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  3. From deep in a well near the ruins of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza, archeoastronomer Arturo Montero shouts to his colleague on

From deep in a well near the ruins of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza, archeoastronomer Arturo Montero shouts to his colleague on

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问题     From deep in a well near the ruins of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza, archeoastronomer Arturo Montero shouts to his colleague on the surface, "I saw it, I saw it! Yes, it’ s true!" Leaning over the mouth of the well, archeologist Guilermo de Anda hopes to hear what he has suspected for many months. "What is true, Arturo?" And Montero yells up again, "The zenith light! It really works! Get down here!"

    The two archeologists are anxious to confirm whether this cenote could have acted as a sacred sundial and timekeeper for the ancient Maya. On two days every year—May 23 and July 19— the sun is vertically overhead and there is no shadow. On the morning of their descent, on May 24, Montero and de Anda see that the sun’ s rays come very close to vertical. The day before, they realised, a beam of light would have plunged straight down into the water.
    Beneath its narrow mouth, the walls of the cenote open up to become a giant dome. It looks like a cathedral, except for the roots of trees that penetrate the rock as they reach for the water. The beam of sunlight dances like fire on the surrounding stalactites, and it turns the water a beautiful transparent blue. The archeologists were probably the first people in centuries to watch the sun move slowly across the cenote’ s water.
    De Anda began exploring Holtun in 2010. One day, inspecting the walls of the cenote a few metres below the surface, he emerged from the water and felt something above his head. He was astonished to find a natural rock shelf holding an offering of human and animal bones, pottery, and a knife—probably used for sacrifices—all neatly placed there centuries earlier. Below the water, he saw broken columns and Mayan stone carving. The well was clearly a sacred site. Key to Survival
    Three years later, in the cornfield on the surface above the cenote, a crew of Maya farmers is working hard in the intense Yucatan heat to pull the explorers out of the well. The crew’ s leader is Luis Un Ken, and optimist with an easy smile who is respected by everyone in his nearby village. "There was a good rain the other day," he says, wiping the sweat off his face. " The Chaak moved. "
    For men like Un Ken, the old gods are still very much alive, and Chaak—ruler of cenotes and caves—is among the most important. For the benefit of living things, he pours from the skies the water he keeps in jars. Thunder is the sound of Chaak breaking a jar open and letting the rain fall. The Chaak had moved, Un Ken said, and that meant the planting season would soon arrive.
    Chaak’ s absence can cause disasters for the Yucatan Maya, possibly the demise of the ancient Maya civilization itself. Their land is an endless limestone shelf. Rain sinks through the porous limestone down to groundwater levels, and conseguently no river or stream runs through the land. From the air, one sees a green sea of dense jungle. At ground level, however, the tropical forest appears very thin. Wherever there is enough soil, the Maya plant com or milpa, a combination of the corn, beans, and sguash that constitutes their basic source of protein. But com is a hungry crop; it sucks lots of nutrients from the soil. For thousands of years, milpa farmers have kept their small fields productive by burning a different area of trees every year and planting in the corn-friendly ashes. We call this deforestation, but to the Maya, it means survival.
    As for water for the fields...well, that’ s where Chaak comes in. Only seasonal rains can make the corn grow, and they must arrive in an exact pattern: no rain in winter so that the fields and forest will be dry enough to burn by March; some rain in early May to soften up the soil for planting; then very gentle rain to allow the planted seeds to begin to grow; and finally, plenty of rain so the corn can flourish. Any break in the pattern means less food for a family. It’ s easy to understand how important Chaak was—and is—to the Maya.  
What does the author compare the cenote to in Paragraph Three?
选项
答案A cathedral.
解析 文章第三段第二句提到，它看起来像一座大教堂。由此可知本题答案。
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本试题收录于： A类竞赛（研究生）题库大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）分类
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A类竞赛（研究生）

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