托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Why Did Agriculture Begin?

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Why Did Agriculture Begin?

Transitions from a glacial to interglacial world occurred many times during the last two million years. Through all but the most recent glaciation, people moved in response to environmental changes rather than staying put and adapting to a new ecosystem. Then,after living on the move for more than a million years, they started to settle down and become farmers. What was so different when the glaciers melted this last time that caused people to adopt a new lifestyle?

1.According to paragraph 1 .before the most recent glaciation, people's past response to interglacial transitions had usually been to

O move to cooler climates if their attempts to adapt to warmer conditions failed

O move away from areas where the ecosystems had changed

O begin simple farming activities in areas that had become warmer

O settle down and adapt to current climate conditions

Several explanations have been offered to account for this radical change. Some argue that the shift from a cool, wet glacial climate to less hospitable conditions put an environmental squeeze on early people in the Middle East. In this view, hunters began growing plants in order to survive when the climate warmed and herds of wild game dwindled. Others argue that agriculture evolved in response to an inevitable process of cultural evolution without any specific environmental pressure. Whatever the reasons, agriculture developed independently in Mesopotamia, northern China, and Mesoamerica.

2.The word “radical”in the passage is closest in meaning to

O revolutionary

O eventual

O surprising

O crucial

3.The "environmental squeeze" theory presented in paragraph 2 suggests which of the following about wild hunted animals in the Middle East?

O They were less affected by the end of the glacial climate than were plants.

O They had more difficulty obtaining suitable habitat to live in once the glacial climate ended.

O When the climate warmed,they fed mainly on the plants that hunters began to grow.

O They were less likely to be hunted by humans during the glacial-climate period than during the following warmer period.

For much of the last century, theories for the origin of agriculture emphasized the competing oasis and cultural evolution hypotheses. The oasis hypothesis held that the postglacial drying of the Middle East restricted edible plants, people, and other animals to well- watered flood plains.This forced proximity promoted social bonds, which eventually led to domestication. In contrast, the cultural evolution hypothesis holds that regional environmental change was unimportant in the gradual adoption of agriculture through an inevitable progression of social development. Unfortunately, neither hypothesis provides satisfying answers for why agriculture arose when and where it did.

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