本篇文章共分 7 段，針對北美西南部地區的古代印地安文化說明具代表性的兩個部落之興盛時期與其在農業、聚落、天文學應用等方面的特色。

本篇考題英文原文與對應之中文翻譯整理如下。練習作答解題時若有對語意不清楚之處，請仔細查閱對照，以提升閱讀理解能力。

Ancient Southwestern Cultures 西南古文化

1. 北美西南部印地安古文化

   Around 2,500 years ago, Amerindian peoples began to live in settled communities in what is now the southwestern United States, growing maize – a crop unique to the New World – together with squash and, later, beans. These cultures developed advanced technologies that allowed them to manipulate their environment and thrive in its arid conditions, though ultimately environmental factors may also have led to their disappearance.

   大約 2,500 年前，美洲印第安人開始在現在的美國西南部定居生活，種植玉米—一種新大陸特有的作物—以及南瓜和後來的豆類。這些文化發展了先進的技術，使他們能夠控制他們的環境並在乾旱的條件下茁壯成長，儘管最終環境因素可能也導致了他們的消失。

2. 霍霍卡姆文化特色

   One of these cultures, the Hohokam, practiced irrigation-based agriculture. Knowledge of Hohokam irrigation systems is based on archaeological remains found in southern Arizona as well as on extrapolation from technologies currently in use. Because the land was desert with less than 10 inches of rainfall a year, agriculture required catchment dams, irrigation canals, and water conservation. Between A.D. 300 and 900, the Hohokam manipulated the arid environment by building large canals, some as wide as 30 feet across, 7 feet deep, and 8 miles long, that could fertilize as many as 8,000 acres at a time with water from the Salt and Gila river systems.

   其中一個文化，霍霍卡姆人，實行以灌溉為基礎的農業。對霍霍卡姆灌溉系統的瞭解是基於在亞利桑那州南部發現的考古遺跡，以及對目前使用的技術的推斷。由於這片土地是沙漠，每年的降雨量不足 10 英吋，農業需要集水壩、灌溉渠和水資源保護。在公元 300 年至 900 年間，霍霍卡姆人通過建造大型運河來控制乾旱的環境，有些運河寬達 30 英尺，深達 7 英尺，長達 8 英里，可以用來自鹽河和吉拉河系統的水一次施肥多達 8,000 英畝。

3. 霍霍卡姆文化消失

   The Hohokam could grow crops and store them throughout the year, producing a continual supply of food. An environmental consequence of irrigated agriculture, however, is that water from the rivers leaches out salts, drawing them up from the subsoil and leaving salinated (salty) topsoil. Just as the Mesopotamian settlements of the Near East were abandoned owing to salinization of the land, the Hohokam may have been forced to abandon their villages. Alternatively, they may have remained evolving and adapting to changed conditions. By the time the Spanish arrived in the region in the sixteenth century, they met Amerindians called Akimel O’odham, who were still practicing a form of irrigation, but not on the enormous scale developed by the Hohokam. Other explanations for the disappearance of Hohokam culture include flooding, drought, earthquakes, and deforestation.

   霍霍卡姆人可以種植作物，並儲存一整年，生產出持續的食物供應。然而，灌溉農業的一個環境後果是，來自河流的水會浸出鹽分，將鹽分從底土中抽出，留下鹽漬化（鹹）的表土。正如近東的美索不達米亞人的定居點由於土地鹽鹼化而被放棄一樣，霍霍卡姆人可能也被迫放棄他們的村莊。另外，他們也可能一直在不斷發展，適應變化的條件。當西班牙人在 16 世紀到達該地區時，他們遇到了被稱為 Akimel O'odham 的美洲印第安人，他們仍然在進行某種形式的灌溉，但沒有像霍霍卡姆人那樣形成巨大的規模。對霍霍卡姆文化消失的其他解釋包括洪水、乾旱、地震和森林砍伐。

4. 阿納薩茲文化

   A second group of southwestern peoples, the Anasazi, also developed advanced technologies for manipulating their environment. They constructed large multistoried communal houses in villages: or pueblos, along the edges of a river in the bottom of New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon where they planted crops. The communities consisted of many small villages with larger central cities containing four-story apartments and ramrod-straight roads that linked Chaco Canyon with other communities in the Southwest.

