托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Plant and Animal Domestication

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Plant and Animal Domestication

The domestication of plant and animal species in prehistoric times-the so-called Neolithic Revolution- was a vital innovation and has received a great deal of scrutiny. The domestication of a species ensured its reproductive success while providing humans with some type of necessity. Domesticated organisms are usually altered in various ways due to selective breeding, making them better adapted for interactions with humans.

Wild cereals have a very fragile stem, whereas domesticated ones have a tough stem. Under natural conditions, plants with fragile stems scatter their seed for themselves, whereas those with tough stems do not. When the grain stalks were harvested, their soft stems would shatter at the touch of a harvesting tool, and many of their seeds would be lost. Inevitably, though unintentionally, most of the seeds that people harvested would have been taken from the tough plants. Early domesticators probably also tended to select seed from plants having few husks (outer seed coverings) or none at all- eventually breeding them out- because husking prior to pounding the grains into meal or flour required extra labor. Many of the distinguishing characteristics of domesticated plants can be seen in remains from archaeological sites. Paleobotanists can often tell the fossil of a wild plant species from a domesticated one by studying the shape and size of various plant structures.

1.The word “shatter”in the passage is closest in meaning to

O bend

O break into pieces

O fall over

O shrink

2.According to paragraph 2, why would most of the seeds that people harvested have come from plants with tough stems rather than from plants with fragile stems?

O The seeds on tough-stemmed plants do not scatter as easily during harvesting.

O The seeds on tough-stemmed plants are better protected by outer coverings.

O Tough-stemmed plants generally have seeds that are easier to make flour from.

O Tough-stemmed plants seed themselves more effectively, so there tend to be far more of them.

Domestication also produced changes in the skeletal structure of some animals. The horns of wild goats and sheep differ from those of their domesticated counterparts, and some types of domesticated sheep lack horns altogether. Similarly, the size of an animal or it sparts can vary with domestication, as seen in the smaller size of certain teeth of domesticated pigs compared to those of wild ones.

3.Paragraph 2 suggests that which of the following can be concluded about grains found in archaeological remains that do not have husks?

A Early domesticators found them more difficult to pound into meal than grains that have husks.

O It is difficult to distinguish them from grains that have husks.

O They probably came from plants with fragile stems.

O They are more likely to have been domesticated than grains with husks.

4.According to paragraph 3, domestication has caused all of the following in certain domesticated animals EXCEPT

O the absence of horns

O different horns than are found in wild counterparts

O stronger skeletal structures than are found in wild animals

O smaller teeth as compared to wild counterparts

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