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1、智 课 网 托 福 备 考 资 料托福阅读之走进埃及如今托福阅读的背景知识要求越来越多，托福阅读题材也越来越广 泛，如果大家不能在新托福阅读的复习时对各种资料有一个了解的话考 试的时候会很困难，下面的材料是关于埃及历史的背景知识，希望对大 家有帮助。 新托福阅读准备之托福阅读题材：埃及历史 托福阅读原文： Prehistory and Ancient Egypt Main articles: Prehistoric Egypt and Ancient Egypt There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in
2、desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they de
3、veloped a settled agricultural economy and more centralised society. By about 6000 BC, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley. During theNeolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are gener
4、ally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct,bu
5、t maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC. The Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza, built during the Old Kingdom. A unified kingdom was
6、 founded c. 3150 BC by King Menes, leading to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt se
7、t the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c. 27002200 BC., which constructed many pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza pyramids. The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval forabout 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilis
8、ation of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos. The Hy
9、ksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by anUpper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes. The New Kingdom c. 15501070 BC began with the Eighteent
10、h Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Tombos in Nubia, and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well known Pharaohs, including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Ak
11、henaten and his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period as Atenism. Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later invaded andconquered by Libyans, Nubians and Assy
12、rians, but native Egyptians eventually drove them out and regained control of their country. The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Ptolemaic and
13、Roman Egypt The Greek Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion at the Temple of Dendera. Main articles: History of Ptolemaic Egypt and Egypt (Roman province) The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending fromsouthern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to th
14、e west, and south to the frontier with Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves as the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions, had themselves port
15、rayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The last ruler from the Ptolemaic line was Cleopatra VII, who committed suicide following the burial of her lover Mark Antony who had died in her arms (from a self-inflicted stab wound), after Octavia
16、n had captured Alexandria and her mercenary forces had fled. The Ptolemies faced rebellions of nativeEgyptians often caused by an unwanted regime and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome. Nevertheless Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt well after the Muslim conquest. Christianity was brought to Egypt by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the 1st century. Diocletians reign marked the transition from the Roman to the B
