In the Mesa Verde area of the ancient North American Southwest, living patterns changed in the thirteenth century, with large numbers of people moving into large communal dwellings called pueblos, often constructed at the edges of canyons, especially on the sides of cliffs. Abandoning small extended-family households to move into these large pueblos with dozens if not hundreds of other people was probably traumatic. Few of the cultural traditions and rules that today allow us to deal with dense populations existed for these people accustomed to household autonomy and the ability to move around the landscape almost at will. And besides the awkwardness of having to share walls with neighbors, living in aggregated pueblos introduced other problems. For people in cliff dwellings, hauling water, wood, and food to their homes was a major chore. The stress on local resources, especially in the firewood needed for daily cooking and warmth, was particularly intense, and conditions in aggregated pueblos were not very hygienic.
Given all the disadvantages of living in aggregated towns, why did people in the thirteenth century move into these closely packed quarters? For transitions of such suddenness, archaeologists consider either pull factors (benefits that drew families together) or push factors (some external threat or crisis that forced people to aggregate). In this case, push explanations dominate.
Population growth is considered a particularly influential push. After several generations of population growth, people packed the landscape in densities so high that communal pueblos may have been a necessary outcome. Around Sand Canyon, for example, populations grew from 5 -12 people per square kilometer in the tenth century to as many as 30 - 50 by the 1200s. As densities increased, domestic architecture became larger, culminating in crowded pueblos. Some scholars expand on this idea by emphasizing a corresponding need for arable land to feed growing numbers of people: construction of small dams, reservoirs, terraces, and field houses indicates that farmers were intensifying their efforts during the 1200s. Competition for good farmland may also have prompted people to bond together to assert rights over the best fields.
Another important push was the onset of the Little Ice Age, a climatic phenomenon that led to cooler temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Although the height of the Little Ice Age was still around the corner, some evidence suggests that temperatures were falling during the thirteenth century. The environmental changes associated with this transition are not fully understood, but people living closest to the San Juan Mountains, to the northeast of Mesa Verde, were affected first. Growing food at these elevations is always difficult because of the short growing season. As the Little Ice Age progressed, farmers probably moved their fields to lower elevations, infringing on the lands of other farmers and pushing people together, thus contributing to the aggregations. Archaeologists identify a corresponding shift in populations toward the south and west toward Mesa Verde and away from higher elevations.
In the face of all these pushes, people in the Mesa Verde area had yet another reason to move into communal villages: the need for greater cooperation. Sharing and cooperation were almost certainly part of early Puebloan life, even for people living in largely independent single-household residences scattered across the landscape. Archaeologists find that even the most isolated residences during the eleventh and twelfth centuries obtained some pottery, and probably food, from some distance away, while major ceremonial events were opportunities for sharing food and crafts. Scholars believe that this cooperation allowed people to contend with a patchy environment in which precipitation and other resources varied across the landscape: if you produce a lot of food one year, you might trade it for pottery made by a distant ally who is having difficulty with crops—and the next year, the flow of goods might go in the opposite direction. But all of this appears to have changed thirteenth century. Although the climate remained as unpredictable as ever between one year and the next, it became much less locally diverse. In a bad year for farming, everyone was equally affected. No longer was it helpful to share widely. Instead, the most sensible thing would be for neighbors to combine efforts to produce as much food as possible, and thus aggregated towns were a sensible arrangement.
Paragraph1: In the Mesa Verde area of the ancient North American Southwest, living patterns changed in the thirteenth century, with large numbers of people moving into large communal dwellings called pueblos, often constructed at the edges of canyons, especially on the sides of cliffs. Abandoning small extended-family households to move into these large pueblos with dozens if not hundreds of other people was probably traumatic. Few of the cultural traditions and rules that today allow us to deal with dense populations existed for these people accustomed to household autonomy and the ability to move around the landscape almost at will. And besides the awkwardness of having to share walls with neighbors, living in aggregated pueblos introduced other problems. For people in cliff dwellings, hauling water, wood, and food to their homes was a major chore. The stress on local resources, especially in the firewood needed for daily cooking and warmth, was particularly intense, and conditions in aggregated pueblos were not very hygienic.
