Mungo Man Reading Answers

Dec 6, 2022

Mungo Man Reading Answers consists of 14 sets of questions, which the candidates should necessarily attempt within the given time of 20 minutes. Choosing the correct option, and true/false/not given are basically two different sorts of questions provided in the topic of Mungo Man Reading Answers. Candidates should mandatorily go through the whole passage and skim the statement provided, for the section of true/false/not given. Candidates should have crystal clearance of the gist of the passage and then should opt to choose the correct option. Candidates for recognizing the synonyms, and identifying the keywords, should definitely take the IELTS reading passage into their consideration.

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Reading Passage Question

Fifty thousand years ago, a lush landscape greeted the first Australians making their way towards the south-east of the continent. Temperatures were cooler than now. Megafauna – giant prehistoric animals such as marsupial lions, goannas and the rhinoceros-sized diprotodon – were abundant. The Lake Mungo remains are three prominent sets of fossils which tell the archeologists the story: Mungo Man lived around the shores of Lake Mungo with his family. When he was young Mungo Man lost his two lower canine teeth, possible knocked out in a ritual. He grew into a man nearly 1.7m in height. Over the years his molar teeth became worn and scratched, possibly from eating a gritty diet or stripping the long leaves of water reeds with his teeth to make twine. As Mungo Man grew older his bones ached with arthritis, especially his right elbow, which was so damaged that bits of bone were completely worn out or broken away. Such wear and tear are typical of people who have used a woomera to throw spears over many years. Mungo Man reached a good age for the hard life of a hunter-gatherer and died when he was about 50. His family mourned for him, and carefully buried him in the lunette, on his back with his hands crossed in his lap, and sprinkled with red ochre. Mungo Man is the oldest known example in the world of such a ritual.

This treasure-trove of history was found by the University of Melbourne geologist Professor Jim Bowler in 1969. He was searching for ancient lakes and came across the charred remains of Mungo Lady, who had been cremated. And in 1974, he found a second complete skeleton, Mungo Man, buried 300 metres away. Using carbon-dating, a technique only reliable to around 40,000 years old, the skeleton was first estimated at 28,000 to 32,000 years old. The comprehensive study of 25 different sediment layers at Mungo concludes that both graves are 40,000 years old.

This is much younger than the 62,000 years Mungo Man was attributed within 1999 by a team led by Professor Alan Thorne, of the Australian National University. The modern-day story of the science of Mungo also has its fair share of rivalry. Because Thorne is the country’s leading opponent of the Out of Africa theory – that Homo sapiens had a single place of origin. “Dr Alan Thorne supports the multi-regional explanation (that modern humans arose simultaneously in Africa, Europe and Asia from one of our predecessors, Homo erectus, who left Africa more than 1.5 million years ago.) if Mungo Man was descended from a person who had left Africa in the past 200,000 years, Thorne argues, then his mitochondrial DNA should have looked like that of the other samples.”

However, Out of Africa supporters are not about to let go of their beliefs because of the Australian research, Professor Chris Stringer, from the Natural History Museum in London, UK, said that the research community would want to see the work repeated in other labs before major conclusions were drawn from the Australian research. But even assuming the DNA sequences were correct, Professor Stringer said it could just mean that there was much more genetic diversity in the past than was previously realised. There is no evidence here that the ancestry of these Australian fossils goes back a million or two million years. It’s much more likely that modern humans came out of Africa.” For Bowler, these debates are irritating speculative distractions from the study’s main findings. At 40,000 years old, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady remain Australian’s oldest human burials and the earliest evidence on Earth of cultural sophistication, he says. Modern humans had not even reached North America by this time. In 1997, Pddbo’s research group recovered an mtDNA fingerprint from the Feldholer Neanderthal skeleton uncovered in Germany in 1865 – the first Neanderthal remains ever found.

In its 1999 study, Thorne’s team used three techniques to date Mungo Man at 62,000 years old, and it stands by its figures. It dated bone, teeth enamel and some sand. Bowler has strongly challenged the results ever since. Dating human bones is “notoriously unreliable”, he says. As well, the sand sample Thorne’s group dated was taken hundreds of metres from the burial site. “You don’t have to be a gravedigger … to realize the age of the sand is not the same as the age of the grave,” says Bowler.

Thorne counters that Bowler’s team used one dating technique, while he used three. The best practice is to have at least two methods produce the same result. A Thorne team member, Professor Rainer Grün, says the fact that the latest results were consistent between laboratories doesn’t mean they are absolutely correct. We now have two data sets that are contradictory. I do not have a plausible explanation.” Now, however, Thorne says the age of Mungo Man is irrelevant to this origins debate. Recent fossils find show modern humans were in China 110,000 years ago. “So he has got a long time to turn up in Australia. It doesn’t matter if he is 40,000 or 60,000 years old.

