2019-2020学年名校高二上期中汇编——阅读C篇.docxVIP

PAGE 1 PAGE 1 2019-2020学年名校高二上期中汇编——阅读C篇 1、川沙中学 无 2、大同中学 无 3、封浜中学 Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A,B,C, and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read. (C) You are what you eat. This saying has provided scientists with clues about the diet of hominids – our early relatives of 3 million years ago. Studying carbon atoms locked up in tooth enamel（牙釉质）, two researchers argue against the widely held belief that hominids ate little more than fruits and leaves. Sponheimer and Julia Lee-Thorp of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, report their findings in Friday’s Science. There are not many clues for us to know the life of early hominids. The shape of hominids’ teeth offered the first clues. Large and flat-edged with thick enamel, they looked perfect for eating nuts and fruits, different from the sharp teeth one would want to tear into meat with. The first stone tools, which would help in eating meat, did not appear until about half a million years later. Scientists have also found marks on hominids’ teeth with patterns very similar to those on the teeth of modern-day fruit eaters. Sponheimer and Lee-Thorp tried a new method, looking at the chemical composition of the tooth enamel. They studied the enamel for the carbon-13. Animals that eat grasses have higher carbon-13 levels than those eating fruits and other plants. What they found was that the teeth of the hominids had an in-between amount of carbon-13, which meant not only they were eating fruits, they were also eating a lot of grasses, or animals eating grasses. The lower carbon-13 levels could also come from eating certain types of insects. But there are people who understand differently. Professor Ungar of the University of Arkansas agrees the study offers new suggestions of hominid diet, but disagrees about th