Question

Development of a widely accepted chronology for the arrival of humans has been equally difficult, and it was only with the development of optically stimulated luminescence dating that a human presence in Australia was confirmed at 53,000 to 60,000 years ago. Older dates for a human presence in Australia have now been shown to be erroneous .
The importance of Australia as a separate natural laboratory in which to test extinction theories lies in the fact that humans arrived there much earlier than they arrived in the other continental areas (the Americas and northern Eurasia) that experienced substantial megafaunal extinction. What Miller et al. have shown is that the extinction of Genyornis occurred simultaneously across southeastern Australia (indeed probably right across the continent) about 50,000 years ago. This is very close to the presently accepted time of arrival of humans in Australia. It was also a period of modest climate change, well before the dramatic climatic fluctuations of the terminal Pleistocene. The data of Miller et al., therefore, support those who see human hunting rather than climate as causing the extinction of the megafauna.
Genyornis was a ponderous bird, around 80 to 100 kg in weight, about twice as heavy as the living emu and cassowary. It was an inhabitant of Australia?s inland plains and some coastal regions, but its legs were relatively short and thick, suggestion that it was a slower runner than the emu. Proponents of human?caused extinction suggest that it is just such characteristics that made the megafauna vulnerable to human hunting.
A new school of thought has recently established itself in the extinction debate. It advocates the idea that a combination of human impact and climate change was responsible for the extinction of the world?s megafauna. The new Genyornis data also weaken that argument, for the following reason. Fifty thousand years ago, Australia was experiencing mild cooling; 11,000 to 12,000 years ago, the Americas were experiencing rapid warming. These disparate climatic conditions, all coincident with megafaunal extinction, suggest that whatever was happening with climate, it was bad for the big animals. Under these conditions, the hybrid model becomes indistinguishable from the human?caused extinction model for the influence of climate becomes extremely weak, and only the arrival of humans is important in predicting extinction.
【小題1】 The last word “megafauna” in Paragraph 2 most probably means
A  birds.  B  plants.
C  big animals.  D  small animals.
【小題2】 Genyornis was vulnerable to human hunting because it was
A  a delicacy.  B  very weak.
C  very small in size.  D  clumsy.
【小題3】  How many models have been put forward for the extinction of Genyoris?
A  One.  B  Two.
C  Three.  D  Four.
【小題4】 That Australia experienced mild cooling and the Americas rapid warming suggests that
A  the climatic conditions were unfit for Genyornis to live.
B  Genyornis were highly adaptable to different climatic conditions.
C  The two climatic conditions were both bad for Genyornis.
D  The climatic conditions had nothing to do with the extinction of Genyoris.
【小題5】 The selection is mainly about
A  the debate over the time of the human presence in Australia.
B  the relationship between the human presence and magafaunal extinction.
C  the relationship between human activities and climatic changes.
D  the debate over factors causing megafaunal extinction.

