As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of
North America were building with adobe-sun baked brick plastered with mud. Their
homes looked remarkably like modern apartment houses. Some were four stories
high and contained quarters for perhaps a thousand people, along with store
rooms for grain and other goods. These buildings were usually put up against
cliffs, both to make construction easier and for defense against enemies. They
were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have
realized since they called them "pueblos", which is Spanish for town.
The people of the pueblos raised what are called"the three sisters" - corn,
beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some
so fine that they could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country,
where water is scarce. The Hopi and Zuni brought water from streams to their
fields and gardens through irrigation ditches. Water was so important that it
played a major role in their religion. They developed elaborate ceremonies and
religious rituals to bring rain.
The way of life of less settled groups was simpler and more strongly influenced
by nature. Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and
mountainous lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They
gathered seeds and hunted small animals such as small rabbits and snakes. In the
Far North the ancestors of today’s Inuit hunted seals, walruses, and the great
whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos built of
blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the
lordly caribou.
The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on
the grasslands between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. They
hunted bison, commonly called the buffalo. Its meat was the chief food of these
tribes, and its hide was used to make their clothing and covering of their tents
and tipis.
16. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. The architecture of early
American Indian buildings.
B. The movement of American Indians across North America.
C. Ceremonies and rituals of American Indians.
D. The way of life of American Indian tribes in early North America.
17. It can be inferred from the passage that the dwellings of the Hopi and Zuni
were______.
A. very small
B. highly advanced
C. difficult to defend
D. quickly constructed
参考答案及解析:
16. D) 根据阅读短文可知,作者主要描述了北美地区不同印第安部落的不同的生活方式
。故选项D为正确答案。
17. B)
此题为推断题。根据文章第一段可知,早在一千年前Hopi和Zuni两支北美印第安部落就用一种砖坯“adobe”来建造房屋,高可达四层楼高,有居住室还有储藏室,颇像现代的公寓,故选项B(高度发达)为正确答案。