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
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
2019-02-01
19
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 soar 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 dis- ease, 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 defenselass. That virgin-soil epidemics were important in American history is strongly indicated by evidence that a number of dangerous maladies—small pox, 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 analyses 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 begin 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 enslaving 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 indigenous population. In 1616-1619 an epidemic, possibly of bubonic or 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, af- fected 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 devastating consequences when they strike an immunologically defenseless community.
According to the passage, the British colonists were unlike the Spanish colonists in that the British colonists
选项
A、collected tribute from the native population.
B、kept records from a very early date.
C、drove Native Americans off the land.
D、were unable to provide medical care against epidemic disease.
E、enslaved the native populations in America.
答案
C
解析
英殖民地和西班牙殖民地比起来有什么不同?A.收集贡品。B.很早就有记录。D.不能医治传染病。E.奴役印第安人。皆和原文所叙不符。∴C正确。把土著人从其土地上赶走。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/K1kO777K
本试题收录于:
GMAT VERBAL题库GMAT分类
0
GMAT VERBAL
GMAT
相关试题推荐
Longbusridesareliketelevisionshows.Theyhaveabeginning,amiddle,andanend--withcommercialsthrownineverythreeor
________theemployees’workingefficiency,thesupervisorwillallowthemtohaveacoffeebreak.
HarrietBeecherStowehadpouredherheartintoheranti-slaverybook,"UncleTom’sCab-in".Butneithershenorherfirstpubl
Weshouldalwaysbearinmindthat______decisionsoftenresultinseriousconsequences.
Toronto’sthirdCityHall,nowknownasOldCityHall,wasdesignedbyEdwardJamesLennoxanddeclaredopenonSept.18,1899.
Extensivenewstudiessuggestthatdieworldhasmadeextraordinaryprogressinreducingpovertyinrecentdecades.Theresearch
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people—especiallyyoungpeople—havebecomeawareoftheneedtochangetheireatinghabit
Thereisnodoubtthatadults,andevenhighlyeducatedadults,varygreatlyinthespeedandefficiencyoftheirreading.Some
"I’mnot100%convincedthatmemorizingthedictionaryisthebestwayofimprovingyourvocabulary."saysthecharacterplayed
Studythefollowingcartooncarefullyandwriteanessayonit.Inyouressay,youshould(1)describethecartoonbriefly:(2)a
随机试题
领导体制改革的基本原则。
甲与乙达成分期付款买卖一只玉壶的合同,约定乙将自己所有之古代玉壶一只出售给甲,价款30万元,分15期支付款项,每期2万元。双方约定,在付清全部款项之前,玉壶之所有权并未转移给甲。标的物交付甲后,乙因向丙借款20万元,将玉壶抵押给丙,并告知玉壶现由甲保管。甲
用未经焙烧的土坯建造的房屋,其最大适宜高度为()。
大体积混凝土在施工中采取正确的防裂措施包含以下的()。
某企业2017年1月1日开始建造一项固定资产,工程预计在2018年3月完工,未取得专门借款而全部占用一般借款。一般借款包括:2017年1月1日从银行借入3年期借款3000万元,年利率6%;2017年1月1日发行5年期债券2000万元,票面年利率5%,到
下列关于混合成本性态分析的说法中,错误的是()。
在适宜的温度下,利用下图装置测定金鱼藻光合作用强度(氧气传感器可检测氧气浓度的变化)。在不同光质条件下光照l小时后,氧气浓度的变化相对量如下表所示,请分析回答:如果由绿光突然转换为红光,则此时刻其叶肉细胞中C5的浓度将_____,原因是______
局域网(LAN)已广泛应用于办公自动化、制造自动化等各个领域。LAN的标准化工作最早是由美国电气电子工程师协会IEEE进行的,发布了著名的 IEEE 802标准。在此基础上,国际标准化组织ISO为LAN制定了相应的ISO 8802国际标准。它涉及(21)、
Whatisthenameofthecompany?______________________________________Company.WhatistheminimumsalarySunlifeoffersto
A、Atwo-bedroomapartment:B、Asofa.C、Achair.D、Aroommate.DMark问:Underwhatclassification?Cecilia回答是the"RoommateWanted"
最新回复
(
0
)