13 The Origins of Plant and Animal Domestication外文学习资料.pdf

The Origins of Plant and Animal Domestication Paragraph 1 The emergence of plant and animal domestication represented a monumental change in the ways that humans interacted with Earth’s resources: the rate at which Earth’s surface was modified and the rates of human population growth. The development of agriculture was accompanied by fundamental changes in the organization on human society: disparities in wealth, hierarchies of power, and urbanization. 1. The word “monumental” in the passage is closet in meaning to A. innovative B. surprising C. complex D. enormous Paragraph 2 Phrases like “plant and animal domestication” and “the invention of agriculture” create the impression that humans made the transition to cultivating plants and tending animals rather abruptly, maybe with a flash of insight. Most scholars don’t think so. It seems more likely that humans used and manipulated wild plants and animals for many hundreds of thousands of years. The transition to gardens, fields, and pastures was probably gradual, the natural outgrowth of a long familiarity with the environmental requirements, growth cycles, and reproductive mechanisms of whatever plants and animals humans liked to eat, ride, or wear. 2. According to paragraph 2, phrases such as “plant and animal domestication” and “the invention of agriculture” encourage which of the following wrong ideas? A. Early farmers were fairly advanced in their knowledge of plants and animals. B. Agriculture and animal domestication arose as a result of systematic study and experimentation. C. The change from hunting and gathering to farming and raising animals occurred quickly. D. Early efforts to raise plants and animals were generally successful.