Pаssаge 2 | Spirits in the Sаnd Recent findings shed light оn the lives - and mysteriоus disappearance - оf the ancient Nasca. [A] Since their mysterious desert drawings became widely known in the late 1920s, the people known as the Nasca have puzzled archeologists, anthropologists,1 and anyone else who is fascinated by ancient cultures. Their elaborate lines and figures, called geoglyphs, are found distributed, seemingly at random, across the desert outside Nasca and the nearby town of Palpa. Waves of scientists - and amateurs - have come up with various interpretations for the designs. At one time or another, they have been explained as Inca roads, irrigation plans, and even, controversially, landing strips for alien spacecraft. [B] Since 1997, an ongoing Peruvian-German research collaboration called the Nasca-Palpa Project has been putting these theories to the test. The leaders of the project are Johny Isla and Markus Reindel of the German Archaeological Institute. As well as studying where and how the Nasca lived, the researchers have investigated why they disappeared and the meaning of the strange, abstract designs they left behind. If Isla and his colleagues are right, the story of Nasca begins and ends, with water. Living on the Edge [C] The coastal region of southern Peru and northern Chile is one of the driest places on Earth. In the small, protected basin where the Nasca culture arose, ten rivers descend from the Andes. Most of these rivers are dry at least part of the year. Surrounded by a thousand shades of brown, these ten ribbons of green offered a fertile spot for the emergence of early civilization. "It was the perfect place for human settlement because it had water," says geographer Bernhard Eitel, a member of the Nasca-Palpa Project. "But it was a very high-risk environment." [D] According to Eitel and his colleague Bertil Machtle, the micro-climate in the Nasca region has undergone considerable variation over the past 5,000 years. When a high-pressure system over central South America called the Bolivian High moves to the north, more rain falls on the western slopes of the Andes. When the high shifts southward, precipitation decreases. This causes the rivers in the Nasca valleys to run dry. [E] Despite the risky conditions, the Nasca lived in the area for eight centuries following their appearance in about 300 B.C. As the rainfall cycle continued, people moved east or west along the river valleys. In the arid southern valleys, early Nasca engineers devised practical ways of coping with the scarcity of water. An ingenious system of horizontal wells tapped into the inclined water table as it descended from the Andean foothills. These irrigation systems, or puquios, allowed the Nasca to bring subterranean2 water to the surface. [F] The Nasca people were in fact remarkably "green," perhaps because of the environmental challenges they faced. The creation of the puquios displayed a sophisticated sense of water conservation since the underground aqueducts3 minimized evaporation. The farmers planted seeds by making a single hole in the ground rather than plowing, thereby preserving the substructure of the soil. The Nasca also recycled their garbage as a building material. "It's a society that managed its resources very well," says Isla. "This is what Nasca is all about." Praying for Water [G] For centuries, Andean people have worshipped the gods of mountains that feed the Nasca drainage system. According to National Geographic explorer Johan Reinhard, the Nasca has traditionally associated these mountains - mythologically, if not geologically - with water. Evidence for Reinhard's thesis came in 1986, when he found the ruins of a ceremonial stone circle at the summit of Illakata, one of the region's tallest mountains. Reinhard believes the Nasca lines were most likely related to the worship of mountain gods, because of their connection to water. [H] Further evidence connecting Nasca rituals to water worship was revealed by the Nasca-Palpa Project researchers in 2000. On a plateau4 near the village of Yunama, Markus Reindel made an important discovery. As he was excavating a mound, he uncovered several broken pots and other relics that clearly represented ritual offerings. Then he came upon pieces of a large seashell. It was of a genus5 called Spondylus. [I] "The Spondylus shell is one of the few items of Andean archeology that has been well studied," Reindel says. "It's a very important religious symbol for water and fertility ... It was brought from far away and is found in specific contexts, such as funerary objects and on these platforms. It was connected in certain activities to praying for water. And it's clear in this area, water was the key issue." [J] In 2004, archeologist Christina Conlee made a much grimmer discovery. Conlee was working at a site near a dry river valley in the southern Nasca