英语六级阅读备考：快速阅读练习(6)_大学英语阅读

英语六级阅读备考：快速阅读练习(6)

　　There are also chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. US authorities believe that Gulf war syndrome was caused by low-level exposure to chemicals during the 1991 war, but this remains controversial. Poison gases may also have damaged 30,000 British servicemen they were tested on prior to 1989. They are now banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty.

　　History of War

　　Warfare is an integral part of human history and has been behind the rise and fall of many civilizations, from the Mayans to the Romans. Archaeologists have found evidence of ancient conflicts everywhere, from Mexico to Mesopotamia. More unusual finds are military propaganda from the days of the Pharaohs and the DNA trail left by marauding Vikings.

　　Religious disputes have been at the root of many historic conflictsand some modern ones, in Israel and India, for example.

　　Chemistry has been tied up with warfare since the creation of gunpowder, and even peaceful chemical processes can be turned to making explosives. Defoliants were intended to harmlessly deprive guerillas of cover, but had longer term effects. Science generally has often been focused on military efforts, with 40% of all research output focused on weapons technology during the cold war.

　　Technology has often featured in attempts to mitigate the effects of weapons, from the original bullet-proof vest of 1893, to modern plans to protect airlines from surface-to-air missiles with microwaves; from providing electromagnetic armor for tanks to stopping torpedoes with pulses of sound.