托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Domestication

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Domestication

About 10,000 years ago, after nearly 4 million years of human evolution and over 100,000 years of successful foraging for food, human beings, although isolated, nearly simultaneously developed a subsistence strategy that involved domesticated plants and animals. Why? Some scholars seek a single, universal explanation that would be valid for all cases of domestication. Thus, it has been argued that domestication is the outcome of population pressure, as the increasing hunting-and-gathering human population overwhelmed the existing food resources. Others point to climate change or famine, as the post-glacial climate got drier. Increasing archaeological research has made it clear, however, that the evidence in favor of any single-cause, universally applicable explanation is not strong.

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

A. highly productive

B. separated from one another

C. cooperative with each other

D. self-sufficient

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

A. was too large for

B. consumed

C. added to

D. Replaced

3. According to paragraph 1, all of the following have been proposed as the primary cause of the development of subsistence strategies that involved domestication EXCEPT:

A. growing population pressure on existing food sources

B. the drying of the climate

C. the movement of human populations to new parts of the world

D. Famine

Some scholars have proposed universally applicable explanations that take several different phenomena into account. One such explanation, called the broad-spectrum foraging argument (the argument that humans employed a subsistence strategy based on obtaining a wide range of plants and animals), is based on a reconstruction of the environmental situation that followed the retreat of the most recent glaciers. The very large animals of the Ice Age began to die out and were replaced by increased numbers of smaller animals. As sea levels rose to cover the continental shelves, fish and shellfish became more plentiful in the warmer, shallower waters. The effects on plants were equally dramatic, as forests and woodlands expanded into new areas. Consequently, scholars argue, people had to change their diets from big-game hunting to broad-spectrum foraging for plants and animals by hunting, fishing, and gathering. This broadening of the economy is said to have led to a more secure subsistence base, the emergence of sedentary communities, and a growth in population. In turn, population growth pressured the resource base of the area, and people were forced to eat so-called third-choice, foods, particularly wild grain, which was difficult to harvest and process but which responded to human efforts to increase yields.

4. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A. Human efforts to increase yields of wild grains relieved the pressure population growth put on the resource base of the area.

B. The resource base of the area was pressured by population growth because third-choice foods were difficult to harvest and process.

C. Although wild grains responded to human efforts to increase yields, they were third-choice foods because they were difficult to harvest and process.

D. Population growth put pressure on available food resources, forcing people to eat foods that were less preferred but that responded to human efforts to increase yields.

5. According to paragraph 2, the broad-spectrum foraging argument holds that humans shifted from big-game hunting to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle primarily because

A. they had begun developing more sedentary communities

B. populations required a broader range of food sources

C. it was easier and more effective to hunt smaller animals

D. the very large Ice Age animals had begun to die out

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