region. While excavating a Nasca tomb, she unearthed a skeleton. However, the first part to emerge from the dirt was not the skull, but the neck bones. "We could see the vertebrae6 sitting on top," Conlee says. "The person was seated, with arms crossed and legs crossed, and no head." Cut marks on the neck bones indicate the head had probably been severed by a sharp knife. A ceramic pot known as a head jar rested against the elbow of the skeleton. An illustration on the jar showed a decapitated7 "trophy head." Out of the head grew a strange tree trunk with eyes. [K] Everything about the burial - the head jar, the placement, and position of the body - suggests the body was disposed of in a careful manner. Conlee suspects the skeleton represents a ritual sacrifice. "Although we find trophy heads spread throughout the Nasca period," she said, "there are some indications that they became more common in the middle and late period, and also at times of great environmental stress, perhaps drought. If this was a sacrifice, it was made to appease8 the gods, perhaps because of a drought or crop failure." Beginning of the End [L] Despite their offerings, the Nasca's prayers would ultimately go unanswered. Water - or more precisely, its absence - was increasingly critical in the Nasca's final years, between about A.D. 500 and A.D. 600. [M] In the Palpa area, scientists have traced the movement of the eastern margin of the desert about 19 kilometers (12 miles) up the valleys between 200 B.C. and A.D. 600. At one point, the desert reached an altitude of over 1,900 meters (6,500 feet). Similarly, the population centers around Palpa moved farther up the valleys, as if they were trying to outrun the arid conditions. "At the end of the sixth century A.D.," Eitel and Machtle conclude in a recent paper, "the aridity culminated9 and the Nasca society collapsed." [N] Nevertheless, environmental stresses were not the only vital factor. "It wasn't just climate conditions that caused the collapse of Nasca culture," emphasizes Johny Isla. "A state of crisis was provoked10 because water was more prevalent in some valleys than in others, and the leaders of different valleys may have been in conflict." By about A.D. 650, the more militaristic Wari (Huari) Empire had emerged from the central highlands and displaced the Nasca as the predominant culture in the southern desert region. [O] Almost 1,500 years later, the legacy of the Nasca lives on. You can see it in the artifacts11 of their ancient rituals, in the remains of their irrigation systems, and - most famously - in the lines of their mysterious desert designs. The lines surely provided a ritualistic reminder to the Nasca people that their fate was intrinsically tied to their environment. In particular, the lines represent a bond with the Nasca's most precious resource, water. You can still read their reverence for nature, in times of plenty and in times of desperate want, in every line and curve they scratched onto the desert floor. And when your feet inhabit their sacred space, even for a brief and humbling moment, you can feel it. Passage 2 | Question 8 Which of the following statements about the "head jar" first mentioned in paragraph J is definitely known to be true?
Pаssаge 3 | Whо Wаs Genghis Khan? [A] In the 1160s, оn the flоodplains of the Onon River in northeastern Mongolia, a boy named Tamujin was born. As a young man, he organized an alliance of rival tribes among those of the grasslands north of the Gobi desert. Years later, as the fierce warrior-leader Genghis Khan, he led a vast army of nomads out of the grasslands, across deserts, and against societies who had the misfortune to share time and space with the all-powerful Mongols ... [B] 1220. Samarkand, Central Asia. From the city's northwest gate, the inhabitants of Samarkand could only watch in terror as the enormous army approached. Perhaps 80,000 riders could be seen. According to one writer, they appeared "more numerous than ants or locusts, [more than] the sand in the desert, or drops of rain." Before them, the approaching riders drove thousands of captured civilians as a human shield. [C] The city they approached was the capital of Shah Muhammad of the Khwarezm, the center of an empire that included parts of modern-day Afghanistan and Iran. Earlier, the Shah had executed the Mongol ambassador and had sent back the man's head to Genghis Khan, infuriating the Mongol leader. Shah Muhammad had 110,000 troops in the city, but most were poorly disciplined and fled even before the Mongol army arrived. After just a day's fighting, the city gates were opened, and the Shah's people were forced to beg the Mongols for mercy, which they did not receive. [D] Today, there is barely anything left of the once-powerful city of Samarkand. The city was once famed for its copper and silver artisans. An advanced aqueduct system once