托福阅读备考中如何提升备考效率?今天小编给大家带来了托福阅读提升备考效率要把握好这几个方面,希望能够帮助到大家,下面小编就和大家分享,来欣赏一下吧。
托福阅读在内容上降低了难度,但是题型却把难度增加了,所以阅读理解上根本就不需要过于担心,重点还是了解题型。托福阅读有许多的题型,其中包含了图表题、篇章总结题(可以根据已经给出的选项里把能够概括文章内容的句子选择出来)、词汇题(在一定的上下文中)、指代关系题、简化句子题、插入文本题、事实信息题、推断题、修辞目的题、以及否定排除题等。
在考生们备考托福阅读备考里,同样的考题,如果大家熟悉同时另外还需要去掌握了阅读文章的背景知识,如此做题才会变得更轻松,做题速度以及准确率同样都一定会提升许多,因此在这里提醒考生们,一定要在新托福备考时间里更加努力配备另一兵器——背景知识,这就等于是大家当备考过程里,还要更多的阅读有的长文章,又去努力积累新托福阅读里的常考文章的背景知识,题材尽量广泛,因为天文、地理、医学、历史、文化、教育、艺术等内容,在托福考题里都会牵涉到。而新托福阅读考试常考的背景有印第安题材的,动植物题材的(必考),考古学题材的,美国历史题材的等等,推荐考生多读读《国家地理杂志》和《DISCOVERY》。
大多数考生在做题时通常是会有这样的情况出现,把两个选项排除,剩下两个可以随便选一个。此方法是能够提升蒙题的准确率,但若是把错误的答案选择了,就算是浪费了考试的宝贵时间。很多考生在做练习时,只要看到正确答案,便知道自己错在哪了,这就是很明显粗心的错误。
因此就算是多浪费半分钟,同样要认真的思考题目就可以拿到分数。有的题目枝干信息太多,但基本都是干扰项。根据应试的角度而言,通篇细读太费时间。正确的做法算得上是从选项中挖掘一下方向。若有几项答案有了自相矛盾,又或是意思明显相反,就可以直接排除;而余下的即对模糊的选项进行确认,回到正文中细读相关信息确认后就很省力。一般排除法是比较容易培养的套路,答题快速且准确率较高。
托福阅读考试中对单词量的要求还是很大的,即使单词量很大了,也难免会遇上生僻词的情况,而托福考试中选用的文章说明性特别强,往往是自定义、自解释的模式,遇到生词,即使不知道什么意思,也可以根据上下文语境弄清它们之间的关系,运用逻辑推理的方法作出正确的答案。其次,还可以分析选项,进行对比,往往会发现选项中通常会出现两个意思相反的选项,此时再仔细重读原文就可以排除错误选项了。
几乎每段中都会有词汇题,有些词考生一看就认识,这样的题目就很容易了,但是也不能粗心大意,如果时间充足或者把握不大,可以把选项带入文章中检查一遍。对于那些不认识的词汇,也是有许多技巧的。首先是分析词性,采用排除法排除词性不一致的选项。其次是用代入法。选项中给出的词意一般就是考生认识的,将选项带入,分析一下是否能够保证原文合情合理,通顺。
上文中为大家介绍了托福阅读提升备考效率需要把握的几个方面,分别是熟悉题型和背景知识,懂得如何分析错题,遇到生词根据文章去解读,词汇题巧用代入法解决,希望大家能在备考中多多注意。
A great way to get to know someone better is to say something that makes them laugh.
想要更好地了解别人,一个好办法就是说些能让他们发笑的事。
Sharing a few good giggles and chuckles makes people more willing to tell others something personal about themselves, without even necessarily being aware that they are doing so, suggests new research.
新研究显示,分享一些好笑的事会让人更乐意告诉别人自己的私事,甚至当他们这样做的时候,也根本不会意识到这一点。
Alan Gray of University College London discovered the tidbit in a new study recently published in the journal Human Nature.
