TOEFL Integrated Writing

📖 Reading Passage

The extinction of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) at the end of the Pleistocene has long intrigued scientists. While some argue that human hunting was the primary cause, a closer examination reveals that climate change and habitat loss were more decisive. First, the rapid warming at the end of the last ice age drastically reduced the mammoth’s preferred habitat—cold, dry steppe-tundra. As forests and wetlands expanded, mammoth populations became fragmented and isolated, leading to inbreeding and reduced fertility. Second, archaeological evidence for human hunting is sparse. Only a few kill sites with mammoth remains and spear points have been found, and these are concentrated in regions where mammoths were already rare. In contrast, humans coexisted with mammoths for thousands of years without driving them to extinction. Third, the final extinction of woolly mammoths occurred on Wrangel Island around 4,000 years ago, long after humans had arrived there—but the island’s small size and limited resources would have made the population vulnerable to stochastic events, such as disease or extreme weather, regardless of human presence. Thus, climatic and ecological factors, not human overhunting, best explain the mammoth’s demise.

🎧 Listening Lecture

The lecture challenges the reading’s claim that climate change was the primary cause of woolly mammoth extinction. While the professor acknowledges that habitat change occurred, she argues that human hunting was the decisive factor. First, she points out that the warming period did not cause an immediate extinction—mammoths survived for thousands of years in warmer conditions. In fact, during interglacial periods before the last ice age, mammoths thrived even when forests expanded, suggesting they could adapt. Second, the lecture counters the claim of sparse archaeological evidence by citing new discoveries: multiple sites in North America and Eurasia show clear butchering marks on mammoth bones, along with spear points, indicating widespread hunting. Moreover, the timing of human arrival in different regions correlates strongly with local mammoth extinctions—for example, in Siberia, mammoths disappeared shortly after humans arrived, but in isolated areas like Wrangel Island, they persisted longer. Third, the professor argues that the Wrangel Island population’s extinction actually supports the hunting hypothesis: although the island was small, human settlers arrived around 3,700 years ago, and the mammoths vanished within a few centuries—a pattern consistent with overhunting, not gradual climate stress. She concludes that while climate may have weakened populations, human predation delivered the final blow.