Both in what is now the eastern and the southwestern United States, the peoples of the Archaic era (8,000-1,000 B.C) were, in a way, already adapted to beginnings of cultivation through their intensive gathering and processing of wild plant foods. In both areas, there was a well-established ground stone tool technology, a method of pounding and grinding nuts and other plant foods that could be adapted to newly cultivated foods.
　　By the end of the Archaic era, people in eastern North America had domesticated certain native plants, including sunflowers; weeds called goosefoot, sump weed, or marsh elder; and squash or gourds of some kind. These provided seeds that were important sources of carbohydrates and fat in the diet.
　　The earliest cultivation seems to have taken place along the river valleys of the Midwest and the Southeast, with experimentation beginning as early as 7,000 years ago and domestication beginning 4,000 to 2,000 years ago. Although the term “Neolithic” is not used in North American prehistory, these were the first steps toward the same major subsistence changes that took place during the Neolithic (8,000-2,000 B.C.) period elsewhere in the world.
　　Archaeologists debate the reasons for beginning cultivation in the eastern part of the continent. Although population and sedentary living were increasing at the time, there is little evidence that people lacked adequate wild food resources; the newly domesticated foods supplemented a continuing mixed subsistence of hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. Increasing predictability of food supplies may have been a motive. It has been suggested that some early cultivation was for medicinal and ceremonial plants rather than for food. One archaeologist has pointed out that the early domesticated plants were all weedy species that do well in open, disturbed habitats, the kind that would form around human settlements where people cut down trees, trample the ground, deposit trash, and dig holes. It has been suggested that sunflower, sump weed, and other plants almost domesticated themselves, that is, they thrived in human—disturbed habitats, so humans intensively collected them and began to control their distribution. Women in the Archaic communities were probably the main experimenters with cultivation, because ethno archaeological evidence tells us that women were the main collectors of plant food and had detailed knowledge of plants.
　　1. The passage mainly discusses which of the following aspects of the life of Archaic peoples?
　　A. The principal sources of food that made up their diet.
　　B. Their development of ground stone tool technology.
　　C. Their development of agriculture.
　　D. Their distribution of work between men and women.
　　2. The italic word “these” in (Para. 3) refers to ______
　　A. seeds 
　　B. river valleys
　　C. the Midwest and the Southeast 
　　D. experimentation and domestication
　　3. According to the passage, which of the following was a possible motive for the cultivation of ______ plants in eastern North America?
　　A. Lack of enough wild food sources.
　　B. The need to keep trees from growing close to settlements.
　　C. Provision of work for an increasing population.
　　D. Desire for the consistent availability of food.
　　4. The plant “sump weed” is mentioned in Para. 4 in order to ______.
　　A. contrast a plant with high nutritional value with one with little nutritional value
　　B. explain the medicinal use of a plant
　　C. clarify which plants grew better in places where trees were not cut down
　　D. provide an example of a plant that was easy to domesticate
　　5. According to the passage, which of the following is true about all early domesticated plants?
　　A. They were varieties of weeds.
　　B. They were moved from disturbed areas.
　　C. They succeeded in areas with many trees.
　　D. They failed to grow in trampled or damaged areas.
　　6. According to the passage, it is thought that most of the people who began cultivating plants were ______.
　　A. medical workers                                             
　　B. leaders of ceremonies
　　C. women                                                           
　　D. hunters
　　答案：
　　1.    C。縱觀全文，可以看出本文主要論述了古代人民的農業活動，文章中多次提到cultivation、weeds、agriculture等單詞，從不同方面講述了古代人民農業的發展。故答案為C。
　　2.    D。根據文章第三段中“…with experimentation beginning as early as 7,000 years ago and domestication beginning 4,000 to 2,000 years ago.”可知，此處的these代指前句話中and前后兩項：experimentation和domestication。故答案為D。
　　3.    D。根據文章第四段中“Increasing predictability of food supplies may have been a motive.”可以推測出北美人民開始耕種植物的動機是為了增加食物供給。故答案為D。
　　4.    D。根據文章最后一段中“It has been suggested that sunflower, sump weed, and other plants almost domesticated themselves, …”可以看出，列舉sump weed是為了舉例證明有些植物很容易被馴化。故答案為D。
　　5.    A。根據文章第二段的論述可以看出，早期馴化的植物有向日葵、藜等各種各樣的種子。故答案為A。
　　6.    C。根據文章第四段中“Women in the Archaic communities were probably the main experimenters with cultivation,”可知，在古代，女人是進行耕種的主要勞動力。故答案為C。

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