托福阅读真题第227篇Disease and History
Disease and History
What is the relationship between disease and the evolution of human societies?
Paragraph 1: Epidemiology is the study of the causes, distribution, and control of diseases in populations. Throughout history, there have been general trends in the relationship between diseases and the human species. Anthropologist George Armelogos has outlined these trends and refers to them as three “epidemiological transitions.”
Paragraph 2: For most of our species’ history, we lived in small, widely dispersed, nomadic groups. Our ancestors certainly experienced diseases of various sorts and would have come into contact with new diseases as they migrated to new environments. But infectious disease may not have had serious effects on large numbers of people or many different populations, since diseases would have had little chance of being passed on to many other humans.
1. According to paragraph 2, why were infectious diseases not a serious problem for most of human history?
O There were very few infectious diseases early in human history.
O Population groups did not move around enough to be exposed to new diseases.
O Many disease-causing organisms had features that made them difficult to pass on to other humans.
O Population groups did not have enough contact with each other to spread diseases widely.
Paragraph 3: When some people began to settle down and produce their food through farming and animal domestication—starting about 10,000 years ago—the first epidemiological transition occurred. Infectious diseases increased in impact, as larger and denser concentrations of people provided greater opportunity for disease to be passed from host to host. Animal domestication may have brought people into contact with new diseases previously limited to other species. Working the soil would have exposed farmers to insects and other pathogens. Irrigation in some areas provided breeding places for mosquitoes, increasing the incidence of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. Sanitation problems caused by larger, more sedentary populations would have helped transmit diseases in human waste, as would the use of animal dung for fertilizer. In addition, agriculture also led to a narrowing of food sources, as compared to the varied diets of hunters and gatherers. This could have resulted in nutritional deficiencies. Moreover, the storage of food surpluses attracted new disease carriers such as insects and rats. Trade between settled communities helped spread diseases over large geographic areas, as in the crop. Epidemics, in the sense of diseases that affect a large number of populations at the same time, were essentially nonexistent until the development of agricultural economies.
2. According to paragraph 3, which of the following contributed to the use of epidemics?
O The development of more deadly forms of human disease
O The spread of ineffective treatments for infectious disease
O The spread of mosquito-borne diseases to other disease carriers
O The practice of exchanging goods between settled areas
3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 3 as a reason that agriculture led to greater exposure to disease?
O Irrigation created areas where disease-carrying mosquitoes could reproduce.
O People increasingly came into contact with disease-carrying animals attracted to food storage areas.
O Agricultural products spoiled more readily, leading to more frequent episodes of disease.
O Farming exposed humans to disease-carrying insects in the soil.
4. According to paragraph 3, how did sanitation problems in early farming societies lead to the spread of infectious diseases?
O Water used for irrigation crops was not always clean.
O Larger populations were increasingly exposed to human and animal waste.
O Farm products that spoiled in fields attracted insects and animals with diseases.
O Lack of varied food sources occasionally forced communities to eat food that carried diseases.
Paragraph 4: Beginning in the last years of the nineteenth century and continuing into the twentieth, we experienced the second epidemiological transition. With modern medical science providing immunizations and antibiotics and with better public health measures and improved nutrition, many infectious diseases were brought under control, or even eliminated. In terms of what ailed and killed us, there was a shift to chronic diseases such as heart and lung diseases. The increase in many of these came not only from the fact that fewer people were dying from infectious disease and were living longer but also from the results of modern lifestyles in developed countries and among the upper classes of developing countries—a more sedentary life leading to less physical activity, more stress, environmental pollution, and high-fat diets. But at least, we thought, many of these problems were things we could potentially control; all those infectious epidemics were of the past.
5. According to paragraph 4, which of the following best describes the second epidemiological transition?
O Modern medicine made it possible for people to live longer even if they had an infectious disease.
O Infectious diseases were harder to cure due to factors like stress and pollution.
O New infectious diseases appeared as quickly as modern medical science was able to control old ones.
