【考托提分】小站独家深度解析官方原题Official33——听力Lecture

2014年06月27日13:27 来源：小站整理

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官方真题Official 33 Listening - Lecture 1

Listening Script

(Professor) The great pyramid of Giza in Egypt might be the most famous building in the world. We know exactly when it was built. construction started in 2547 B.C.E., about 4500 years ago. We know who had it built. That was the pharaoh Khufu. We know who oversaw its construction-the pharaoh’s brother. We know so many things about it, but the funny thing is: we still don't know exactly how it was built.

This picture will give you an idea of the size of the Pyramid and the size of the blocks it’s made out of. About two million stone blocks were used to build the Great Pyramid and they are incredibly massive. The average weight is two and a half tons.

The problem that puzzled scholars for centuries is how were these blocks lifted up the height of this massive structure and then fit into place and without the benefit of modern technology. Of course, there’ve been a lot of theories over the centuries.

The oldest recorded one is by the Greek historian Herodotus. He visited Egypt around 450 B.C.E., when the Pyramid was already 2000 years old. His theory was the cranes were used, much like we use cranes today to construct tall building. And Herodotus may have seen Egyptians using cranes made of wood. But the problem with this theory has to do with simple mechanics. A crane needs a wide and sturdy base to stand on or it will fall over. Well, as you get toward the top of the pyramid, there’s really no place for a crane to stand. The stone blocks are too narrow to provide a base. Well, so much for that theory.

The next one has to do with the use of ramp that would allow workers to drag a stone block up the side of the structure. Of course the ramp can’t be too steep. It has to have a long gentle slope. And that's the problem. If you build a ramp with a slight slope up to the top of a pyramid that's over 130 meters high, it would have to be almost two kilometers long. Well, the pyramid is built on a flat area called the Giza Plateau. The plateau is simply not big enough to accommodate a two-kilometer-long ramp.

Ok, so what now? Well, if you’ve ever driven on a mountain road, you’d know that it has a lot of twists and turns and bends in it because that's how engineers keep the road from having to be too steep. So why not wrap the ramp around the pyramid? Building the ramp around it as you go. Sounds like a pretty good idea. Except it’s got a serious problem. See…one of the most remarkable things about the Great Pyramid is how accurate the proportions are. The dimensions are almost perfect. To get that perfection, the engineers must have had to measure it repeatedly during construction. And the way you’d measure it is from the four corners of the base. Well, if you got a ramp spiraling up from the base of the Pyramid, those corners would be buried by the ramp during construction.

Well, who says the ramp has to be on the outside of the Pyramid? And now we get to the latest idea. If the ramp were on the inside of the Pyramid, the corners at the base would be exposed so the engineers could do their measurements while they were building.

Well, an architect named Houdin has spent a few years working on making computer models of the building of the Pyramid. And what Houdin believes is that an exterior straight ramp was used to construct the bottom third of the Pyramid, this ramp would have been fairly short. It probably rose less than 50 meters. Then the rest of the Pyramid was constructed using an internal ramp that spiraled around the inside of the Pyramid.

But how can we test this idea? Well, there are several ways to look inside the Pyramid.

One is called microgravimetry. Microgravimetry is a technique that's used to detect voids inside a structure. You can then take the data and generate an image that shows any empty spaces in the interior. Well, in 1986, French scientists completed a microgravimetry survey of the Pyramid. And one of the images they produced showed an empty spiral-shaped space inside it. The shape of that space corresponds exactly to what Houdin thought the ramp would look like. I think Herodotus would be convinced. We might very well be at the end of centuries of guessing.

Lecture 1 梗概：

教授开篇提出金字塔是最有名的古老建筑，我们知道很多，但惟独不知道它是如何被建造的。然后，教授提出了最古老的理论，某人认为是用木头起重机建造的，教授驳斥了该理论。接着又说有一个斜坡理论，但是驳斥了。再后来提到另一个人改进了斜坡理论，认为金字塔底部可以在外面建造斜坡，剩余部分可以在金字塔内部建造环绕型的斜坡。教授用现代的微重力测量来说明测量结果与这个人预测的一致，表示这个人的理论是很靠谱的。

官方真题Official33听力解析完全版请点击查看：《小站独家深度解析官方真题Official33听力答案详解》

Question 6: What is the lecture mainly about?

