甲 骨 文

广西 邹克娅

甲骨文是中国的一种古老文字,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

1The first Chinese characters date from the late Shang Dynasty, some 3,000 years ago, originally made for the purpose of divination(占卜).They were written on pieces of tortoiseshell and fragments of bones.

2During the Shang Dynasty,divination was very important.To those who knew how to read them, they held the belief that exhibits of shells and bones could foretell the future,telling them when to sacrifice, when to harvest, and when illness would strike.So,it was these diviners seeking to unlock the 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.

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

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

5In pictograph (象 形 文 字) characters like“tian”, meaning“farm”, simple lines were used to outline the shape of something.But more abstract concepts could be described, too.For example, a short horizontal stroke above a long one meant“above”, while a short stroke below a long one meant“below”.By combining more than one character into one, even more complex ideas could be expressed.Take“jiu”, meaning“wine”, for example, a combination of the character for a cup or container and water.Other characters would combine one character indicating a certain sound with another specific meaning.“Yang”,for example,means“wander”.

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

Reading Check

1.What's 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 Study

Difficult sentence

To those who knew how to read them, they held the belief that exhibits of shells and bones could foretell the future, telling them when to sacrifice, when to harvest, and when illness would strike.对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。