TOEFL 통합 작문

📖 읽기 지문

The extinction of the woolly mammoth has long been attributed to human overhunting, but recent evidence suggests that climate change was the primary driver. First, the timing of mammoth decline aligns with the end of the last Ice Age, when global temperatures rose dramatically. As the ice retreated, vast grasslands—the mammoth’s main food source—were replaced by forests and tundra, reducing their habitat. Second, genetic studies of mammoth remains show a significant loss of genetic diversity before human populations expanded, indicating that populations were already shrinking due to environmental stress. Third, archaeological evidence reveals that early humans primarily hunted smaller game and scavenged, not specialized mammoth hunters; moreover, mammoth bones found at human sites often show signs of having been scavenged after natural death. Thus, climate-driven habitat loss, not human hunting, led to their demise.

🎧 듣기 강의

The reading’s argument that climate change alone caused mammoth extinction is unconvincing. While it is true that the Ice Age ended, similar warming events occurred earlier in the mammoth’s history without causing extinction. For example, mammoths survived several interglacial periods when grasslands also shrank, so they must have adapted by shifting their range. Second, the claim about low genetic diversity is misleading—small populations can be a result of climate, but it does not rule out human impact. In fact, genetic data from the last surviving mammoths on Wrangel Island show they persisted for thousands of years with low diversity, meaning diversity loss was not necessarily fatal. Third, the archaeological evidence is biased: sites with mammoth bones are rare because humans likely processed carcasses at kill sites away from camps. Recent discoveries of spear points embedded in mammoth ribs and butchery marks on bones prove active hunting. Therefore, human hunting, possibly in combination with climate stress, was the decisive factor.