As early as the twelfth century A.D., thesettlements of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico in the American Southwest werenotable for their “great houses,” massive stone buildings that contain hundredsof rooms and often stand three or four stories high. Archaeologists have beentrying to determine how the buildings were used. While there is still nouniversally agreed upon explanation, there are three competing theories.
早在12世纪，美国西南部墨西哥地区查科峡谷的居民就以他们的“巨屋”而闻名。这种石质材料建成的“巨屋”包好有数百个房间，而且通常有三到四层高。很多考古学家都试图解释这些建筑的用途。尽管业界尚未达成一致，但现在有三个比较有竞争力的理论。
One theory holds that the Chaco structureswere purely residential, with each housing hundreds of people. Supporters ofthis theory have interpreted Chaco great houses as earlier versions of the architectureseen in more recent Southwest societies. In particular, the Chaco houses appearstrikingly similar to the large, well-known “apartment buildings” at Taos, NewMexico, in which many people have been living for centuries.
一个理论认为这些巨屋是单纯用来居住的，每个可以容纳数百人。持有这种理论的人解释说查科巨屋同时间较近的一些西南族群早期建筑的雏形。尤其值得一提的是，查科的这些建筑同新墨西哥陶斯镇著名的“寓所式建筑”非常相似。这些寓所式建筑供很多人居住了数个世纪。
A second theory contends that the Chacostructures were used to store food supplies. One of the main crops of the Chacopeople was grain maize, which could be stored for long periods of time withoutspoiling and could serve as long-lasting supply of food. The supplies of maizehad to be stored somewhere, and the size of the great houses would make themvery suitable for the purpose.
第二个理论认为查科建筑是用来储存食物的。查科人的主食之一是玉米。玉米可以不宜变质，可长期储存，因此可以作为长期的食物来源。这些玉米一定是要储存在某个地方的。而巨屋的规模非常适合作为储存地。
A third theory proposes that houses wereused as ceremonial centers. Close to one house, called Pueblo Alto,archaeologists identified an enormous mound formed by a pile of old material. Excavationsof the mound revealed deposits containing a surprisingly large number of brokenpots. This finding has been interpreted as evidence that people gathered atPueblo Alto for special ceremonies. At the ceremonies, they ate festive mealsand then discarded the pots in which the meals had been prepared or served.Such ceremonies have been documented for other Native American cultures.
第三个理论认为这些房屋是用来作祭司中心的。离一个巨屋不远的地方有个阿尔托村庄，考古学家在那里发现了一个由古代材料堆积成的山包。对这个山包挖掘后发现了大量破碎罐子。这个发现佐证了人们聚集到巨屋是为了某种祭祀。在祭祀中他们使用节日佳肴，然后把做饭和盛食物的器皿抛弃。而这样的祭祀活动在其他美洲土著文化中有所记载。
托福综合写作阅读部分需要提取的观点是：
这篇文章从结构和内容上看，都比较和谐。但是，考古学的内容可能比较陌生，但是，更多是心理战的成分。
- Main point: 查科峡谷巨屋的用途
- Sub point 1:居住
- Sub point 2:储存玉米
- Sub point 3:祭祀
托福综合写作听力观点：
在听力部分，我们可以预测到的就是这三个理论都不成立，那么究竟是什么原因不成立呢?我们来听听：
Unfortunately none of the arguments aboutwhat the Chaco great houses were used for is convincing.
很遗憾，关于查科峡谷巨屋用途的三个理论，都不具有说服力。
First, sure, from the outside, the greathouses look like later and Native American apartment buildings. But the insideof the great houses casts serious doubt on the idea that many people lived there.I’ll explain. If hundreds of people were living in the great houses, then therewould have to be many fireplaces, where each family did its daily cooking, butthere are very few fireplaces. In one of the largest great houses, there werefireplaces for only around ten families. Yet there were enough rooms in thegreat house for more than a hundred families, so the primary function of the housescouldn’t have been residential.
首先，当然从外部卡莱，这些巨屋同之后出现的美洲土著居住建筑很相似。但是巨屋的内部构造却反驳着居住说观点。我来解释一下。如果真有数百人居住与此，那么一定有很多灶火坑以便每家都可以用来做饭。但事实上巨屋里只有很少很少的灶火坑。在其中最大的一个巨屋里，存在的灶火坑只够十家人使用。然而，存在的空间却可以供一百家人居住。所以，巨屋的主要功能不可能是居住。
Second, the idea that the great houses wereused to store grain maize is unsupported by evidence. It may sound plausiblethat large empty rooms were used for storage, but excavations of the great houseshave not uncovered manytraces of maize or maize containers. If the great houseswere used for storage, why isn’t there more spilled maize on the floor? Whyaren’t there more remains of big containers?
第二，证据也不支持巨屋用来储存玉米的说法。巨大的空屋子用来储存物品，这样的说法听起来挺合理的。但是对巨屋挖掘后却没有发现太多的玉米以及容器的痕迹。如果巨屋真的是用来储存的，为什么没有在地上发现更多的散落的玉米呢?为什么没有更多大号容器的痕迹呢?
Third, the idea that the great houses wereceremonial centers isn’t well supported either. You know that mound at PuebloAlto? It contains lots of other materials besides broken pots, stuff you wouldn’texpect from ceremonies. For example, there are large quantities of buildingmaterials, sands, stones, even construction tools. This suggests that the moundis just a trash heap of construction material, stuff that was thrown away ornot used up when a house was being built. The pots in the pile could be regulartrash too, leftover from the meals of the construction workers. So the PuebloAlto mound is not good evidence that the great houses were used for special ceremonies.
第三，祭祀中心的说法同样也站不住脚。大家知道阿尔托村庄吗?在那里，除了破碎罐子之外还有很多发现，这这些东西是不会出现在祭祀中的。比如，有很多建筑材料、沙子、石头还有建筑工具。这说明这个山包知识一个建筑材料垃圾堆，都是一些用后抛弃或者在建筑过程中没有用完的材料。这些罐子也是属于垃圾，是建筑工人吃饭的容器。所以，阿尔托村庄的这个山包不能作为证据支持祭祀说。
托福综合写作听力笔记：
Main point: none, convincing
Sub point one: fireplaces, ten families, ahundred families
Sub point two: not, maize, containers
Sub point three: would not for ceremonies,trash, meals
本篇范文可以借鉴的模板
The author of the reading passage proposesthree theories as likely explanations of__________.
The lecturer, however, points to theinaccuracies in each of these theories.
The lecturer argues that_________________.The reading, however, ____________ in support of
the__________ theory.
The second theory, that ________________,is also rejected by the lecturer. He explains that
___________________. This proves that the“________ theory” is unlikely.
Finally, regarding the third theory, the“_______ theory”, the lecturer contends that__________.
He argues that___________________.