备考资料介绍。
Evidence suggests that an important stimulus behind the rise of early civilizations was the development of settled agriculture, which unleashed a series of changes in the organization of human communities that culminated in the rise of large ancient empires.
The exACT time and place that crops were first cultivated successfully is uncertain. Many prehistorians believe that farming may have emerged in dependently in several different areas of the world when small communities, driven by increasing population and a decline in available food resources, began to plant seeds in the ground in an effort to guarantee their survival. The first farmers, who may have lived as long as 10,000 years ago, undoubtedly used simple techniques and still relied primarily on other forms of food production, such as hunting, foraging, or pastoralism. The real breakthrough took place when farmers began to cultivate crops along the floodplains of river systems. The advantage was that crops grown in such areas were not as dependent on rainfall and therefore produced a more reliable harvest. An additional benefit was that the sediment carried by the river waters deposited nutrients in the soil, thus enabling the farmer to cultivate a single plot of ground for many years without moving to a new location. Thus, the first truly sedentary (that is, nonmigratory) societies were born. As time went on, such communities gradually learned how to direct the flow of water to enhance the productive capacity of the land, while the introduction of the iron plow eventually led to the cultivation of heavy soils not previously susceptible to agriculture.
The spread of this river valley agriculture in various parts of Asia and Africa was the decisive fACTor in the rise of the first civilizations. The increase in food production in these regions led to a significant growth in population, while efforts to control the flow of water to maximize the irrigation of cultivated areas and to protect the local inhabitants from hostile forces outside the community provoked the first steps toward cooperative ACTivities on a large scale. The need to oversee the entire process brought about the emergence of an elite that was eventually transformed into a government.
The first clear steps in the rise of the first civilizations took place in the fourth and third millennia B.C. in Mesopotamia, northern Africa, India, and China. How the first governments took shape in these areas is not certain, but anthropologists studying the evolution of human communities in various parts of the world have
discovered that one common stage in the process is the emergence of what are called “big men” within a single village or a collection of villages. By means of their military prowess, dominant personalities, or political talents, these people gradually emerge as the leaders of that community. In time, the “big men” become formal symbols of authority and pass on that authority to others within their own family. As the communities continue to grow in size and material wealth, the “big men” assume hereditary status, and their allies and family members are transformed into a hereditary monarchy.
The appearance of these sedentary societies had a major impACT on the social organizations, religious beliefs, and way of life of the peoples living within their boundaries. With the increase in population and the development of centralized authority came the emergence of the cities. While some of these urban centers were identified with a particular economic function, such as proximity to gold or iron deposits or a strategic location on a major trade route, others served primarily as administrative centers or the site of temples for the official cult or other ritual observances. Within these cities, new forms of livelihood appeared to SATisfy the growing need for social services and consumer goods. Some people became artisans or merchants, while others became warriors, scholars, or priests. In some cases, the physical division within the first cities reflected the strict hierarchical charACTer of the society as a whole, with a royal palace surrounded by an imposing wall and separate from the remainder of the urban population. In other instances, such as the Indus River Valley, the cities lacked a royal precinct and the ostentatious palaces that marked their contemporaries elsewhere.
本文就是小编整理的托福tpo37阅读翻译资料介绍。
参考译文：最初的文明
有证据表明在早期文明崛起后的一个引起了人类社会文明一系列变化的重要刺激是农业的稳定发展，而这一变化使得大型古代帝国的崛起达到高峰。
农作物首次被成功种植的确切时间和地点还无法确定。许多史前学家确信当一些受持续增长的人口和一定数量的食物来源衰退所困扰的小群体开始为了能保证他们的生存而在土地中种植种子时，耕种已经在世界上一些不同地区独立出现了。第一批大约是生活在 10，000 万年
的农民，虽然还是主要依靠一些其它例如打猎、觅食或田园主义等形式的食物供给，但毫无疑问，他们已开始使用一些简单的技术。真正的突破是当农民开始沿着河流体系泛滥的平原耕种农作物开始的。这样做的优势是在这样的地区种植的农作物不需要依靠降雨，因此丰收也就更加有保证。另外，由河水沉积而来的沉淀物给土壤带来营养，从而使得农民能够很多年种植同一块土地而不需要搬到新的地点。因此，第一批定栖的(没有迁移的)社会就产生了。随着时间的推移，在铁犁的引进最终使得农业不再像以前一样容易受到坚硬土地的耕种的影响的同时，这些群体也逐渐学会了如何通过控制水流量来提高土地的产量。
在亚洲和非洲不同地方的河谷农业的传播速度是第一个文明崛起的重要因素。对于控制耕种面积灌溉的水量达到最大化和保护当地居民免受群体之外的敌对势力的侵害的努力促使大规模合作活动的第一步，与此同时这些地区食物生产的增长导致人口的极大增加。监督整个过程的需求导致了最终转变成了政府的精英们的出现。
第一个文明崛起的明确的第一步于公元前三、四世纪发生在美索不达米亚、非洲北部、印第安和中国。关于这此地区的第一个政府是如何成型的还不是很确定，但是人类学家通过研究世界上不同地方的人类群体的演变发现在这个过程中有一个共同的阶段就是在单独一个或一些村庄中被叫做“大人物”的出现。这些人用他们军事威力、。随着时间的推移，“大人物”逐渐成为权威的正式象征而且把这种权威传递给他们自己家族的其他人。随着群体的变大和物质财富的增加，“当这些群落的面积和物质财富不断发展壮大时，这些大人物就开始采取世袭制，他们的同盟和家族成员便转变成了世袭君主王室。
定栖社会的出现对社会组织、宗教信仰以及人们在边界的生活方式都有着很重要的影响。随着人口的增长和中央集权的发展，城市出现了。当一些城市中心的特殊经济功能，例如黄金接近度、铁矿床以及在贸易路线中的战略位置被确认时，其它城市则主要为行政中心、官方用以祭祀或举办其它仪式用的寺庙地点服务。在这些城市中，新的生活形式的出现满足了社会服务增长和商品消费的需求。一些人成为了艺术家或商人，而另一些则成了战士、学者或者牧师。在这种情况下，在第一城市中的这种物质分割显示出了整体社会严格的等级特征，比如，一个被雄伟的围墙所环绕的皇宫同时也把它从城市人口中分离出来。其它情况下，缺少了皇家选区和惹人注目的宫殿的城市彰显了当代同类城市的特点，就像印度河谷。
以上的内容就是小编带来的托福tpo37阅读翻译资料介绍，希望大家可以按照这样的原文以及翻译资料进行对比分析。