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  3. Innovations in Medieval European Agriculture 1. In the year 1,000 CE, Europe’s societies were organized under a system known

Innovations in Medieval European Agriculture 1. In the year 1,000 CE, Europe’s societies were organized under a system known

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问题                Innovations in Medieval European Agriculture
   1. In the year 1,000 CE, Europe’s societies were organized under a system known as Manorialism. The basic unit was the manor, a village or villages including large areas of farmland and ruled over by a lord, who provided military protection for the local peasant population in return for their labor and a share of their harvested crops. Unfortunately, the agricultural techniques in practice at the time were rather undeveloped. Farmers had to work arduously every day to produce just enough food to survive. But then, in the eleventh century, several changes took place that allowed for a significant increase in crop yields.
   2. Several factors may have played a role in this transformation. There is evidence, for example, that the global climate began to warm slightly in the ninth century.A Historians also note that the frequency of violent invasions by neighboring peoples had decreased by the year 1,000.B Yet, even more important were several specific technological innovations, some of which were introduced from other parts of the world,C European farmers had, to some extent, already been influenced by outsiders; the waterwheels and windmills used during Manorialism originated in the Muslim world, for instance. DIt was the tools and techniques that made their way onto the continent after 1,000 CE, however, that drastically changed the course of European agriculture.
   3. Prior to the eleventh century, most farmers practiced the old Roman two-field system of crop rotation. A plot of land would be divided into two halves. The two halves were then rotated every six months, with one being planted and the other going unused. This system worked in the Mediterranean region, where soil quality was generally lower. However, first in Germany, then elsewhere in Europe, farmers finally figured out that the local conditions could support more crops, and they began to implement a three-field system. Each parcel of land was now divided into thirds, with two growing crops and one lying fallow at any given time.This simple modification yielded 33% more food while requiring less labor and also encouraged the planting of a greater variety of crops. As diets improved and peasants acquired more free time, they were able to undertake the clearing of land by cutting trees and draining marshes, thus creating more farmland and further increasing food production.
   4. Another shift toward greater agricultural efficiency came as the result of a new tool. Up until this time, most peasants used a simple wooden plow to cut furrows in the fields. Likely introduced by the Slavs of Eastern Europe, the heavy plow made this job much easier. It featured a large iron blade to slice through the thick soil and other features that reduced the amount of time it took to dig adequate furrows. Due to its weight, a team of eight oxen was needed to pull the heavy plow, and, because most peasants were lucky to own one ox, their new tool led to greater collaboration among farmers. Single-family fields were combined to create large communal plots, and cooperation boosted efficiency. Another change was that, since a team of eight oxen was very difficult to turn, long vertical strips of farmland took the place of the standard square field.
   5. As time went on, the use of oxen in plow teams was abandoned in favor of the horse. This resulted from both the invention of the horseshoe around 900 CE, which enabled horses to work without damaging their hooves, and the introduction of the horse collar, giving the animals the ability to pull the plow with their chests. Replacing the traditional yoke harness, which had required that they pull from the neck, the horse collar expanded a single horse’s pulling power from 1,000 to 5,000 pounds. A team of horses still could not pull more weight than a team of oxen, but the horses were twice as fast and could work longer into the day. Along with the other developments occurring in European agriculture around this time, the substitution of horses for oxen helped increase the average crop yield of most manors. Surplus food stores were accumulated, which served as the foundations of the great civilizations that arose during the next centuries.
According to Paragraph 5, what was the benefit of using horses to plow fields instead of oxen?
选项 A、They required less food during the day.
B、They pulled heavier loads.
C、Their necks were less susceptible to strain.
D、They worked faster and longer.
答案D
解析
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