O Chronic diseases replaced infectious diseases as the major cause of human sickness and death.
6. According to paragraph 4, all of the following likely contributed to chronic disease EXCEPT
O longer life expectations
O decreased physical activity
O higher rates of poverty
O changes in diet
Paragraph 5: But on the heels of the second transition had come the third epidemiological transition, and we are in it now. New diseases are emerging, and old ones are returning. Both of these phenomena can be understood in terms of evolutionary theory.
Paragraph 6: The return of old diseases is the result of the fact that microorganisms are evolving species themselves. For example, new and serious antibiotic-resistant strains of tuberculosis have recently appeared. This evolution may have been encouraged by what some authorities consider our overuse of antibiotics, giving microorganisms a greater chance to evolve resistance by exposing them to a constant barrage of selective challenges. Some bacteria reproduce hourly, and so the processes of genetic mutation and natural selection are speeded up in these species.
7. What can be inferred from the discussion of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in paragraph 6?
O Most microorganisms cannot survive multiple exposures to antibiotics.
O tuberculosis strains are much more likely to be antibiotic-resistant than are other microorganisms.
O Bacteria that reproduce quickly are more likely to become resistant to antibiotics.
O Exposing microorganisms to a constant barrage of antibiotics prevents them from evolving resistance.
Paragraph 7: Emerging diseases are also the result of human activity in the modern world, which brings more people into contact with more diseases, some of which were unheard of even a few decades ago. As people and their products became more mobile, and as our populations spread into previously little-inhabited areas, cutting down forests and otherwise altering ecological conditions, we contact other species that may carry diseases to which they are immune but that prove deadly to us.
8. 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.
O Humans contact other species during population growth into previously little-inhabited areas.
O Species that carry diseases deadly to humans live in areas with small, mobile populations.
O Increased mobility and population expansion into new areas exposes humans to new, deadly diseases carried by other species.
O Some species that humans contact in little-inhabited areas are immune to diseases that are deadly to humans.
Paragraph 3: When some people began to settle down and produce their food through farming and animal domestication—starting about 10,000 years ago—the first epidemiological transition occurred. ■Infectious diseases increased in impact, as larger and denser concentrations of people provided greater opportunity for disease to be passed from host to host. ■Animal domestication may have brought people into contact with new diseases previously limited to other species. ■Working the soil would have exposed farmers to insects and other pathogens. ■Irrigation in some areas provided breeding places for mosquitoes, increasing the incidence of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. Sanitation problems caused by larger, more sedentary populations would have helped transmit diseases in human waste, as would the use of animal dung for fertilizer. In addition, agriculture also led to a narrowing of food sources, as compared to the varied diets of hunters and gatherers. This could have resulted in nutritional deficiencies; moreover, the storage of food surpluses attracted new disease carriers such as insects and rats. Trade between settled communities helped spread diseases over large geographic areas, as in the case of the Black Death in Europe. Epidemics, in the sense of diseases that affect a large number of populations at the same time, were essentially nonexistent until the development of agricultural economies.
9. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
But the denser populations of agricultural communities were only one of many factors contributing to the increased risk of disease.
Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage.
10. 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 answer choices 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. Drag your choices to the spaces where they belong. To review the passage, click on View Text.
Throughout history, the impact of diseases on humans has changed as human societies have developed.
Answer choices
O Once advances in medical science resulted in better control or elimination of many infectious diseases, diseases resulting from the modern lifestyle became a major problem.
O Humans today are at risk for contracting both new diseases and old diseases that have reemerged and, in some cases, have become resistant to antibiotics.
O The transition to farming meant that humans had both more contact with one another and with other species that carried disease, leading to disease epidemics.
O In early human history, nomadic groups started encountering diseases when they moved to new environments.
O Infectious diseases have increased steadily in impact and severity from the agricultural revolution through today as a result of increasing contact between human societies.
O During the second epidemiological transition, better public health measures and improved nutrition helped control chronic diseases.
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