this pottery dates to the second century B.C.
(same type of usage as the sentence at hand)
––> this is a statement of the actual age of the pottery, not anyone's estimate of that age.
it's also possible to write "experts have dated this pottery...", if that's the intended meaning.
C中as early as the eighteenth century作为状语,表示(早在18世纪时)leaching是一种很完善的方法,而D中as early as the eighteenth century变成了定语修饰method,表示leaching是一种(18世纪完善建立的)方法。而后半句说,(直到25年前)工人才发现细菌在该过程中起作用。两个半句之间应该有对比转折的逻辑关系(用了but--应该是强烈转折和大对比的关系),因而从()位置可以看出,C选项的对比更对称,即同样时间都作为状语而非定语。E中had been是过去完成时,容易让人以为和现在无关了,另外,同D(,well established)在句子中做定语,且是非限制性定语,使得well established 变成了一个不重要的成分,这样一来和后半句的对比就不再完整对称了。意思是leaching是一种方法,但是25年前工人才发现细菌起作用。---时间的一组对比就消失了。
But these studies have focused on villages with limited land that are tied to a market economy rather than on the relatively isolated, self-sufficient communities with ample land characteristic of rain-forest regions. 答案的one set of conditions , another set of conditions应该就是文中的Limited 和ample吧,说明两者的不同
"date" can have either of those meanings.
this pottery dates to the second century B.C.
(same type of usage as the sentence at hand)
––> this is a statement of the actual age of the pottery, not anyone's estimate of that age.
it's also possible to write "experts have dated this pottery...", if that's the intended meaning.