托福考试_学科知识串讲之农业

托福考试已经逐渐复考了，正在备考的同学已经不能轻易放松学科知识。对于阅读单项来说，了解一些学科知识，不仅可以缓解考场上的紧张感，还可以提升做题速度。而对于听力单项来说，对所听话题有一定的了解程度会事半功倍。

今天让我们进入农业（Agriculture）这个话题。最初的人类是通过捕猎以及采果子生存，后来他们以游牧（nomadic）的形式生活。那么是什么让他们放弃了原来的生活方式，选择了定居某一个地方，发展农业呢。从游牧到农耕，这可不是简单的一拍脑袋的决定。传统上来说，人们普遍觉得是人口压力导致了农业的出现。

比如TPO21农业的起源：Traditionally, it was believed that the transition to agriculture was the result of a worldwide population crisis. It was argued that once hunter-gatherers had occupied the whole world, the population started to grow everywhere and food became scarce; agriculture would have been a solution to this problem. We know, however, that contemporary hunter-gatherer societies control their population in a variety of ways. The idea of a world population crisis is therefore unlikely, although population pressure might have arisen in some areas.但是这个观点很快被推翻了。尽管人口压力确实存在，但是在狩猎-收集型的社会里，人们已经学会了用各种方式控制人口。

于是另一种关于气温变化的假说又开始浮现。因为气候不稳定，导致人口必须安定下来过一种定居的生活（a sedentary style of life）。但是这个理论也有站不住脚的地方，因为以前也存在气候变化，但是农业并没有因此而兴起。It would appear that the instability of the climatic conditions led populations that had originally been nomadic to settle down and develop a sedentary style of life, which led in turn to population growth and to the need to increase the amount of food available. Farming originated in these conditions. Later on, it became very difficult to change because of the significant expansion of these populations. It could be argued, however, that these conditions are not sufficient to explain the origins of agriculture. Earth had experienced previous periods of climatic change, and yet agriculture had not been developed.

考古学家斯蒂文•米森提出存在四种可以解释农业起源的心理因素：

（1）打造集中用于收割以及加工植物资源的工具的能力；

（2）将动植物作为获取社会声望和权力的手段的趋势；

（3）与动物发展出与人类结构相似的“社会关系”的趋势——具体说就把动物当做人（神人同形同性论）以及把人当做动物（图腾崇拜）；

（4）驯化动植物的趋势。托福考试中阅读、听力和综合写作中常有很多的学术话题，若能在补充完背景知识后，辅以匹配度较高的题目，有助于背景知识和学科词汇的活学活用哦！

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