Reading comprehension questions

Read the text and answer question 1 to 7 !

Archaeology is a source of history, not just a humble auxiliary discipline. Archaeological data are

historical documents, not mere illustrations to written texts. Just as much as any other historian, an

archaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute the process that has created the human world in which

we live and us ourselves in so far as we are each creature of our age and social environment.

Archaeological data are all changes in the material world resulting from human action or more succinctly

the fossilized results of human behavior. The sum of these constitutes is what may be called as the

archaeological record which it exhibits certain peculiarities and deficiencies the consequences of which

produce a rather superficial contrast between archaeological history and the more familiar kind based

upon written records.

Not all human behavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear as vibrations in the air are

certainly human changes in the material world and may be of great historical significance. Yet they leave

no sort of trace in the archaeological records unless they are captured by a dictaphone or written down

by a clerk. The movement of troops on the battlefield may "change the course of history", but this is

equally ephemeral from the archaeologist's standpoint. What is perhaps worse, most organic materials

being perishable. Everything made of wood, hide wool, linen, grass hair, and similar materials will decay

and vanish in dust in a few years or centuries, save under very exceptional conditions. In a relatively brief

period, the archaeological record is reduced to mere scraps of stone, bone, glass, metal, and

earthenware. Still modern archaeology, by applying appropriate techniques and comparative methods,

aided by a few lucky finds from peat bogs, deserts, and frozen soils can fill up a good deal of the gap.

1. What is the author's main purpose in the passage?

• Encouraging more people to become

  archaeologists.

• Explaining how archaeology is a source of

  history.

• Describing an archaeologist’s education.

• Pointing out the importance of recent

  advances in archaeology.

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.6

CCSS.RI.11-12.6

CCSS.RI.8.9

CCSS.RL.11-12.6

CCSS.RL.9-10.6

2.The word "discipline" in line 1 can be best

replaced by ...

• course

• order

• method

• student

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

3.The word "it" in line 7 refers to ..

• the record

• the sum

• human behavior

• constitute

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

4.According to the passage, what does the

archaeological record consists of?

• the fossilize results of human activity

• spoken words of great historical significance

• organic materials

• ephemeral ideas

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

CCSS.RI.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

5. 5.The word "they" in line 12 refers to ...

• words

• scraps

• troops

• humans

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

6.In line 13, the phrase “change the course of

history” can be considered as ...

• a cause of different story in the past

• a reference of certain history

• a change in related history

• a matter of history course

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

7.The paragraph following the passage most

probably discusses..

• techniques for recording oralhistories

• certain battlefield excavation methods

• some specific archaeological discoveries

• building materials of the nineteenth and

  twentieth centuries

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

CCSS.RI.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2