Answer 1

【小題1】C
【小題2】D
【小題3】C
【小題4】D
【小題5】D

解析【小題1】［C  big animals.
【本題考點(diǎn)】 詞語釋義題。
【試題精解】 考生如果有一定的構(gòu)詞法知識(shí)一眼就可看出該題的答案。 “mega”在英文中指 “big”；fauna指 “animals” ，顯然［C 為正確答案�？忌�如果沒有這方面的知識(shí)，也可以利用上下文來判斷。作者在提到megafauna后緊接著提到了Genyornis,在第三段開始對(duì)其進(jìn)行了描述： “Genyornis was a ponderous bird, around 80 to 100kg in weight, about twice as heavy as the living emu and cassowary.” 足見其大。
【考點(diǎn)出處】 第二段末句，但對(duì)該詞的推斷卻應(yīng)聯(lián)系上下文。
【小題2】  ［D  clumsy.
【本題考點(diǎn)】 細(xì)節(jié)判斷題。
【試題精解】 第三段中指出 “it is such characteristics that made the megafauna vulnerable to human hunting” “such characteristics” 指的是其 “heavy, short and thick”, 即 “clumsy”。
【考點(diǎn)出處】 根據(jù)第三段第二句可知它的腿短而粗，跑得慢，［D 項(xiàng)clumsy“笨拙的”與句意一致。
【小題3】  ［C  Three.
【本題考點(diǎn)】 細(xì)節(jié)判斷題。
【試題精解】 文中共提到了三種：（1）Human hunting;（2）Climate;（3）Human impact and climate change。
【考點(diǎn)出處】 第二、三、四段中。
【小題4】［D  The climatic conditions had nothing to do with the extinction of Genyoris.
【本題考點(diǎn)】 推理暗示題。
【試題精解】 澳大利亞經(jīng)歷了 “mild cooling”, 美洲經(jīng)歷了 “rapid warming”, 而兩個(gè)地方都出現(xiàn)了Genyornis的滅絕，說明氣候?qū)ζ錅缃^并未產(chǎn)生什么影響。在文中最后一段作者也指出 “the influence of climate becomes extremely weak, and only the arrival of humans is important in predicting extinction.”
【考點(diǎn)出處】 第二段和第四段。
【小題5】［D  the debate over factors causing megafaunal extinction.
【本題考點(diǎn)】 主旨大意題。
【試題精解】 本文重點(diǎn)介紹了造成“magafaunal extinction”的三種原因，所以［D 為正確答案。
【考點(diǎn)出處】 考察對(duì)全文的理解能力，實(shí)際上從第三題的做答中我們就可得出解答該題的部分相關(guān)信息。
■核心詞匯
1.chronologyn.年代學(xué)
2.luminescencen.發(fā)光
3.erroneousa.錯(cuò)誤的 ［同義  false, incorrect, inexact
4.megafaunan.巨型動(dòng)物
5.fluctuationn.變化 ［同義  oscillation, rolling
6.ponderousa.笨重的 ［同義  heavy, weighty, massive, bulky
7.cassowaryn.食火雞
■全文精譯
澳洲古代巨鳥滅絕探因
要?jiǎng)?chuàng)建人類是何時(shí)到來的、且為人們所廣為接受的年代表同樣也是困難的。并且只有在光學(xué)模擬發(fā)光測(cè)定年代的方法發(fā)展起來后，人們才確定53，000年到60，000年前澳洲有了人類，現(xiàn)在已證明更久遠(yuǎn)的年代是錯(cuò)誤的。
之所以把澳洲稱為試驗(yàn)種族滅絕理論的天然實(shí)驗(yàn)室，其重要性在于（lie in）：人類到達(dá)這兒的年代要遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)先于到達(dá)經(jīng)歷過巨型動(dòng)物滅亡的其他大陸（如歐洲和歐亞大陸北部）的年代。Miller等人向我們說明，“巨鳥”于50，000年前在澳洲南部同時(shí)滅絕，這和人們普遍接受的人類到達(dá)澳洲大陸的時(shí)間相當(dāng)接近。這也是氣候溫和的時(shí)期，隨后很久才發(fā)生了更新世晚期滅絕性的氣候劇變。Miller的資料支撐了認(rèn)為人類捕獵而非氣候變化是巨獸滅絕的原因的觀點(diǎn)。
“巨鳥”是遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)期一種巨型鳥類，重約80到100公斤，是鴯鹋和食火雞的兩倍重。它是澳洲內(nèi)陸和沿海地區(qū)的動(dòng)物，但它的腿相對(duì)短而粗，證明它不如鴯鹋跑得快。堅(jiān)持人類導(dǎo)致這種鳥滅絕的人說，它們的這種特性使它們很容易受到（be vulnerable to ...）捕殺。
在這一“滅絕爭(zhēng)論”中，新的學(xué)派又建立了。他們贊成人類及氣候因素結(jié)合導(dǎo)致（be responsible for ...）了世界范圍巨型動(dòng)物的滅絕的觀點(diǎn)。新的巨鳥資料也削弱了這種爭(zhēng)論，原因如下：50，000年前，澳洲氣候逐漸變冷；11，000到12，000年前，美洲氣溫迅速上升。這些完全相異的氣候條件正好與巨鳥滅絕時(shí)期相吻合（be coincident with）。這說明，無論氣候怎樣變化，巨型動(dòng)物還是難逃厄運(yùn)。在這種情況下（under these conditions），這種結(jié)合兩種說法的觀點(diǎn)就變得與人類導(dǎo)致其滅絕的觀點(diǎn)難以區(qū)別了。因?yàn)樵谒麄兛磥�，氣候影響是那么微弱，只有人類的到來才預(yù)示了巨型動(dòng)物的滅絕。