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托福備考閱讀之農(nóng)業(yè)起源
The Origins of Agriculture
農(nóng)業(yè)起源
P1: How did it come about that farming developed independently in a number of world centers (the Southeast Asian mainland, Southwest Asia, Central America, lowland and highland South America, and equatorial Africa) at more or less the same time? Agriculture developed slowly among populations that had an extensive knowledge of plants and animals. Changing from hunting and gathering to agriculture had no immediate advantages. To start with, it forced the population to abandon the nomad's life and become sedentary, to develop methods of storage and, often, systems of irrigation. While hunter-gatherers always had the option of moving elsewhere when the resources were exhausted, this became more difficult with farming. Furthermore, as the archaeological record shows, the state of health of agriculturalists was worse than that of their contemporary hunter-gatherers.
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force
v. 迫使
abandon
v. 放棄
nomad
adj. 游牧的
sedentary
adj. 定居的，久坐的
storage
n. 存儲
irrigation
n. 灌溉
exhausted
adj. 精疲力盡的
contemporary
adj. 當代的
To start with, it forced the population to abandon the nomad's life and become sedentary, to develop methods of storage and, often, systems of irrigation. While hunter-gatherers always had the option of moving elsewhere when the resources were exhausted, this became more difficult with farming.
首先，它會迫使人們放棄游牧生活并定居下來，發(fā)明貯存方法和通常所需的灌溉系統(tǒng)。采集狩獵者往往可以選擇在資源耗盡的時候遷到他處，對于耕作者來說就沒這么容易。
P2: Traditionally, it was believed that the transition to agriculture was the result of a worldwide population crisis. It was argued that once hunter-gatherers had occupied the whole world, the population started to grow everywhere and food became scarce; agriculture would have been a solution to this problem. We know, however, that contemporary hunter-gatherer societies control their population in a variety of ways. The idea of a world population crisis is therefore unlikely, although population pressure might have arisen in some areas.
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crisis
n. 危機
scarce
adj. 缺乏的
arise
v. 出現(xiàn)
It was argued that once hunter-gatherers had occupied the whole world, the population started to grow everywhere and food became scarce; agriculture would have been a solution to this problem.
有人認為一旦采集狩獵者遍及全世界，人口開始增長，食物變得匱乏，農(nóng)業(yè)便是解決這個問題的一個方法。
P3: Climatic changes at the end of the glacial period 13,000 years ago have been proposed to account for the emergence of farming. The temperature increased dramatically in a short period of time (years rather than centuries), allowing for a growth of the hunting-gathering population due to the abundance of resources. There were, however, fluctuations in the climatic conditions, with the consequences that wet conditions were followed by dry ones, so that the availability of plants and animals oscillated brusquely.
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glacial
adj. 冰的
emergence
n. 出現(xiàn)
dramatically
adv. 戲劇性地
fluctuation
n. 波動
oscillate
v. 擺動
brusquely
adj. 唐突地
The temperature increased dramatically in a short period of time (years rather than centuries), allowing for a growth of the hunting-gathering population due to the abundance of resources.
短時期內(nèi)(以年而不是以世紀為單位)溫度急劇上升使得食物資源豐富，采集狩獵者人口增加。
There were, however, fluctuations in the climatic conditions, with the consequences [that wet conditions were followed by dry ones], [so that the availability of plants and animals oscillated brusquely].
但是，氣候條件存在波動，造成干濕交替，以致可以獲取的動植物數(shù)量忽高忽低。
測試篇
P1 提出問題：農(nóng)業(yè)為什么發(fā)展
從狩獵和采集轉變?yōu)檗r(nóng)耕并沒有顯而易見的好處:
(1) _____________________________________
(2) _____________________________________
(3) _____________________________________
P2 農(nóng)業(yè)發(fā)展的原因1: _____________
P3 農(nóng)業(yè)發(fā)展的原因2: _____________
氣候條件存在波動，造成_____________
Answers：
P1：it forced the population to abandon the nomad's life and become sedentary;when the resources were exhausted, this became more difficult with farming ;the state of health of agriculturalists was worse than that of their contemporary hunter-gatherers
P2：Worldwide population crisis
P3：Climatic changes，availability of plants and animals oscillated brusquely
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