2. 外语
  3. Exactly when in the early modern era Native Americans began exchanging animal furs with Europeans for European-made goods is unc

Exactly when in the early modern era Native Americans began exchanging animal furs with Europeans for European-made goods is unc

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问题 Exactly when in the early modern era Native Americans began exchanging animal furs with Europeans for European-made goods is uncertain. What is fairly certain, even though they left no written evidence of having done so, is that the first Europeans to conduct such trade during the modern period were fishing crews working the waters around Newfoundland. Archaeologists had noticed that sixteenth-century Native American sites were strewn with iron bolts and metal pins. Only later, upon reading Nicolas Denys’s 1672 account of seventeenth-century European settlements in North America, did archaeologists realize that sixteenth-century European fishing crews had dismantled and exchanged parts of their ships for furs.
By the time Europeans sailing the Atlantic coast of North America first documented the fur trade, it was apparently well underway. The first to record such trade—the captain of a Portuguese vessel sailing from Newfoundland in 1501—observed that a Native American aboard the ship wore Venetian silver earrings. Another early chronicler noted in 1524 that Native Americans living along the coast of what is now New England had become selective about European trade goods: they accepted only knives, fishhooks, and sharp metal. By the time Cartier sailed the Saint Lawrence River ten years later, Native Americans had traded with Europeans for more than thirty years, perhaps half a century.
The passage suggests that which of the following is partially responsible for the difficulty in establishing the precise date when the fur trade in North America began?
选项 A、A lack of written accounts before that of Nicolas Denys in 1672
B、A lack of written documentation before 1501
C、Ambiguities in the evidence from Native American sources
D、Uncertainty about Native American trade networks
E、Uncertainty about the origin of artifacts supposedly traded by European fishing crews for furs
答案B
解析 Inference
The question asks about information implied by the passage. The first paragraph points out the difficulty of establishing exactly when the fur trade between Native Americans and Europeans began. The second paragraph explains that the first written record of the fur trade (at least the earliest known to scholars who study the history of the trade) dates to 1501, but that trading was already well established by that time. Thus, it can be inferred that lack of written records prior to 1501 contributes to the difficulty in establishing an exact date for the beginning of the fur trade.
A Two written records of the fur trade prior to the account by Nicolas Denys are mentioned in the passage. The passage does not suggest that a lack of written records from before 1672 is a source of the difficulty in establishing the date.
B Correct. The passage indicates that the fur trade was well established by the time of the documentation dating from 1501 but strongly suggests that there is no known earlier documentation regarding that trade, so a lack of records before that time contributes to the difficulty in establishing an exact date.
C The only Native American sources mentioned in the passage are archaeological sites, and there is no indication of ambiguities at those sites.
D Native American trade networks are not mentioned in the passage.
E The passage mentions that fishing crews exchanged parts of their ships for furs and does not suggest any uncertainty about the origin of those artifacts.
The correct answer is B.
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