【高级英语】unit4_zoology_student version.docx

Unit Four Zoology What can you do?Background informationTerms Definitions Zoology Ice AgeDomesticationWord ExpansionWord familyn.v.adj. adv.cautious possessacquirepresencepresentdomestic Derivative roots Derivatives port formcessquireLet’s readThe Domestication of AnimalsThe domestication of wild species led directly to denser human populations by yielding more food than the hunter-gatherer lifestyle could provide. In societies that possessed domestic animals, livestock helped to feed more people by providing meat, milk and fertilizer, and by pulling plows. Large domestic animals became the societies’ main source of animal protein, replacing wild game, and they also furnished wool, leather, and land transport. Humans have domesticated only a few species of large animals, with “large” defined as those weighing over 100 pounds (45 kilograms). Fourteen such species were domesticated before the twentieth century, all of them terrestrial mammals and herbivores. The five most import of these are sheep, goats, pigs, horses, and cattle or oxen.Small animals such as ducks, geese, rabbits, dogs, cats, mink, bees, and silkworms have also been domesticated. Many of these small animals provided food, clothing, or warmth. However, none of them pulled plows or wagons, none carried riders, and none except dogs pulled sleds. Furthermore, no small domestic animals have been as important for food as have large domestic animals. Early herding societies quickly domesticated all large mammal species that were suitable for domestication. There is archaeological evidence that these species were domesticated between 10,000 and 4,500 years ago, within the first few thousand years of the origins of farming-herding societies after the last Ice Age. The continent of Eurasia has been the primary site of large mammal domestication. Having the most species of wild mammals to begin with, and losing the fewest to extinction in the last 40,000 years, Eurasia has generated the most candidates for do