TPO 74
约 1955 个字 预计阅读时间 7 分钟
Reading 1
Reading
Early Horses
The earliest-known horse fossils come from the Eocene epoch (from 57 to 34 million years ago),and they are so different from the modern version that it was not initially realized that there was any relation.Dawn horse,or Eohippus,as this animal has been called,has been found in both Europe and North America. Eohippus was tiny,about the size of a small dog,and apparently lived in wooded areas.These animals had hooves but,in contrast to modern horses,they had four hoofed toes on the front feet,three on the rear,and the hooves were padded. Eohippus was also pug-nosed by comparison to modern horses,and its teeth reveal that it was a browser that fed on a variety of plants.In fact,although it was completely herbivorous (plant eating),this little horse had canine teeth-a reminder that many of its predecessors were carnivores (meat eaters).
Throughout the Eocene and Oligocene epochs (from 57 to 23 million years ago),the descendants of Eohippus evolved in a fairly straightforward way that is well documented by their fossils.They became gradually larger;the middle toe, eventually to become the single hoof of the modern horses,became stronger and more prominent,and the grinding surfaces of the teeth became larger,with complex,resistant ridges.But the resemblance to Eohippus remained clear.It was only in the Miocene (from 23 to 5 million years ago),coincident with the spread of grassy prairies,that abrupt changes took place,resulting in several different lineages of horse evolution,only one of which is still extant:the modern horse.
Several of the physical characteristics of today's animals are ultimately linked to their diet of grasses. Foremost among the Miocene modifications that led toward present-day horses were changes in the teeth and the shape of the head.Compared to the succulent leaves of tropical trees that were the fodder for some of the horse's ancestors, grasses are abrasive and much more difficult to chew and grind.The response of the Miocene horses was to develop teeth with much more elaborate and resistant grinding surfaces and with much larger crowns,at least part of which could grow out of the gums as they were worn down.These changes meant that the head had to be much deeper,and the muzzle longer, to make room for the long rows of grinding teeth along the horse's cheeks.At about the same time,the legs and feet of the ancestors of today's horses became better adapted to rapid running across the spreading grasslands.This occurred through fusion of several of the independent bones in the lower parts of the legs,making them stiffer,and through further emphasis of the central hoofed toe,which by now bore the entire weight of the animal.In place of a foot,the horse has a single toe at the end of its leg.
By the middle or late Miocene,many of the extant horses were at least superficially similar to modern horses.Based on the fossil record,much of their development seems to have occurred in North America,but by the Pleistocene epoch (from 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago),the modern horse genus,Equus,had spread over much of the world.Then,inexplicably,only 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, horses disappeared from North America.The reason for this extinction is unknown. Whatever the cause,it is a fact that the plains of North America were without these animals for thousands of years,until horses brought from Europe by the early Spanish explorers escaped and began to repopulate the vast grasslands.
It is clear that many of the familiar features of the modern horse are directly or indirectly related to its diet and its preferred environment,grasslands.But how and why did the grasslands develop when they did?There are competing theories on this question,but only a few are consistent with the evidence.Most of these invoke a change in global climate as an important factor,perhaps the overriding factor.In particular,grasslands expanded rapidly as the climate in continental interiors became cooler and drier.
六选三
A. Eohippus began to be called dawn horse, after its relationship to the modern horse was established through fossil evidence.
B. During the Eocene and Oligocene epochs, the descendants of the Eohippus began to develop some of the characteristics associated with the modern horse.
C. By the end of the Pleistocene, the modern horse, Equus, had spread over much of the world but for reasons that are unclear, it disappeared from the plains of North America for thousands of years.
D. By the end of the Eocene epoch, Eohippus' nose had slowly developed into a long muzzle, and the four toes on its front feet had disappeared.
E. As grasslands expanded in the Miocene, horses changed abruptly in ways that made their relationship to modern horses more apparent and developed several lineages.
F. Several theories about the development of grasslands have answered most questions about the evolution of Eohippus and its descendants.
Answer
A. 明显无关
B. √ straightforward 应该是相对于现代马来讲的；
C. √
D. By the end of the Eocene epoch 没有提到
E. √ 原文
F. 没有answer most questions
∴ BEC
Reading 2
Reading
The Commercialization of Pearl River Agriculture
The Pearl River Delta of southern China was an agriculturally rich region. Formed of alluvial soils that had been captured from the silt flowing down from the major rivers,these sand flats,as the Chinese called them,were worked and reworked until they became very productive rice paddies that by the sixteenth century annually produced two crops of rice and one of vegetables and wheat.Peasant farmers produced on their own plots much of the food the family consumed.However,agriculture in the region could not be called subsistence agriculture,for many nonfood commercial crops were grown and exchanged in markets that dotted the countryside.Besides rice,peasant farmers in the Pearl River Delta grew sugarcane,hemp,cotton,and mulberries to feed silkworms, among other crops.
