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[阅读小分队] 【每日阅读训练第四期——速度越障5系列】【5-08】文史哲

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发表于 2012-7-29 03:43:38 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
[SPEED]
Egypt’s Islamists Tread Lightly, but Skeptics Squirm
[TIME 1]
CAIRO — During Egypt’s presidential campaign, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, made no apologies for the group’s slogan: “Islam is the solution.”
.Shariah law would provide the principles on which the country’s legal system would be based, he acknowledged repeatedly. When he was sworn in last month, the Arab world’s biggest country gained an unabashed Islamist as its leader for the first time, arousing alarm here and abroad.
Since then, however, the new government has not publicly made a single Islamist move.
“For 80 years, hundreds of thousands of books and articles were published about what would happen in case a Brotherhood president made it to power in Egypt,” wrote Ahmed Samir, a columnist in the daily Egyptian newspaper El Masry El Youm. “It was said that veils would be required, banks would be closed, a war would be declared, and bathing suits would be banned. Today we discovered what happens when a Brotherhood president holds power. Simply nothing.”
Such a definitive pronouncement could be premature. The Brotherhood has often taken the long view, preferring incremental change to sweeping gestures. And Mr. Morsi’s power has been severely circumscribed by the military, which still holds most of the cards; a rash move by Mr. Morsi could provide a pretext for the military to crack down further on the fledgling government.
On the surface, however, Mr. Morsi seems to have gone out of his way to allay fears that Islamists would radically change Egyptian society. He promptly fulfilled a campaign promise to resign from the Brotherhood and its political party, the Freedom and Justice Party, and chose a prime minister, Hesham Kandil, who is a religious Muslim but known as a technocrat rather than a hard-liner.
Mr. Morsi met early with the acting Coptic pope, Anba Bakhomious, though during the election campaign he had said he did not believe a Christian or a woman could ever be president of Egypt. He went out of his way to praise the role of the military as guarantors of Egypt’s new democracy, and word was that the choice of a defense minister in the new government would be left to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
[365 WORDS]
[TIME 2]
Significantly, he has refrained from taking any action on hot-button social or foreign policy issues, or even discussing them.
The sale and consumption of alcohol remain legal, a concern of the important tourist industry, which has been on the rocks since last year’s revolution toppled Hosni Mubarak from power. No one in ruling circles is calling for the government to make wearing head scarves obligatory, ban pop music or review the peace treaty with Israel.
Not that it could. The new Parliament, where Islamists hold a majority, has been dissolved by the courts and has been able to meet only once since then.
Mr. Morsi’s public positions so far are a far cry from the Brotherhood’s reputation and even its history as a conservative, Pan-Islamic party, founded in Egypt but long banned from Egyptian political life. The Palestinian extremist group Hamas, which governs Gaza, is an offshoot of the Brotherhood, for instance, and in the past Mr. Morsi called for opening the border between Egypt and Gaza to relieve the pressure on Hamas of an Israeli blockade.
Yet when the Hamas leader Khaled Meshal visited Egypt this month, Mr. Morsi took care to receive the mainstream Palestinian Authority chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, first — and never raised the issue of opening the border, at least publicly. The Hamas prime minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniya, visited Cairo last week and similarly left empty-handed, although he professed confidence that Egypt’s Islamists would come through for Hamas eventually.
“The Brotherhood is not in any position to make any bold moves on foreign policy right away,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. Hamas, he said, “is bound to be disappointed.”
Despite such efforts, Mr. Morsi and his Brotherhood allies have had little luck placating secular and other opponents. The Brotherhood remains reviled and feared by secular activists and many Christians, who make up 10 percent of the population and remember when Brotherhood ideologists talked about assessing the jizya, a tithe on Christians in Islamic-ruled states that goes back to the conquests of Christians by early Muslims.
[348 WORDS]
[TIME 3]
Many secular and Christian Egyptians, even some who participated in the revolution, have come to see the military as a guarantor against Islamist excess, a role the military has claimed for itself. Just two weeks ago, the leader of the ruling military council, which has controlled Egypt since Mr. Mubarak was ousted, vowed that the army would not let Egypt “fall” to “a certain group,” a not-so-veiled reference to the Brotherhood.
“Since Morsi won, the Muslim Brotherhood adopted more of a conciliatory tone and made an effort to reach out to non-Islamists,” Mr. Hamid said. “The question is if it has worked, and I would say it hasn’t. It’s deep-seated. Neither side trusts the other.”
Hisham Kassem, a publisher and political commentator in Egypt, said people had quickly lost trust in the Brotherhood, which reneged on a promise not to run a candidate for president this year. They concluded it was willing to say anything to secure power. “They basically feel any lying is done for the love of God, so it gives them license,” Mr. Kassem said.
“Being a secular liberal, I was very critical of my fellow liberals when they spoke of the tyranny of the majority and so on,” he added. “I said, ‘Let’s work with the Brotherhood.’ ” That view changed when liberals saw how unwilling the group was to share power, and when it challenged court decisions, supported by the military, to dissolve Parliament.
Like many liberal critics, Mr. Kassem said the reason the Brotherhood had not taken any action on social issues was that it was biding its time until it was powerful enough to do so.
“It’s too early to take real action to move in an Islamic direction,” he said. “But the nuances are pretty scary.”
Those nuances include the way a Brotherhood spokesman, Mahmoud Ghuzlan, answers questions with Koranic verses, and the group’s tendency to fill the spectator galleries at hearings on constitutional and postelection issues with emotional, chanting activists. Mr. Morsi has also refused to be drawn into issues like female genital mutilation, which, according to a 2005 study by Unicef, a stunning 97 percent of Egyptian women undergo but on which Islamists maintain neutrality.
[369 WORDS]
[TIME 4]
“We should leave this matter to the law and not open issues that do not help in our situation,” Mr. Morsi was quoted as saying by a former campaign worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The depth of suspicions about the Brotherhood erupted into public view this month when Hillary Rodham Clinton, the American secretary of state, met with Mr. Morsi in Egypt and then was jeered and her motorcade pelted with tomatoes by protesters, mainly Coptic Christians and secularists, angry that the Americans were, in their view, supporting the Islamists by meeting with Mr. Morsi.
So far, the best that Mr. Morsi’s critics have had to say is that it is still early. Several court cases could drastically shift the balance of power: one on whether to dissolve the upper house of Parliament, another challenging the military-backed court decision to dissolve the lower house of Parliament, another to void a Brotherhood-dominated assembly charged with drafting a new constitution.
Mr. Morsi has made only one cabinet appointment, his prime minister. The rest of the appointments will surely test his campaign pledge to form a unity government representing all factions.
“This is the right thing to do, and he always said this is what he would do,” said Amr Derrag, secretary general of the Giza branch of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. “Be president for all Egyptians.”