Dr Tim Flannery, a proponent of the controversial theory that Australia’s megafauna were wiped out 46,000 years ago in a “blitzkrieg” of hunting by the arriving people, also claims the new Mungo dates support this view. In 2001 a member of Bowler’s team, Dr Richard Roberts of Wollongong University, along with Flannery, director of the South Australian Museum, published research on their blitzkrieg theory. They dated 28 sites across the continent, arguing their analysis showed the megafauna died out suddenly 46,000 years ago. Flannery praises the Bowler team’s research on Mungo Man as “the most thorough and rigorous dating” of ancient human remains. He says the finding that humans arrived at Lake Mungo between 46,000 and 50,000 years ago was a critical time in Australia’s history. There is no evidence of a dramatic climatic change then, he says. “It’s my view that humans arrived and extinction took place in almost the same geological instant.”

Bowler, however, is skeptical of Flannery’s theory and says the Mungo study provides no definitive new evidence to support it. He argues that climate change at 40,000 years ago was more intense than had been previously realized and could have played a role in the megafauna’s demise. “To blame the earliest Australians for their complete extinction is drawing a longbow.”

Solution and Explanation

Questions 1-8:

Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-F) with opinions or deeds below.
Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

Jim Bowler
Alan Thorne
Pddbo
Tim Flannery
Chris Stringer
Rainer Grün

Q1. He was searching for ancient lakes and came across the charred remains of Mungo Lady, who had been cremated.

Answer: A- Jim Bowler
Supporting Sentence: He was searching for ancient lakes and came across the charred remains of Mungo Lady, who had been cremated.
Keywords: ancient lakes, charred, Mungo Lady, cremated
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, lines 1-3
Explanation: The first three sentences of paragraph B suggest the Geologist, Professor Jim Bowler, from the University of Melbourne. He discovered the historical treasure trove in the year of 1969. He discovered Mungo Lady's burned remains while looking for ancient lakes. Mungo Lady had been incinerated, and 300 meters distant, he discovered Mungo Man's full skeleton in 1974.

Q2. Professor who holds a skeptical attitude towards reliability for DNA analysis on some fossils.

Answer: E- Chris Stringer
Supporting Sentence: But even assuming the DNA sequences were correct, Professor Stringer said it could just mean that there was much more genetic diversity in the past than was previously realised.
Keywords: DNA sequences, Professor Stringer, genetic, diversity
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, lines 2-3
Explanation: Lines 2-3 of paragraph D suggest the research of Professor Stringer. He noted that even if the DNA sequences were accurate, it might simply indicate genetic diversity in the past than was previously believed. There is no proof to suggest that these Australian fossils have a one- or two-million-year-old heritage.

Q3. Professor whose determination of the age of Mungo Man to be much younger than the former result which is older than the 62,000 years.

Answer: A- Jim Bowler
Supporting Sentence: The comprehensive study of 25 different sediment layers at Mungo concludes that both graves are 40,000 years old.
Keywords: sediment layers, both graves, 40,000 years old.
Keyword Location: Paragraph B, lines 4-5
Explanation: The concluding sentence of paragraph B implies that both tombs are 40,000 years old, according to an extensive analysis of 25 different sediment strata at Mungo. This is far less recent than 62,000 years. It was the time that a team led by Professor Alan Thorne of the Australian National University estimated the age of Mungo Man in 1999.

Q4. determining the age of Mungo Man has little to do with controversy for the origins of Australians.

Answer: B- Alan Thorne
Supporting Sentence: This is much younger than the 62,000 years Mungo Man was attributed within 1999 by a team led by Professor Alan Thorne, of the Australian National University.
Keywords: 62,000 years, Professor Alan Thorne, Australian National University
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, lines 1-3
Explanation: Lines 1-3 of paragraph C suggest the Australian National University team led by Professor Alan Thorne. They estimated the age of Mungo Man to be 62,000 years old in 1999, which is substantially older than the current estimate. There is some competition in the contemporary account of Mungo's scientific discovery. Since Thorne is the nation's prominent opponent of the Out of Africa theory, which contends that Homo sapiens originated from a single location,

Q5. research group who recovered a biological proof of the first Neanderthal found in Europe.

Answer: C- Pddbo
Supporting Sentence: In 1997, Pddbo’s research group recovered an mtDNA fingerprint from the Feldholer Neanderthal skeleton uncovered in Germany in 1865 – the first Neanderthal remains ever found.
Keywords: Pddbo’s, mtDNA, Feldholer Neanderthal skeleton,
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, lines 12-14
Explanation: The concluding sentence of paragraph D suggests that the first Neanderthal remains were discovered at Feldholer in Germany in the year 1865. The Pddbo's research team was able to extract an mtDNA fingerprint from it in the year 1997.