英国伦敦大学学院(University College London)的艾伦•格雷(Alan Gray)在研究中发现了这一有趣的现象。最近,他的这项研究成果发表在了《人类天性》(Human Nature)杂志上。
According to Gray, the act of verbally opening up to someone is a crucial building block that helps to form new relationships and intensify social bonds.
格雷认为,用言语向他人敞开心扉的行为是帮助人们建立新关系,增强人与人之间社会联系的重要基本要素。
Such self-disclosure can be of a highly sensitive nature — like sharing one’s religious convictions or personal fears — or a superficial tidbit such as one’s favorite type of food.
自我表露的过程具有高度敏感性——好比分享宗教信仰或者害怕之物——或者只是一个流于表面的趣闻,比如最爱的食物类型。
To investigate the role and influence of laughter in this disclosure process, Gray and his colleagues gathered 112 students from Oxford University in England, into groups of four.
为了调查笑声在自我表露过程中扮演的角色和产生的影响,格雷和他的同事从英国牛津大学(Oxford University)召集了112个学生,并把他们分为四组。
The students did not know one another. The groups watched a 10-minute video together, without chatting to one another.
学生们彼此都不认识。每组会坐在一起看一个10分钟的视频,期间并无交谈。
The videos differed in the amount of laughter they invoked, and the amount of positive feelings or emotions they elicited.
视频的区别在于,引人发笑的频率和传达积极情绪或情感的效力各有不同。
One featured a stand-up comedy routine by Michael McIntyre, another a straightforward golf instruction video, and the third a pleasant nature excerpt from the “Jungles” episode of the BBC’s Planet Earth series.
一个视频是迈克尔•麦金太尔(Michael McIntyre)的单人喜剧秀,一个是简短的高尔夫教学片,第三个是从《BBC行星地球系列》(BBC’s Planet Earth series)“丛林”(Jungles)一集里节选的一个令人愉悦的自然片段。
The levels of laughter and the participants’ emotional state after watching the video was then measured. Each group member also had to write a message to another participant to help them get to know each other better.
在看完视频之后,研究人员会测算参与者的情绪状态和笑声等级。每个小组成员还需给另一名参与者写下一条消息,以便更好地相互了解。
The participants who had a good laugh together shared significantly more intimate information than the groups who did not watch the comedy routine.
比起那些没有观看喜剧的组别,一起欢笑过的参与者们向彼此分享了更多的亲密信息。
Gray suggests this is not merely because it is a positive experience, but because of the physiology behind a good laugh. It actually triggers the release of the so-called “happy hormone” endorphin.
格雷认为,究其原因,不仅在于欢笑是一种积极的体验,还因为欢笑的背后隐藏着的心理学。实际上,正是这种心理学的作用引发了所谓的“快乐荷尔蒙”——内啡肽(endorphin)的释放。
The findings support the idea that laughter encourages people to make more intimate disclosures to strangers. Furthermore, researchers discovered the sharing of the information occurred so spontaneously, the person who disclosed information was seldom aware that he or she had done so.
这项研究证实,笑声能促使人们对陌生人透露更多隐私。此外,研究人员还发现,信息的分享就这样自然而然地发生了。那些透露信息的人很少会意识到自己正在这么做。
It was only the listener who realized that it had happened.