Rivalries
One legend. One phenom. Only one winner
It’s hard to miss Ryan Lochte. There he is, shirtless on the cover of Vogue. He’s one of the new faces of Gillette, and he’s featured in Ralph Lauren ads. On TV he’s chugging Gatorade. He’s in demand with media and sponsors alike, but he won’t admit that all this lavish attention is primarily a result of this one fact: he’s the closest thing to a rival that Michael Phelps will have in London.
[327 WORDS]
[TIME 5]
Understand that he’s not there to be a prop for Phelps. Lochte is a phenomenal swimmer. His effortless strokes, which he learned from his first swim coach — his mother — have earned him 17 world and six Olympic medals. And his legendary dryland training in Florida, lifted from the strongman regimen of tire flipping and keg tossing, as well as abolishing fast food from his diet, has given him enviable power to slice through the water. But he’s had the good fortune (or misfortune, depending on how you look at it) of swimming in the era of Phelps, a once-in-a-generation athlete. Phelps made history at the Beijing Games by lapping up eight gold medals in a schedule so brutal that he is declining to repeat it in London. (He’ll be swimming in just seven events.) Even phenomenal swimmers pale in comparison to that. In Beijing, Phelps punched Lochte out in the 200-m and 400-m individual-medley (IM) events, Lochte claimed gold in the 200-m backstroke (Phelps didn’t swim it), and the two teamed up for gold in the 4 x 200-m freestyle relay. But when Lochte touched the wall ahead of Phelps in the 200-m IM at the world championships last year and demolished Phelps’ world record too, that’s when the rivalry talk began.
(LIST: 50 Olympic Athletes to Watch)
Given how much time these athletes spend with their faces in the water, there’s not much time for trash talk in swimming. Rivalry? “I don’t think like that,” says Lochte. “It’s everyone else that thinks like that.” But Lochte and Phelps are linked together like Olympic rings. It’s inevitable in any contest of the world’s best athletes — even one that occurs once every four years — that the same competitors will meet, vying in a tug-of-war for records, medals, sponsors and bragging rights, pushing one another in an ever escalating battle to be on top.
[312 WORDS]
[FREE]
London, Lochte has said, is “my time,” and despite his admirable respect for Phelps’ accomplishments, both admit that the chummy feelings end on the starting blocks. Even the laid-back Lochte, whose favorite response to all things good is “Jeah,” says that when it’s race time, “neither one of us likes to lose. He knows I’m right there, and I know he’s right there. We push each other every day whether or not we train together.”
In fact Phelps, 27, who is about a year younger than Lochte, credits the loss to Lochte in the 200-m IM for reawakening his waning interest in swimming after Beijing. “He was just rolling over me, and it wasn’t fun to be on that end,” Phelps says. Out of the water, the two couldn’t be more different. Whereas Phelps is intense, Lochte is more … well, he lets his fashion choices — he designed his own red, white and blue sneakers for the Olympic trials — speak for him. Even at the risk of injury, he squeezes in skateboarding and pickup basketball games to offset the drudgery of laps, much to the dismay of his anxious but resigned coach.
But it works. “Everyone says that if he wasn’t around or if this were a different era, I’d be the greatest swimmer ever,” says Lochte about his rival. He doesn’t lament swimming in Phelps’ shadow. It just makes the challenge of racing that much more of an adrenaline rush. “Any chance that I can race the best people in the world, I’d be more than happy to,” he says. He’ll get two opportunities to do that in London, in the 200-m and 400-m IM races, which are among the most anticipated showdowns of the Games.
[287 WORDS]
[OBSTACLE]

