雅思考试摘要题专项练习及解答

　　雅思考试摘要题专项练习及解答

　　It may be small一each molecule is less than a billionth of a metre long, and consists of a handful of atoms of carbon，hydrogen and oxygen一but ethyl alcohol makes an excellent time machine. People have enjoyed alcoholic drinks since prehistoric times，making drinking one of the few strands that runs throughout the history of western civilization.

　　Appreciating the art。music or literature of long-vanished cultures can require years of study; recreating their drinks, and comparing them to what we enjoy today，is simple in comparison，not to mention more fun. The consumption of alcohol is so widespread in history，says Patrick McGovern .an archaeological chemist at the University of Pennsylvania，that drinking is, in effect，"a universal language".

　　At the same time，of course，different cultures' attitudes to alcohol provide a window on a wide range of social and cultural practices. Alcoholic drinks have always been prized for their supposedly medicinal qualities, though exactly what these qualities were, and how best to take advantage of them, has only become clear in modern times. In short, the drinks of history are familiar enough that we can understand and appreciate them, while different enough to teach us something about the time and place in which they were originally drunk. Some of them can even be recreated at home·with commonly available ingredients.

　　The oldest surviving recipe in the world is for beer. It can be found on a 3,800-year-old clay tablet，as part of a hymn to Ninkasi. the Sumerian goddess of brewing. Sumerian documents.including the legal code drawn up during the reign of King Hammurabi around 1720 BC，show that beer played an important role in Mesopotamian rituals. myths and medical practices. It was drunk by all members of society，from top to bottom，and tavern keepers were expected to abide by strict rules: the penalty for overcharging, for example，was drowning.

　　In addition to being at the heart of Mesopotamian culture. beer may even have been the foundation for the whole of western civilization. In the 1950s Jonathan Sauer, an American botanist, suggested that the original motivation for domesticating cereal crops (and thus switching from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle) might have been to make beer. rather than bread. The question of whether beer or bread came first has been debated ever since.

　　Supporters of Sauer's idea have pointed out that many of the first cereals to be farmed were unsuitable for baking without tiresome preparation, but were suitable for brewing. Beer，they suggest·may have emerged in an attempt to make wild barley edible by mixing it with water and fruit. The thick beer produced in this way would be just as nutritious as bread，in addition to being slightly alcoholic.

　　Sumerian documents lend credence to this idea. For although Sumerian beer was made using bappir，a form of bread that could be stored for long periods, it seems that happir was consumed only when no other food was available. In other words, its primary function may have been to store the raw materials for making beer in a convenient form.

　　If beer really does underpin western civilization，that would explain its high status in Sumerian culture. The seal of Lady Pu-Abi. queen of the city of Ur around 2600 BC,shows her drinking beer from a cup through a straw; just such a straw，made of gold and lapis lazuli，was found in her tomb. and can be seen today in the British Museum.

　　So what would this Ur-beer have tasted like? A number of attempts have been made to brew Sumerian beer according to the Ninkasi recipe. Two such tipples were made in the early 1990s at the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. though they were not put on sale to the general public. They involved a certain amount of guesswork. One problem，says Michael Jackson，a beer expert who has tasted various pseudo-Sumerian beers over the years, is that modern brewers avoid the use of wild yeast，which would have made the original beers taste."winey and sour". Another problem，he says, is that it is not clear what was added to ancient beers to balance the taste of the grain. It may well have been fruit，but could also have been honeyThis means there are various modern beers that may resemble the ancient kind. Mr Jackson notes that Iambic beers from Belgium use wild yeast，for example;he also recommends Sahti，a Finnish beer that is flavoured with juniper, which he describes as“the last primitive beer to survive in Europe".Philip Rogers. of the Anchor Brewing Company，says that the Ninkasi brew he tasted was reminiscent of mead:another beer. also based on the Ninkasi recipe, has been compared to Jade，a French organic beer.

　　To further complicate matters, says Mr. McGovern, the distinction between beer, wineand mead starts to break down once honey and fruit are included in the brewing process.

　　Furthermore.his analysis of drinking vessels, found in:，tomb in central Turkey dating to around 700 BC and thought to be that of King Midas, suggests that beer, wine and meadmay have been mixed together in equal quantities to make an early form of cocktail.

　　Complete the partial summary of the passage below using NO MORE THAN 7WO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

　　Write your answers in boxes 1一9 on your answer sheet.

　　Recreating old drinks is comparatively…1…but is more…2... for people. Drinking has been compared to a…3... . People have always valued drinks for their…4... qualities.

　　The earliest formula we can find today is for making…5... . Indeed. some people believe that it is the...6...of the western civilization instead of ...7... because the original ingredients were fit for…8... but unfit for…9...

　　解析

　　1 .simple;2. fun;3. language;4. medicinal; 5.beer; 6. foundation;7. bread; 8. brewing; 9. baking通过答题指引可以看出.这道摘要题是文章部分段落的大意概括(partial summary)，但没有给出起止的段落，必须通过快速阅读题目了解其大致内容。

　　此题起始句中首先要抓住其主语Recreating old drinks，其他关键词还有comparatively和more,原文第一段的第三句话中就出现了比较，不过是以两个并列句的形式出现的:欣赏己消失了的文化的艺术、音乐或文学需要多年的研究;而再现它们的酒，和我们今天喝的酒相比较，就比较容易(simple in comparison).更不要说更加有趣(more fun) 了。这与第1个空格前的comparatively相对应;而more与第2个空格前的more相对应.因此第1题应填simple，第2题应填fun,第3题稍困难些，要求填出酒被比作了什么。文中并没有出现compare或其同义词。但第一段的后一句提到了一个人说的话，照他看来，由于酒的消费在历史上如此广泛，事实上.酒就是一种世界语言(universal language)。这句话包含了一个暗喻:酒是语言。实际上，酒被比作了语言，因此，第3题应填language,第4题的关键词是valued，与第二段第二句话中的prized相对应.两个词的意思都是“珍视”。根据原文意思，此题应填medicinal,第5题的关键词是earliest formula (早的配方).第二段的起始句中The oldest surviving recipe(保存下来的老的配方)意思与之完全对应，因此此题应填这句话末尾的beer,第6题的关键词是western civilization,空格处要填的词与western civilization有关系。

　　第四段起始句用表示推测的结构提到，啤酒可能是整个西方文明的基础(foundation).第5题中己填出beer这个词，而在第6题里以it指代。所以.此处应填foundation一词。

　　第7题与第6题同属一个句子，以instead of(而不是)连接，表明二者是对比关系。第四段第二句话中有一个很重要的结构rather than(而不是)，对比了beer和bread在西方文明中的地位.据此，此题应填bread.

　　第8题和第9题又形成了对比关系，关键词分别是fit和unfit。原文第五段第一句话中有两个词与之对应:suitable和unsuitable，因此，第8题应填suitable后的brewing, 而第9题应填unsuitable后的baking.