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第一篇：Mungo Man and Mungo woman 澳洲史前人类研究
The latest research suggests Australia's Adam and Eve are not as old as we thought - and lived much richer lives than we suspected. Deborah Smith reports.
A
Fifty thousand years ago, a lush landscape greeted the first Australians making their way towards the south-east of the continent. Temperatures were cooler than now. Megafauna - giant prehistoric animals such as marsupial lions, goannas and the rhinoceros-sized diprotodon - were abundant. And the freshwater lakes of the Willandra district in western NSW were brimming with fish. But change was coming. By the time the people living at Lake Mungo ceremoniously buried two of their dead, 40,000 years ago, water levels had begun to drop.
A study of the sediments and graves at Lake Mungo, published this week in Nature, uncovers the muddy layers deposited as the lake began to dry up. Twenty thousand years ago Lake Mungo had become the dry dusty hole we know today, but 20,000 years before that it had been a refuge from the encroaching desert, the study shows. Families clustered around the lake left artefacts, 775 of which researchers used to determine that the number of people living there peaked between 43,000 and 44,000 years ago, with the first wanderers arriving between 46,000 and 50,000 years ago.
This treasure-trove of history was found by the University of Melbourne geologist Professor Jim Bowler in 1969. He was searching for ancient lakes and came across the charred remains of Mungo Lady, who had been cremated. In 1974, he found a second complete skeleton, Mungo Man, buried 300 metres away.
The comprehensive study of 25 different sediment layers at Mungo - a collaboration between four universities, the CSIRO, and NSW National Parks and Wildlife and led by Bowler - concludes that both graves are 40,000 years old.
This is much younger than the 62,000 years Mungo Man was attributed with in 1999 by a team led by Professor Alan Thorne, of the Australian National University. Because Thorne is the country's leading opponent of the Out of Africa theory - that modern humans evolved in Africa about 100,000 years ago and then spread around the globe - the revision of Mungo Man's age has refocusedattention on academic disputes about mankind's origins.
Dr Tim Flannery, a proponent of the controversial theory that Australia's megafauna was wiped out 46,000 years ago in a"blitzkrieg" of hunting by the arriving people, also claims the new Mungo dates support this view.
For Bowler, however, these debates are irritating speculative distractions from the study's main findings. At 40,000 years old, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady remain Australia's oldest human burials and the earliest evidence on Earth of cultural sophistication, he says. Modern humans had not even reached North America by this time. In Europe, they were just starting to live alongside the Neanderthals.
"At Lake Mungo we have a cameo of people reacting to environmental change. It is one of the great stories of the peoples of the world."THE modern day story of the science of Mungo also has its fair share of rivalry. In its 1999 study, Thorne's team used three techniques to date Mungo Man at 62,000 years old, and it stands by its figure. It dated bone, teeth enamel and some sand.
Bowler has strongly challenged the results ever since. Dating human bones is "notoriously unreliable", he says. As well, the sand sample Thorne's group dated was taken hundreds of metres from the burial site."You don't have to be a gravedigger ... to realise the age of the sand is not the same as the age of the grave," says Bowler. He says his team's results are based on careful geological field work that was crosschecked between four laboratories, while Thorne's team was "locked in a laboratory in Canberra and virtually misinterpreted the field evidence".
Thorne counters that Bowler's team used one dating technique, while his used three. Best practice is to have at least two methods produce the same result. A Thorne team member, Professor Rainer Grun, says the fact that the latest results were consistent between laboratories doesn't mean they are absolutely correct. "We now have two data sets that are contradictory. I do not have a plausible explanation."
Two years ago Thorne made world headlines with a study of Mungo Man's DNA that he claimed supported his idea that modern humans evolved from archaic humans in several places around the world, rather than striding out of Africa a relatively short time ago.
Other scientists have expressed scepticism. But Thorne's old age for Mungo Man was also regarded as evidence for his theory. Homo sapiens would have had to move pretty fast to get from Africa to NSW by 62,000 years ago.
Now, however, Thorne says the age of Mungo Man is irrelevant to this origins debate. Recent fossils finds show modern humans were in China 110,000 years ago. "So he has got a long time to turn up in Australia. It doesn't matter if he is 40,000 or 60,000 years old."