只有倾听者才会发现这一行为。
Vocabulary
tidbit:趣闻
stand-up comedy:单人脱口秀,单口相声
语言是相通的,但往往学得好中文的人,英语却不见得好。相比中文,英语逻辑几乎是“理科”式的。中文强调意合,也就是意思上的连接,在写作时可以天马行空;而英文强调形合,也就是形式上首先遵循严格的规范,句子和句子要有严密的逻辑联系。所以,中国人学英文需兼顾其理科、文科属性;充分理解语法规则,大量阅读,两者缺一不可。
在教学中我曾发现一个很有意思的规律:那些中文写作 (尤其是抒情类散文) 好的学生,往往在英文写作中犯逻辑不清的错误。他们写的文章常常句和句之间缺乏清晰的逻辑和连接,文章的汉语化思维痕迹非常明显。
另外,我发现自己很多时候更乐于阅读英文和用英文写作,尤其是在理解具有复杂逻辑关系的问题时。相信这样的感觉很多英语熟练到一定程度的国人也有。上述的现象,反映出本文想讨论的第一个论点:相对中文,英文算是一门理科。
所谓理科,我们指某门学科内部存在自洽周全的逻辑体系。对于一门语言来说,这个逻辑体系首先是语法。就语法体系而言,这个世界上恐怕没有什么语言比中文与英文更不同的。
一个很有意思的证据是,李光耀先生在新加坡努力推行了中英文双语教育后发出慨叹:要把中英文都学到母语的程度几乎是不可能的。这一点在海外华人家庭里也很常见:美籍华人家庭的第二代孩子中,很少有能同时以母语的熟练程度掌握中英文的书面语言。
但同样有意思的是,一些来自欧洲的移民家庭,例如父亲是德国人,母亲是法国人,孩子出生并成长在美国,这样的孩子往往能以母语的熟练程度掌握英语、法语和德语这三种不同的书面语言。这期间的原因值得玩味。
仔细思考中文的表述习惯,你会发现中文和英语有很大的差异。我们以前曾谈过英文中有动词时态和单复数的概念,名词有性的概念。但这实际上还不是中英语法最核心的差异。
中英文在语法上最大的差距在于:中文强调意合,也就是意思上的连接,而不强调形式的连接,因此在写作时可以天马行空,肆意挥洒;而英文强调形合,也就是形式上首先遵循严格的规范,句子和句子要有严密的逻辑联系。我们试举一例来说明中文和英文在表述意群时的差异。
“只有四婶,因为后来雇佣的女工,大抵非懒即馋,或者懒而馋,左右不如意,所以也还提起祥林嫂。”(摘自鲁迅《祝福》)
原文只有一句话,但有两层意思,而且两层意思之间是因果关系。译者将原文拆成两句话,“四婶是唯一还提起祥林嫂的人, 是因为…”, 所以翻译成下文。
“My aunt was the only one who still spoke of Xianglin’s wife, because most of the maids hired afterwards turned out either lazy or greedy and none of them amounted to satisfaction.”
但翻译成这样,我们便会发现这个逻辑其实有问题:为什么其他的女工懒惰了就一定会导致只有四婶才会提到祥林嫂呢 ?是不是说其他的女工懒到不愿意提祥林嫂? 如果是那样,那馋嘴又是什么逻辑呢?
这样的文章,虽然是文学巨匠鲁迅所写,但给西方人看,他们必然会提出这样的疑问来。说实话,我也有同样的疑问。
再举一例,“他不干,我干”,就这没么一句话,至少可以有四种理解:
1、假设关系:(如果)他不干,(那么)我(来)干。
2、因果关系:(因为)他不干,(所以)我(才)干。
在此我们大抵可以看得出,中文的表述隐去了许多逻辑关系,而且这些隐去的逻辑关系其实不太经得起推敲。上述两例都还是现代汉语。
要知道,现代汉语还是五四运动时一些接受了西学影响的先驱们将汉语进行了现代化并融入了西洋语系的很多特征后形成的语言。
所以,我们能想象我们祖先使用的古汉语,没有标点,不拘泥于有主谓,更别提连词,那种肆意挥洒、飘逸灵动的感觉了。
例如,《诗经·郑风·子衿》里说“青青子衿,悠悠我心”,咱们先不说这个意境英文可否表述,这其中的逻辑关系已经完全是超出英语语法的能力范畴了,因为这两句话中间压根就没啥明确的逻辑关联。
所以,我一直以为,中文是一门相当写意的语言。说得好听点,诗意、飘逸、灵动。说得难听点,随意、混乱,不够严谨。
例如,有这样一篇心灵鸡汤式文章:“教育走得太快,灵魂跟不上”,标题就是中文的拿手好戏。其中有句话“教育非他,乃心灵的转向”,我对此琢磨了许久也没有弄明白转向的意思是什么。是从愚昧向启蒙转向?还是从功利向淡泊转向?从文章的内容看似乎都不是。
“西洋语的结构好像连环,虽则环与环都联络起来,毕竟有联络的痕迹;中国语结构好像无缝天衣,只是一块一块的拼凑,凑起来还不让它有痕迹;西洋语法有很多呆板的要求,如每一个clause里必须有一个主语,而中国语法只以达意为主,如初系的目的语可兼次席的主语,又如相关的两件事可以硬凑在一起,不用任何的connective word。”
这样的评价,其中有没有民族主义意味和夜郎自大的心态,各位自行判断。
语言是一个民族最重要的文化标记,是文化的载体。语言的发展和演化是一个民族的思维方式的结果,但又反过来影响这个民族的思维方式。中文的特点反映了华人几千年的重意、重神、重风骨、重玄虚的传统哲学和美学思想影响,而英语的特点则反映出西方人重视逻辑,重实证的思维方式。
也许,这样的差异能否解释东西方文明在进入文艺复兴后南辕北辙的发展方向呢?
