The Building of the Pyramids

The oldest stone buildings in the world are the pyramids. __1__. There are over eighty of them scattered along the banks of the Nile, some of which are different in shape from the true pyramids. The most famous of these are the “ step ” pyramid and “ Bent ”pyramid.

Some of the pyramids still look much the same as they must have done when they were built thousands of years ago. Most of the damage suffered by the others has been at the hands of men who were looking for treasure or, more often, for stone to use in modern buildings.__2__. These are good reasons why they can still be seen today, but perhaps the most important is that they were planned to last forever.

__3__. However, there are no writings or pictures to show us how the Egyptians planned or built the pyramids themselves. __4__. Nevertheless, by examining the actual pyramids and various tools which have been found, archaeologists have formed a fairly clear picture of them.

One thing is certain: there must have been months of careful planning before they could begin to build. __5__. You may think this would have been easy with miles and miles of empty desert around, but a pyramid could not be built just anywhere. Certain rules had to be followed, and certain problems had to be overcome.

A　The dry climate of Egypt has helped to preserve the pyramids, and their very shape have made them less likely to fall into ruin.

B It is practically certain that plans were made for the building of the pyramids because the plans of other large works have fortunately been preserved.

C The first thing they had to do was to choose a suitable place.

D Consequently, we are only able to guess at the methods used.

E Many people were killed while building the pyramids.

F They have stood for nearly 5,000 years, and it seems likely that they will continue to stand for thousands of years yet.

答案：

1. F。第一句說“金字塔是世界上最古老的石頭建筑”， F說“它們已經(jīng)屹立了將近5000年并且似乎會繼續(xù)存在數(shù)前年”，以實際數(shù)字說明了第1句。

2. A。A說“埃及干燥的氣候有助于保持金字塔，金字塔自身的形狀也使之不容易毀壞。”空格后句的主語these就是指這兩個原因。

3. B。B說“幾乎可以確定的是(埃及人)為建造金字塔指定了施工方案，因為有些其他大型建筑的工程圖已被幸運地保存下來，”后一句說“然而沒有文字記錄或圖片告訴我們埃及人如何設(shè)計或建造金字塔。”。這兩句在意思上形成轉(zhuǎn)折。

4. D。根據(jù)本段前面兩句的句意這里應(yīng)該選擇D(因此，我們只能猜測他們使用的方法)。

5. C。該段首句說有一件事情確定無疑，即他們(埃及人)開工前一定花了數(shù)月時間仔細設(shè)計建造方案，C說“他們要做的第一件事情就是選址”，和第一句意思連貫，而且下文中的this只能指選址這件事。

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