Minoan civilization
Minoan civilization was a bronze-aged civilization that arose on the island of Crete and came to dominate the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea. The civilization flourished as a maritime power from approximately the 27th century to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century by British archaeologist Arthur Evans. Will Durant referred to this civilization as "the first link in the European chain." Hominids first appeared on Crete approximately 130,000 years ago, during the Middle Paleolithic age. Axes, of the type that has been attributed to Homo erectus in Africa and which comprised local quartz rather than flint, have been found at Preveli Gorge in southern Crete.  Archaeological evidence points to the island's settlement between the late 8th and early 7th millennia BC.  However, it was not until 5000 BC that the first signs of advanced agriculture appeared. Minoan civilization is considered to have begun with the palace complexes that appeared in the Bronze Age. The relationships of the Minoans with the more ancient peoples of Crete are unknown.

Overview
The self-name of the people did not survive. It is often incorrectly asserted that Arthur Evans coined the term, Minoan. More relevantly, it is necessary to distinguish between the legendary and the archaeological civilizations. In the Odyssey, Odysseus says that " mong their cities is the great city Cnosus, where Minos reigned when nine years old, he that held converse with great Zeus, and was father of my father, great-hearted Deucalion."
From time immemorial, "Minoan" has been used to refer to the legendary life and times of King Minos, and all persons, places and things that were associated with him. Until Evans, the myth was still being taken seriously. Chronological problems were solved by presuming, on no evidence, that Minos was a title; therefore, any Cretan king could be King Minos. Evans did as much as anyone to debunk the myth as serious history. When Evans went to work at Knossos, classics was still under the spell of Heinrich Schliemann, who had insisted that the archaeological remains of the swineherd's hut in the Odyssey could be located and excavated. For example, in his 1839 work, translated as The History and Antiquities of the Dorian Race, Karl Otfried Müller referred to "the Minoan town of Cnossus," which was in one of the "districts inhabited by the Eteocretans." Müller's reference was entirely literary; he had no idea about the discoveries that would follow his death.
It has sometimes been argued that the Egyptian place name, "Keftiu" (*Káftiu kftiw), and the Semitic "Kaftor" or "Caphtor" and "Kaptara" in the Mari archives refer to the island of Crete; "On the other hand some acknowledged facts about Caphtor/Keftiu can only with difficulty be reconciled with Crete," observes John Strange.[6] In the Odyssey, composed centuries after the destruction of the Minoan civilization, Homer calls the natives of Crete Eteocretans ("true Cretans"); these may have been descendants of the Minoans.
Minoan anaktora palaces are the best known building types to have been excavated on the island. They serve administrative purposes as evidenced by the large archives unearthed by archaeologists. Each of the excavated palaces has unique features, but they also share features which set them apart from other structures. The palaces were often multi-storeyed, with interior and exterior staircases, light wells, massive columns, storage magazines, and courtyards.
Since the Neolithic era, Crete stood in the middle of two cultural streams that lead to the west: the West Asian and the North African. It has been suggested that the Minoan people were not Indo-European, and that they could be related to the Pelasgians--pre-Greek dwellers of the Greek mainland and Western Anatolia.[7] For many centuries, Minoan Crete remained free from any invaders and managed to develop a distinct independent civilization, which was probably the most advanced in the Mediterranean area during the Bronze Age. The Minoan script (Linear A) has not yet been deciphered; it could represent an Aegean language, unrelated to any Indo-European language.

