首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the staggering disparity between the indigenous po
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the staggering disparity between the indigenous po
admin
2017-10-23
29
问题
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the staggering disparity between the indigenous population of America in 1492—new estimates of which jump as high as 100 million, or approximately one-sixth of the human race at that time—and the few million full-blooded Native Americans alive at the end of the nineteenth century. There is no doubt that chronic disease was an important factor in the precipitous decline, and it is highly probable that the greatest killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin-soil epidemics.
Virgin-soil epidemics are those in which the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologically almost defenseless. That virgin-soil epidemics were important in American history is strongly indicated by evidence that a number of dangerous maladies—smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and undoubtedly several more—were unknown in the pre-Columbian New World. The effects of their sudden introduction are demonstrated in the early chronicles of America, which contain reports of horrendous epidemics and steep population declines, confirmed in many cases by recent quantitative analyzes of Spanish tribute records and other sources. The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and began to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century, by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place. Furthermore, the British tended to drive the native populations away, rather than to enslave them as the Spaniards did, so that the epidemics of British America occurred beyond the range of colonists’ direct observation.
Even so, the surviving records of North America do contain references to deadly epidemics among the native population. In 1616—1619 an epidemic, possibly of pneumonic plague, swept coastal New England, killing as many as nine out of ten. During the 1630’s smallpox, the disease most fatal to the Native American people, eliminated half the population of the Huron and Iroquois confederations. In the 1820’s fever devastated the people of the Columbia River area, killing eight out of ten of them.
Unfortunately, the documentation of these and other epidemics is slight and frequently unreliable, and it is necessary to supplement what little we do know with evidence from recent epidemics among Native Americans. For example, in 1952 an outbreak of measles among the Native American inhabitants of Ungava Bay,
Quebec, affected 99 percent of the population and killed 7 percent, even though some had the benefit of modern medicine. Cases such as this demonstrate that even diseases that are not normally fatal can have destroying consequences when they strike an immunologically defenseless community.
The 1952 measles outbreak is mentioned so as to
选项
A、demonstrate the impact of modern medicine on epidemic disease.
B、refute allegations of unreliability made against the historical record of colonial America.
C、advocate new research into the continuing problem of epidemic disease.
D、confirm the documentary evidence of epidemic disease in colonial America.
答案
D
解析
本题是一道逻辑结构题。本文最后一段第一句写道:“不幸的是,这些以及其他流行病的文献资料很少并且常常是不可靠的,因此必须从美洲印第安人近期的流行病来补充我们知之甚少的不足。”接着,作者以1952年的麻疹为例说明上述论据。可见,D是正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/3MIZ777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Thefollowingparagraphsaregiveninawrongorder.ForQuestions1-5,youarerequiredtoreorganizetheseparagraphsintoac
Doyourememberallthoseyearswhenscientistsarguedthatsmokingwouldkillusbutthedoubtersinsistedthatwedidn’tknow
Teachersneedtobeawareoftheemotional,intellectual,andphysicalchangesthatyoungadultsexperience.Andtheyalsoneed
Teachersneedtobeawareoftheemotional,intellectual,andphysicalchangesthatyoungadultsexperience.Andtheyalsoneed
AsValentine’sDayapproaches,manysinglepeoplebegintofeelalittlesorryforthemselves.Onaday【C1】______bycouples,thi
IsStanfordstillauniversity?TheWallStreetJournalrecentlyreportedthatmorethanadozenstudentshaveleftschooltowo
WithJapan’swelfaresystembucklingunderthedemandsofanageingsociety,theworld’soldestmanapologizedyesterdayforhis
Optimistsoutlivepessimists,anewstudyshows.Ofnearly100,000women【C1】______intheWomen’sHealthInitiative,thosewhoga
Optimistsoutlivepessimists,anewstudyshows.Ofnearly100,000women【C1】______intheWomen’sHealthInitiative,thosewhoga
Optimistsoutlivepessimists,anewstudyshows.Ofnearly100,000women【C1】______intheWomen’sHealthInitiative,thosewhoga
随机试题
A.川芎B.丹参C.香附D.延胡索E.木香
A.淋病奈瑟菌B.衣原体C.单纯疱疹病毒D.人乳为瘤病毒E.人免疫缺陷病毒非淋菌性尿道炎的病原体是
[2011专业案例真题上午卷]500kV单回架空送电线路,4分裂相导线,导线分裂间距为450mm,三相导线水平排列,间距为12m,导线直径为26.82mm。导线的表面系数取0.82,计算导线的临界起始电晕电位梯度最接近下列哪项值?(不计海拔高度的影响。
设置湿式自动喷水灭火系统的房间,起火时喷头动作喷水,水流指示器动作并报警,报警阀动作,延迟器充水,启泵装置动作报警并直接启动消防水泵。该系统应选择的启泵装置是()。
银行对一年内未发生收付活动的单位银行结算账户,应通知单位自发出通知之日起10日内办理销户手续,逾期视同自愿销户,未划转款项列入久悬未取账户管理。()
现四川保留至今的汉阙有()。
怎样理解邓小平“改革是中国的第二次革命”的含义?
阅读下列函数说明和Java代码,将应填入(n)处的字句写在对应栏内。【说明】类Queue表示队列,类中的方法如下表所示。类Node表示队列中的元素;类EmptyQueueException给出了队列操作中的异常处理操作。p
あの人気のあるお店の前に、あいかわらず、おおぜい並んでいる。
IfwereadEnglishlanguagenewspapersorlistentonewsreaderswhouseEnglishinalldifferentpartsoftheworld,wewillqui
最新回复
(
0
)