入学测试题阅读部分-雅思阅读.docVIP

READING READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below A Chronicle of Timekeeping  Our conception of time depends on the way we measure it A According to archaeological evidence, at least 5,000 years a8;o, and long before the advent of the Roman Empire, the Babylonians began to measure time, introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities, to plan the shipment of goods and, in particular, to regulate planting and harvesting. They based their calendars on three natural cycles: the solar day, marked by the successive periods ofli8;ht and darkness as the earth rotates on its axis; the lunar month, following the phases of the moon as it orbits the earth; and the solar year, defined by the chan8;ing seasons that accompany our planets revolution around the sun. B Before the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater social impact. And, for those living near the equator in particular, its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons. Hence, the calendars that were developed at the lower latitude were influenced more by the lunar cycle than by the solar year. In more northern climes, however, where seasonal agriculture was practiced, the solar year became more crucial. A the Roman Empire expanded northward, it organized its activity chart for the most part around the solar year. C Centuries before the Roman Empire, the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months of 30 days, with five days added to approximate the solar year. Each period of ten days was marked by the appearance of special groups of stars called decans. At the rise of the star Sirius just before sunrise, which occurred around the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, 12 decans could be seen spanning the heavens. The cosmic significance the Egyptians placed in the 12 decans led them to develop a system in which each in