2014年6月21日托福阅读真题P1+题目+答案：Climate Change and the Natufian People

2014年6月21日托福阅读真题P1+题目+答案：Climate Change and the Natufian People

The so-called Natufian culture inhabited what is now the Middle East between approximately 14,000 and 11,500 years ago. This period is commonly split into two subperiods, Early Natufian (14,000 to 13,000 years ago) and Late Natufian (13,000 to 11,500). The Natufians were hunter-gatherers who relied primarily on gazelle, although they also cultivated some cereal grains. During the early period at least, they lived year-round in villages in built stone houses. Like all human beings, their way of life depended on the climate. Around 13,000 years ago, their climate began to change, becoming colder and drier, a period known as the Younger Dryas.

We know that times were hard in the increasingly arid landscapes of the Younger Dryas, but quite how hard remains unclear. The droughts certainly caused many ponds and rivers to disappear completely and the larger lakes to shrink in size. The people who lived in the south, in today’s deserts of the Negev and the Sinai, were most likely hit the hardest. They returned to a completely transient hunter-gatherer way of life, moving from place to place. Survival required improved hunting weapons: game (animals hunted for food) had become scarce, and consequently, success had become essential when a kill was possible. And so we see the invention of the Harif point, a new kind of arrowhead.

1. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about why game became scarce during the Younger Dryas?

A.The development of new weapons in the south improved the Natufians’ hunting successes.

B.Human settlement in the south destroyed the resources that allowed game animals to survive.

C.Animals died or moved away as their sources of drinking water dried up.

D.Animals were scared away by the Natufians’ rapid movement from place to place.

2. In paragraph 2, why does the author mention the Harif point?

A.To support the idea that the Younger Dryas required Natufians to hunt in new ways

B.To illustrate how humans had begun to protect their settlements during the Younger Dryas

C.To contrast the settled lifestyle of villages with the transient lifestyle of hunter-gathers

D.To explain the process by which ancient people invented arrowheads

Further north, the impact of the Younger Dryas may have been less severe. Yet survival still required more than just a return to the ancient mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle, especially as there were now many more people needing food than had been the case during earlier periods, when the Natufians lived in permanent dwellings. One response was to hunt a much wider range of animals than before, and hence we find in Late Natufian settlements the bones of many small-game species as well as larger, ever-present gazelle.

3. According to paragraph 3, what did the Natufians do to feed their increasing population during the Younger Dryas?

A.They began to trade food products with other people in neighboring areas.

B.They began hunting a wider range of animals.

C.They tried to hunt mostly the larger animals.

D.They moved south where there were more animals.

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