Question

 

The discovery of a dwarfed (矮個的) “human being” who lived in Flores, Indonesia, up to 18,000 years ago is changing the way we think about the human family. This “Flores Human” was three foot tall and her brain was smaller than that of the average chimp (黑猩猩), yet she and her relatives apparently lived fully human lives. They seem to have made tools, worked together to find food and cook it, and perhaps even buried their dead with ceremony.

It was a major surprise to find tools associated with the new human family member. The tools are like those formerly seen only with European fossils (化石 ) from our own species, Homo sapiens (智人 ), and the oldest of them were made 94,000 years ago. Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived in the island about 40,000 years ago, much too late to be responsible for the tools. If this tiny human made the tools, the inside structure (結(jié)構(gòu) ) of its brain must have been more like our own than a chimp’s, despite being just a third the size of ours.

This “new human” was suspected to be a dwarfed branch of Homo erectus (直立人 ). When creatures are separated in regions with rare resources but few enemies, being big is a disadvantage, and evolution tends to shrink them, a process known as island dwarfing. Could natural selection make a human smaller while keeping － even improving － mental ability? Quite possibly, believes Christopher Wills of the University of California.

Has the “Flores Human” even shown the ability of language? “I find it difficult to imagine that people could make tools, use fire, and kill large animals without fairly advanced communication,” Wills says. Did “Flores Human” possess the basic components of human culture － such as the burying of the dead with ceremony? Emiliano Bruner of the Italian Institute points out that Indonesia’s hot, wet environment is bad for fossilization. It is reasonable to assume, he says, that the 18,000-year-old bones of the most complete Flores woman were well-preserved because she was buried with special care.

1.According to the passage, “Flores Human” __________.

A. lived a partly human life

B. was a branch of Homo sapiens

C. used tools before Homo sapiens arrived

D. had a brain as large as a common chimp’s

2.The underlined part “this tiny human” in Paragraph 2 refers to __________.

A. a chip       B. Flores Human     C. Homo sapiens     D. Homo erectus

3.This passage mainly talks about __________.

A. the tools made by “Flores Human”

B. the language used by “Flores Human”

C. the evolution of “Flores Human”

D. the major surprising findings about “Flores Human”

4.According to the passage, it is believed that “Flores Human” __________.

A. was dwarfed by its enemies

B. could use language

C. left a lot of fossils in the hot and wet environment

D. reached Flores 40,000 years ago

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.C

【解析】由文中第二節(jié)可知所發(fā)現(xiàn)的工具中有一些是九萬四千年前的，而Homo sapiens大約是在四萬年前才到達(dá)該島的，很顯然工具不是他們做的。

【考點】細(xì)節(jié)題

2.B

【解析】從文中第二節(jié)最后一句可知作者是想從工具上去推斷他們的大腦。

【考點】名詞或代詞的指代關(guān)系。

3.D

【解析】本文主要介紹了有關(guān)于史前人類的一些令人驚訝的發(fā)現(xiàn)，如制造和使用工具，使用語言以及他們的一些生活方式。

【考點】主旨題

4.B

【解析】由最后一節(jié)中“I find it difficult to imagine that people could make tools, use fire, and kill large animals without fairly advanced communication,” Wills says.可知他們要做到這樣沒有語言交流是不行的。

【考點】細(xì)節(jié)理解題