Reading Practice
The iceman
A. It
was late spring or early summer. The man hurried through a forest he knew well,
wincing from the pain in his injured right hand and pausing occasionally to
listen for sounds that he was being pursued. As he fled up the slope, the
yellow pollen of the hornbeam blossoms fell like an invisible rain, salting the
water and food he consumed when he stopped to rest. Five thousand years later,
the Neolithic hunter we call the Iceman would still bear traces of this ancient
dusting inside his body-a microscopic record of the time of year it was when he
passed through this forest and into the nearby mountains, where fate would
finally catch up with him.
B. Since
hikers discovered his mummified corpse in 1991 in a rocky hollow high in the
Otztal Alps on Italy's border with Austria, scientists have used ever more
sophisticated tools and intellectual cunning to reconstruct the life and times
of the Iceman, the oldest intact member of the human family. We know that he
was a small, sinewy, and, for his times, rather elderly man in his mid-40s.
Judging from the precious, copper-bladed ax found with him, we suspect that he
was a person of considerable social significance. He set off on his journey
wearing three layers of garments and sturdy shoes with bearskin soles. He was well
equipped with a flinttipped dagger, a little fire-starting kit, and a birchbark
container holding embers wrapped in maple leaves. Yet he also headed into a
harsh wilderness curiously under-armed: The arrows in his deerskin quiver were
only half finished, as if he had recently fired all his munitions and was in
the process of hastily replenishing them. And he was traveling with a long,
roughly shaped stalk of yew-an unfinished longbow, yet to be notched and
strung. Why?
C. When
it comes to the Iceman, there has never been a shortage of questions, or
theories to answer them. During the 16 years that scientists have poked,
prodded, incised, and x-rayed his body, they have dressed him up in
speculations that have not worn nearly as well as his rustic garments. At one
time or another, he has been mistakenly described as a lost shepherd, a shaman,
a victim of ritual sacrifice, and even a vegan. But all these theories fade in
the face of the most startling new fact scientists have learned about the
Iceman. Although we still don't know exactly what happened up there on that
alpine ridge, we now know that he was murdered, and died very quickly, in the
rocky hollow where his body was found.
D. "Even
five years ago, the story was that he fled up there and walked around in the
snow and probably died of exposure," said Klaus Oeggl, an archaeobotanist
at the University of Innsbruck. "Now it's all changed. It's more like a
paleo crime scene."
E. The
object of all this intense scientific attention is a freeze-dried slab of human
jerky, which since 1998 has resided in a refrigerated, high-tech chamber in the
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. The temptation to conduct
fresh experiments on the body rises with every new twist of technology, each
revealing uncannily precise details about his life. Using a sophisticated
analysis of isotopes in one of the Iceman's teeth, for example, scientists led
by Wolfgang Muller (now at the Royal Holloway, University of London) have shown
that he probably grew up in the Valle Isarco, an extensive north-south valley
that includes the modern- day town of Bressanone. Isotope levels in his bones,
meanwhile, match those in the soil and water of two alpine valleys farther
west, the Vai Senales and the Vai Venosta. Muller's team has also analyzed
microscopic chips of mica recovered from the Iceman's intestines, which were
probably ingested accidentally in food made from stone-ground grain; geologic
ages of the mica best match a small area limited to the lower Vai Venosta. The
Iceman probably set off on his final journey from this very area, near where
the modern-day Adige and Senales Rivers meet.
F. We
also know that he was not in good health when he headed up into the mountains.
The one surviving fingernail recovered from his remains suggests that he
suffered three episodes of significant disease during the last six months of
life, the last bout only two months prior to his death. Doctors inspecting the
contents of his intestines have found eggs of the whipworm parasite, so he may
well have suffered from stomach distress. But he was not too sick to eat. In
2002, Franco Rollo and colleagues at the University of Camerino in Italy
analyzed tiny amounts of food residue from the mummy's intestines. A day or two
before his death, the Iceman had eaten a piece of wild goat and some plant
food.
G. Archaeobotanists
have used equally clever analyses of pollen and plant fragments to plot the
Iceman's last movements. James Dickson of the University of Glasgow has
identified no less than 80 distinct species of mosses and liverworts in, on, or
near the Iceman's body. The most prominent moss, Neckera complanata, still
grows at several sites in the valleys to the south, in some cases quite near
known prehistoric sites. According to Dickson, a clot of stems found in the Iceman's
possession suggests he was probably using the moss to wrap food, although other
ancient peoples used similar mosses as toilet paper.
H. Taken
together, the evidence strongly indicates that the Iceman’s last journey began
in the low-altitude deciduous forests to the south, in the springtime when the
hop hornbeams were in bloom. But it may not have been a straight hike into the
mountains. Oeggl has also found traces of pine pollen in the Iceman's digestive
tract, both above and below the hornbeam pollen. This suggests that he may have
climbed to a higher altitude where pine trees grow in mixed coniferous forests,
then descended to the lower altitude of the hop hornbeams, and finally ascended
again into the pine forests in his last day or two. Why? No one knows. But
perhaps he wanted to avoid the steep, thickly wooded gorge of the lower Vai
Senales-especially if he was in a hurry.
Questions 1-5
The reading passage has eight paragraphs A-H . Which
paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 1-5 on your answer
sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once
1.....................
the last area in which the iceman might live and stay.
2.....................
a mass of special plant was discovered and used to analyze the iceman's
movements.
3.....................
a scientist analyzes the iceman's last hike depending on pollen.
4.....................
the time and area the iceman was found.
5.....................
the iceman's body had been out of condition for months before his death.
Questions 6-9
Do the following statements agree with the information in
Reading Passage?
In boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet write
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
6.....................
According to the author, there must be another complete human corpse older than
the iceman
7.....................
The iceman might be the leader of his society, and he was very rich.
8.....................
Scientists guessed the iceman's Information perfectly, and finally got the real
cause of his death.
9.....................
By testing the iceman's body, we know where he came from
Question 10-13
Complete the sentences below
Choose NO MORE THAN
TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.
10. The
iceman has been placed in a 10.....................
room since 1998.
11. The
iceman might get 11.....................
for eggs of the whipworm parasite were found in his gut.
12. There
are a variety of mosses and liverworts found around the iceman such as
12.....................
13. The
route of the iceman’s last movement might not be 13.....................
Solution:
|
1. E
|
8. FALSE
|
|
2. G
|
9. TRUE
|
|
3. H
|
10. refrigerated high-tech
|
|
4. B
|
11. stomach
distress
|
|
5. F
|
12. Neckera complanata
|
|
6. FALSE
|
13. straight
|
7.
NOT GIVEN
PASSWORD: SHAREIELTSONESTOP
