1 . Recently according to a new research，humans have had a link to starches (含淀粉的食物) for up to 120,000 years — that’s more than 100,000 years longer than we’ve been able to plant them in the soil during the time of the Ice Age’s drawing to an end. The research is part of an ongoing study into the history of Middle Stone Age communities.

An international team of scientists identified evidence of prehistoric starch consumption in the Klasies River Cave, in present-day South Africa. Analyzing small, ashy, undisturbed hearths (壁炉) inside the cave, the researchers found “pieces of burned starches” ranging from around 120,000 to 65,000 years old. It made them the oldest known examples of starches eaten by humans.

The findings do not come as a complete surprise — but rather as welcome confirmation of older theories that lacked the related evidence. The lead author Cynthia Larbey said that there had previously only been genetic (基因的) biological evidence to suggest that humans had been eating starch for this long. This new evidence, however, takes us directly to the dinner table, and supports the previous assumption that humans，digestion genes gradually evolved in order to fit into an increased digestion of starch.

Co-author Sarah Wurz said, “The starch remains show that these early humans living in the Klasies River Cave could battle against their tough environment and find suitable foods and perhaps medicines. And as much as we all still desire the tubers (块茎), these cave communities were grilling starches such as potatoes on their foot-long hearths. They knew how to balance their diets as well as they could, with fats from local fish and other animals.”

As early as the 1990s, some researchers started to study the hearths in the Klasies River Cave. Scientist Hilary Deacon first suggested that these hearths contained burned plants. At the time, the proper methods of examining the remains were not yet available. We now know human beings have always been searching for their desired things.

1. When did humans begin to farm starches?

A．After the Ice Age.

B．After the Middle Stone Age.

C．About 20,000 years ago.

D．About 100,000 years ago.

2. According to the scientists, what do the remains in the Klasies River Cave show ?

A．South Africa once had rich soil to grow crops

B．hearths were widespread in early human history

C．early humans possibly drove away animals by fire

D．settlers there might have used fire to cook starches

3. What was the previous assumption of starches?

A．Starch diet promoted food culture.

B．Starch diet shaped humans’ evolution.

C．Starches had a variety of functions.

D．Starches offered humans rich nutrition.

4. What can we learn about the early humans described by Sarah Wurz?

A．They were smart and tough.

B．They preferred plants to meat.

C．They were generally very healthy.

D．They got along with each other.

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Music is in the corners of everyday life. It is said to be beneficial       1    us both physically and mentally.

There are many ways to make music. For example, if you blow into bamboos or shells,       2    ( permit) air to come in, they can produce pleasant music. A recent     3     (discover) suggests that music was played much earlier     4     we think. In 1995, deep in     5     cave in Slovenia     6     was occupied 45,000 years ago by Neanderthals, a leg bone of a bear with four finger holes was found .The finding suggested that flutes(笛子)had come into existence at that time. Later, many other traditional musical instruments like drums     7     (dig) out from under ground. Ancient people even     8    (seek) a way to make music out of a bow(弓) intended for hunting, so we have to admit that they did have a great gift for music. But if     9    (exact) dated, the Neanderthal flute is by far the     10    (early) known example of music.

Now music can be found in every known culture, and even the most distant groups have a certain form of music.