Geography
Crete is a mountainous island with natural harbours. There are signs of earthquake damage at many Minoan sites and clear signs of both uplifting of land and submersion of coastal sites due to tectonic processes all along the coasts.
Homer recorded a tradition that Crete had 90 cities. To judge from the palace sites, the island was probably divided into at least eight political units during the height of the Minoan period. The north is thought to have been governed from Knossos, the south from Phaistos, the central eastern part from Malia, and the eastern tip from Kato Zakros and the west from Chania. Smaller palaces have been found in other places.

Society and culture
Fresco showing three women who were possibly Queens.The Minoans were primarily a mercantile people engaged in overseas trade. Their culture, from 1700 BC onward, shows a high degree of organization.
Many historians and archaeologists believe that the Minoans were involved in the Bronze Age's important tin trade: tin, alloyed with copper apparently from Cyprus, was used to make bronze. The decline of Minoan civilization and the decline in use of bronze tools in favor of iron ones seem to be correlated.
The Minoan trade in saffron, the stigma of a mutated crocus which originated in the Aegean basin as a natural chromosome mutation, has left fewer material remains: a fresco of saffron-gatherers at Santorini is well-known. This inherited trade pre-dated Minoan civilization: a sense of its rewards may be gained by comparing its value to frankincense, or later, to pepper. Archaeologists tend to emphasize the more durable items of trade: ceramics, copper, and tin, and dramatic luxury finds of gold and silver.
Objects of Minoan manufacture suggest there was a network of trade with mainland Greece (notably Mycenae), Cyprus, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and westward as far as the coast of Spain.
Minoan men wore loincloths and kilts. Women wore robes that had short sleeves and layered flounced skirts. These were open to the navel allowing their breasts to be left exposed, perhaps during ceremonial occasions. Women also had the option of wearing a strapless fitted bodice. The patterns on emphasized symmetrical geometric designs. It must be remembered that other forms of dress may have been worn of which we have no record.
The Minoan religion focused on female deities, with females officiating. The statues of priestesses in Minoan culture and frescoes showing men and women participating in the same sports such as bull-leaping, lead some archaeologists to believe that men and women held equal social status. Inheritance is thought to have been matrilineal.[citation needed] The frescos include many depictions of people, with the genders distinguished by colour: the men's skin is reddish-brown, the women's white.

Language and writing
Unknown signs on the Phaistos Disc.Knowledge of the spoken and written language of the Minoans is scant, due to the small number of records found. Around 3000 clay tablets have been found with the various Cretan scripts. Clay tablets seem to have been used from around 3000 BC or earlier. Two clay cups from Knossos have been found with remnants of ink; and inkwells, similar to the animal-shaped inkstands from Mesopotamia, have also been found.
Sometimes, the Minoan language is referred to as Eteocretan, but this presents confusion between the language written in Linear A scripts and the language written in a Euboean-derived alphabet after the Greek Dark Ages. While the Eteocretan language is believed to be a descendant of Minoan, there is not enough source material in either language to allow conclusions.
The earliest writing found on Crete is Cretan hieroglyphic system. It is not known whether this language is Minoan, and scholars often debate its origin. These hieroglyphs are often associated with the Egyptians but also appear related to several other writings from the Mesopotamian region. The hieroglyphs came into use from MMI and were in parallel use with the emerging Linear A from the 18th century BC (MM II) and disappeared during the 17th century BCE (MM III).
In the Mycenean period, Linear A was replaced by Linear B, recording a very archaic version of the Greek language. Linear B was successfully deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952, but the earlier scripts remain a mystery. The overwhelming majority of tablets are written in the Linear B script, apparently being inventories of goods or resources. Others are inscriptions on religious objects. Because most of these inscriptions are concise economic records rather than dedicatory inscriptions, the translation of Minoan remains a challenge.
Unless Eteocretan truly is its descendant, it is perhaps during the Greek Dark Ages, a time of economic and socio-political collapse, that the Minoan language became extinct.
[1430WORDS]

