Easter Island, a small, isolated island in the South Pacific Ocean, is ringed by monumental statues known as moai. Researchers have long wondered how the islanders were able to construct and transport the statues using only the resources available to them. The statues range from 6 feet to almost 33 feet high, but there is a standard style and shape: a long human head and torso with prominent chin and stretched earlobes, arms held tightly at the sides and hands resting on the stomach. To some of the statues were added eyes of red and white stone and coral and red stone pukao (topknots) on top of the head, which could represent hair or the red feather headdresses seen by European visitors in the early eighteenth century. Some 230 of the statues were once set upright on platforms, some with multiple statues in a row
There are questions about how the statues were carved, how they were moved, and how they were put in place. Locating the source of the stone used to make nearly all the statues is no great achievement, for it forms an impressive monument in itself. The stone quarry inside the old volcano at Rano Raraku is an extraordinary sight, with hundreds of carved-out niches left behind after the finished statues were removed and nearly 400 mostly uncompleted examples.
As for carving the stone, the surface of the volcanic rock is quite hard when it is weathered. Yet once this surface crust has been broken through, the rock beneath is only a little harder than chalk and can easily be shaped, helped along by softening it with water. This difference between the surface and the inside of the rock led some early explorers to conclude mistakenly that the statues had a hard pebble coating and a soft interior of clay. The tools used to carve and free the statues from the ground were undoubtedly the pointed picks of hard stone discarded in vast numbers at the quarry. In a well-known experiment, Thor Heyerdahl, leader of the 1955 Norwegian archaeological expedition to Easter Island, arranged to carve the outline of a statue at Rano Raraku. Six men hammered away with stone picks for three days, wetting the rock as they worked, at the end of which they had produced the outline of a statue some 16 feet long From this, Heyerdahl estimated that six men could have carved the whole statue in about a year.
Once the giant statues had been freed from the rock, some of them were transported to their eventual resting places on platforms up to six miles away, along the tracks that radiate out from Rano Raraku,although the larger the statue, the shorter the distance it was moved. This was not necessarily because of their weight but more likely because of the fragility of the carved statues. The largest statue to be transported is that known as Paro, a giant 32 feet tall and over 80tons in weight, which was shifted some four miles across rough country.
The early explorers who assumed that the island had always been treeless were completely baffled as to how the statues could have been transported without the help of wooden levers and rollers. However, archaeologists have been able to show that the landscape of Easter Island was once very different. By analyzing the pollen deposited by vegetation in the three lake beds on the island, they have drawn up a picture of the changing environment, confirming the idea that the island was once forested, with palm pollen being the dominant type. Therefore, trees or ropes could have been used to move the statues.
By attaching ropes to the head and base of a 13-foot statue, Thor Heyerdahl used a fifteen-man crew to move the statue by turning it on its base when it was tilted forward. They moved it only a few yards but damaged the base in the process. Geologist Charles Love placed a statue on a small wooden platform and ran it across wooden rollers. Twenty-five men managed to move the statue 150 feet in only two minutes, but misplacing the rollers caused the statue to come crashing down
1
Easter Island, a small, isolated island in the South Pacific Ocean, is ringed by monumental statues known as moai. Researchers have long wondered how the islanders were able to construct and transport the statues using only the resources available to them. The statues range from 6 feet to almost 33 feet high, but there is a standard style and shape: a long human head and torso with prominent chin and stretched earlobes, arms held tightly at the sides and hands resting on the stomach. To some of the statues were added eyes of red and white stone and coral and red stone pukao (topknots) on top of the head, which could represent hair or the red feather headdresses seen by European visitors in the early eighteenth century. Some 230 of the statues were once set upright on platforms, some with multiple statues in a row
According to paragraph 1, all of the following are true of the Easter island statues EXCEPT:
AThey vary in size.
BThey have the same shape.
CThey were constructed using the same style.
DThey were constructed in the early eighteenth century.
2
There are questions about how the statues were carved, how they were moved, and how they were put in place. Locating the source of the stone used to make nearly all the statues is no great achievement, for it forms an impressive monument in itself. The stone quarry inside the old volcano at Rano Raraku is an extraordinary sight, with hundreds of carved-out niches left behind after the finished statues were removed and nearly 400 mostly uncompleted examples.
It can be inferred from paragraph 2 that researchers found which of the following questions the easiest to answer?
AHow were the statues carved?
BWhere did the rock for the statues come from?
CHow were the statues moved?
DWhy were some statues never completed?
3
As for carving the stone, the surface of the volcanic rock is quite hard when it is weathered. Yet once this surface crust has been broken through, the rock beneath is only a little harder than chalk and can easily be shaped, helped along by softening it with water. This difference between the surface and the inside of the rock led some early explorers to conclude mistakenly that the statues had a hard pebble coating and a soft interior of clay. The tools used to carve and free the statues from the ground were undoubtedly the pointed picks of hard stone discarded in vast numbers at the quarry. In a well-known experiment, Thor Heyerdahl, leader of the 1955 Norwegian archaeological expedition to Easter Island, arranged to carve the outline of a statue at Rano Raraku. Six men hammered away with stone picks for three days, wetting the rock as they worked, at the end of which they had produced the outline of a statue some 16 feet long From this, Heyerdahl estimated that six men could have carved the whole statue in about a year.
The word “discarded” in the passage is closest in meaning to
Adiscovered
Bstored
Cburied
Dabandoned
4
As for carving the stone, the surface of the volcanic rock is quite hard when it is weathered. Yet once this surface crust has been broken through, the rock beneath is only a little harder than chalk and can easily be shaped, helped along by softening it with water. This difference between the surface and the inside of the rock led some early explorers to conclude mistakenly that the statues had a hard pebble coating and a soft interior of clay. The tools used to carve and free the statues from the ground were undoubtedly the pointed picks of hard stone discarded in vast numbers at the quarry. In a well-known experiment, Thor Heyerdahl, leader of the 1955 Norwegian archaeological expedition to Easter Island, arranged to carve the outline of a statue at Rano Raraku. Six men hammered away with stone picks for three days, wetting the rock as they worked, at the end of which they had produced the outline of a statue some 16 feet long From this, Heyerdahl estimated that six men could have carved the whole statue in about a year.
