Reading comprehension -TOEFL- Lesson 103 (Đọc hiểu -TOEFL- Bài 103)
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Napoleon Bonaparte's ambition to control all the are a around the Mediterranean Sea led him and his French soldiers to Egypt. After losing a naval battle, they were forced to remain there for three years. In 1799, while constructing a fort, a soldier discovered a 5 piece of stele (stone pillar bearing an inscription) known as the Rosetta stone. This famous stone, which would eventually lead to the deciphering of ancient, Egyptian hieroglyphics dating to 3100 B.C., was written in three languages: hieroglyphics (picture writing), demotic (a shorthand version of hieroglyphics), and Greek. Scientists 10 discovered that the characters, unlike those in English, could be written from right to left and in other directions as well.
Twenty-three years, after discovery of the Rosetta stone, Jean Francois 14 Champollion, a French philologist, fluent in several languages, was able to decipher the first word - Ptolemy – name of an Egyptian ruler. This name was written inside an oval called a "cartouche." Further investigation revealed that cartouches contained names of important people of that period. Champollion painstakingly continued his search 19 and was able to increase his growing list of known phonetic signs. He and an Englishman, Thomas Young, worked independently of each other to unravel the deeply hidden mysteries of this strange language. Young believed that sound values could be assigned to the symbols, while Champollion insisted that the pictures represented words.
Twenty-three years, after discovery of the Rosetta stone, Jean Francois 14 Champollion, a French philologist, fluent in several languages, was able to decipher the first word - Ptolemy – name of an Egyptian ruler. This name was written inside an oval called a "cartouche." Further investigation revealed that cartouches contained names of important people of that period. Champollion painstakingly continued his search 19 and was able to increase his growing list of known phonetic signs. He and an Englishman, Thomas Young, worked independently of each other to unravel the deeply hidden mysteries of this strange language. Young believed that sound values could be assigned to the symbols, while Champollion insisted that the pictures represented words.
1. How many years elapsed between the date of the oldest hieroglyphics deciphered by means of the Rosetta stone and the stone's discovery?
2. Which of the following languages was not written on the Rosetta stone?
3. Which of the following statements is not true?
4. When was the first word from the Rosetta stone deciphered?
5. What was the first word that was deciphered from the Rosetta stone?
6. Why were Napoleon's soldiers in Egypt in 1799?
7. Who was responsible for deciphering the first word?