洋洋千言,旨在把中文和英文在行文组织这个最底层上的差异讲清讲透。在这一点上,中英文的差距是如此之大,以致于学好英语必须要彻底抛弃汉语思维才可以。
但这一点对于德国人学法语和英语就不适用。因为整个西方语言都遵循大致相同的语法规则。这样,也许我们更容易理解为什么马克思能学好那么多们语言了。对西洋人而言,学习一门外语无需太多思维的转换,因而难度也低了许多。
所以,我们中国人在学习英语时,一定注意英语相对于汉语的数学属性。弄通弄透其中的语法规是必须的,死记硬背是没有用的。记住,对于母语是中文的英语学习者而言,英语有些类似计算机编程C语言:他们都遵循严格的形式逻辑。
那么,英语就等同于数学吗?当然不是。它还是一门语言。凡是语言都有约定俗成的灵活性,都遵循熟能生巧的规律。
所以,当我们开始学习英语时,我们需要借助理性来搞清某个语法或文法,但在熟练以后我们的人脑就自然具备了一种近似于直觉的处理能力去轻松应对这些规则。
就像我们的人脑可以迅速地判断某一张脸型是美还是丑,而不用去分析计算眼睛的间距和嘴巴大小之间的比例等问题。
从这个层面上说,语言相对于数学而言又是一门文科。学好它需要经历一个大量的操练应用并内化的过程。而完成这个过程最好的办法就是大量的阅读。在阅读中,英文的语法和组织方式被反复地呈现和被解析,久而久之,这些规律就逐渐融入了我们的直觉中了。
所以,中国人要学好英文,必须要兼顾其理科属性和文科属性。充分理解语法规则,大量阅读,两者缺一不可。至于他们之间的先后顺序,我们的经验是:因人而异。
但有一点肯定的:没有语法基础的大量阅读难以施行,基本无效。而这个语法体系如何建立呢?我们的经验是,按照中国学校教科书的语法体系无法做到高屋建瓴式的领悟,学生们往往是只能建立一些支离破碎的块状知识,并且常常只见树木,不见森林。
A "terrorist startup with a clearly defined business model" is how religious historian Karen Armstrong describes Islamic State. The radical Islamist group is the world’s richest terrorist organisation – those who have seen the group’s grotesque propaganda videos may notice fleets of brand-new 4x4s its members drive.
But where does the money come from? Analysis suggests donations, smuggled oil (up to $1.645m a day), kidnapping (at least $20m last year), people trafficking, extortion, robbery and last – but not least – the sale of antiquities. It’s a lucrative source of income – for example, the sale of looted items from al-Nabuk, west of Damascus, is reported to have earned IS $36m.
