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  3. Some archaeologists speculate that the Americas might have been initially coloni

Some archaeologists speculate that the Americas might have been initially coloni

游客2024-01-10  71
问题 Some archaeologists speculate that the Americas might have been initially colonized between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago. However, to support this theory it is necessary to explain the absence of generally accepted habitation sites for that time interval in what is now the United States. Australia, which has a smaller land area than the United State, has many such sites, supporting the generally accepted claim that the continent was colonized by humans at least 40,000 years ago. Australia is less densely populated (resulting in lower chances of discovering sites) and with its overall greater aridity would have presented conditions less favorable for hunter-gatherer occupation. Proportionally, at least as much land area has been lost from the coastal regions of Australia because of postglacial sea-level rise as in the United States, so any coastal archaeological record in Australia should have been depleted about as much as a coastal record in the United States. Since there are so many resource-rich rivers leading inland from the United States coastlines, it seems implausible that a growing population of humans would have confined itself to coasts for thousands of years. If inhabitants were present 25,000 years ago, the chances of their appearing in the archaeological record would seem to be greater than for Australia. [br] The author of the passage implies that which of the following about 25,000 years ago?
选项 A、The coastline of the region that is now the United States is longer than it was 40,000 years ago.
B、Rivers in what is now the United States were numerous than they are now.
C、Australia was less densely populated at that time than was the region that is now the United States.
D、Australia’s climate was significantly drier than it is now.
E、Global sea level was lower than it is now.
答案 E
解析 C选项容易误选。原文第四句中Australia is less densely populated的时态是现在时，因此关于人口密度，文章只告诉了我们澳大利亚今天的人口密度比美国的低，但由此看不出25，000年前的情况。另外，文中结论也告诉我们，25，000年前美洲没有人居住。正确选项是E，因为第五句告诉我们，海平面上升了，所以海平面在25，000年前比现在更低。
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