说到托福阅读备考，TPO是必不可少的备考神器，通过TPO练习来更好的适应阅读考试的节奏。本文小编带来的托福阅读笔记是TPO26 Sumer and the First Cities of the Ancient Near East的内容，希望能够与正在备考的大家一起进步。
TPO26 Sumer and the First Cities of the Ancient Near East
文章题材：社会科学——苏美尔与古代近东的第一个城邦
常见词汇：
coordination [kəu'ɔ:di'neiʃən] n. 协调
economical [.i:kə'nɔmikəl] adj. 节俭的，经济的，合算的
clay [klei] n. 粘土，泥土n. (人的)肉体
population [.pɔpju'leiʃən] n. 人口，(全体)居民
transport [træns'pɔ:t] n. 运输、运输工具;
appearance [ə'piərəns]n. 外表，外貌，出现，出场，露面
silt [silt] n. 淤泥 v. (使)淤塞
impressive [im'presiv] adj. 给人深刻印象的
sophisticated [sə'fistikeitid]adj. 诡辩的，久经世故的，精密的，老练的，尖端的
wheel [wi:l] n. 轮子，车轮，方向盘，周期，旋转
易错题解析：
Paragraph 4: Other innovations of the late fourth millennium include the wheel, probably developed first as a more efficient way of making pottery and then transferred to transport. A tablet engraved about 3000 B.C.E. provides the earliest known example from Sumer, a roofed boxlike sledge mounted on four solid wheels. A major development was the discovery, again about 3000 B.C.E., that if copper, which had been known in Mesopotamia since about 3500 B.C.E., was mixed with tin, a much harder metal, bronze, would result.
11: Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
○ Also around 3000 B.C.E., it was discovered that mixing copper, known from about 3500 B.C.E., with tin would create a much harder metal known as bronze.
○ Although copper had been known since 3500 B.C.E in Mesopotamia, the discovery of bronze did not occur until around 3000 B.C.E.
○ Another major development around 3000 B.C.E. was the discovery that copper could be mixed with a much harder metal known as tin.
○ The development of bronze by mixing copper and tin probably occurred around 3000 B.C.E. but may have happened as early as 3500 B.C.E.
题型：句子简化题。答案是(A)
解析：提取主干，去掉again插入语和which定语从句，得到原文说主要的进步是发现了如果copper跟tin混合，就能够得到更硬的金属bronze，所以正确答案是A。B错在没有讲mixing copper with tin;C错在更硬的不是tin，而是bronze;D错在发生在3500 BCE的不是bronze，而是copper的发现。
Paragraph 3: It used to be believed that before 3000 B.C.E. the political and economic life of the cities was centered on their temples, but it now seems probable that the cities had secular rulers from earliest times. ■Within the city lived administrators, craftspeople, and merchants. (Trading was important, as so many raw materials, the semiprecious stones for the decoration of the temples, timbers for roofs, and all metals, had to be imported.) ■An increasingly sophisticated system of administration led in about 3300 B.C.E. to the appearance of writing. ■The earliest script was based on logograms, with a symbol being used to express a whole word. ■The logograms were incised on damp clay tablets with a stylus with a wedge shape at its end. (The Romans called the shape cuneus and this gives the script its name of cuneiform.) Two thousand logograms have been recorded from these early centuries of writing. A more economical approach was to use a sign to express not a whole word but a single syllable.
13: Look at the four squares [■]that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
City life was diverse, and the population was engaged in a variety of occupations.
Where would the sentence best fit?
题型：句子插入题。答案是(A)
解析：以a variety of occupations作过渡点，回原文定位到A之后的administrators, craftspeople and merchants，这是一对具体的职业，而待插入句中的a variety of occupations是抽象概念，按照先总述后分述的逻辑关系，正确的插入点是A不是B。
以上就是小编带来的托福阅读笔记之TPO26 Sumer and the First Cities of the Ancient Near East,希望能够和备考的大家一起学习。更多托福考试资讯请关注前程百利。
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