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1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上TPO-45Microscopes The Beringia LandscapeDuring the peak of the last ice age, northeast Asia (Siberia) and Alaska were connected by a broad land mass called the Bering Land Bridge. This land bridge existed because so much of Earths water was frozen in the great ice sheets that sea levels
2、 were over 100 meters lower than they are today. Between 25,000 and 10,000 years ago, Siberia, the Bering Land Bndge, and Alaska shared many environmental characteristics. These included a common mammalian fauna of large mammals, a common flora composed of broad grasslands as well as wind-swept dune
3、s and tundra, and a common climate with cold, dry winters and somewhat warmer summers. The recognition that many aspects of the modem flora and fauna were present on both sides of the Bering Sea as remnants of the ice-age landscape led to this region being named Beringia.It is through Beringia that
4、small groups of large mammal hunters, slowly expanding their hunting territories, eventually colonized North and South America. On this archaeologists generally agree, but that is where the agreement stops. One broad area of disagreement in explaining the peopling of the Americas is the domain of pa
5、leoecologists, but it is critical to understanding human history: what was Beringia like?The Beringian landscape was very different from what it is today. Broad, windswept valleys; glaciated mountains; sparse vegetation; and less moisture created a rather forbidding land mass. This land mass support
6、ed herds of now-extinct species of mammoth, bison, and horse and somewhat modern versions of caribou, musk ox, elk, and saiga antelope. These grazers supported in turn a number of impressive carnivores, including the giant short-faced bear, the saber-tooth cat, and a large species of lion. The prese
7、nce of mammal species that require grassland vegetation has led Arctic biologist Dale Guthrie to argue that while cold and dry, there must have been broad areas of dense vegetation to support herds of mammoth, horse, and bison. Further, nearly all of the ice-age fauna had teeth that indicate an adap
8、tation to grasses and sedges; they could not have been supported by a modern flora of mosses and lichens. Guthrie has also demonstrated that the landscape must have been subject to intense and continuous winds, especially in winter. He makes this argument based on the anatomy of horse and bison, whi
9、ch do not have the ability to search for food through deep snow cover. They need landscapes with strong winds that remove the winter snows, exposing the dry grasses beneath. Guthrie applied the term “ mammoth steppe to characterize this landscape.In contrast, Paul Colinvaux has offered a counterargu
10、ment based on the analysis of pollen in lake sediments dating to the last ice age. He found that the amount of pollen recovered in these sediments is so low that the Beringian landscape during the peak of the last glaciation was more likely to have been what he termed a polar desert, with little or
11、only sparse vegetation, in no way was it possible that this region could have supported large herds of mammals and thus, human hunters. Guthrie has argued against this view by pointing out that radiocarbon analysis of mammoth, horse, and bison bones from Beringian deposits revealed that the bones da
12、te to the period of most intense glaciation.Too many words you dont know? Look them up in新托福TPO阅读词汇速查速记! Wechat: geeqi0805The argument seemed to be at a standstill until a number of recent studies resulted in a spectacular suite of new finds. The first was the discovery of a 1,000-square-kilometer p
13、reserved patch of Beringian vegetation dating to just over 17,000 years agothe peak of the last ice age The plants were preserved under a thick ash fall from a volcanic eruption. Investigations of the plants found grasses, sedges, mosses, and many other varieties in a nearly continuous cover, as was
14、 predicted by Guthrie. But this vegetation had a thin root mat with no soil formation, demonstrating that there was little long-term stability in plant cover, a finding supporting some of the arguments of Colinvaux. A mixture of continuous but thin vegetation supporting herds of large mammals is one
15、 that seems plausible and realistic with the available data.1. The word remnants in the passage is closest in meaning O remains O evidence O resultsO reminders2. The word domain in the passage is closest in meaning to O field of expertise O challenge O interestO responsibility3. According to paragra
16、ph 3, all of the following are true of the Beringian landscape EXCEPT.O There was little vegetation.O The mammal species there all survived into modern versions.O The climate was drier than it is today.O There were mountains with glaciers.4. The purpose of paragraph 3 is toO contrast todays Beringian landscape with other landscapes in the American continent O describe the Beringian landscape during
