2015考研英语阅读定居马达加斯加_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读定居马达加斯加

　　作此猜测原因有三。首先，存在了几个世纪的一种看法认为，该岛使用的马尔加什语，虽然独特，但很多的词汇是来自爪哇语、马来语和一部分口语来自婆罗洲及苏拉威西岛当地方言。其次，该岛居民的文化包括从装有舷外浮木的小船到木琴等一系列手工制品，还有一些农作物，如香蕉和大米都是具有亚洲特点的，而不是非洲。再次，基因学证据已证明现代的马达加斯加人与东印尼人以及相距更遥远的美拉尼西亚人和生活在大洋洲的人都是有联系的。

　　Now, Murray Cox of Massey University in New Zealand and his colleagues have put thematter beyond doubt by showing not only where the first settlers came from, but also howmany of them there were. And the answer is surprisingly few. Though Dr Cox is unable, withthe method he used, to work out how many men were in the original party, the number ofwomen was 30.

　　现在，新西兰梅西大学的Murray Cox和他的同事们不仅科学地展示了首批定居者源自哪里，而且还弄清了定居者的人数，证据确凿。让人感到吃惊的是已确定的定居者人数极少。虽然Cox博士使用的方法没能弄清首批定居者中的男性数量，但可以确定女性有30人。

　　He drew this conclusion, just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, bysampling the DNA of 266 Malagasy people and comparing it with existing samples from2,745 Indonesians. He concentrated on DNA from mitochondria. These are cellularcomponents involved in energy production that are descended from bacteria which becamesymbiotic with humanity s ancestors almost 2 billion years ago, and thus have their owngenes. People inherit mitochondria only from their mothers, which is why only the femaleline of descent can be tracked using them.