1.The word traumatic meaning to
○Essential
○highly stressful
○highly unusual
○unwise
2.The word intense in the passage is closest in meaning to
○strong
○questionable
○obvious
○deliberate
3.According to paragraph 1, before the thirteenth century the people of southwestern North America lived in households that
○shared daily chores with neighboring households
○occupied dwellings that were built into the sides of cliffs
○were largely free to conduct their lives as they pleased
○enforced common standards of behavior and cooperative conduct within their communities
4.Which of the following best indicates the organization of paragraph 1?
○It presents the conditions that caused a change in a population' s living patterns and then explains why those conditions got worse.
○It identifies certain present-day cultural traditions and rules and then traces them to their roots in the thirteenth century.
○It casts doubt on one explanation of the move to pueblos and then introduces an alternative explanation that the passage will defend.
○It describes a major change in a population' s living patterns and then presents a number of problems that resulted from that change.
paragraph3: Population growth is considered a particularly influential push. After several generations of population growth, people packed the landscape in densities so high that communal pueblos may have been a necessary outcome. Around Sand Canyon, for example, populations grew from 5 -12 people per square kilometer in the tenth century to as many as 30 - 50 by the 1200s. As densities increased, domestic architecture became larger, culminating in crowded pueblos. Some scholars expand on this idea by emphasizing a corresponding need for arable land to feed growing numbers of people: construction of small dams, reservoirs, terraces, and field houses indicates that farmers were intensifying their efforts during the 1200s. Competition for good farmland may also have prompted people to bond together to assert rights over the best fields.
5. According to paragraph 3, which of the following was one of the consequences of increasing population densities?
○People were increasingly crowded into collections of large housing units.
○People stopped planting crops that have relatively low yields.
○Domestic buildings were pushed beyond the canyon limits.
○The natural landscape was destroyed.
6. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage?Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
○Some scholars even claim that the intensification of farmers' various efforts during the 1200s led to further population growth and the consequent need for more arable land.
○Evidence of intensifying agriculture in the 1200s indicates a need to feed a larger population and so extends the argument that a growing population was the cause of the move to pueblos.
○During the 1200s, farmers met the demand for more arable land, but they also succeeded in cultivating existing land more intensively with the help of agricultural construction projects.
○Some scholars feel strongly that the construction of small dams, reservoirs, terraces, and field houses in the thirteenth century is independent evidence for growth in the number of people.
paragraph4: Another important push was the onset of the Little Ice Age, a climatic phenomenon that led to cooler temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. Although the height of the Little Ice Age was still around the corner, some evidence suggests that temperatures were falling during the thirteenth century. The environmental changes associated with this transition are not fully understood, but people living closest to the San Juan Mountains, to the northeast of Mesa Verde, were affected first. Growing food at these elevations is always difficult because of the short growing season. As the Little Ice Age progressed, farmers probably moved their fields to lower elevations, infringing on the lands of other farmers and pushing people together, thus contributing to the aggregations. Archaeologists identify a corresponding shift in populations toward the south and west toward Mesa Verde and away from higher elevations.
7. The word transition in the passage is closest in meaning to
○change
○climate
○decline
○problem
8. Why does the author state that "Growing food at these elevations is always difficult because of the short growing season"?
