很多考生会抱怨托福阅读时间不够，还没完全理解文章就做题，正确率不高。其实这是我们对托福阅读素材不熟悉造成的，下面小编整理了一下托福阅读考试最新的素材，希望能帮助大家更加快速高效的备考托福。

　　托福阅读素材：早期的日历

　　内容回忆：

　　大致描述有学者发现了骨头上有刻画的痕迹，应该是远古时期计算时间的一种方式。用月亮作为算时间的方式，类似于过一晚算一天。而这些这种计算有助于人们对于规律的发现。也有人觉得这对于以后算术上的发展是基础。也有人提到了对于其他领域上的影响，但是也是有争议的。

　　参考阅读：

　　The Romans borrowed parts of their earliest known calendar from the Greeks. The calendar consisted of 10 months in a year of 304 days. The Romans seem to have ignored the remaining 61 days, which fell in the middle of winter. The 10 months were named Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December. The last six names were taken from the words for five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Romulus, the legendary first ruler of Rome, is supposed to have introduced this calendar in the 700s B.C.E.

　　According to tradition, the Roman ruler Numa Pompilius added January and February to the calendar. This made the Roman year 355 days long. To make the calendar correspond approximately to the solar year, Numa also ordered the addition every other year of a month called Mercedinus. Mercedinus was inserted after February 23 or 24, and the last days of February were moved to the end of Mercedinus. In years when it was inserted, Mercedinus added 22 or 23 days to the year.

　　In the calendar of the ancient Romans, the months contained three primary markers – the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides. The Kalends were always the first day of the month. The Nones were usually the 5th but sometimes the 7th, and the Ides were the 15th but sometimes the 13th. All the days after the Ides were numbered by counting down towards the next month’s Kalends. The holidays were generally bunched together to form continuous celebrations, and the remaining days of the month were usually nondescript workdays.

　　The Roman calendar used a system of months, and special days in each month. Some calendars were carved in marble or stone, but many were painted on walls for decoration.

　　Different geographical areas often held different gods in special esteem, and this led to regional variations in calendars. This doesn’t seem so strange when one considers that even within the US, Mardi Gras often appears only on Southern calendars, and Lincoln’s birthday sometimes does not.

　　In 45 B.C.E., Romans modified their method of marking time to keep it in phase with seasons, but not require intercalation of an extra month. They accomplished this with the Julian Calendar. Month lengths were extended to bring the calendar’s total to 365 days, making it truly solar. This change was accompanied by addition of an extra day every fourth year (after February 23rd) because of the almost six extra hours beyond 365 days in a tropical year.

　　The days were each identified with certain letters and names. The Kalends were always identified as shown in the diagram at right. The archaic form of the K, for Kalends, was used in front of the name of the month. The first letter was called the Nundinae ("nine day") , or the Nundinal letter, and it represented the market day. Every 9th day (counting inclusively) was a market day, but as it shifted every year, a designated letter between A and H would represent the market day for that year. The final letter identifies the type of day for purposes of religious observance or legal business.

　　所考词汇：

　　preservation=intention;

　　profoundly=deeply;

　　foundation=basis;

　　prevailing=common

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