Exercise 3: Read the following text and choose the correct answer for each blank. Two answers are not needed at all.
The mystery of the Sphinx
One of the world’s most studied monuments is the Sphinx, 1) the Great
Pyramid, sixteen kilometers from Cairo in Egypt. Carved in ancient times out of a single piece of limestone over sixty metres long and twenty metres high, it weighs hundreds of tons. This extraordinary monument consists solely of the head of a man and the body of a crouching lion, a combination 2) strength and wisdom.
Over the years, some of its facial features have sustained damage.
The smile, 3)………. mysterious, is in fact the result of erosion rather than design, and the nose, which has long since been broken away, was probably the
unfortunate victim of invading soldiers’ target practice. At one time there was a
serpent on its forehead and a royal beard, a fragment 4)………. in a museum.
But who built this monument 5)………. guarding significant places, is not
part of a pair but stands alone? Most Egyptologists agree that it was built by
Pharaoh Khafre 5,000 years ago. However, some recent commentators have
speculated that it belonged to a much older civilization, 6)………. a legendary flood
7)………. everything in the world over 7,000 years ago. They have tried to
demonstrate that the weathering of the Sphinx was caused by water rather than
wind and sand, and one has even suggested 8)………. on a much older site about
12,500 years ago. Whatever its origins there is no doubt that to the Egyptians, the
Sphinx represents the very essence of their country’s magnificent culture.
a. which suggests
b. of which exists
c. which disappeared in
d. that it might have been built
e. which is located close to
f. that is supposed to have destroyed
g. which some people describe
h. which, unlike most of the others
i. that it fits in
j. that was clearly known
