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 great disparity between the native population
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the great disparity between the native population
admin
2010-05-05
94
问题
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the great disparity between the native 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 sharp 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 horrible epidemics and steep population declines, confirmed in many cases by 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 ruined 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.
Notes:
disparity差距
virgin-soil处女地
malady疾病
chronicle编年史
tribute贡品
pneumonic plague肺鼠疫
confederation同盟
smallpox天花
measles麻疹
选项
A、recur more frequently than chronic diseases.
B、involve populations with no prior exposure to a disease.
C、usually involve a number of interacting diseases.
D、are less responsive to medical treatment than are other diseases.
答案
B
解析
细节理解题。本题问:根据本文,处女地流行病与发生其他灾难性疾病的区别是什么?第2段第1句写道:"处女地流行病是指处于危险中的人过去从未接触过的袭击他们的疾病,因而几乎没有免疫防御力",选项"(处女地流行病)使过去从未接触过某种疾病的人受感染"与第2段第1句的意思相一致。注意:involve sb.with sth.使某人与某事接触、打交道,involve sb.in sth.表明某人与某事有关联;The witness’s statement involves you in the robbery.(证人的证词表明你与抢劫案有关联)。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/9C44777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Peekthroughtheinspectionwindowsofthenearly100three-dimensional(3D)printersquietlymakingthingsatRedEye,acompany
Peekthroughtheinspectionwindowsofthenearly100three-dimensional(3D)printersquietlymakingthingsatRedEye,acompany
Peekthroughtheinspectionwindowsofthenearly100three-dimensional(3D)printersquietlymakingthingsatRedEye,acompany
Peekthroughtheinspectionwindowsofthenearly100three-dimensional(3D)printersquietlymakingthingsatRedEye,acompany
Peekthroughtheinspectionwindowsofthenearly100three-dimensional(3D)printersquietlymakingthingsatRedEye,acompany
Peekthroughtheinspectionwindowsofthenearly100three-dimensional(3D)printersquietlymakingthingsatRedEye,acompany
TheaverageBritishpeoplegetsix-and-a-halfhours’sleepanight,accordingtotheSleepCouncil.Ithasbeenknownforsomet
TheaverageBritishpeoplegetsix-and-a-halfhours’sleepanight,accordingtotheSleepCouncil.Ithasbeenknownforsomet
Foroveracentury,psychologistshavestudiedintelligencebyaskingpeoplequestions.Theirexamshaveevolvedintobatteries
Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingdrawing.Inyourwriting,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explaintheinten
随机试题
死锁
Theaccuracyofscientificobservationsandcalculationsisalwaysatthemercyofthescientist’stime-keepingmethods.Forthi
鼠疫的主要传播媒介是
与鼓室相通的管道是
公司的法定公积金不足以弥补上一年度公司亏损的,先依照法律规定提取法定公积金和法定公益金后,就可以分配利润。( )
2003年,某中级人民法院在一份判决书中,认定《某某省农作物种子管理条例》(以下简称《条例》)的有关内容“无效”。该省人大常委会已指出某市中级人民法院的行为严重违法,并要求该市人大对此进行纠正,要求省高级人民法院汇报,要求有关方面处理直接责任人和主管领导。
根据财政部和国家税务总局的规定,2005年1月1日前,已按免抵的增值税税额征收的城建税及教育费附加不再退还,未征的不再补征,这样规定符合税法适用原则中的()。
“三家分晋”的三家是()。
颞下颌关节脱位最常见的类型是()。
SET支付模式的工作流程包括如下步骤:1.支付响应阶段2.支付请求阶段3.授权请求阶段4.授权响应阶段5.支付初始化请求和响应阶段正确的流程顺序是:(1)A.5-2-3-4-1B.2-
最新回复
(
0
)