brought water to the city, making gardens bloom in the dry lands. Today, there is only grass and some occasional bricks. A modern-day Samarkand has grown in its place, but of the original city's great workshops and palaces, nothing remains. [E] The Mongols destroyed every building in the city, killing most of its citizens and taking away many of the survivors to serve as slaves. A city of over 200,000 was erased from the earth. Where the city's mosque once was, archeologist Yuri Buryakov has found the burnt bones of the mosque's defenders. "[T]here were soldiers who did not want to surrender," he says. A thousand withdrew to the mosque, hoping that the Mongols would not kill them there. "But to Mongols it didn't make any difference. They would kill anywhere." [F] Similar stories can be told of other great cities of Central Asia: Bukhara, Balkh, Herat, Ghazni. One after another, they fell to the horsemen who burst from the grasslands of Mongolia. In Afghanistan, even after 750 years, people speak of the Mongol attack as if it happened yesterday. "Only nine!" exclaims one old man in the once elegant city of Herat. "That is all that survived here - nine people!" [G] The name of Genghis Khan brings to mind the most completely ruthless and murderous of history's conquerors. Accounts like that of Samarkand and Herat, rich in poetic exaggeration, seem to be part myth and part history. Experts on 12th-century sources, however, find that some writings need to be critically interpreted to produce a more balanced view of the man and his times. [H] Genghis Khan's love of conquest appears evident in a quotation attributed to him: "Man's greatest good fortune is to chase and defeat his enemy, seize his total possessions, leave his married women weeping ..." In 1215, in the early days of Mongol empire building, Genghis Khan's armies surrounded the city of Zhongdu (modern-day Beijing). Years later, a traveler who noticed a white hill was told it was the bones of Zhongdu's inhabitants. It is said that even on his death bed, Genghis Khan ordered the killing of the entire population of Xi Xia, a neighboring state that had defied him. [I] Yet the reputation of Genghis Khan as an utterly ruthless warrior may be worse than the reality. Much of our information comes from chroniclers of the time who often exaggerated the facts. It is possible they were encouraged by their Mongol employers to exaggerate the tales of cruelty so that the Mongols appeared more frightening to their enemies. In the city of Nishapur, a chronicler wrote that the Mongols were brutal to the extent that even the city's dogs and cats were killed. "There's no question that there was a great deal of destruction," says Mongol expert Morris Rossabi. "[But] not all the cities were butchered." The Secret History of the Mongols, an account of Genghis Khan's early life and the oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language, may also have bent the truth so as to enhance his reputation. "It is full of myths and legends," says historian Larry Moses, although "some of it can be [supported by] Chinese sources." [J] In his homeland, Genghis Khan's reputation needs little enhancement. There he is revered as the first ruler of a united Mongolia, and his face can be found on paper currency. Mongolian historian Shirendev Bagaryn interprets Genghis Khan's conquests in a more positive light: "When you are eating," he says, "your appetite grows. Once you are strong you want to go find out how other people live ... He needed their knowledge to develop his country" - for example, by borrowing the written script that his neighbors used in western China. Other historians believe that Genghis was driven less by a thirst for land than by a need to feed his people: "I don't think he consciously set out to be a conqueror," says Rossabi. "In general, he didn't try to hold on to territory, except for Mongolia." [K] At the age of about 60, after conquering much of continental Asia, Genghis Khan died, possibly after falling from his horse. His body was taken back to Mongolia for burial. Of his grave, like much of the societies he conquered, nothing remains. According to one Persian historian, Genghis Khan was "possessed of great energy ... a genius ... a butcher, just, resolute ... and cruel," which might serve as a fair epitaph. It is true that the Mongols under Genghis Khan committed ruthless acts, killing armies as well as peaceful citizens and forcing millions to accept their rule. But the 13th century saw many wars where cruelty was the norm. It could be argued that Genghis Khan was simply a man of his time, a man who happened to be a brilliant military leader, and who gave to his descendants the greatest empire - and the most powerful army - the world had ever seen. Passage 3 | Question 8 Choose all of the following words from paragraph D that indicate a POSITIVE attitude.