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Recording One
录音一
American researchers have discovered the world's oldest paved road,a 4,600-year-old highway.
美国研究人员发现了世界上最古老的人工铺就的公路，有4600年的历史。
It linked a stone pit in the Egyptian desert to waterways that carried blocks to monument sites along the Nile.
这条路连接了埃及沙漠中的一个采石场和几条运送石块至尼罗河沿岸纪念遗址的水路。
The eight-mile road is at least 500 years older than any previously discovered road.
这条八英里长的路比以往发现的任何一条路至少早500年。
It is the only paved road discovered in ancient Egypt, said geologist Thomas Bown of the United States Geological Survey.
美国地质调查局的地质学家托马斯·鲍恩表示，这是在古埃及发现的唯一一条铺好的路。
He reported the discovery on Friday.
周五，他报告了这一发现。
"The road probably doesn't rank with the pyramids as a construction feat,
“这条路比不上金字塔的建筑壮举，
but it is a major engineering achievement",said his colleague, geologist James Harrell of the University of Toledo.
但是一项重大的工程成就，他的同事、托莱多大学的地质学家詹姆斯·哈勒尔说道。
"Not only is the road earlier than we thought possible, we didn't even think they built roads."
“不仅这条路比我们想象的要早，而且我们甚至没想过他们会修路。”
The researchers also made a discovery in the stone pit at the northern end of the road; the first evidence that the Egyptians used rock saws.
研究人员在该公路北端的采石场中发现了埃及人使用岩石锯的第一个证据，
"This is the oldest example of saws being used for cutting stone",said Bown's colleague James Hoffmeier of Wheaton College in Illinois.
这是人们用锯子来切割石头最古老的例子。
"That's two technologies we didn't know they had",Harrell said.
“我们不知道他们有这两种技术，”哈勒尔说。
"And we don't know why they were both abandoned."
“我们不知道为什么这些技术都被弃用了。”
The road was discovered in the Faiyum Depression, about 45 miles southwest of Cairo.
这条路是在开罗西南约45英里的法尤姆洼地发现的。
Short segments of the road had been observed by earlier explorers, Bown said,
鲍恩说，早期的探险者已经观测过这条路的一小段，
but they failed to realize its significance or follow up on their observations.
但他们没有意识到它的重要性，也没有继续观测
Bown and his colleagues stumbled across it while they were doing geological mapping in the region.
鲍恩和他的同事在该地区进行地质测绘时偶然发现了这条路。
The road was clearly built to provide services for the newly discovered stone pit.
修建这条路显然是为新发现的采石场服务的。
Bown and Harrell have found the camp that housed workers at the stone pit.
鲍恩和哈勒尔已经找到了采石场工人的营地。
The road appears today to go nowhere, ending in the middle of the desert.
今天看来，这条路哪儿也通不了，终点就是沙漠中央。
When it was built, its terminal was a dock on the shore of Lake Moeris,
这条路原先建成时的终点是莫尔里斯湖岸边的一个码头，
which had an elevation of about 66 feet above sea level, the same as the dock.
海拔约66英尺，和码头一样高。
Lake Moeris received its water from the annual floods of the Nile.
每年，莫伊里斯湖从尼罗河的洪水中获得水源。
At the time of the floods,
洪水来临时，
the river and lake were at the same level and connected through a gap in the hills near the modern villages of el-Lahun and Hawara.
莫伊里斯湖和尼罗河在同一水平面上，并且通过现代el-Lahun和Hawara村庄附近山脉的一个裂口连接。
Harrell and Bown believe that blocks were loaded onto barges during the dry season,
哈勒尔和鲍恩认为，旱季，装载到驳船上的石块
then floated over to the Nile during the floods to be shipped off to the monument sites at Giza and Saqqara.
随后在洪水期间漂流至尼罗河，运至吉萨和萨卡拉的纪念遗址所在地。
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.
根据你刚才听到的录音回答16-18题。
16. What do we learn from the lecture about the world’s oldest paved road in Egypt?
问题16：我们从这篇关于世界上最古老的埃及铺砌道路文章中学到了什么?
17.What did the researchers discover in the stone pit?
问题17：研究人员在石坑里发现了什么？
18. For what purpose was the paved road built?
问题18：铺好路面是为了什么目的？
