1 . A hungry badger (獾) searching for food seems to have uncovered what turned out to be hundreds of Roman coins in a Spanish cave, according to a new study.

Archaeologists (考古学家) first discovered several coins laying on the ground at the entrance to a small cave in the woodlands outside Grado in northern Spain in April 2021. The researchers suspect that the coins were unearthed by a badger from a nearby den (兽窝) after a heavy snow which made it harder for animals to find food. The hungry badger probably got into the cave looking for food but came across the coins instead.

After fully exploring the cave, researchers collected 209 coins dating to between the third and fifth centuries A.D. “To date, this is the largest amount of Roman coins found in n cave in northern Spain,” the researchers wrote in their paper. They described the discovery as an “exceptional find”.

In the late 1930s, a collection of 14 gold Roman coins, known as the Chapipi treasure, was also found in the same woodlands. The researchers believe that local people may have buried their coins to keep them safe during a period of intense political instability in the region. The most recent coin in the newly-discovered Grado collection dates to A.D. 430, which was after the Suebi—a group of Germanic people originally from modern-day Germany and the Czech Republic—pushed the Romans out of Spain in A.D. 409, according to El Pais.

The researchers suspect that the newly-discovered coins are part of a vaster treasure and will return to the cave for further exploration to look for more coins and evidence that the cave may also have been the home of displaced Roman people. “We want to know if it was a one-off hiding place, or if there was a group of humans living there,” lead researcher Alfonso Fanjul Peraza told El Pais.

1. Where did the researchers find the first few coins in 2021?

A．Near a Spanish cave.	B．On a Spanish playground.
C．At the entrance to a woodland.	D．In a badger’s den.

2. What do the researchers think of the discovery in 2021?

A．It’s dangerous.

B．It’s timely.

C．It’s meaningless.

D．It’s unusual.

3. What does the underlined word “them” refer to in Paragraph 4?

A．The Romans.

B．The coins.

C．The woodlands.

D．The researchers.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．More information may be revealed by the coins.

B．The ancient Roman people had a unique lifestyle.

C．The researchers doubt the former guess of the coins.

D．The researchers will return the coins to the Roman people.