托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Harappan Decline

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Harappan Decline

The Harappan civilization flourished around the Indus River Valley on the western Indian subcontinent from about 2700 to 2000 B.C.E. The Harappans exploited the seasonal overflow from their rivers by capturing the water with dams and distributing it to crop-growing farms. They built cities of brick and traded widely, sending wood, fabrics, and other products to Mesopotamia, where other early civilizations thrived.

1. According to paragraph 1, all of the following statements about the Harappan civilization are true EXCEPT:

A It was highly successful between around 2700 and 2000 B.C.E.

B It built structures that helped direct flood water from rivers to farms.

C It used brick as construction material.

D It obtained wood, fabrics, and other products from trade with Mesopotamia.

By around 1900 B.C E. the Harappan civilization was in decline, a result likely related to environmental degradation. Intensive plant growth, water-saturated land, and hot, dry summer climates cause rapid surface evaporation over time, drawing salts in the earth closer to the surface, where they slowly poison plant life through a process called salinization. Moreover, salt-permeated topsoil is easily blown away by passing winds, causing desertification (fertile land turning into desert). These conditions are further exacerbated where a hard layer of bedrock impervious to water lies not far beneath the surface, as is the case in the valley of the Indus. Such soil formations mean water tends even more to stay close to the surface (a high water table), where the process of evaporation is greatest. Salinization is particularly deadly in regions experiencing a period of decreasing local rainfall, as the drier the air, the faster the evaporation, and hence the quicker the rise in salts to the surface. A shift eastward of seasonal rains may have been responsible for decreasing moisture on the western Indian subcontinent, encouraging a drying trend that became well established there and in Mesopotamia, where civilizations also began to decline around the same period.

2.According to paragraph 2, the Harappan civilization was affected by which of the following climate changes?

A Winds that passed through the Harappan lands greatly increased in strength, leading to new soil formations.

B Increasingly hot summers exposed crop plants to high heat levels, slowing their growth.

C Shifts between dry and rainy periods became sudden and unpredictable, complicating Harappan agricultural practices.

D Seasonal rains began to occur farther east than before, decreasing the amount of rain Harappan lands received.

Ironically , both the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations’ management of their natural resources may have figured in this mutual decline. Much of the Harappan-Mesopotamian bulk trade was in Harappan wood. Harappan woodsmen may have stripped much of the Indus Valley of its local forests for this trade and to provide fuel for the ovens that dried the bricks used widely in Harappan construction. Mesopotamians had already deforested their lands, hence their need for outside suppliers of wood. The removal of forest cover, for any reason, increases flooding, because trees hold water in the soil. The making of burnt bricks and the trade in wood, combined with drought, was a prescription for disaster.

3. Paragraph 3 suggests which of the following about Mesopotamians?

A Mesopotamians kept their forest cover longer than Harappans did.

B Mesopotamians traded their wood to other civilizations before their lands became deforested.

C Mesopotamians contributed to their own decline by destroying their forests.

D Mesopotamians had construction sites that required a greater number of natural resources than did Harappan construction sites.

。。。。余下托福阅读真题省略！

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Harappan Decline，完整版下载10元有偿！