In 2001 a member of Bowler's team, Dr Richard Roberts of Wollongong University, along with Flannery, director of the South Australian Museum, published research on their blitzkreig theory. They dated 28 sites across the continent, arguing their analysis showed the megafauna died out suddenly 46,600 years ago.
The conclusion has been challenged by other scientists, including Dr Judith Field of the University of Sydney and Dr Richard Fullager of the Australian Museum, who point to the presence of megafauna fossils at the 36,000-year-old Cuddie Springs site in NSW.
Flannery praises the Bowler team's research on Mungo Man as"the most thorough and rigorous dating"of ancient human remains. He says the finding that humans arrived at Lake Mungo between 46,000 and 50,000 years ago supports the idea that 47,000 years ago was a critical time in Australia's history. There is no evidence of a dramatic climatic change then, he says. "It's my view that humans arrived and extinction took place in almost the same geological instant."
Bowler, however, is sceptical of Flannery's theory and says the Mungo study provides no definitive new evidence to support it. He argues that climate change at 40,000 years ago was more intense than had been previously realised and could have played a role in the megafauna's demise. "To blame the earliest Australians for their complete extinction is drawing a long bow."
Question 1-8
Use the information in the passage to match the people(listed A-F)with opinions or deeds below. Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once.
A. Jim Bawler
B. Alan Thorm
C. Pddbo
D. Tim Flannery
E. Chris Stringer
F. Rainer Grun
1 He was searching for ancient lakes and came across the charred remains of Mungo Lady, who had been cremated
2 Professor who hold a skeptical attitude towards reliability for DNA analysis on some fossils.
3 Professor whose determination of the age of Mungo Man to be much younger than the former result which is older than the 62000 years.
4 determining the age of Mungo Man has little to do with controversy for the origins of Australians
5 research group who recovered a biological proof of first Neanderthal found in Europe
6 a supporter of the idea that Australia’s mega fauna was extinct due to the hunting by the ancient human beings.
7 Instead of keep arguing a single source origin, multi-regional explanation has been raised
8 Climate change rather than prehistoric human activities resulted in megafauna’s extinction
Question 9-14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage1
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
9 The Lady Mungo remains offer the archeologists the evidence of graphic illustration of human activities around
10 In Lake Mungo remains, weapons were found used by the Mungo
11 Mungo Man is one of the oldest known archeological evidence in the world of cultural sophistication such as a burying ritual
12 Mungo man and woman’s skeletons were uncovered in the same year
13 There is controversy among Scientists about the origin of the oldest Homo sapiens.
14 Out of Africa supporters have criticized Australian professors for using outmoded research method.
答案解析：
1-8人名理论配对题（有NB）
1. He was searching for ancient lakes and came acrossthe charred remains of Mungo Lady, who had been cremated. 选：A
2. Professor who hold a skeptical attitude towardsreliability for DNA analysis on some fossils. 选：E
3. Professor whose determination of the age of MungoMan to be much younger than the former result which is older than the 62,000years. 选：A
4. Determining the age of Mungo Man has little to dowith controversy for the origins of Australians. 选：B
5.Research group who recovered a biological proof offirst Noanderthal found in Europe. 选：C
6. A supporter of the idea that Australia’s megafauna wasextinct due to the hunting by the ancient human beings. 选：D
7. Instead of keep arguing a single source origin,multi-regional explanation has been raised. 选：B
8. Climate change rather than prehistoric humanactivities resulted in megafauna’s extinction. 选：A
9-14 TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN:
9. The Lake Mungo remains offer the archaeologists theevidence of graphic illustration of human activities around. TRUE
10. In Lake Mungo remains, weapons were found used bythe Mungo. NOT GIVEN
11. Mungo Man is one of the oldest knownarchaeological evidence in the world of cultural sophistication such as aburying ritual. TRUE
12. Mungo Man and woman’s skeletons were uncovered in the same year. FALSE
13. There is controversy among Scientists about theorigin of the oldest Homosapiens. TRUE
14. Out of Africa supporters have critisisedAustralian professors for using outmoded research method. NOT GIVEN
第二篇：游戏
第三篇：历史
