第2题

CLOZE
Fill in each of the 15 blanks in the passage with the most likely answer. 
    Writing is a system of human communication by means of visual symbols or signs. The earliest stages of writing（1）almost from the dawn of humanity.

    Counting devices have been used in all parts of the world. Such devices（2）sticks, pebbles, clay tokens, and strings. For example, a shepherd could record the（3）number of sheep in his flock by cutting one notch (刻痕) in a stick for each sheep. He could also keep pebbles of about the same（4）or shape in order to represent the different kinds of animals in his（5）.

    Rock drawings conveyed a clearer meaning, but were not so useful for counting. A simple rock drawing shows a mountain goat and a man（6）a horse. The mountain goat stands on all fours, but the horse and rider are upside down. The design（7）a horseman that a mountain goat can climb the（8）trail, but that his horse cannot.

    Ideographs (象形文字) express an idea（9）any clear connection with any language. For example, a picture of a smiling face represents happiness. Any person can understand the idea of such a drawing, no matter（10）he or she speaks the language of the person who drew it. This way of expressing ideas, not necessarily（11）, is called ideography. Pictures drawn for ideas differ only slightly from pictures drawn for artistic（12）. Communication pictures are simplified and stereotyped, and they have no（13）that are not needed as part of the communication.

    Human beings took the decisive（14）in developing real writing when they learned to express ideas indirectly. They did this by using（15）that stood for the words in their language, not the ideas the words stood for. This kind of writing is called logography.

第2题
A、include
B、reach
C、handle
D、carry
【正确答案】：A
【题目解析】：这些装置…棍子、鹅卵石、粘土标志以及绳子。结合句意，此处含义应为“包含”，include：包含；reach：达到；handle：处理；carry：携带，故A选项符合题意。