Before Nicholas Clapp got there, he had half hoped that he might run into some of Ubar’s ruins sticking(凸出) out of the sand. But finding the city wasn’t that easy. During the summer, he and his 40 helpers dug at 35 different spots. The only things they found were ground spiders, giant ticks, and deadly snakes.
Just before Thanksgiving says Clapp, “We were within a whisker of total failure.”
But then Clapp’s team looked at the high-tech maps again and saw something surprising. Many of the caravan routes(沙漠商队路线)on the high-tech maps came together on the same spot marked “Omani Marketplace” on Ptolomy’s map. Two maps, made almost 2000 years apart, pointed the team toward the same area!
In December 1991, Clapp arrived at the spot where, according to the maps, the caravans met. Clapp had a handheld instrument that could detect(探测) objects below the ground. It showed ruins under the sand! He and his team started digging. And then they found it! A tower buried in the sand. They slowly unearthed a giant, eight-sided fortress(堡垒). It had nine towers and many rooms. People had lived in this fortress 2000 years ago. Outside its walls, they had found buried remains of nearly 40 campsites. They seemed to be camping areas for traders(商人).
More digging found shards, or pieces of pottery(陶瓷) from ancient Rome, Greece, China, Egypt, and Syria. Diggers and scientists agree that people were here for about 5000 years. Clapp and his team were excited as they continued to discover more pieces of the past that seemed to prove that it was the lost city of Ubar.
“We started with this hopeless myth(神秘),” says Clapp, “and then finally found the truth behind the myth.” But is this unearthed site really the once-great Ubar? Experts aren’t totally persuaded.
Donald Whitcomb is an archeologist(考古学家) at the University of Chicago. He doubts that Clapp really discovered Ubar. “There’s probably some truth to this myth,” he says. “But Ubar is described as a place with walls all made of gold, and the rubies and emeralds(宝石).” No gold or precious stones have been found by Clapp.
“I’m not sure whether they discovered Ubar because I’m not sure if Ubar really existed,” Whitcomb says.
小题1:The following statements are true according to the reading EXCEPT_____.
A．Clapp made this discovery with the help of caravan routes on the maps
B．Clapp made this discovery with the help of some high technology
C．Clapp was not sure that he had found Ubar
D．Donald Whitcomb was not sure if Clapp had found Ubar小题2:Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined part?
A．We were ready for any failure
B．We were on the point of giving up hopes
C．We would never stop digging though there was difficulty.
D．We decided that we had failed to find Ubar.小题3:It can be inferred from the reading that Nicholas Clapp is _____
A．a person of courage
B．a person of determination
C．a very young person
D．a person who is good for nothing
