READING
PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on
Questions 13-25 which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.
Questions 13-15
Reading Passage 2 has six sections A-F.
Choose
the most suitable headings for sections A,
B and D from the
list of headings below.
Write
the appropriate numbers i-vii
in boxes 13-15 on your
answer sheet.
List of
Headings
|
i
|
Amazonia
as unable to sustain complex societies
The
role of recent technology in ecological research in Amazonia
The
hostility of the indigenous population to North American influences
Recent
evidence
Early
research among the Indian Amazons
The
influence of prehistoric inhabitants on Amazonian natural history
The
great difficulty of changing local
attitudes and practices
|
ii
|
iii
|
iv
|
v
|
vi
|
vii
|
Example
Section C
|
Answer
iv
|
13
|
Section
A
|
14
|
Section
B
|
15
|
Section
C
|
SECRETS OF THE FORESTS
|
A
|
In 1942 Allan R Holmberg, a
doctoral student in anthropology from Yale University, USA, ventured deep
into the jungle of Bolivian Amazonia and searched out an isolated band of
Siriono Indians. The Siriono, Holmberg later wrote, led a "strikingly
backward" existence. Their villages were little more than clusters of
thatched huts. Life itself was a perpetual and punishing search for food:
some families grew manioc and other starchy crops in small garden plots
cleared from the forest, while other members of the tribe scoured the
country for small game and promising fish holes. When local resources
became depleted, the tribe moved on. As for technology, Holmberg noted, the
Siriono "may be classified among the most handicapped peoples of the
world". Other than bows, arrows and crude digging sticks, the only
tools the Siriono seemed to possess were "two machetes worn to the
size of pocket-knives".
|
B
|
Although the lives of the
Siriono have changed in the intervening decades, the image of them as Stone
Age relics has endured. Indeed, in many respects, the Siriono epitomize the
popular conception of life in Amazonia. To casual observers, as well as to
influential natural scientists and regional planners, the luxuriant forests
of Amazonia seem ageless, unconquerable, a habitat totally hostile to human
civilization. The apparent simplicity of Indian ways of life has been
judged an evolutionary adaptation to forest ecology, living proof that
Amazonia could not - and cannot - sustain a more complex society.
Archaeological traces of far more elaborate cultures have been dismissed as
the ruins of invaders from outside the region, abandoned to decay in the
uncompromising tropical environment.
|
C
|
The popular conception of
Amazonia and its native residents would be enormously consequential if it
were true. But the human history of Amazonia in the past 11,000 years
betrays that view as myth. Evidence gathered in recent years from
anthropology and archaeology indicates that the region has supported a
series of indigenous cultures for eleven thousand years; an extensive
network of complex societies - some with populations perhaps as large as
100,000 - thrived there for more than 1,000 years before the arrival of
Europeans. (Indeed, some contemporary tribes, including the Siriono, still
live among the earthworks of earlier cultures.) Far from being
evolutionarily retarded, prehistoric Amazonian people developed
technologies and cultures that were advanced for their time. If the lives
of Indians today seem "primitive", the appearance is not the
result of some environmental adaptation or ecological barrier; rather it is
a comparatively recent adaptation to centuries of economic and political
pressure. Investigators who argue otherwise have unwittingly projected the
present onto the past.
|
D
|
The evidence for a revised
view of Amazonia will take many people by surprise. Ecologists have assumed
that tropical ecosystems were shaped entirely by natural forces and they
have focused their research on habitats they believe have escaped human
influence. But as the University of Florida ecologist, Peter Feinsinger,
has noted, an approach that leaves people out of the equation is no longer
tenable. The archaeological evidence shows that the natural history of
Amazonia is to a surprising extent tied to the activities of its
prehistoric inhabitants.
|
E
|
The realization comes none too
soon. In June 1992 political and environmental leaders from across the
world met in Rio de Janeiro to discuss how developing countries can advance
their economies without destroying their natural resources. The challenge is
especially difficult in Amazonia. Because the tropical forest has been
depicted as ecologically unfit for large-scale human occupation, some
environmentalists have opposed development of any kind. Ironically, one
major casualty of that extreme position has been the environment itself.
While policy makers struggle to define and implement appropriate
legislation, development of the most destructive kind has continued apace
over vast areas.
|
F
|
The other major casualty of
the "naturalism" of environmental scientists has been the
indigenous Amazonians, whose habits of hunting, fishing, and slash-and-burn
cultivation often have been represented as harmful to the habitat. In the
clash between environmentalists and developers, the Indians, whose presence
is, in fact, crucial to the survival of the forest, have suffered the most.
The new understanding of the pre-history of Amazonia, however, points
toward a middle ground. Archaeology makes clear that with judicious
management selected parts of the region could support more people than
anyone thought before. The long-buried past, it seems, offers hope for the
future.
|
Questions 16-21
Do
the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading
Passage 2?
In
boxes 16—21 on your answer sheet write :
YES
|
if
the statement agrees with the views of the writer
|
NO
|
if
the statement contradicts the views of the writer
|
NOT
GIVEN
|
if
it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
|
Example
The
prehistoric inhabitants of Amazonia were relatively backward in
technological terms
|
Answer
NO
|
16
|
The reason for the simplicity
of the Indian way of life is that Amazonia has always been unable to support
a more complex society.
|
17
|
There is a crucial popular
misconception about the human history of Amazonia.
|
18
|
There are lessons to be
learned from similar ecosystems in other parts of the world.
|
19
|
Most ecologists were aware
that the areas of Amazonia they were working in had been shaped by human
settlement.
|
20
|
The indigenous Amazonian
Indians are necessary to the well-being of the forest.
|
21
|
It would be possible for
certain parts of Amazonia to support a higher population.
|
Questions 22-25
Choose
the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 22-25 on your answer
sheet.
22
|
In
1942 the US anthropology student concluded that the Siriono
|
A
|
were
unusually aggressive and cruel.
had
had their way of life destroyed by invaders.
were
an extremely primitive society.
had
only recently made permanent settlements.
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
23
|
The
author believes recent discoveries of the remains of complex societies in
Amazonia
|
A
|
are
evidence of early indigenous communities.
are
the remains of settlements by invaders.
are
the ruins of communities established since the European invasions.
show
the region has only relatively recently been covered by forest.
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
24
|
The
assumption that the tropical ecosystem of Amazonia has been created solely
by natural forces
|
A
|
has
often been questioned by ecologists in the past.
has
been shown to be incorrect by recent research.
was
made by Peter Feinsinger and other ecologists.
has
led to some fruitful discoveries.
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
25
|
The
application of our new insights into the Amazonian past would
|
A
|
warn
us against allowing any development at all.
cause
further suffering to the Indian communities.
change
present policies on development in the region.
reduce
the amount of hunting, fishing, and ‘slash-and-burn’
|
B
|
C
|
D
|
|
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