字神帝國英語天地

5/11托福又考了這篇：Sumerian Contributions
蘇美爾人的文明發展
重覆命中了：2014.05.24, 2015.09.05

第1段講到蘇美爾原來人口稀少，因為每年都有洪災。但是後來農業發展，人口增多。

第2段講蘇美爾地區土壤特別肥沃，農業的灌溉以及種植需要有人管理和監管，而 priesthood 起到了這個功能。

第3段說明Sumerian 發明了文字，當時的 cuneiform 是在 2800bc 形成的。Sumerian 是 temple city, 一開始出於官方記錄 temple 的建造，勞動力分工等發明了文字，後來文字延用於商業交易。

unpromising = unfavorable 不利的
a wealth of = an abundance of 大量的
scarcity of = lacking in 缺乏
diffusion = spread 傳播擴散

接著來看看這篇英文原題哦：
Sumerian Contributions
Before about 4500 B.C., lower Mesopotamia, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers just north of the Persian Gulf, was much less densely populated than other inhabited regions of the Near and Middle East. Its marshy soil, subject to annual inundations (floods) from the rivers, was not suited to the primitive hoe culture of early agriculture, in which land was cultivated without domestic animals or beasts. Moreover, the land was virtually treeless and lacked building stone and mineral resources. During the next thousand years, however, this unpromising area became the seat of Sumer, the first great civilization known to history, with large concentrations of people, bustling cities, monumental architecture, and a wealth of religious, artistic, and literary traditions that influenced other ancient civilizations for thousands of years. The exact sequence of events that led to this culmination is unknown, but it is clear that the economic basis of this first civilization lay in its highly productive agriculture.
更多完整英文原題看這：http://bit.ly/2lvFNDo