Read
a passage. It is followed by several questions about it. For questions
1-6, you are to choose the one best answer (A,B,C,D) to each question.
Napoleon Bonaparte\s ambition to control all
the area around the Mediteranean 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 piece of stele (stone pillar bearing an
inscription) known as the Rosetta Stone. This famous stone, which
would eventually lead to t he 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 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 Champollion, a French philologist, fluent
in several languages, was able to decipher the first word – Ptolemy -
the name of an Egyptian ruler. This name was written inside an oval
called “cartouche”. Further investigation revealed that cartouches
contained names of important people of that period. Champollion
painstakingly continued his search 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 if this strange language. Young believed that sound
values could be assigned to the symbols, while Champollion insisted
that the pictures represented words.
1.
Which of the following languages was not written on the Rosetta
stone?
A. French C. Greek
B. demotic D. hieroglyphics
2.
Which of the following statements is not true?
A. Cartouches contained names of prominent
people of the period.
B. Champollion and Young worked together in an
attempt to decipher the hieroglyphics.
C. One of the Napoleon’s soldiers discovered
the Rosetta Stone.
D. Young believed that sound values could be
assigned to the symbols.
3.
When was the first word from the Rosetta Stone deciphered?
A. 3100 B.C. C. 1799
B. 1766 D. 1822
4.
What was the first word that was deciphered from the Rosetta Stone?
A. cartouche C. demotic
B. Ptolemy D. Champollion
5.
Who was responsible for deciphering the hieroglyphics?
A. Champollion C. Ptolemy
B. Young D. Napoleon
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