雅思阅读 117: Hobbits Scavenged Komodo Dragon Leftovers

改编自 Scientific American 2026 年真实文章，去广告后按雅思阅读题型出题。

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Reading Passage

For two decades, scientists believed that an ancient human ancestor called Homo floresiensis could hunt large prey and start fires. Nicknamed "hobbits" after the small creatures in J.R.R. Tolkien's novels, these short, small-brained hominins lived on the Indonesian island of Flores. But a new study published in Science Advances claims the hobbits could do neither.

The hobbits were first discovered on Flores two decades ago. Alongside their fossils, researchers found bones of Stegodon, an extinct species of elephant, as well as charred remains. This led scientists to conclude that the hobbits had hunted Stegodon and used fire. But the new study challenges this view. According to the authors, Komodo dragons actually ate the Stegodon, and the hobbits simply scavenged on the reptiles' leftovers.

To prove their theory, the researchers fed goat carcasses to Komodo dragons at a zoo and compared the bite marks on those bones with marks found on the Stegodon bones. This method, called taphonomy, studies what happens to organisms after death. "It offers a smoking gun of who did what," says Briana Pobiner, a paleoanthropologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and a co-author on the study.

The researchers also examined roughly 4,500 rodent bones found in the cave where the hobbit fossils were discovered. They found no burns or evidence of fire on these bones. The burnt remains that had previously been interpreted as proof of the hobbits' use of fire, the authors argue, were likely the result of Homo sapiens using the cave at a much later date.

Dean Falk, an anthropology professor at Florida State University who was not involved in the research, says the paper makes a dramatic claim about assumptions that have been widely shared among scholars for over twenty years. However, she notes that the study does not answer every outstanding question. For example, it remains possible that the hobbits could have hunted Stegodon without biting through to the bone.

Although Homo floresiensis is an ancient species of human, its exact relationship to our own species is not entirely clear. What we do know is that hobbits appear to have died out on Flores some 50,000 years ago, shortly after the arrival of modern humans on the island. At that time, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens lived alongside each other in Europe and Asia.

The possibility that Homo floresiensis evolved differently and survived without some of the key behavioral abilities of modern humans offers a new perspective on the human family. "There are long-standing misunderstandings about human evolution as being all progressive and that behavioral evolution was linear," Pobiner says. "This is a good example that our family tree was not a straight line."

Questions 1-5

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. What did scientists originally believe about Homo floresiensis?

   • A. They were primarily scavengers.
   • B. They could hunt and use fire.
   • C. They were closely related to Neanderthals.
   • D. They arrived on Flores recently.

2. How did the researchers test their theory?

   • A. They studied Stegodon fossils in a zoo.
   • B. They fed goats to Komodo dragons and compared bite marks.
   • C. They analyzed DNA from hobbit bones.
   • D. They examined modern elephant carcasses.

3. What did the 4,500 rodent bones reveal?

   • A. They showed clear signs of burning.
   • B. They proved hobbits cooked food.
   • C. They had no evidence of fire.
   • D. They contained Stegodon remains.

4. What is taphonomy?

   • A. The study of animal hunting patterns.
   • B. The study of what happens to organisms after death.
   • C. The analysis of DNA in ancient caves.
   • D. The classification of fossil species.

5. What does Pobiner mean by "our family tree was not a straight line"?

   • A. Human evolution was gradual and linear.
   • B. Different human species evolved in varied ways.
   • C. Neanderthals are our direct ancestors.
   • D. Hobbits were identical to modern humans.

Questions 6-8

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write:

• TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
• FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
• NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

6. Scientists originally thought hobbits may have hunted Stegodon.
7. The burnt bones in the cave proved the hobbits used fire.
8. Dean Falk fully agrees with every conclusion of the new study.

Questions 9-13

Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The new study uses taphonomic evidence to challenge long-held beliefs about hobbits. By comparing bite marks from zoo Komodo dragons with fossil bones, researchers argue that hobbits were scavengers rather than hunters. The absence of fire evidence on rodent bones further supports this conclusion.

Answers

1. B
2. B
3. C
4. B
5. B
6. TRUE
7. FALSE
8. FALSE
9. taphonomic
10. bite
11. rodent

Key Vocabulary

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