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Read an Academic Passage Test #234

The Decipherment of the Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone, a dark granite-like slab, is one of the most famous archaeological artifacts in the world. Discovered by French soldiers in the Egyptian village of Rosetta in 1799, it is inscribed with a decree issued in 196 BC by a council of priests to honor King Ptolemy V of Egypt. The stone's immense importance comes not from its content but from its form: the same text is inscribed in three different scripts. These are Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the sacred script of monuments; Demotic, the cursive script used for daily purposes in ancient Egypt; and Ancient Greek, the language of the ruling administration at the time.

The trilingual inscription provided the key to unlocking the mysteries of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, which had been unreadable for over 1,400 years. Since Ancient Greek was well understood by 19th-century scholars, they could use the Greek text as a guide to deciphering the other two scripts. The British scholar Thomas Young made early progress by demonstrating that some hieroglyphs in cartouches, or oval enclosures, were phonetic representations of royal names. However, the full breakthrough was achieved by the French philologist Jean-François Champollion in 1822. His crucial insight was that the hieroglyphic system was a complex mixture of phonetic (representing sounds) and ideographic (representing ideas) signs.

The successful decipherment of the Rosetta Stone was a monumental achievement that founded the field of modern Egyptology. For the first time, scholars could read the vast number of inscriptions and papyri that had been discovered, opening a direct window into the religion, history, and daily life of ancient Egyptian civilization. It allowed for the translation of texts like the Book of the Dead and the histories recorded on temple walls, transforming our understanding of this ancient culture from one of speculation to one based on historical evidence. The stone itself has become a powerful metaphor for cracking any difficult problem or code.

1. What is the main subject of the passage?

A) The military campaigns of French soldiers in Egypt.

B) The life and reign of King Ptolemy V.

C) The role of the Rosetta Stone in deciphering hieroglyphs.

D) The history of the British Museum's collection.

2. The word "insight" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) guess

B) mistake

C) realization

D) argument

3. What can be inferred from the passage about hieroglyphs before Champollion's work?

A) They were believed to be purely decorative.

B) Their meaning was already well understood.

C) Scholars thought they were a form of ancient Greek.

D) There was an incomplete understanding of how the script worked.

4. According to the passage, which of the three scripts on the Rosetta Stone was already known to scholars?

A) Hieroglyphic

B) Demotic

C) Sumerian

D) Ancient Greek

5. Why does the author mention the Book of the Dead in paragraph 3?

A) To give an example of a text that became readable after the decipherment.

B) To argue that it was more important than the Rosetta Stone.

C) To show that the stone's decree was part of a religious book.

D) To suggest that Thomas Young was the first to translate it.

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