Since the 1970s, archaeological sites in China’s Yangtze River region have yielded evidence of sophisticated rice-farming societ

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问题     Since the 1970s, archaeological sites in China’s Yangtze River region have yielded evidence of sophisticated rice-farming societies that predate signs of rice cultivation elsewhere in East Asia by a thousand years. Before this evidence was discovered, it had generally been assumed that rice farming began farther to the south. This scenario was based both on the geographic range of wild or free-living rice, which was not thought to extend as far north as the Yangtze, and on archaeological records of very early domestic rice from Southeast Asia and India (now known to be not so old as first reported). Proponents of the southern-origin theory point out that early rice-farming societies along the Yangtze were already highly developed and that evidence for the first stage of rice cultivation is missing. They argue that the first hunter-gatherers to develop rice agriculture must have done so in this southern zone, within the apparent present-day geographic range of wild rice. Yet while most strands of wild rice reported in a 1984 survey were concentrated to the south of the Yangtze drainage, two northern outlier populations were also discovered in provinces along the middle and lower Yangtze, evidence that the Yangtze wetlands may fall within both the present-day and the historical geographic ranges of rice’s wild ancestor.
Which of the following, if true, would most clearly undermine the conclusion that the author makes based on the 1984 survey?

选项 A、Areas south of the Yangtze basin currently have less wild-rice habitat than they once did.
B、Surveys since 1984 have shown wild rice populations along the upper Yangtze as well as along the middle and lower Yangtze.
C、The populations of wild rice along the Yangtze represent strains of wild rice that migrated to the north relatively recently.
D、Early rice-farming societies along the Yangtze were not as highly developed as archaeologists once thought.
E、In East Asia, the historical geographic range of wild rice was more extensive than the present-day geographic range is.

答案C

解析 本题的选择方向是“削弱”长江是水稻种植的发源地。长江的野生水稻是近期刚刚迁移过去的,说明长江过去不存在野生水稻,因此长江不可能是水稻种植的起源地,选项C正确。A项:南方今天的野生水稻更少→南方过去的野生水稻多→南方是水稻种植起源地→削弱长江是水稻种植起源地,排除选项A。但是因为中间的推理步骤太多,根据逻辑题“不完备性”原则,每削弱一次,削弱的强度会减弱,因此选项A相比选项C,选项C的削弱程度更强。B项:上游也有了野生水稻,相当于增加额外证据来加强长江是起源地。D项:不发达则说明长江水稻种植社会可能经历过特别落后的阶段,加强了长江是起源地的可能性。E项:今天的长江只分布了两种野生水稻,如果历史上的分布范围更广,那么长江在过去会有更多的野生水稻,加强了长江是起源地的可能性。
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