The languages spoken by early Europeans are still shrouded in mystery. There is no linguistic continuity between the languages of Old Europe (a term sometimes used for Europe between 7000 and 3000 B.C.) and the languages of the modem world, and we cannot yet translate the Old European script, Scholars have deciphered other ancient5 languages, such as Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian, which used the cuneiform script, because of the fortuitous discovery of bilingual inscriptions, When cuneiform tablets were first discovered in the eighteenth century, scholars could not decipher them. Then inscriptions found in baa at the end of the eighteenth century provided a link: these inscriptions were written in cuneiform and in two other ancient languages, Old Persian10 and New Elamite--languages that had already been deciphered. It took several decades, but scholars eventually translated the ancient cuneiform script via the more familiar Old Persian language: Similarly, the hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians remained a mystery until French troops unearthed the famous Rosetta stone in the late eighteenth century. The stone carried15 the same message written in ancient Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Egyptian hieratic, a simplified form of hieroglyphs. The Rosetta stone thwarted scholars' efforts for several decades until the early nineteenth century when several key hieroglyphic phrases were decoded using the Greek inscriptions. Unfortunately, we have no Old European Rosetta stone to chart correspondences between Old European script and the languages that20 replaced it. Tim incursions of Indo-European tribes into Old Europe from the late fifth to the early third millennia B.C. caused a linguistic and cultural discontinuity. These incursions disrupted the Old European sedentary farming lifestyle that had existed for 3,000 years As the Indo-Europeans encroached on Old Europe from the east, the continent underwent25 upheavals. These severely affected the Balkans, where the Old European cultures abundantly employed script. The Old European way of life deteriorated rapidly, although pockets of Old European culture remained for several millennia, ~ new peoples spoke completely different languages belonging to the Indo-European linguistic family. The Old European language or languages, and the script used to write them, declined and eventually vanished.

单选题 What does the passage mainly discuss?

单选题 According to the passage, New Elamite is ______.

单选题 According to the passage, scholars were able to decipher cuneiform script with the help of ______.

单选题 The word “fortuitous” in line 6 is closet in meaning to ______.

单选题 The word "them" in line 7 refers to ______.

单选题 When does the passage suggest that ancient Egyptian hieroglypttic script was finally deciphered?

单选题 According to the passage, which of the following is true of the Rosetta stone?

单选题 The word "thwarted" in line 16 is closest in meaning to ______.

单选题 According to the passage, Indo-European incursions caused Old European populations to ______.

单选题 The author mentions the Balkans in the passage in order to explain why ______.