恭喜~您已闯关成功~实力必有提升~<--牙好胃口好哇~

若想满血原地加速升级,此处有越障原文链接~
╭(╯3╰)╮点点点点这里哇->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization
发表于 2012-7-29 07:25:28 | 显示全部楼层
沙发~谢谢饭饭的文章^_^

1’42
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1’48
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1’28
1’14


9’48
细节记不清楚...
Main idea:M civilization.
1. Some background of M civilization
2. Difference between Legend and archology
3. Geography: moutain/ 90cities/ at least eight political district
4. Culture and society: three queens/ trade/ cloths/status of men and women
5. language: link with E(not sure)/linear A(greek) & B(decipher)/linear A:not decode-reason: business/
发表于 2012-7-29 09:34:58 | 显示全部楼层
2'16
a New president of Egypt, who is a Brotherhood member, argued that the Islanmic can help Egyt. commenders doubt the future of the country.
2'17
2'
commender warry the racial policy.
1'45
1'54
the swiming competition of the Olmpic game
11'41''
Mioan civilization
1 the found of the civilization, Minoan civilization,
2 it was viewed as a vision one, and during a pierod, people respect it. then, the archeologist found the site of the civilization. it's building is mature
3 it derived in a island, and expanded a lager area
4 about the social, the Monan people tread with others, and they use metal making tools; it worships female and women can expose her breast. man has a red-brown face color while woman white
5 about launge, there is rare evidence to distinguish it.
发表于 2012-7-29 10:01:42 | 显示全部楼层
谢谢饭饭精心准备的文章~昨晚跑去机经去瞧了瞧,发现饭饭又默默地无私地在整理机经了!
向饭饭致敬!~~~
发表于 2012-7-29 11:30:45 | 显示全部楼层
1'53"
2'10"
2'13"
1'36"
1'27"
发表于 2012-7-29 13:00:10 | 显示全部楼层
pace
1'40
1'19
1'10
48''
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42''
读完一遍稀里糊涂。。。只知道讲了埃及 Islamic的事

obsticle
6'02每段大意大概能懂,只是没记笔记。

谢谢饭饭!!
 楼主| 发表于 2012-7-29 17:04:14 | 显示全部楼层
谢谢饭饭精心准备的文章~昨晚跑去机经去瞧了瞧,发现饭饭又默默地无私地在整理机经了!
向饭饭致敬!~~~
-- by 会员 teddybearj4 (2012/7/29 10:01:42)

teddy亲客气客气哈~~加油加油哈!
 楼主| 发表于 2012-7-29 17:04:57 | 显示全部楼层
沙发~谢谢饭饭的文章^_^

1’42
1’44
1’48
1’32
1’28
1’14


9’48
细节记不清楚...
Main idea:M civilization.
1. Some background of M civilization
2. Difference between Legend and archology
3. Geography: moutain/ 90cities/ at least eight political district
4. Culture and society: three queens/ trade/ cloths/status of men and women
5. language: link with E(not sure)/linear A(greek) & B(decipher)/linear A:not decode-reason: business/
-- by 会员 spencerX (2012/7/29 7:25:28)

客气哈~~加油
 楼主| 发表于 2012-7-29 17:05:32 | 显示全部楼层
pace
1'40
1'19
1'10
48''
1'32
42''
读完一遍稀里糊涂。。。只知道讲了埃及 Islamic的事

obsticle
6'02每段大意大概能懂,只是没记笔记。

谢谢饭饭!!
-- by 会员 eliane小小爱 (2012/7/29 13:00:10)

客气客气~加油哈,越障最好回忆哈~
发表于 2012-7-29 20:49:59 | 显示全部楼层
1:54
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