○To explain why the higher elevations were always relatively sparsely populated
○To suggest that any worsening of conditions would have significant consequences
○To emphasize how resourceful the people growing food at these elevations were
○To argue that farming was not the primary source of food at high elevations
9. According to paragraph 4, what did farmers do in response to falling temperatures during the Little Ice Age?
○Moved to areas away from Mesa Verde
○Moved closer to the northeastern part of Mesa Verde
○B(yǎng)egan to cultivate crops adapted to a short growing season
○Gave up the cultivation of the highest-lying lands
paragraph5: In the face of all these pushes, people in the Mesa Verde area had yet another reason to move into communal villages: the need for greater cooperation. Sharing and cooperation were almost certainly part of early Puebloan life, even for people living in largely independent single-household residences scattered across the landscape. Archaeologists find that even the most isolated residences during the eleventh and twelfth centuries obtained some pottery, and probably food, from some distance away, while major ceremonial events were opportunities for sharing food and crafts. Scholars believe that this cooperation allowed people to contend with a patchy environment in which precipitation and other resources varied across the landscape: if you produce a lot of food one year, you might trade it for pottery made by a distant ally who is having difficulty with crops—and the next year, the flow of goods might go in the opposite direction. But all of this appears to have changed thirteenth century. Although the climate remained as unpredictable as ever between one year and the next, it became much less locally diverse. In a bad year for farming, everyone was equally affected. No longer was it helpful to share widely. Instead, the most sensible thing would be for neighbors to combine efforts to produce as much food as possible, and thus aggregated towns were a sensible arrangement.
10. According to paragraph 5, major ceremonial events were occasions for
○leaders to persuade people from the countryside to move into a pueblo
○farmers to collect information about where crops could be reliably grown
○people to develop better techniques for producing pottery and crafts
○people in the early Puebloan era to share farm and craft products
11. According to paragraph 5, which of the following was a reason people in the Mesa Verde area formed communal villages in the thirteenth century?
○The climate in the Mesa Verde area became more locally diverse.
○Individuals were no longer interested in exchanging pottery and food.
○Cooperation between people became more important for survival.
○B(yǎng)ad years of farming began to occur more frequently.
12. Paragraph 5 supports which of the following statements about cooperation among the people in the Mesa Verde area from the eleventh through the thirteenth century?
○ Cooperation allowed many households to give up farming and to specialize in making pottery and crafts.
○People went from exchanging food and crafts they individually produced to sharing in a cooperative effort to produce as much food as possible.
○ Overtime there was less cooperation as farmers competed with each other for trade with distant areas.
○ Individuals stopped cooperating with each other because they did not have enough food for themselves.
paragraph1: In the Mesa Verde area of the ancient North American Southwest, living patterns changed in the thirteenth century, with large numbers of people moving into large communal dwellings called pueblos, often constructed at the edges of canyons, especially on the sides of cliffs. Abandoning small extended-family households to move into these large pueblos with dozens if not hundreds of other people was probably traumatic. Few of the cultural traditions and rules that today allow us to deal with dense populations existed for these people accustomed to household autonomy and the ability to move around the landscape almost at will. [■] And besides the awkwardness of having to share walls with neighbors, living in aggregated pueblos introduced other problems. [■] For people in cliff dwellings, hauling water, wood, and food to their homes was a major chore. [■] The stress on local resources, especially in the firewood needed for daily cooking and warmth, was particularly intense, and conditions in aggregated pueblos were not very hygienic. [■]
13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
Performing everyday household tasks required more effort.
Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square to add the sentence to the passage.
14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage.This question is worth 2 points.
In the thirteenth century, the people in the Mesa Verde area went from living in scattered independent households to living in large pueblos.
●
●
●
Answer Choices
○ Because the thirteenth-century inhabitants of the Mesa Verde area did not have the cultural expectations of today's city dwellers, they easily adapted to communal life.
○ Even though living in pueblos had disadvantages, the population of the area had grown so large that there may have been no other arrangement that would have met its needs.
○ From the eleventh century onward, farmers began to increase food production on existing farmland and started bringing more land under cultivation.
○ A development that contributed to increasing population densities was a cooling climate that led many people to leave the coldest areas and crowd into climatically more favorable areas.
○ The primary reason for moving to pueblos was the social benefits associated with communal life.
○ People were brought together by the need to produce food cooperatively, as the use of food surpluses in one place to relieve shortages in another ended due to a change in climate.
