keen to buy scrolls from Mar Samuel.

• TRUE
• FALSE
• NOT GIVEN
  题解：注意时间early 1950s，并且还是educational establishments，要从Mar Samuel手上buy，而且态度是keen。在文中找到了1948和1954，结合题干，答案应该就在这俩中间。阅读文章，找到了universities，这个对应了题干中的教育机构。然后可以在句中得知他是unsuccessfully的。所以本题应该是FALSE。

12. The scroll that was pieced together in 2017 contains information about annual occasions in the Qumran area 2,000 years ago.

• TRUE
• FALSE
• NOT GIVEN 题解：时间是是2017和Qumran area 2,000 years ago，然后动作是was pieced together，事件是annual occasions。364-day calendar对应annual，这个题目讲道理该选TRUE，但是我在考场上肯定反应不过来，我找不到Qumran area，所以在考场上我高低会选NOT GIVEN。

13. Academics at the University of Haifa are currently researching how to decipher the final scroll.

• TRUE
• FALSE
• NOT GIVEN
  题解：文中并未有描述此类事件，所以选NOT GIVEN。