IS operates in the richest archaeological arena in the world, the cradle of civilisation. While ancient sites at Nimrud, Nineveh and Hatra are being destroyed, a stream of artefacts suspected to come from such places has appeared on the black market. IS either uses so-called ‘bulldozer archaeology’ (unearthing sites using any equipment available which is extraordinarily destructive), or employs locals to dig up sites and tombs. The group then takes a tax, approved by Sharia law, based on the value of any treasure taken. No-one knows what has come out of the ground and such loot is impossible to identify later.
Do not be fooled by the video of IS in Mosul Museum smashing ancient Assyrian statues which it claimed were "worthless idols". IS may have defaced important monuments, which it cannot sell, but evidence suggests it is trading in moveable objects, which it can. In any case, the statues in the museum were plaster copies. "None of the artefacts is an original,” says the head of Iraq's national antiquities department Fawzye al-Mahdi.
"They were copies of the originals in Baghdad Museum made when Iraq was building regional museums", says Dr Mark Altaweel, of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. But large-scale looting has been taking place in Mosul for at least 25 years, with Western demand very high, he adds.
The smaller, the better
Arthur Brand, of Amsterdam-based Artiaz, one of a growing number of firms which tries to locate stolen art, has dubbed the illicit trade "blood antiques". While antiques are usually less transportable than blood diamonds, they are potentially far more valuable.
There are numerous reports of antiques from Syria and Iraq circulating in the European black market. Reportedly, Scotland Yard has four investigations in progress related to Syrian antiques – but without much greater financial help, closing down the networks that move the loot around the world seems an impossible task.
"The looters tap into well-established old networks using smuggling routes that often go through Turkey and Lebanon," says Dr Altaweel.
Among items in demand are ancient cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals, jars, coins, glass and particularly mosaics, which can be easily broken up and transported. The smaller and easier to conceal and transport an object is, the more valuable it could be.
Christopher Marinello, a spokesman for London-based Art Recovery Group, which advises buyers on due diligence, says there has been intense speculation about the value of looted art. "There are a lot of figures floating around”, he says. “Theoretically, tainted objects are worth a fraction of their true value but it all depends on practicality. A large object that is not legitimate may be worth only 10-15% of its true value in the black market but smaller, more easily transported pieces can be worth a much greater percentage.”
Smaller, more easily transported pieces can fetch much more on the black market than large artefacts (Credit: Getty)
IS is not the first terrorist organisation to use blood antiques for funding. In 1974, the IRA stole old master paintings, including Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, from a house in County Wicklow. The works were then valued at $12m.
Smash and grab
Very few of the thousands of artefacts looted in Syria and Iraq will ever see the light of day. They will disappear into private collections and vaults largely in Europe and America – where there is specific demand for pre-Islamic items – and in Japan and Australia. If items are recovered it usually takes years for investigators to secure convictions.
Last month, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) displayed some 60 artefacts that had been recovered, including a magnificent head of the Assyrian King Sargon II, valued at $1.2m. Operation Lost Treasure (a name suggestive of a Hollywood film) dates back to 2008 when word came of Dubai-based antiques dealer Hassan Fazeli shipping illegal goods to the US.
Turkey was listed as the country of origin and documents declared the value of the Sargon II head as $6,500. Other smuggled items included an Egyptian funerary boat valued at $57,000. Some shipments were directly linked to major museums, galleries and art houses in New York. The investigation was unique in bringing money laundering charges which allowed agents to seize bank accounts containing the proceeds.
However, the items recovered by ICE date back to the Iraq war. Knowing that the war would inflict terrible damage, archaeologists, museum directors and other members of the art world met with Pentagon officials in 2003 to convince them to protect the archeological sites. The initiative failed. Instead, US forces notoriously turned Babylon into what was dubbed 'the Hanging Gardens of Halliburton', building a camp on the precious archaeological site.
This ancient Sumerian statue is among thousands of ancient looted treasures stolen from the National Museum in Baghdad in 2003 (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
The Pentagon meeting also failed to prevent the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad. On the contrary, looting was encouraged under the logic that the collections would be safer elsewhere. As Ashton Hawkings of the American Council for Cultural Property said: "the legitimate dispersal of cultural material through the market" was the best way to protect treasures.
