2. 外语
  3. Archaeologists have long thought that an artifact called the pemchint was used by Dodecan people solely as a musical instrument.

Archaeologists have long thought that an artifact called the pemchint was used by Dodecan people solely as a musical instrument.

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问题 Archaeologists have long thought that an artifact called the pemchint was used by Dodecan people solely as a musical instrument. Pemchints consist of hollowed pieces of bone, shell, or wood that are tied together with long straps. When whirled in the air, the pemchints create pleasant tones. Until recently, pemchints were found only at locations known to be used for Dodecan rituals and celebrations. Additionally, they were always excavated in proximity to other musical artifacts. Recently, however, a pemchint was found along with Dodecan hunters’ tools located miles from the nearest known Dodecan settlement, while no other music-related objects were found in the area. Clearly, then, the pemchint was used by Dodecan hunters, who most probably used the sounds to repel dangerous wildlife.
Write a response in which you discuss one or more alternative explanations that could rival the proposed explanation and explain how your explanation(s) can plausibly account for the facts presented in the argument.
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答案 In this article, the author challenges a long-held notion that an artifact called the pemchint is a musical instrument used by the ancient Dodecan people. The author’s argument is based on a recent discovery in which a pemchint was found along with Dodecan hunters’ tools outside Dodecan settlement with no other musical instruments spotted. By contrast, earlier occurrences of pemchints were found at sites associated with Dodecan rituals and celebrations. Consequently, the author interprets pemchints to be a tool used by Dodecan hunters probably to repel dangerous wildlife. While the defensive use of pemchints proposed by the author is certainly a possibility, there may be other scenarios in which pemchints are indeed a musical instrument but somehow ended up being co-located with other hunting tools. First, the presence of pemchints in the archeological site does not necessarily mean it was being used. Instead, one possibility is that this group of hunters were a team of explorers trying to find new locations of settlements. Once a new suitable location was located, they would hold rituals and celebrations and only by then would the pemchints be used. The author mentions in his or her text that pemchints consist of hollowed pieces of bone, shell, or wood that are tied together with long straps. This description appears to suggest its portability. In other words, it is easy for hunters and explorers to carry them, perhaps by wearing them around the neck. Then those explorers might encounter some calamity in nature and failed their expedition, leaving the pemchints behind along with other hunting tools. In this case, pemchints were still carried as a musical instrument waiting to be used in a celebratory ritual that sadly didn’t happen. An alternative possibility is that the pemchints and the hunting tools were not deposited at the same time. In other words, it was not those hunters who carried the pemchints in the first place. Rather, pemchints were brought to the spot by later Dodecan people for another reason. Maybe the hunters succeeded in hunting a game that was large enough for the tribe to survive a harsh winter, and therefore Dodecan people went to the hunting site and celebrated their kill. Or it could be the case that those hunters suffered a great loss in the process of killing a wild game, and the tribe came to hold rituals to let them rest in peace. Either way, a pemchint could well likely be used in those rituals, and later could be left in the spot by accident or deliberately to honor the event. In either case, the main point is that hunters were not those who carried or used pemchints. Finally, even if we assume hunters were carrying them at that time, there is another possible use of pemchints as a musical instrument: to lure preys that the hunters aimed to kill. We do not know about what sound a pemchint would make (other than the fact is pleasant to human ear according to the author), but it is plausible that such a sound could spark the curiosity in the wildlife. In this case, as a piece of musical instruments, pemchints were capable of producing musical tones, but they were just used to attract wild animals, not to repel them. To summarize, while the presence of a pemchint along with hunting tools may suggest its use as a defensive weapon to repel potentially dangerous animals, there are many plausible alternative explanations. To find out exactly how they were used, especially in the hunting relics site, more information is needed. (590 words)
解析     和以往一些看起来很虚无缥缈的架空题目相比，这道题读起来还真的有一点正儿八经考古学的感觉，写起来更有挑战性，也更有趣味性。首先我们不妨来看看题目文章的逻辑框架：
    pemchint通常在仪式场所被发现，并且旁边有乐器+但最近在一个狩猎遗址发现了pemchint，周边也没有乐器→解释：pemchint是猎人用来驱赶猛兽的器物
    本题有点像“篮子是不是Palea独有”的题目，都是新的发现挑战了传统的认知。不过，鉴于本题的写作指令是考虑Alternative Explanation，我们倒不必去强调传统的结论不一定被推翻。相反，我们的重点应该是作者给出的解释：pemchint是猎人用来驱赶猛兽的器物，而非一种祭祀仪式上使用的乐器。
    为此，我们可以从两个方面来分析，第一是pemchint仍然为仪式上使用的乐器，但是出于种种原因被埋藏在狩猎遗址处，这既包括可能是猎人带在身上而掉落于此的(第一论证段)，也可能是后来的人在此处举行祭祀活动遗留于此的(第二论证段)。第二种可能是pemchint的确不仅仅用于祭祀，但是在猎人手中不一定是像作者所言的用来驱赶大型的肉食动物。相反，猎人可能拿它用来吸引猎物(第三论证段)。
    这里有必要再强调一遍，我们写文章不需要讨论“pemchint是一种祭祀用的物件”这一个结论是不是被新证据推翻了，因为题目要考查的不是这一点。相反，对于Alternative Explanation类的题目而言，我们只需要去考虑有哪些其他的可能性能解释题目当中描述的客观现象(pemchint在狩猎遗址被找到了)，至于新的解释对于原有的认知会带来什么样的冲击，这不是本题需要考虑的点。
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