首页
登录
职称英语
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World fo
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World fo
游客
2024-01-13
30
管理
问题
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the staggering disparity between the indigenous population of America in 1492—new estimates of which soar as high as 100 million, or approximately one-sixth of the human race at that time—and the few million full-blooded Native Americans alive at the end of the nineteenth century. There is no doubt that chronic disease was an important factor in the precipitous decline, and it is highly probable that the greatest killer was epidemic dis- ease, especially as manifested in virgin-soil epidemics.
Virgin-soil epidemics are those in which the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologically almost defenselass. That virgin-soil epidemics were important in American history is strongly indicated by evidence that a number of dangerous maladies—small pox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and undoubtedly several more—were unknown in the pre-Columbian New World. The effects of their sudden introduction are demonstrated in the early chronicles of America, which contain reports of horrendous epidemics and steep population declines, confirmed in many cases by recent quantitative analyses of Spanish tribute records and other sources. The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and begin to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century, by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place. Furthermore, the British tended to drive the native populations away, rather than enslaving them as the Spaniards did, so that the epidemics of British America occurred beyond the range of colonists’ direct observation.
Even so, the surviving records of North America do contain references to deadly epidemics among the indigenous population. In 1616-1619 an epidemic, possibly of bubonic or pneumonic plague, swept coastal New England, killing as many as nine out of ten. During the 1630’ s smallpox, the disease most fatal to the Native American people, eliminated half the population of the Huron and Iroquois confederations. In the 1820’ s fever devastated the people of the Columbia River area, killing eight out of ten of them.
Unfortunately, the documentation of these and other epidemics is slight and frequently unreliable, and it is necessary to supplement what little we do know with evidence from recent epidemics among Native Americans. For example, in 1952 an outbreak of measles among the Native American inhabitants of Ungava Bay. Quebec, af- fected 99 percent of the population and killed 7 percent, even though some had the benefit of modern medicine. Cases such as this demonstrate that even diseases that are not normally fatal can have devastating consequences when they strike an immunologically defenseless community. [br] Which of the following, if newly discovered, would most seriously weaken the author’s argument concerning the importance of virgin-soil epidemics in the depopulation of Native Americans?
选项
A、Evidence setting the pre-Columbian population of the New World at only 80 million.
B、Spanish tribute records showing periodic population fluctuations.
C、Documents detailing sophisticated Native American medical procedures.
D、Fossils indicating Native American contact with smallpox prior to 1492.
E、Remains of French settlements dating back to the sixteenth century.
答案
D
解析
哪一个证据如果成立,削弱了作者的主张:处女地传染病在削减美洲土著人方面起了很大的作用?作者的正式结论在L21—27:处女地传染病重要性被如下证据说明:一些危险疫病在前哥伦布时代根本不存在。∴D否定此论据,正确。化石显示,天花在1492年以前已经侵犯了美洲土著居民。A、B、C、E全和原文的推理过程毫无关系。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3357447.html
相关试题推荐
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people—especiallyyoungpeople—haveb
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people—especiallyyoungpeople—haveb
Now,commercialfarmershavebecomeincreasingly______sothatalmosteverything
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people—especiallyyoungpeople—haveb
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people—especiallyyoungpeople—haveb
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people—especiallyyoungpeople—haveb
Indianenergyofficialshavebeenseekingwaystouseless-importedoiltoprovi
Shewasafraidofgermsanddiseases.她害怕病菌、害怕疾病。
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people—especiallyyoungpeople—haveb
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people—especiallyyoungpeople—havebe
随机试题
EARTH’SENERGYCYCLE(1)To
减灾救灾disasterreductionandrescue
EndangeredPeoplesA)Today,itisnotdistance,butculturethatseparate
[originaltext]Manyayoungpersontellsmehewantstobeawriter.Ialwaysen
锚杆、锚碇板和加筋土挡土墙墙背填土的实测项目的关键项目是()。A.锚杆间距
患儿,3岁,饮食异常,精神烦躁,睡眠不安,肛门、会阴部瘙痒。诊断为A.钩虫病
柴胡可以A.养益肝阴B.平肝潜阳C.疏肝破气D.疏肝解郁E.柔肝止痛
应由执业药师指导购买、销售和使用的药品是A.甲类非处方药B.乙类非处方药C.口服
当其他影响血压的因素不变时,下列哪些因素可引起脉压增高?( )A.每搏量增加
社会主义市场经济体制的基础是( )。A、以间接手段为主的完善宏观调控体系 B、
最新回复
(
0
)