1. 一個在Iran伊朗的上古聚落，人類最早的城市，簡單介紹這個城市，城市成長依靠旁邊的衛星城市（農業），介紹一個觀念，多餘的糧食導致專精技工的產生。
三段討論這個觀念並分別舉例生產的專精生產的東西：
瓷器 (pottery) 有標準規格，所以規格選擇較少；
紡織 (textile) 專業組織；
礦業 (mental)；
立體印章 (cylinder seal) 強調比石器時代的印章還要精緻，並強調東西已經到專家級水準。
關於Mesopotamia美索不達米亞文化，最開始說它農業發展很好，然後說其實它的craft類的也比較不錯，由開始的自己家裏人做慢慢轉到專業的人生產，但生產的pottery等東西沒裝飾，純使用，並且有基本相同的standard。最後一段說它也有一些cylinder seal什麼的，它們的surface顯示生產他們的人也是會專業技巧的。總體都在強調那些craftsman都是有專業的technical skill的。
單字題：intact =undamaged
Civilization emerged in Mesopotamia because the soil provided a surplus of food. With this surplus, people could settle down to village life and with these new settlements, towns and cities began to make their appearance, a process known as urbanization. With settlements and a surplus of food came an increase in the population, a well-defined division of labor, organization, cooperation and kingship. The emergence of cities involved interaction between people. Most cities evolved from smaller farming villages and with the practice of irrigation, which was necessary for villages distant from the Tigris and Euphrates, a stable food supply was produced. This, in turn, allowed increases in the number of people who inhabited each settlement.
Because the land closest to the river was the most fertile, there was a variation in terms of the wealth of these early farmers, which led to distinct social classes. At the same time, the construction of canals, ditches and dikes essential to irrigation demanded cooperation between different social groups. Decision-making, regulation and control of all food production and herding meant cooperation. And because more food could be produced by less people, some people gave up farming and became craftsmen, laborers, merchants and officials and this too required cooperation. The Mesopotamians built massive temples or ziggurats which housed the priestly class, the human representatives of the gods. The priests controlled the religious life of the community, the economy, land ownership, the employment of workers as well as the management of long distance trade.
Mesopotamian villages and towns eventually evolved into independent and nearly self-sufficient city-states. Although largely economically dependent on one another, these city-states were independent political entities and retained very strong isolationist tendencies. This isolationism hindered the unification of the Mesopotamian city-states, which eventually grew to twelve in number.
By 3000 B.C., Mesopotamian civilization had made contact with other cultures of the Fertile Crescent (a term first coined by James Breasted in 1916), an extensive trade network connecting Mesopotamia with the rest of Ancient Western Asia. Again, it was the two rivers which served as both trade and transportation routes.
The achievements of Mesopotamian civilization were numerous. Agriculture, thanks to the construction of irrigation ditches, became the primary method of subsistence. Farming was further simplified by the introduction of the plow. We also find the use of wheel-made pottery. Between 3000 and 2900 B.C. craft specialization and industries began to emerge (ceramic pottery, metallurgy and textiles). Evidence for this exists in the careful planning and construction of the monumental buildings such as the temples and ziggurats. During this period (roughly 3000 B.C.), cylinder seals became common. These cylindrical stone seals were five inches in height and engraved with images. These images were reproduced by rolling the cylinder over wet clay. The language of these seals remained unknown until to 20th century. But, scholars now agree that the language of these tablets was Sumerian.
2. 說人們可以通過研究海裏板塊運動什麼的可以知道那些海上小島和continent怎麼形成的和什麼時候形成的，好像還跟火山噴發什麼的有關。
舉了夏威夷裏的a series of islands為例。又說了倆人，分別對板塊漂移學說做出了貢獻，因為他倆分別做了一些相關research來證明自己的假設。最後說這種發放有局限性 只能通過新形成的來測飄的trail，老的就不行了，因為它們存在時間短。
傳統觀點是說火山總在plate接壤的地方形成，但文章說夏威夷的火山就在海洋的中間，而不是接壤處。之後提到兩個學者的研先後的研究，有題問道他們的研究之間是什麼關係。後來提到火山的年齡，和一個hot spots，貌似能影響火山，最後說火山的年齡可以從xxxx中反映出來（有題）。
辭彙，converge=get closer，approximately=roughly，eroded=worn down。
3. 捕食者和被捕食的動物的關係。中心句說他們不是簡單的捕食和被捕的關係，而是和整個環境還有食物鏈有關。之後開始舉例，說他們做的實驗，總體是捕食者和被捕者的數量反向相關，還提到在一個環境中，有食物的影響或有捕食者的影響生物才能生存，如果完全沒有這兩個因素的限制就不能生存。最後說在海洋環境中，海星和它的競爭者必須同時生存，如果讓其中一種獨佔環境，就會迅速死亡。
prey-predator circle。先說一種動物的redundancy circle不光與predator有關，還跟其他有關，像食物什麼的。然後是舉了hare為例吧，hare吃了branches，然後數量長了，但是樹少了它們就得吃low-quality food，數量就又少了。大概10年一週期。它們的predator，好像是wolf？數量跟他們同方向變化，緊跟他們後面。還有人做了一實驗，移了wolf還給食物的話，hare的數量漲到一個數量就不長了，保持，circle沒了。但是若單獨給食物或單獨留wolf，他們的circle就會變。最後講了一個什麼概念，舉例，在海洋裏，你移了海星，它們的prey就增了，最有競爭力的那個prey會占最多資源，把其他的less competitors擠掉。所以diversity就減少了。

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