英语听力：自然百科 神奇水世界 Water-7

 So the rigid¹ hierarchical structure of Egyptian society wasn't just dictated² by the Pharaohs. It also emerged because the Egyptians had only one water source - the Nile.

 

5,000 years ago, it wasn't just the ancient Egyptians who noticed the value of rivers. Other great civilizations were also forming along the banks of rivers. 

 

In Mesopotamia, the Sumerian civilization flourished between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Further east, the Harappan civilization formed by the Indus. And early Chinese civilizations were emerging along the Yellow River.

 

But not all early farmers were content to settle by rivers. Others learned to exploit new sources of water in the unlikeliest places like the Sahara Desert in Libya.

 

These are the remains³ of the ancient city of Garama, which about two and a half thousand years ago was the center of a powerful empire.

 

Today, it's a bit of a maze⁴, but from up here, you can see the shapes of the buildings, the way the streets interconnect. But the real sense of how this place is to walk to its prime. That was the home of the Garamantians, which for me are rather forgotten people. They have been eclipsed in the history books by the showy contemporaries, the Greeks and the Romans. The Garamantians dominated the Sahara Desert for almost 2 thousand years.

1 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

2 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。