It was effectively an invitation to loot. More than 15,000 objects, including jewellery, ceramics, and sculptures, were stolen from the museum. The most famous pieces stolen were the 5,000-year-old Warka vase (later recovered in 14 pieces) and the Lyre of Ur, the world's most ancient musical instrument, likewise found badly damaged.
Hundreds have never been found and five centuries of Ottoman records were lost, as well as works by Picasso and Miró, which were destroyed by fire. One estimate of the loss attributable to art theft in Iraq is $10bn.
The sliced head of a bull stolen from an archaeological site in Nineva, Iraq came the National Museum in Baghdad after it was confiscated from thieves (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
Looted artefacts pass through many hands before emerging in on the market and may not appear for decades. Lynda Albertson, president of the Association for Research of Crimes against Art, says it is impossible to quantify how much money IS makes on the black market because it may take years for a looted item to appear there. For example, Cambodian antiquities from Angkor Wat turned up at auction 40 years after the end of the civil war.
Collectors willing to buy art without a clear provenance bear a huge responsibility for the destruction of heritage sites across the world, but it has become a very dangerous game. The well-known Turkish and Beirut smugglers who probably moved the Sargon II head have gone further underground and are extremely suspicious of buyers. Not only could they face exposure and loss, if objects are known to have been obtained from IS, they could even be charged with aiding terrorism – arguably the most powerful deterrent yet.
参考译文
宗教历史学家 凯伦·阿姆斯特朗 这样描述伊斯兰国:一个靠商业成长起来的恐怖组织。这个激进的伊斯兰团队是全球最富有的恐怖组织,那些看过这个组织诡异的宣传视频的人可能会注意到它的成员们所驾驶的全新的4X4编队。
但是他们的钱从哪里来呢?有分析认为资金来源于捐赠,偷运石油(每天可收获164.5万),绑架(去年至少收获2千万),非法交易,敲诈,抢劫,最后还有一个很重要的经济来源——古董交易。这是非常丰厚的经济来源,比如,从大马士革西部al-Nabuk抢来的东西据称是卖到了三千六百万。