In paragraph 3, what can be inferred about Easter Island statues from the information given about Thor Heyerdahl’s stone carving experiment?
AStone tools alone were inadequate for carving these statues
BThe islanders probably took more than a year to carve a single statue.
CThe number of islanders required to carve a single statue was greater than the number of workers used by Heyerdahl.
DThe carving method used by Heyerdahl was similar to the one that the islanders likely used.
5
Once the giant statues had been freed from the rock, some of them were transported to their eventual resting places on platforms up to six miles away, along the tracks that radiate out from Rano Raraku,although the larger the statue, the shorter the distance it was moved. This was not necessarily because of their weight but more likely because of the fragility of the carved statues. The largest statue to be transported is that known as Paro, a giant 32 feet tall and over 80tons in weight, which was shifted some four miles across rough country.
Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
AThe largest statues were the ones that were freed from the rock and transported to their resting places on platforms far away from Rano Raraku
BSome freed statues were transported along tracks radiating from Rano Raraku to their distant platforms, with larger statues moved a shorter distance than smaller ones.
CLarger statues were transported about six miles once they had been completed and freed from the rock, although shorter statues were moved a much greater distance.
DSome of the freed statues were placed on platforms up to six miles away, although others were placed along the tracks near Rano Raraku.
6
The early explorers who assumed that the island had always been treeless were completely baffled as to how the statues could have been transported without the help of wooden levers and rollers. However, archaeologists have been able to show that the landscape of Easter Island was once very different. By analyzing the pollen deposited by vegetation in the three lake beds on the island, they have drawn up a picture of the changing environment, confirming the idea that the island was once forested, with palm pollen being the dominant type. Therefore, trees or ropes could have been used to move the statues.
According to paragraph 5, Easter Island’s early explorers incorrectly assumed that
AEaster Island had always been lacking in trees
Bthe statues were transported with levers and rollers
CEaster Island was too forested for the statues to have been moved far
Dthe statues were constructed using wood from palm trees
7
The early explorers who assumed that the island had always been treeless were completely baffled as to how the statues could have been transported without the help of wooden levers and rollers. However, archaeologists have been able to show that the landscape of Easter Island was once very different. By analyzing the pollen deposited by vegetation in the three lake beds on the island, they have drawn up a picture of the changing environment, confirming the idea that the island was once forested, with palm pollen being the dominant type. Therefore, trees or ropes could have been used to move the statues.
In paragraph 5, why does the author discuss pollen evidence from three lake beds on Easter Island?
ATo present evidence that the vegetation of Easter Island varied greatly from area to area
BTo suggest that there were some palm trees on the island that early explorers did not see
CTo identify findings that led scientists to become interested in environmental changes on Easter Island
DTo explain why it is possible that the statues were moved using trees or ropes
8
By attaching ropes to the head and base of a 13-foot statue, Thor Heyerdahl used a fifteen-man crew to move the statue by turning it on its base when it was tilted forward. They moved it only a few yards but damaged the base in the process. Geologist Charles Love placed a statue on a small wooden platform and ran it across wooden rollers. Twenty-five men managed to move the statue 150 feet in only two minutes, but misplacing the rollers caused the statue to come crashing down
In the experiments described in paragraph 6, what advantage did Love’s method for moving statues have over Heyerdahl’s?
AFewer people were needed to move statues using Love’s method.
BStatues could be moved more quickly using Love’s method.
CIt was easier to secure ropes to statues using Love’s method.
DLove’s method used wood more efficiently.
9
As for carving the stone, the surface of the volcanic rock is quite hard when it is weathered. ■ Yet once this surface crust has been broken through, the rock beneath is only a little harder than chalk and can easily be shaped, helped along by softening it with water. ■ This difference between the surface and the inside of the rock led some early explorers to conclude mistakenly that the statues had a hard pebble coating and a soft interior of clay. ■ The tools used to carve and free the statues from the ground were undoubtedly the pointed picks of hard stone discarded in vast numbers at the quarry. ■ In a well-known experiment, Thor Heyerdahl, leader of the 1955 Norwegian archaeological expedition to Easter Island, arranged to carve the outline of a statue at Rano Raraku. Six men hammered away with stone picks for three days, wetting the rock as they worked, at the end of which they had produced the outline of a statue some 16 feet long From this, Heyerdahl estimated that six men could have carved the whole statue in about a year.
Look at the four squaresthat indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage
Moreover, the assumption that the statues could not have been carved using locally available tools was incorrect.
Where would the sentence best fit？Click on a square sentence to the passage.
10
Easter Island is ringed by a number of huge statues.
AEuropean visitors discovered the statues in the early eighteenth century and set some of them upright on platforms.
BResearchers have demonstrated that the statues were carved by breaking through the hard surface rock and using hard, pointed stone picks to shape the softened rock beneath
CStudies have shown that Easter Island was once forested and that wood from the palm trees that dominated the island might have been used to transport the statues to distant platforms.
DUpon discovery of the carved-out spaces and unfinished statues at the Rano Raraku quarry, researchers concluded that the statues were constructed there.
EThe largest statues are located on platforms near Rano Raraku quarry because they were too heavy to be moved with wooden levers and rollers.
FResearchers have failed in their attempts to suggest possible methods used by the islanders to transport the statues from Rano Raraku quarry to distant platforms.
