For a long time, Egyptologists agreed that the Sphinx was created during the time of the pharaoh Khafre (2520-2494 B.C.). However, it was clear that the Sphinx was unlike the pyramids and other monuments at Giza in some important ways. First, the Sphinx was not built with blocks of stone. It was carved out of the living bedrock. Second, it is not a temple, nor a pyramid. It is a huge statue with the head of a man and the body of a lion. The eyes of the “lion man” stare forever at the eastern horizon.
However, no one voiced any doubts about the origin of the Sphinx until 1979, when John West, an amateur archaeologist and Egyptian tour guide, published a book called Serpent in the Sky. In this book, he claimed that the Sphinx was actually built thousands of years before the time of Khafre. His evidence was based on a careful examination of erosion on the stone. West noticed that erosion patterns on the Sphinx were not horizontal like those on other monuments at Giza. He knew that such horizontal weathering was the result of prolonged exposure to strong winds and sandstorms. But the marks on the Sphinx were vertical. Sandstorms couldn’t have caused them. It looked like erosion from water, but where could the water have come from in the arid region? According to West’s theory, the vertical weathering was caused by rain. Therefore, the Sphinx must have been built thousands of years earlier when Egypt had a much rainier climate.
Unfortunately, West had no scientific credentials—he wasn’t a professor and he had no Ph.D.—so his revolutionary theory was not taken seriously.
【題組】45. What can be inferred from the passage?
(A) West believed that the pharaoh Khafre was the builder of the Sphinx.
(B) West’s theory did not cause much discussion among the Egyptologists.
(C) West’s theory was inspired by the half-human look of the Sphinx.
(D) Egypt used to have a rainier climate at the time of the pharaoh Khafre.
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