But while commerce and market exchanges were an important part of the rural economy until about 1550,the rural economy was not commercialized.As the population grew from 1400 to 1550,the gross volume of crops marketed and the number of rural markets both increased,but they did so at the rate of population growth.The proportion of agricultural land devoted to commercial crops in 1550 was about what it had been in 1400.But after 1550 the agricultural economy of the region became highly commercialized.Markets and marketing activity expanded at a rate faster than that of the population.
The most immediate stimulus for the commercialization of the economy was the new demand for Chinese goods-in particular silk and porcelains-from European traders who arrived in the South China Sea in the sixteenth century. For the Pearl River region,the critical trade flow was triangular,linked by the Portuguese.Either with their own funds or with silver that Japanese merchants supplied,Portuguese traders headed up the Pearl River to biannual fairs in the city of Guangzhou where they exchanged silver for export goods.These goods were loaded onto ships bound for the Japanese city of Nagasaki.Japanese merchants in Nagasaki paid in silver for the Chinese goods,launching another round of trade.Trade through Manila,in the Philippines,also brought silver into the South China economy. Chinese merchants from Guangdong and Fujian provinces sailed to Manila with their goods,which the Spanish bought with silver.From there the silver flowed back to China as the Chinese commodities found their way to Europe.By 1600 this trade resulted in an annual inflow of perhaps 200,000 kilograms of silver into the coastal economies of south and southeast China.
In the Pearl River Delta,the silk industry developed on a base that was first created by the sand-flat fields and then a particular combination of fish ponds with fruit trees. In the fifteenth century peasant farmers in the Pearl River Delta began replacing some of their sand-flat rice fields with fishponds,probably in response to increased demand from Guangzhou.On the embankments,peasant farmers in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)mostly planted fruit trees,giving rise to the fruit tree and fishpond combination.The carp fed on organic matter that either dropped or was thrown into the pond,while the mud scooped up from the pond fertilized the fruit trees and the rice fields and added height to the embankments and more protection for the fishponds.
The fruit tree and fishpond culture provided a ready-made base for expansion of the silk industry.As the demand for silk increased,peasant farmers replaced the fruit trees with mulberry trees (silkworms feed on mulberry leaves)and then began digging up even more rice paddies to expand this system.By 1581 in the Longshan area of Shunde county,for example,eighteen percent of the productive land was fishponds and,combined with the mulberry trees on the embankments, accounted for about thirty percent of the cultivated land area.
六选三
A. After 1550, commercialized agriculture took hold, driven by growing markets in Japan and Europe for Chinese goods such as silk and porcelains.
B. By 1600, trade in the Philippines through Spanish merchants increased but annual inflows of silver generated as a result of this trade were no greater than those from other markets.
C. In the Pearl River region, the soil was piled up in embankments between the fishponds in order to meet the demand for fruit.
D. The traders who transported exports from the Pearl River region to Japan were Portuguese, whereas the merchants taking exports to Manila were Chinese.
E. Starting in the fifteenth century, the fruit tree and fishpond system of agriculture steadily gained ground, most likely to meet an increased demand for fish.
F. The fruit tree and fishpond system provided the base for the expansion of the silk industry.
Answer
A√
B. ×
原文 By 1600 this trade resulted in an annual inflow of perhaps 200,000 kilograms of silver into the coastal economies of south and southeast China. 实在是没有和other markets 的比较
C. to meet the demand for fruits 没有体现是为了fruits，只是正好实现了 fertilize ×
原文 The carp fed on organic matter that either dropped or was thrown into the pond,while the mud scooped up from the pond fertilized the fruit trees and the rice fields and added height to the embankments and more protection for the fishponds.
D. √
The traders who transported exports from the Pearl River region to Japan were Portuguese：√
原文 .Either with their own funds or with silver that Japanese merchants supplied,Portuguese traders headed up the Pearl River（沿着珠江） to biannual fairs in the city of Guangzhou where they exchanged silver for export goods.These goods were loaded onto ships bound for the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
whereas the merchants taking exports to Manila were Chinese：√
Chinese merchants from Guangdong and Fujian provinces sailed to Manila with their goods,which the Spanish bought with silver.
E. × 和C一样，没有fish
原文 In the fifteenth century peasant farmers in the Pearl River Delta began replacing some of their sand-flat rice fields with fishponds,probably in response to increased demand from Guangzhou.On the embankments,peasant farmers in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)mostly planted fruit trees,giving rise to the fruit tree and fishpond combination.
- The fruit tree and fishpond culture provided a ready-made base for expansion of the silk industry.
F. 完全对，原话。
原文 The fruit tree and fishpond culture provided a ready-made base for expansion of the silk industry.
∴ ADF