In Europe, many large animal species, such as mammoths, became extinct soon after humans first migrated to the animals' areas of habitation. The spread of such extinctions closely followed the pattern of human migration. However, since humans tended to migrate to areas as the climate in those areas began to warm, the extinctions might have been precipitated by the climatic warming rather than by human migration.

Which of the following, if true, provides the best evidence that it was human migration and not climatic change that precipitated the extinctions?


Many animal species, such as deer and bison, continued to thrive in Europe even after humans migrated there.

Several periods of marked climatic warming have occurred in Europe, during which many large animal species that lived there became extinct.

Many animal species that became extinct in Europe survived longer in areas that were isolated from human populations but that experienced intense climatic warming.

In some areas of Europe, only a few archaeological sites have yielded evidence that shows an overlap between the arrival of humans and the extinction of large animals.

Some large animals had become extinct in Europe even before humans migrated there.

考题讲解

情景:在人类到来以后,猛犸象就灭绝了。但是,因为人类是随着气候而迁徙的,所以灭绝可能是由于气候变暖而不是人类。

推理:人类出现的时间和大型动物灭绝的时间应该是巧合的,所以,一般地,我们会得出“人类导致大型动物灭绝”这个结论。从“however”之后,文章其实自己提出了一个“CQ4:独立第三因素问题(气候)”,削弱了“人类导致大型动物灭绝”这个结论。文章的结论是“气候变化导致的动物灭绝”,根据问题,我们知道,其实这个题目是要我们削弱这个结论。由于“人类导致大型动物灭绝”和“气候变化导致的动物灭绝”两者几乎互斥,所以只要削弱原文结论就可以自动加强“人类导致大型动物灭绝”。

选题方式:本题可以看作相关因果推理

选项分析:

A选项:很多物种,比如野牛和鹿,在人类到来之后,依然在欧洲生存。推理文段描述的是猛犸象的情况,而本选项描述的是其它动物,因此可以排除。

B选项:有些气候变暖的情况在欧洲发生了,在这些时间段内恰好是大型动物开始灭绝了。本选项可以加强“气候变化导致的动物灭绝”,属于CQ1:相关性存在问题。但是问题中需要我们加强的是“人类导致大型动物灭绝”,或者说削弱“气候变化导致的动物灭绝”。所以本选项说反了,并不是答案。

C选项:Correct. 许多开始灭绝的物种在气候严重变暖却没人的地方存活的时间要更久。显然,本选项既提到了“因(气候)”又提到了“果(灭绝的物种)”,削弱了气候和灭绝之间的联系,自然也就加强了人类和灭绝之间的联系。属于CQ1:相关性存在问题

D选项:
在欧洲的一些地方,仅仅有很少部分的考古遗址发现证据显示了人类到来和动物灭亡之间的交集。本选项提到了“因(人类)”和“果(灭绝)”,可以削弱人类和动物之间的因果联系,属于CQ1:相关性存在问题。但推理文段要求找到一个加强人类导致动物灭绝的选项,所以本选项不是答案。

E选项:
许多大型动物在人类到来之前就灭亡了。本选项解释同(D),属于削弱选项,不是答案。

展开显示

登录注册 后可以参加讨论

DaQuan-CR

考点