雅思阅读 036 · Mapping the Roads of the Roman Empire

改编自 Scientific American（David M. Ewalt, 2026）。题型：T/F/NG + 填空。难度：中等（Passage 1，约 700 词）。

🎧 课文朗读音频（约 1 分钟）

正文 Passage

One of the endemic illnesses of the American tech industry is an addiction to unsupported superlatives: descriptors like "revolutionary," "game-changing" or "disruptive" are applied to inventions that are at best incremental and at worst of no use at all.

Despite this, sometimes science genuinely does make our world turn upside down.

Archaeologist Tom Brughmans takes readers on a journey through a digital mapping project that is transforming what we know about the Roman Empire by combining centuries-old archaeological records with satellite imagery and modern topographic data.

Brughmans and his team have assembled the first high-resolution digital map of Roman roads that shows the network might have stretched some 300,000 kilometres, carrying troops, grain, ideas and disease across an area rivalling the modern European Union.

The Roman road network was the first continent-scale road network in history. For centuries, it was the only one. It connected the farthest corners of the empire — from northern England to the Persian Gulf — and allowed Roman legions to march quickly, trade to flourish, and ideas to spread.

But much of what we knew about these roads came from ancient texts and scattered excavations. The new map, which combines satellite imagery with archaeological records and modern topographic data, nearly doubles the known extent of the network.

The map also reveals unexpected patterns. Some roads that were thought to be minor turn out to have been major thoroughfares. Others that were believed to be long-gone are still visible in the landscape. The data suggests that the Romans built roads not just for military reasons but also to support economic development and administrative control.

"The road network is not just a list of roads," Brughmans says. "It's a reflection of how the Roman Empire worked."

The project is part of a broader movement in archaeology that uses digital tools to answer questions that would have been impossible to ask a generation ago. By combining big data with traditional fieldwork, archaeologists are getting a new picture of ancient civilisations.

The Roman Empire, in a sense, was the first truly globalised economy. Its roads connected markets across three continents. Goods, people and ideas moved along them, and so did diseases — most famously, the Antonine Plague of the second century, which may have killed five million people.

So, yes, superlatives like "revolutionary" and "game-changing" do get thrown around too easily. But as this project shows, sometimes the truth catches up.

题目 Questions

Questions 1-5: T/F/NG

1. The new map of Roman roads was assembled by Tom Brughmans and his team.

2. The Roman road network stretched about 300,000 kilometres.

3. The Roman road network was the second continent-scale road network in history.

4. The new map shows that the known extent of Roman roads has halved.

5. The Antonine Plague was spread along Roman roads.

Questions 6-10: Complete the notes. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

• The map combines centuries-old archaeological records with (6) ____________ imagery and modern topographic data.
• The road network carried troops, grain, ideas and (7) ____________.
• The new map nearly (8) ____________ the known extent of the network.
• Romans built roads for military, economic and (9) ____________ reasons.
• The Antonine Plague may have killed (10) ____________ people.

答案 Answers

核心词汇

Roman Empire / road network / archaeology / satellite imagery / topographic / thoroughfare / legion / trade / Antonine Plague / digital mapping