Question

          C  ★★★★★

    Farmers digging a field near Chelsea,Michigan,were surprised to uncover a nearly complete mammoth skeleton The mammoth once lived there about 12 ,000 years ago. The Ice Age bones raise a question about whether people or a changing climate killed the beasts.

    Researcher Dan Fisher is from the University of Michigan. He believes that prehistoric people killed the newly found mammoth,and put what they didn't immediately eat in a freezing lake. Other scientists say they are not certain what killed the creature until the bones are examined for cut marks and other evidence.

    There is little evidence that humans hunted mammoths,says Donald Grayson of the University of Washington. A paper notes that of 76 Ice Age mammal kill sites,only 12 in the whole of North America suggest human hunting. That suggests that over-hunting was not the primary cause of the extinction of the mammoth.

    Climate might have been key to the disaster. As humans were moving onto the continent,the global climate was rapidly changing,moving from cold and dry to warm and wet.

    This changing climate rapidly swept out the cool,dry grasslands that mammoths preferred. Combined with other (生态的) changes,such as the arrival of bison (野牛) from Europe and Asia and forests springing up here grasslands once spread,mammoths were driven out of their former living places. The very last of the mammoths on Wrangel Island off northern Siberia died out about 4 ,000 years ago.

    Extinction is rarely the result of a single cause. Perhaps,as the Chelsea mammoth slowly tells its secrets,it will add a little more to the continuing discussion over life and death during the Ice Age.

9. What do we know about the newly found mammoth skeleton?

    ?. It was found in a freezing lake.

   B. It was discovered by a scientist,

    C. There were cuts on the skeleton.

   D. Most of the skeleton were discovered.

10. The paper mentioned in Paragraph 3 proves that

   A. mammoths were rare in North America

   B. there were 76 mammal kill sites in North America

    C. mammoths were overhunted by prehistorical humans

   D. overhunting was not the leading cause of mammoths’ extinction 

11. Because of the changing climate during the Ice Age, .

   A. mammoths could get more food

   B. mammoths were suffering from habitat loss 

    C. mammoths had to move to cool and dry places   

    D. forests mammoths liked were replaced by grasslands

12. What would be the best title for the text?

   A. What killed these giants

   B. Mammoths and overhunting

    C. The climate change in the Ice Age   

    D. The reason for extinction uncovered 

Answer 1

9. D 10.D 11.B 12.A

C篇本文主要围绕猛犸象灭绝的原因展开讨论。

9. D.细节理解题。由第一段中的were surprised to uncover a nearly complete mammoth skeleton可知，农民们在田地里得到了一副几乎完整的 猛犸象骨架。

10.D. 细节理解题。由第三段可知，这篇文章指 出，过度猎杀不是导致猛犸象灭绝的主要原 因。

11.B. 细节理解题。由第四、五两段可知，由于生 态系统的急剧变化，猛犸象被迫离开了原来的 栖息地。

12.A. 标题归纳题。文章主要讨论了导致猛犸象 灭绝的原因，故A项作标题最为恰当。