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For almost 500 years, people have wondered what deadly disease wiped out most of the Aztecs (阿芝特克人）. The locals called it cocolizthi, and now a team of scientists think they know exactly what that was. The outbreak is considered to be one of the deadliest epidemics (传染病）in human history. For centuries, its cause has been debated by historians. New evidence suggests that the Aztecs died from a type of bacteria called salmonella enterica.
An international team of scientists came to this conclusion after analysing the skeletons (骨骼) of 29 Aztecs buried in a cocoliztli cemetery in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. The scientists obtained samples from the teeth of ten of the skeletons. They compared these with their database of bacteria and found traces of salmonella enterica.
Salmonella enterica can cause enteric fever, of which typhoid (伤寒）is a type. Today, there are around 21 million cases of typhoid worldwide and it is considered a global threat.
The Aztecs were fierce hunter-gatherers who settled in what is now Mexico at the beginning of the 13th century. From their incredible capital city Tenochtitlan(now Mexico City),the Aztecs fought wars with other tribes until they ruled much of the region.
The Aztecs ended up controlling large parts of Mesoamerica--now much of Mexico and Central America--until Spanish explorers arrived in 1519 and brought with them advanced weapons and deadly diseases. The team believe that the domesticated animals, such as goats and horses, which the explorers brought with them carried the deadly bacteria.
By 1545,not even 30 years after the Spanish had arrived, Mexico's Aztec nation started coming down with a terrible illness. Symptoms included high fever, headaches and bleeding from the eyes, nose and mouth. Within five years, up to 15 million people---more than 80%of the population at the time--had died from the mystery illness they called cocoliztli. The Aztec people had no immunity (免疫) to fight the disease.
“We cannot say with certainty that salmonella enterica was the cause of the cocolizti epidemic,” said Kirsten Bos from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.” We do believe that it should be considered a strong candidate."
1.Which helped the scientists come to the conclusion.
A.Certain traces of deadly diseases carried by goats and horses
B.Extensive comparison of Aztecs buried in a cocoliztli cemetery
C.Definite discoveries of infected tooth samples from the database
D.Small amounts of certain bacteria in the teeth of the skeletons
2.Which of the following is TRUE about the Aztecs?
A.They had a population of about 15 million around 1545.
B.Their livelihood depended on raising domesticated animals.
C.Their population dropped sharply in the middle 16th century.
D.They won the wars with the Spanish despite being poorly equipped.
3.The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refers to_
A.cocolizti epidemic B.salmonella enterica C.the typhoid D.the Max Planck Institute
4.The passage is mainly about
A.how the Aztecs got infected with salmonella enterica
B.why the Aztecs had no immunity to fight typhoid
C.which reason caused the Aztecs to abandon their native land
D.what led to the military and economic decline of the Aztecs
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1.By using the app released by SOLEIF, people can
A.watch a video about the statue's history
B.appreciate the exhibits in the museum
C.view the statue from different angles
D.see a life-size model of the statue
2.Where can we find both apps and popular videos?
A.tinyurl.com
B.uefa.com
C.Apple's iPad
D.SOLELF
3.The following words can be used to describe the Xploro app EXCEPT
A.entertaining
B.interactive
C.informative
D.sensitive
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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American writer A.N.DEVERS was at a rare-book fair in New York City in 2015 when she noticed a Joan Didion title selling for just $25. Then she saw the price tag of a novel by the equally famous Cormac McCarthy: about $600. “I realized we don’t value women’s work the same way we do men’s,” Devers says. “It’s depressing. But it’s also exciting, because I can do something about it.”
Three years later, after moving to London and joining the U.K.’s booming rare-book trade, Devers opened the red doors of her new bookstore, the Second Shelf. Located in a quiet courtyard off the busy streets of London’s Soho, the store almost exclusively stocks rare books by women (alongside a handful of male-authored books about women). The focus is modern fiction: Elizabeth Bowen novels, romances by Rosamunde Pilcher, poetry by Ntozake Shange.
Devers’ skill for finding overlooked jewels was polished during a childhood of Visits to yard sales in towns across the U.S., a result of her family’s following her father’s Air Force job. Some of her most sought-after recent finds were works by Miriam Tlali, the first black woman to publish a novel in South Africa. Devers hit on her 1975 debut in a charity store and quickly sourced and sold 15 more Tlali books.
In collecting these works, the Second Shelf is correcting a historical imbalance that has allowed women’s literary achievements to be eclipsed. Bookdealers have tended to be men; much of the trade’s early material was collected by “country gentlemen who ran estates and amassed libraries of books to show their wealth and intelligence,” Devers says. She argues that they’ve been like their peers in other male-led creative industries — including television, film and the news media — in that “they focus on themselves.”
That past contributes to a plain absence of women’s work among the books considered to be valuable cultural objects. In January, the Second Shelf went viral (走红) on Twitter after Devers pointed out that only nine books by women appeared in a list, produced by a trade website, of the 500 biggest sales at auction in the books-and-paper field last year. Even among more recently published works, a 2018 study found, titles by women are on average priced 45% lower than books by men.
In recent years, calls have gone out to read only books by women for a year and for universities to expand their curriculums. The observance of Women’s History Month in the U.S. has also made March a time for publishers to suggest fitting reading lists. Devers’ shop is the physical site of that movement challenging the current situation. “We’ve been taught to find value in something really narrow,” she says. “It’s time to explore something different.”
1.The first paragraph tells the readers _________.
A.why Devers named her shop the Second Shelf
B.how Devers was exposed to rare book trade
C.what motivated Devers to open the Second Shelf
D.where Devers first came across women’s literary works
2.The underlined word “eclipse” in the fourth paragraph means_________.
A.fully exposed
B.partially concealed
C.seriously treated
D.roughly explained
3.Which may explain the absence of the great literary works by women?
A.The trade used to be dominated by men.
B.Women writers’ ideas conflict with the bookdealers’.
C.Males tend to be productive in the creative industry.
D.The majority of male readers don’t read modern fiction.
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.In recent years, university curriculums have emphasized books by women.
B.Women’s History Month has pushed women writers to be more productive.
C.More physical bookstores like Devers’ are needed to change the situation.
D.The Second Shelf is helping turn a page for women in literature.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析