The extinction of the woolly mammoth has long been attributed to human hunting, but recent evidence suggests that climate change was the primary driver. First, the mammoth’s demise coincided with the end of the last Ice Age, a period of rapid warming. As temperatures rose, the vast steppe grasslands that mammoths depended on for food were replaced by forests and tundra, reducing their habitat and food supply. Second, fossil records show that mammoth populations began declining thousands of years before humans arrived in their main habitats, such as Siberia and North America. If hunting were the cause, we would expect a sudden drop after human arrival, but the decline was gradual and spread over millennia. Third, the mammoth’s closest living relatives, elephants, are known to have low reproductive rates. Even without human interference, a slow-breeding species would struggle to adapt to rapid environmental changes. Thus, while humans may have delivered the final blow, climate change was the fundamental cause of the mammoth’s extinction.
🎧 听力讲座
🎯 模拟考试环境：先点「播放讲座」听完内容，再作答。听力原文默认隐藏。
The lecture challenges the reading’s claim that climate change, not human hunting, caused the woolly mammoth’s extinction. First, the lecture points out that the warming period mentioned in the reading occurred over thousands of years, giving mammoths time to migrate or adapt. However, human hunting was sudden and intense, as evidenced by mass kill sites with mammoth bones and spear points. Second, the lecture argues that the population decline before human arrival can be explained by other factors, such as disease or natural fluctuations. More importantly, where humans did arrive, the extinction was rapid—for example, on Wrangel Island, mammoths survived until 2000 BCE, but disappeared within a few centuries of human settlement. Third, the lecture notes that low reproductive rates would make mammoths more vulnerable to hunting, not less. Even a small number of human hunters could drive a slow-breeding species to extinction, especially if they targeted juveniles. Therefore, the lecture concludes that human predation, not climate, was the decisive factor in the mammoth’s disappearance.
📝 写作提示 Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on the specific points made in the reading passage.
