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
外语
An Australian research group may ease humanity’s collective conscience over a spate of prehistoric extinctions on the southern c
An Australian research group may ease humanity’s collective conscience over a spate of prehistoric extinctions on the southern c
admin
2015-09-26
29
问题
An Australian research group may ease humanity’s collective conscience over a spate of prehistoric extinctions on the southern continent. The die-off, they say, was not the rapacious work of newly arrived humans, but was due rather to changing climate.
Australia’s large prehistoric animals, called megafauna, were as bizarre as anything that lives there today. King of them all was the marsupial lion, a 130-kilogram meat-eater who lived alongside giant kangaroos, huge lizards called goannas, and Diprotodon, which resembled a three-tonne wombat.
After the arrival of humans on the continent, at least 45, 000 years ago, these weird and wonderful creatures began to die out. Experts blamed the colonizers, arguing that they launched a hunting ’ blitzkrieg’ that wiped out the megafauna(巨型动物)within a few generations.
But the animals may have survived for a lot longer than people thought, argues Judith Field of the University of Sydney, who has analyzed fossil remains. Her excavations seem to show that man and beast lived side by side for as long as 15,000 years.
She suspects that as Australia approached the most recent ice age, the growing cold and aridity turned much of the continent into a place where these large animals simply could not survive. Although man probably did hunt the large animals, the fact that they survived for so long argues against the blitzkrieg(闪电战)model, she adds.
Field and her colleagues collected animal bones from a ten-metre-deep section of earth at Cuddie Springs, New South Wales. They focused on bones from four layers: two with evidence of human settlement, such as stone tools, and two deeper ones with no evidence of tools.
They dated the bones by measuring the amounts of radioactive elements, such as uranium and thorium, that remained in the bones. They found that the various animal carcasses in each level would indeed have lived cheek by jowl with humans as recently as 30, 000 years ago. The team report their research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Proponents of the blitzkrieg model had previously argued that the dating of the Cuddie Springs material was not certain, but Field says their research clears up the matter. Well-preserved bones at other sites have been very hard to find, probably because they are too dry, whereas Cuddie Springs is the site of an old lake bed.
A second group, reporting in the journal Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, has also unveiled evidence that climate change may have killed off many of Australia’s animals. By looking at smaller animal bones from the Darling Downs in Queensland, they show that their disappearance seems to have coincided with increasing dryness.
But the matter is not settled yet, particularly as the timing of humans’ first foray into Australia has still not been agreed. Fossil evidence frorr Lake Mungo in New South Wales suggests that they may have arrived 60,000 years ago. And it is possible that they hastened the megafauna’s demise by burning habitats to make way for primitive agriculture.
Field remains convinced, however, that it was climate that drove the animals to their death. "The arid zone grew to encompass 70% of the continent by 30,000 years ago," she says. "There would have been very few opportunities once it got dryer. "
The word "demise" in Paragraph 10 can be replaced by______.
选项
A、growth
B、disappearance
C、death
D、loss
答案
C
解析
语义题。根据前文第三段说到的…hunting“blitzkrieg”that wiped out the megafauna…可知,megafauna已经灭绝,因此可推断此处demise的意思是“死亡”,所以选[C]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/6eXK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
ManypeopleinvestinthestockmarkethopingtofindthenextMicrosoftandDell.However,Iknow【C1】______personalexperie
Theinterviewerswereimpressedbythehighcaliberoftheapplicantsforthejob.Theunderlinedpartmeans.
I’ma50-somethingmale,thefatheroftwomostlygrowngirls.I’mhappytosaythatbothmyparentsarestillkicking.I’mong
Surprisingly,nooneknowshowmanychildrenreceiveeducation,inEnglishhospitals,stilllessthecontentorqualityofthat
I’vealwaysbeenanoptimistandIsupposethatisrootedinmybeliefthatthepowerofcreativityandintelligencecanmaketh
I’vealwaysbeenanoptimistandIsupposethatisrootedinmybeliefthatthepowerofcreativityandintelligencecanmaketh
______neglectingoureducation,myfathersentmybrotherandmetoasummerschool.
TimeIsaTyrantToday,weareslavesofspeedandsuccesssyndrome.Nosermonsarestrongenoughtodissuadeustospareso
Trytobe______inyoureatingthisholidayseason;ifyoucontrolyourappetite,youwon’tgaintoomuchweight.
Whenyoudefineanewword,be______;theshorterthedefinition,theeasieritistoremember.
随机试题
A.相须B.相使C.相畏D.相恶黄连配木香属于
A.游离水杨酸B.酮体C.游离肼D.光降解产物E.二苯酮衍生物下列药物需要检查的特殊杂质是肾上腺素()。
具有健脾补中,升阳举陷,益卫固表,托毒生肌,利水消肿功效的药物是()。
M公司是一家铜矿开采企业,有从业人员200人;N公司是一家纺织企业,有从业人员280人。王某和李某是s安全技术服务公司员工。依据《安全生产法》,下列有关两家企业安全管理机构设置和人员配置做法中,正确的是()。
明洞主要分为拱式和()。
将室外工程划分为附属建筑及室外环境和室外设施两个单位工程,其目的之一为()。
根据下面材料回答下列题:2009年以来,在灾后恢复重建和扩大内需的各项政策措施的作用下,四川交通运输业投资呈现出快速增长的发展势头。1—4月,全省交通运输业投资255.74亿元,同比增长131.3%,增速较同期全社会投资快52.4个百分点,迎来了
管理信息系统有多种功能,以下不属于管理信息系统基本功能的是
•ThisispartofaletteryoureceivefromafriendintheU.S.A.•Nowwritealetter,answeringyourfriend’squestions.•W
Iwouldliketogetanothertablelikethisone,butthecompanythatmadeitisoutof______.
最新回复
(
0
)