Seeker of Knowledge Study Guide

uncover

link

triumph

seeker

translate

ancient

temple scholars

A. Write the correct vocabulary word in each blank. In 1799, a French army officer found a stone slab near the city of Rosetta in Egypt. On the stone was the same announcement in three different languages. At the top was hieroglyphics, a writing that uses pictures or symbols to stand for ideas and sounds. This writing was used in _________ Egypt. In the middle was an Egyptian language called demotic. At the bottom was the Greek language. For more than 3,000 years, the ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics on their _________ walls and monuments. But over time the language was forgotten. For hundreds of years, _________ were unable to figure out how to read hieroglyphics. Jean-François Champollion was a French scholar who wanted to be the first to read hieroglyphics. He studied the language his whole life. He was a true _________ of knowledge. He used the Greek part of the Rosetta Stone to _________ the Egyptian part. The Rosetta Stone gave him a _________ between the known and the unknown. Champollion’s work was a _________. It allowed other scholars to _________ the history of ancient Egypt.

B. Answer each comprehension question.

1. The genre of this story is ____________, which means __________________________. 2. Most of the symbols used for hieroglyphs were _________________________________. 3. The author tells that Jean-Francois was turned away to show ______________________. 4. Jean-Francois and Napoleon were alike, in that they both _________________________. 5. The Egyptian symbol to show the word “trouble” was a ___________________________. 6. The peasant showed he was a genius by ______________________________________. 7. Jean-Francois was often called a traitor, because _______________________________. 8. Jean-Francois first translated hieroglyphs after _______________________________. 9. The “key” that helped him understand the hieroglyphs was the _____________________. 10. Why did the author include hieroglyphs as part of the sentences? __________________ ______________________________________________________________________. 11. Why did the hieroglyph of the sandals best represent Jean-Francois? ________________ _______________________________________________________________________. 12. Why did Jean-Francois have to know about Egypt’s history to read its hieroglyphs? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________.