Chinese characters on turtle shells and animal bones甲骨文

邹克娅

甲骨文是中國的一种古老文字，又称“契文”“殷墟文字”“龟甲文字”。甲骨文是我们能见到的最早的成熟汉字，主要指中国商朝晚期王室在龟甲或兽骨上刻的用于占卜记事的文字。

主题语境：历史与传 统篇幅：345词 建议用时：7分钟

1 The first Chinese characters date from the late ShangDynasty， some 3，000 years ago， originally made for the purposeof divination （占卜）. They were written on pieces of tortoiseshelland fragments of bones.

2 During the Shang Dynasty， divination was very important.To those who knew how to read them， they held the beliefthat exhibits of shells and bones could foretell the future，telling them when to sacrifice， when to harvest， and whenillness would strike. So， it was these diviners seeking to unlockthe future that accidentally provided us with a key to the past. These oracle bones （甲骨）offer us a precious glimpse of life in China some three thousand years ago.

3 Of the four thousand characters used in these descriptions， so far 1，500 have beendeciphered. Through them， we can reconstruct a day in the life of a Shang Dynasty man.

4 It was that by a combination of careful observation and incredible imagination， thepeople of the Shang Dynasty turned what they saw， did and felt into symbols that could bewritten on turtle shells and animal bones—the very first Chinese characters.

5 In pictograph （象形文字） characters like“tian”， meaning“farm”， simple lineswere used to outline the shape of something. But more abstract concepts could be de⁃scribed， too. For example， a short horizontal stroke above a long one meant“above”， whilea short stroke below a long one meant“below”. By combining more than one character intoone， even more complex ideas could be expressed. Take“jiu”， meaning“wine”， for ex⁃ample， a combination of the character for a cup or container and water. Other characterswould combine one character indicating a certain sound with another specific meaning.“Yang”， for example， means“wander”.

6 Thanks to the Chinese characters on the oracle bones， Chinese civilization could atlast be recorded and passed down to the generations. Strange as it may seem， the complexsystem of writing we use today began life thousands of years ago as scratches on bits ofbones. Now theyre rooted in hearts and minds of more than a billion people.

Reading

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1. Whats the function of the first Chinese characters？

A. To serve the rulers.

B. To record the past.

C. To show natural power.

D. To foretell the future.

2. What does the underlined word“deciphered”mean in paragraph 3？

A. Recognized.

B. Destroyed.

C. Discovered.

D. Simplified.

3. What does paragraph 5 mainly talk about？

A. The development of the first Chinese characters.

B. The formation of the first Chinese characters.

C. The connection between the first Chinese characters.

D. The meaning of the first Chinese characters.

4. What is the purpose of the text？

A. To introduce a kind of Chinese characters.

B. To stress the value of Chinese characters.

C. To highlight the birth of Chinese culture.

D. To offer a glimpse of life in the Shang Dynasty.

Language

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Difficult sentence

To those who knew how to read them， they held the belief that exhibits of shells andbones could foretell the future， telling them when to sacrifice， when to harvest， and whenillness would strike. 對于那些知道如何阅读它们（甲骨文）的人来说，他们相信，贝壳和骨头的表现可以预示未来，告诉他们什么时候该祭祀、什么时候该收获、什么时候疾病会爆发。

【点石成金】该句中，that引导一个同位语从句，对前面的抽象名词belief进行解释说明。