   第二批西南民族，阿納薩茲人，也開發了控制環境的先進技術。他們沿著新墨西哥州查科峽谷底部的河流邊緣，在村落中建造了大型多層公共房屋：或稱 pueblos，在那裡他們種植了農作物。這些社區由許多小村莊和較大的中心城市組成，其中包括四層樓的公寓和連接查科峽谷和西南地區其他社區的直線型道路。

5. 梅薩維德村落

   One Anasazi pueblo, Mesa Verde, illustrates the sophistication with which these peoples transformed their environment. Mesa Verde is situated 7,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level on a vast forested plateau into which erosion has cut numerous steep-walled canyons. Mesa Verde culture and agriculture developed gradually over time. The people of the earliest culture, from around A.D. 500 to 750, were basket weavers who lived underground in pit houses. Around A.D. 750 to 1,100, they added ceremonial chambers called kivas and began building houses above ground out of bricks. Between A.D. 1,100 and 1,300, they reached the peak of their complex culture, building ladders ascending to the cliff areas as well as pathways descending to agricultural fields in the valleys. The vast agricultural network covered some 80 square miles of development, supporting numerous pueblos located about 1,800 to 2,000 feet above the river.

   一個名叫梅薩維德 (Mesa Verde) 的阿納薩茲村落說明了這些民族改造其環境的複雜性。梅薩維德位於海拔 7,000 至 8,000 英尺的廣闊的森林高原上，侵蝕作用使其形成了許多陡壁峽谷。梅薩維德文化和農業隨著時間的推移逐漸發展。最早文化的居民，從公元 500 年到 750 年左右，編織籃子，住在地下的坑洞裡。大約在公元 750 年至 1,100年，他們增加了被稱為 Kivas 的祭祀室，並開始用磚頭建造地上的房屋。在公元 1,100 年至 1,300 年之間，他們達到了複雜文化的頂峰，建造了上升到懸崖地區的梯子，以及下降到山谷中農田的路徑。龐大的農業網路覆蓋了約 80 平方英里的發展空間，支持著位於河面之上約 1,800 至 2,000 英尺的眾多村落。

6. 天文學知識

   Not only did the Anasazi build roads and pueblos, they also put their understanding of astronomy to practical use. In particular, the Anasazi attained the ability to predict the advent of growing and harvesting seasons based on arrival of solstices (longest and shortest days) around June 21 and December 21 and equinoxes (days with equal periods of light and darkness) around March 21 and September 21. They did so by building an observatory on Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, a stone-slab structure assembled so that on solstices and equinoxes, a sliver of sunlight entered between two stones and fell on a petroglyph (an image carved onto a rock) in a characteristic way. With this knowledge they gained a measure of control over the hazards of an environment.

   阿納薩茲人不僅修建了道路和村落，還將他們對天文學的理解付諸實踐。特別是，阿納薩茲人根據 6 月 21 日和 12 月 21 日左右的至點（日照最長和最短的日子）以及 3 月 21 日和 9 月 21 日左右的分點（日照和黑暗時間相等的日子）的到來，獲得了預測生長和收穫季節到來的能力。他們通過在查科峽谷的法哈達山丘 (Fajada Butte) 上建造一個天文台來完成此工作，這個石板結構是為了在至點和分點時，一絲陽光進入兩塊石頭之間，以一種特有的方式落在巖畫（刻在岩石上的圖像）上。有了這些知識，他們獲得了對環境危害的某種程度的控制。

7. 阿納薩茲文化消失

   The Anasazi disappeared from their homeland at the height of their cultural development around the end of the thirteenth century. Deforestation, social disruption, and the onset of an 11-year drought around A.D. 1280 (as evidenced by the narrowness of tree-ring growth) may have been factors leading to the abandonment of the pueblos.

   阿納薩茲人在 13 世紀末左右的文化發展高峰期從他們的家園消失了。森林砍伐、社會混亂和公元 1280 年前後的 11 年乾旱（從樹環生長的狹窄程度可以看出）可能是導致放棄這些村落的因素。