A) Building techniques that were common in the ancient world

B) Evidence of several early attempts to build a pyramid

C) Possible answers to an ancient mystery

D) The history of the pyramids of Egypt

Answer: C

解析:

(30’’)We know so many things about it, but the funny thing is, we still don’t know exactly how it was built. 首先，教授提出金字塔这个主题，然后说我们知道很多，但是，我们不知道它是如何被建造的。

(1’05’’) Of course there have been a lot of theories over the centuries. 当然，有许多理论。接着整篇文章都是在讲各个理论。

官方真题Official33听力解析完全版请点击查看：《小站独家深度解析官方真题Official33听力答案详解》

Question 7: According to the professor, what is the main argument against the theory that the stone blocks of the Great Pyramid were lifted into place with cranes?

A) Wooden cranes would have been too weak to lift the blocks.

B) There is no evidence of ancient Egyptians ever using cranes.

C) The use of cranes would have resulted in imprecise dimensions.

D) There would not have been enough room for a platform for the cranes.

Answer: D

解析:

(1’09’’) The oldest recorded one is by the Greek historian Herodotus. He visited Egypt around 450 B.C.E. when the pyramid was already two thousand years old. His theory was that cranes were used much like we use cranes today to construct tall buildings, seen Egyptians using cranes made of wood. 首先提出最老的一个理论，是由HERODOTUS这个人提出的，他认为古埃及人是用木头的起重机建造的金字塔。

(1’30’’) But the problem with this theory has to do with simple mechanics: a crane needs a wide and sturdy base to stand on or it will fall over. Well, as you get to the top of the pyramid, there’s really no place for a crane to stand. The stone blocks are too narrow to provide a base. 教授简单描述理论之后立刻提出转折，这个理论的问题就在于金字塔顶端没有地方可以给crane。

官方真题Official33听力解析完全版请点击查看：《小站独家深度解析官方真题Official33听力答案详解》

Question 8: Why does the professor mention a mountain road?

A) To illustrate an alternative to a steep ramp

B) To emphasize the effort needed to move large stone blocks

C) To imply that progress on the Great Pyramid was slow

D) To describe the shape of the road leading to the Giza Plateau

Answer: A

解析:

(1’50’’) The next one has to do with the use of a ramp that would allow workers to drag a stone block up the side of the structure. 另一个理论就是有关使用斜坡的理论。

(2’13’’) Well, the pyramid is built on a flat area called the Giza plateau. The plateau is simply not big enough to accommodate a two-kilometer long ramp. OK, so what now? 教授用well来引出这个理论的问题，即这个高原没有这么大来承载一个2公里的长坡。然后再以问题来引出答案。

(2’25’’) Well, if you’d ever driven on a mountain road, you know that it has a lot of twists and turns and bends in it because that’s how engineers keep the roads from having to be too steep. 教授再用well来引出话题，提出山路有很多转弯就是工程师来解决山坡太陡的问题。也就是用山坡的例子来说明如何处理坡太陡的难题。

官方真题Official33听力解析完全版请点击查看：《小站独家深度解析官方真题Official33听力答案详解》

Question 9: Why does the professor talk about the accuracy of the proportions of the Great Pyramid?

A) To provide background on the principles of microgravimetry

B) To discount the possibility that a ramp once spiraled around outside of the pyramid

C) To explain the effectiveness of computer models of the pyramid

D) To emphasize the difficulty of building a ramp with the correct slope

Answer: B

解析:

(2’35’’) So why not wrap the ramp around the pyramid, building a ramp around it as you go. Sounds like a pretty good idea except it’s got a serious problem. 讲完山路的问题之后，教授回到话题，表示用把斜坡环绕金字塔是否也行呢?后面跟着的词是重点，”sounds like” – 听起来似乎是，潜台词是”其实并非如此“。于是，教授后面说，See, one of the most remarkable things about the great pyramid is how accurate the proportions are. 其实教授说这句话就已经表达了“并非如此”的重要原因，即accurate proportion. 最后，教授还说了，Well, if you’ve got a ramp spiraling up from the base of the pyramid, those corners would be buried by that ramp during construction.因此，这是行不通的。