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在古代北美西南部的梅薩維德地區(qū)，生活模式在十三世紀(jì)發(fā)生了變化，大量人群移居大型公社居住地，這種地方被稱為普韋布洛，通常建造在峽谷邊緣，尤其是在懸崖邊。這些住戶放棄小的擴展型家庭，進入到?jīng)]有上百也有幾十人的大的普韋布洛地區(qū)可能會感到不舒服�，F(xiàn)在幫助我們處理密集人口的文化傳統(tǒng)與規(guī)則幾乎不存在于這些習(xí)慣了家庭自治和有能力隨意搬遷的人。除了必須和鄰居共用墻壁的尷尬外，住在人口聚集的普韋布洛地區(qū)產(chǎn)生了其他的問題。對于那些住在懸崖上的人，拉水、木頭和食物到家里是主要的家務(wù)。本地資源的壓力尤其是用于日常做飯和取暖的柴火特別緊張，在人口聚集的普韋布洛的環(huán)境也不是很衛(wèi)生。
考慮到住在人口密集地區(qū)的種種不利條件，為什么人們會在十三世紀(jì)搬進這一如此密集的地區(qū)呢？對于這些突然的轉(zhuǎn)變，考古學(xué)家考慮到了拉力因素（吸引家庭聚在一起的好處）和推力因素（迫使人們聚在一起的外部威脅或危機）。在這種情況下，推力的解釋更加占上風(fēng)。
人口增長被認(rèn)為是一個特別有影響力的推力。在經(jīng)歷幾代的人口增長之后，人們使得這一地區(qū)的人口密度達到了如此高的程度以至于普韋布洛社區(qū)成為一個必需的結(jié)果。比如在砂峽谷，十世紀(jì)時每平方公里5到12人，到十三世紀(jì)時增加到了每平方公里30到50人。隨著人口密度的增加，民房建筑變得更大，在擁擠的普韋布洛地區(qū)達到頂峰。一些學(xué)者通過強調(diào)養(yǎng)活越來越多的人口需要相應(yīng)的耕地擴展了這一看法：小型水壩、水庫、梯田以及房屋的建設(shè)表明十三世紀(jì)的農(nóng)民一直在加緊努力。對于良田的競爭也會促使人們團結(jié)起來爭取最好土地的權(quán)利。
另外一個推動力量是小冰河時代的到來，這種氣候現(xiàn)象導(dǎo)致了北半球氣溫的降低。盡快尚未到達小冰河時代的巔峰時期，一些證據(jù)仍表明十三世紀(jì)當(dāng)時溫度正在降低。與這種轉(zhuǎn)變相關(guān)的環(huán)境變化并未受到充分認(rèn)識，但是住在圣胡安山脈和普韋布洛地區(qū)的人們首先受到了影響。由于生長季節(jié)短，在這些海拔種植食物總是很困難。隨著小冰河時代的到來，農(nóng)民們可能將他們的耕地遷到更低的海拔地區(qū)去，侵入其他農(nóng)民的土地并使人口聚集在一起，因而促進了群居�？脊艑W(xué)家確認(rèn)了向梅薩維德地區(qū)南部和西部并逃離更高海拔造成的人口變化。
在所有這些推動力面前，梅薩維德地區(qū)的人們還有另外一個搬進公共村莊的理由：對更多合作的需求。分享和合作幾乎可以肯定是早期普韋布洛人生活的一部分，即使是那些分散在這一地區(qū)獨立性比較強的單一家庭住宅也是這樣。考古學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)在十一世紀(jì)和十二世紀(jì)期間，即使是最與世隔絕的居民也能從很遠的地方獲得陶器，可能還有食物，而重大的宗教活動為這種分享食物和手工藝品提供了機會。學(xué)者們相信這種合作讓人們在這種拼湊的但不斷變化的環(huán)境中能相互競爭：如果在某一年，你收獲了很多糧食作物，你可能會與遠方一個不太容易獲得農(nóng)作物的盟友交換陶器，下一年貨物可能會流向相反的方向。但是所有這一切似乎已經(jīng)改變了十三世紀(jì)。盡管氣候在一到兩年間仍無法預(yù)測，但是在局部不會有太大變化。在收成差的年份里，每個人都會受影響。廣泛共享已經(jīng)不再有益了。取而代之，最明智的是一個地區(qū)的人們齊心協(xié)力生產(chǎn)盡可能多的食物，這樣人口聚集的城市就是一個合理的安排。
