考研英语阅读理解中的文章，很多来自一些外刊杂志方面的题材。接下来，北京文都考研网为扩宽2020考研学子的知识面，整理了考研英语经济学人外刊:揭开秘鲁古文明的神秘面纱，供考生参考。
2020考研英语经济学人外刊:揭开秘鲁古文明的神秘面纱
Uncovering Peru’s neglected splendours
揭开秘鲁被忽视的辉煌
One night in 1987 the police woke Walter Alva, a Peruvian archaeologist, and invited him to come to inspect some stolen gold objects.
1987年的一天夜里，警察叫醒了秘鲁考古学家沃尔特·阿尔瓦，并请他去检查一些被盗的金器。
The tip would lead Mr Alva to discover the intact tomb of a ruler of the Mochica (or Moche) civilisation, whom he dubbed the Lord of Sipán.
这条线索将引领着阿尔瓦发现一个保存完好的莫奇卡文明统治者的墓穴，他将其称为西潘王。
It held the lord’s full regalia of gold breastplates and crowns, exquisite nose- and ear-pieces and a unique necklace of giant gold and silver peanuts.
这位统治者身上穿戴着象征王侯贵族的全套装饰，他胸披金甲、头戴金冠，鼻饰和耳饰尤为精致，脖子上还戴着一条独特的巨型金银花生项链。
It was the start of an archaeological revolution in northern Peru. Since then Mochica temples, built from mud reinforced with gravel and shells, have been unearthed at Huaca de la Luna, near the colonial city of Trujillo.
秘鲁北部的考古革命从这里开始。随后人们又在殖民城市特鲁希略附近的瓦卡德拉卢纳发掘出了用卵石和贝壳加固而成的莫奇卡神庙。
They are decorated with embossed and colourfully painted friezes of fanged warlord deities and bound prisoners.
神庙里装饰着经雕刻和彩绘而成的雕带，雕带上绘有长着尖牙的武神以及被绑缚的囚徒。
In 2005 at a site called El Brujo, Régulo Franco, another archaeologist, found a tomb almost as rich as that of Sipán, but of a woman, now known as the Lady of Cao.
2005年，另一位考古学家瑞古洛·佛朗格在一处名为埃尔布鲁霍的地方发现了一座几乎和西潘王墓同样豪华的古墓，但墓主人是一名女性，她现在被人们称为曹女士。
These discoveries underline that ancient Peru was one of the half-dozen cradles of civilisation. It remains a creative place, as its gastronomic boom attests.
这些发现表明，古秘鲁是六大文明摇篮之一。正如秘鲁如今的美食热潮所证明的那样，它仍然是一个富有创造性的地方。
The Mochicas thrived from around 100 to 600AD by irrigating the valleys of the coastal desert. Theirs was perhaps the most artistic of Peru’s ancient cultures, far more so than the much later Inca empire.
从大约公元100年到600年，莫奇卡人在海岸荒漠的山谷处通过灌溉而兴旺发达。莫奇卡文明可能是最具艺术性的秘鲁古代文明，远超后来的印加帝国。
Apart from their metallurgical prowess, they were skilled potters, producing sculpted vessels and stirrup-spouted jars on which they recorded their likenesses, lives, animal deities and religious ceremonies.
除了拥有高超的冶金技术外，他们还有着娴熟的制陶工艺，在他们制作的雕刻器皿和马镫壶上记录着他们的肖像、生活、动物神灵和宗教仪式。
Thanks to the recent tomb discoveries, it is now clear that some of these representations accurately portrayed priests and rulers.
得益于最新发掘的墓葬中的发现，我们现在可以清楚地了解到其中一些画像准确地描绘了祭司和统治者。
Although the pots and friezes describe warfare and human sacrifice, archaeologists now believe these were rituals to placate the deities of a people acutely vulnerable to drought and flood.
尽管这些陶罐和浮雕描绘的是战争和活人献祭，但考古学家现在认为，这些仪式是这个饱受干旱和洪水袭扰的民族对神灵的安抚。
“There are no Mochica fortresses, there are temples,” says Ricardo Morales of the University of Trujillo, who directs the Huaca de la Luna site.
瓦卡德拉卢纳遗址的负责人、特鲁希略大学的里卡多·莫拉莱斯说：“莫奇卡没有堡垒，只有神庙。”
Recent scholarship also suggests that there was no Mochica super-state, but rather a collection of local lordships in each valley, linked by a common religious ideology and iconography.
最近的研究还表明，莫奇卡不是一个超级大国，而是由各个山谷的地方统治组成的一个集合体，他们由共同的宗教意识形态和图腾联系在一起。
Finding the Lady of Cao “changed our conception of power in ancient Peru”, and the role of women within it, notes Mr Franco.
佛朗格指出，曹女士的发现“改变了我们对古秘鲁权力的认识”以及女性在其中的地位。
[重难点词汇]
splendour [ˈsplɛndɚ] n. 显赫(等于splendor);光彩壮丽
emboss [ɪm'bɔs] vt. 使凸出;在……上作浮雕图案;装饰
gastronomic [,ɡæstrə'nɑmɪk] adj. 烹任学的;美食法的
representation ['rɛprɪzɛn'teʃən] n. 代表;表现;表示法;陈述
portray [pɔr'tre] vt. 描绘;扮演
vulnerable ['vʌlnərəbl] adj. 易受攻击的，易受…的攻击;易受伤害的;有弱点的
以上是北京文都考研网给出的“2020考研英语经济学人外刊:揭开秘鲁古文明的神秘面纱”，希望对备考2020考研英语的考生有所帮助!祝2020考研顺利!
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