伊斯兰国活动在世界上考古资源最为丰富的地区,这些地区是文明的摇篮。当尼姆伍德,尼尼微和哈特拉的古代遗址都被毁坏的时候,黑市里随即出现了一批文物,人们怀疑这些物品就是来自上述遗址中。伊斯兰国要么使用所谓的“推土考古”(用有巨大破坏力的设备来发掘遗址),要么雇用当地人来挖遗址或陵墓。然后这个组织开始了被伊斯兰教法所认同的征税,税收依宝物的价值来定。没有人知道从地里挖出来的是什么,这些赃物以后也不可能被鉴别出来。
别被伊斯兰国在摩苏尔博物馆毁坏古代亚述王国雕像的视频所迷惑,认为这些雕塑是没用的神像。伊斯兰国可能已损坏了有重要意义的纪念碑的外观,这些东西太重无法出售。但是有证据显示,他们在售卖易于搬动的物品。但不管怎么说,这些在博物馆的雕像是石灰复制品。“所有这些东西都不是真的,”伊拉克国家文物局的局长说到。
当伊拉克在建造地区的博物馆时,他们把巴格达博物馆的物品复制了过来“,来自伦敦大学考古系的马克·奥特韦尔博士说。但是在摩苏尔的大规模抢夺已有25年,在欧洲很有市场。
越小,越好
越来越多的公司试图寻找被偷走的艺术品,来自阿姆斯特丹的亚瑟·布兰德就是其中一个,他把这场违法的交易称作”血腥古董“。古董相比血钻(非洲钻石交易残忍血腥,所以被称作血钻)来说,不易运输,所以他们更加值钱。
有大量报道称来自叙利亚和伊拉克的古董在欧洲黑市上流通。据报道,苏格兰法庭有四场正在进行中的调查,都和叙利亚古董藏品有关,但是没有更多的经济支援,想要关闭脏品交易网络是不可能的。
抢夺者可以轻松地进入发展成熟的交易网络,偷运路线通常是穿过土耳其和黎巴嫩。奥特韦尔博士说。
这些物品有古代楔形文字板,滚筒印,罐子,钱币,玻璃制品,还有很火的马赛克镶嵌工艺,他们都很容易被损坏,却也很容易运输。越小,越容易隐藏和运输的东西就越值钱。
来自伦敦的文物追寻小组主张买家多多调查价格,他们的发言人 克里斯托佛·马里内略 说到,市场对于掠夺品的价值有激烈的争辩。”这价格是漂浮不定的“,他说,”理论上来讲,有污点的东西只值它真正价值的一小部分,但这些都要看实际情况。非法的大件物品在黑市上可能只值它真正价值的10-15%,但是更小的,跟容易运输的可以值更多。
伊斯兰国不是第一个用血腥古董来支撑他们的恐怖组织,在1974年,爱尔兰共和军偷走大师级作品,包括维米尔的油画作品写信的夫人和她的女仆,这件作品的估价为1200万美元。
毁坏、掠夺
在叙利亚和伊拉克抢夺的文物中,几乎很少会重见天日。他们会消失,大部分会在欧洲,美洲这些对前伊斯兰时代有特殊癖好的地方成为私人藏品,或储存在地下室中,还有些会流入日本和澳洲。如果藏品被重新找回,调查员会花上好几年的时间才有确定的定罪。
上个月,美国移民和海关执法局(ICE)重新找到了大约60件文物,包括制作精美的亚述王 萨尔贡二世的头像,估价值120万美元。这使失落的宝藏(让人想起一部好莱坞电影)调查追溯到了2008年,当时有消息称迪拜的文物贸易商 哈桑 运输非法货物前往美国。
然而,这些被ICE重新找到的文物要追溯到伊拉克战争时期。考虑到战争会对文物造成严重的损坏,考古学家,博物馆馆长和藏品界其他人士在2003年与五角大楼的官员会晤,想要说服他们保护这些考古遗址。但谈判工作失败了。美国武装竟无耻地在珍贵的考古遗址上建造了一个营地,并把它称作
哈里伯顿的空中花园。
五角大楼没能成功阻止巴格达国家博物馆被掠夺,相反的是,他们还鼓励这种行为,认为这些文物在其他地方会更加安全。正如来自美国文化产权理事会的 阿什顿·霍金斯说:“文物在市场的合法流通是保护这些文物的最好方法。”
这对洗劫敞开了大门,超过15000件东西从博物馆被偷走,其中最出名的是有5000年历史的乌鲁克祭祀瓶(后来被发现时是14块碎片),还有乌尔琴,世界上最古老的乐器,同样,被发现时,损坏严重。
其余上百件再也没被找到过,还有记载奥斯曼帝国五百年历史的资料丢失了,也有毕加索和米罗的作品被毁于火灾。由这些伊拉克强盗所造成的损失估计达到一百亿。
这些文物辗转多次后才出现在市场上,可能会花上数十年时间。文物犯罪调查协会的主席 琳达·艾伯森说伊斯兰国在黑市上造成的经济活动难以估量,因为让这些文物重新出现在公众的视野中会花上好几年的时间。比如,柬埔寨吴哥窟的文物在国家内战结束40年之后才出现在拍卖会上。
买下这些来源不明的文物的收藏家对破坏世界文化遗产都应承担巨大责任,但是这已经成为了一种非常危险的游戏。土耳其和贝鲁特出名的偷运者(可能是他们偷运了萨尔贡二世的头像)行踪已经非常隐秘了,他们对买家也极其不信任。如果这些文物是从伊斯兰国手中拿到的,他们不仅会被揭发和蒙受损失,还会面临支援恐怖主义的指控,这可以说是对文物非法交易的最有力的打击。
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