雅思阅读第084套P3-Mystery of the mummies

Mystery of the mummies

In 1992, a German scientist made a discovery which was to upset whole areas of scientific study from history and archaeology to chemistry and botany. Dr. Svetlana Balabanova, a forensic specialist, was performing tissue tests on an Egyptian mummy, part of a German museum collection. The mummified remains were of a woman named Henut-Taui who had died over 3,000 years ago. Amazingly, the tests revealed that her body contained large quantities of cocaine and nicotine. Dr. Balabanova had regularly used the same testing methods to convict people of drug consumption but she had not expected to find nicotine and cocaine in an Ancient Egyptian mummy. It is generally accepted that these two plants, native to the Americas, did not exist on other continents prior to European exploration.

Dr. Balabanova repeated the tests then sent out fresh samples to three other labs. When the results came back positive, she published a paper with two other scientists. If Balabanova was shocked by the results of her tests, she was even more shocked at the hostile response to her publication. She received many insulting letters, accusing her of fraud.

There were two explanations that came immediately to mind. One was that something in the tests could have given a false result. The second was that the mummies tested were not truly Ancient Egyptian. Perhaps they were relatively modern bodies, containing traces of cocaine. Dr. Balabanova then examined tissue from 134 naturally preserved bodies over a thousand years old discovered in an excavated cemetery in the Sudan. About a third of them tested positive for nicotine or cocaine.

But something had happened even earlier which should have initiated serious discussion. In 1976, the mummified remains of Ramses II arrived in Paris for repair work. Dr. Michelle Lescot of the Natural History Museum (Paris) was looking at sections of bandages and within the fibres found a plant fragment. When she checked it under a microscope, she was amazed to discover that the plant was tobacco. Fearing that she had made some mistake, she repeated her tests again and again with the same result every time: a New World plant had been found on an Old World mummy. The results caused a sensation in Europe. Was it possible that a piece of tobacco had been dropped by chance from the pipe of some forgotten archaeologist? Dr. Lescot responded to this charge of contamination by carefully extracting new samples from the abdomen, with the entire process recorded on film. These samples, which could not be ‘droppings’, were then tested. Once again they were shown to be tobacco. The discovery of tobacco fragments in the mummified body of Ramses II should have had a profound influence upon our whole understanding of the relationship between Ancient Egypt and America but this piece of evidence was simply ignored. It raised too many questions and was too far outside of commonly accepted scientific views.

So now the question had returned. Could Ancient Egyptian trade have stretched all the way across the Atlantic Ocean? This was an idea so unbelievable it could only be considered after all other possibilities had been eliminated. Could Egyptians have obtained imports from a place thousands of miles away, from a continent supposedly not discovered until thousands of years later? Was it possible that coca – a plant from South America – had found its way to Egypt 3,000 years ago? If the cocaine found in mummies could not be explained by contamination, or fake mummies or by Egyptian plants containing it, there appeared to be another interesting possibility: a trade route with links all the way to the Americas.

The Egyptians did make great efforts to obtain incense and other valuable plants used in religious ceremonies and herbal medicines, but to the majority of archaeologists, the idea is hardly worth talking about. Professor John Baines, an Egyptologist from Oxford University, states: ‘I don’t think it is at all likely that there was an ancient trade network that included America. The essential problem with any such idea is that there are no artefacts found either in Europe or in America.’ But other experts aren’t so sure. Professor Martin Bernal, an historian from Cornell University, says, ‘We’re getting more and more evidence of world trade at an earlier stage. You have the Chinese silk definitely arriving in Egypt by 1000 BC.’ In his opinion, it is arrogance on the part of modern people to believe that a transoceanic trading network could only have been set up in recent times.

The discoveries in mummies from Egypt and Sudan have challenged conventional beliefs. It is no longer possible to exclude the hypothesis of transoceanic trade in ancient times. The tale of Henut-Taui and the story of Ramses II show that, in science, facts can be rejected if they don’t fit with our beliefs, while what is believed to be proven, may actually be uncertain. It is understandable then, how a story of a scientist, a few mummies and some routine tests, could upset whole areas of knowledge we thought we could take for granted.

SECTION 3: QUESTIONS 27-40

Questions 27-29

Choose the correct letter A-D.

27What most surprised Dr. Balabanova about her discovery?

Athe presence of drugs in the mummies

Bthe fact that the plants originated in the western hemisphere

Cthe positive results of tests on other mummies

Dthe hostile reaction of the scientific community

28Which of the following was ruled out by Dr. Lescot’s investigation?

ATobacco had been dropped onto the mummy.

BTobacco grew in Ancient Egypt.

CChemicals produced false test results.

DThe mummies were fake.

29Why was the discovery of tobacco in the body of Ramses II ignored?

AContamination was suspected.

BThe evidence raised difficult questions.

CThe tests produced false results.

DThe researcher was a woman.

Questions 30-34

Match ONE of the researchers (A-D) to each of the statements (30-34) below.

There may be more than one correct answer.

30 _________ first to find a substance from the Americas in a mummy

31 _________ argues against transoceanic trade because of lack of evidence

32 _________ had to defend against attacks on research methodology

33 _________ gives evidence of extensive Egyptian trade in ancient times

34 _________ publication of research results was controversial

Questions 35-39

Do the following statements reflect the opinions of the writer in the passage?

Write:

35 _________________ There is proof that tobacco was grown in Ancient Egypt.

36 _________________ Trade routes across the Atlantic Ocean may have existed thousands of years ago.

37 _________________ Ancient Egyptians were great ship builders.

38 _________________ The scientific community generally rejects the idea of contact between Ancient Egypt and the Americas.

39 _________________ The unusual test results could have come from ‘qat’, a plant native to North Africa.

Question 40

Choose the correct letter A-D.

40What is the main idea of this passage?

AExperimental research often gives false results.

BLong-held beliefs can be challenged by new information.

CThe scientific community is conservative by nature.

DIdeas which don’t fit our belief system must be wrong.