Q6. a supporter of the idea that Australia’s megafauna was extinct due to the hunting by the ancient human beings.

Answer: D- Tim Flannery
Supporting Sentence: Dr Tim Flannery, a proponent of the controversial theory that Australia’s megafauna were wiped out 46,000 years ago in a “blitzkrieg” of hunting by the arriving people, also claims the new Mungo dates support this view.
Keywords: Tim Flannery, megafauna , blitzkrieg, Richard Roberts of Wollongong University
Keyword Location: Paragraph G lines 1-5
Explanation: Lines 1-5 of paragraph G explain to us that the latest Mungo dates, according to Dr. Tim Flannery, confirm the contested hypothesis that Australia's megafauna was exterminated 46,000 years prior by an invading civilization in a "blitzkrieg" of hunting by the people who arrived then.

Q7. Instead of keep arguing a single source origin, multi-regional explanation has been raised.

Answer: B- Alan Thorne
Supporting Sentence: “Dr Alan Thorne supports the multi-regional explanation (that modern humans arose simultaneously in Africa, Europe and Asia from one of our predecessors, Homo erectus, who left Africa more than 1.5 million years ago.)
Keywords: multi-regional, Africa, Europe and Asia, predecessors, Homo erectus, mitochondrial
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, line 4
Explanation: Dr. Richard Roberts of Wollongong University, a member of Bowler's team, and Flannery, the director of the South Australian Museum, published research. The research is on their blitzkrieg idea in 2001. They used 28 sites to date the continent, claiming that their research demonstrated the rapid extinction of the megafauna 46,000 years ago. Flannery lauds the research done on Mungo Man by the Bowler team as "the most thorough and rigorous dating" of prehistoric human bones.

Q8. Climate change rather than prehistoric human activities resulted in megafauna’s extinction.

Answer: A- Jim Bowler
Supporting Sentence: He argues that climate change at 40,000 years ago was more intense than had been previously realized and could have played a role in the megafauna’s demise
Keywords: climate change, 40,000 years ago, megafauna’s demise.
Keyword Location: Paragraph H line 2
Explanation: Bowler contends that 40,000 years ago, climate change was more severe than previously believed. He also said that it may have contributed to the extinction of the megafauna, so he remained dubious of the theory of Flannery.

Q9. The Lake Mungo remains offer the archeologists the evidence of graphic illustration of human activities around.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: The Lake Mungo remains are three prominent sets of fossils which tell the archeologists the story: Mungo Man lived around the shores of Lake Mungo with his family.
Keywords: Lake Mungo, archeologists, family.
Keyword Location: Paragraph A, lines 3
Explanation: The third line of paragraph A suggests that the Mungo Man and his family lived close to Lake Mungo's shoreline, according to three notable sets of fossils found in the lake. Thus, the statement is True.

Q10. In Lake Mungo remains, weapons were found used by the Mungo.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation: No pertinent information regarding this sentence is available in the above preceding context.

Q11. Mungo Man is one of the oldest known archeological evidence in the world of cultural sophistication such as a burying ritual.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: At 40,000 years old, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady remain Australia's oldest human burials and the earliest evidence on Earth of cultural sophistication, he says.
Keywords: 40,000 years old, oldest human burials, earliest evidence.
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, lines 6-7
Explanation: Paragraph G explains that according to Bowler, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady are still the oldest human burials on Australian soil. The planet's first signs of sophisticated culture are 40,000 years old. By this period, modern humans had not even colonized North America. Hence, the statement is a True one.

Q12. Mungo Man and woman’s skeletons were uncovered in the same year.

Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: At 40,000 years old, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady remain Australia's oldest human burials and the earliest evidence on Earth of cultural sophistication, he says.
Keywords: 40,000, Mungo Man, Mungo Lady, earliest evidence.
Keyword Location: Paragraph D, lines 6-7
Explanation: As per the concluding part of paragraph D, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady, which are 40,000 years old, are still the oldest human remains buried in Australia. They were the earliest examples of sophisticated culture ever discovered, according to Bowler. By this period, modern humans had not yet made it to North America. The Feldholer Neanderthal skeleton was discovered in Germany in 1865. Also, the first Neanderthal remains ever discovered, Pddbo's research team discovered an mtDNA fingerprint in 1997. So, it is a False statement.

Q13. There is controversy among scientists about the origin of the oldest Homo sapiens.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: The modern-day story of the science of Mungo also has its fair share of rivalry.
Keywords: modern-day story, science of Mungo, rivalry.
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, lines 1-3
Explanation: The Mungo Man remains considerably more recent than the 62,000 years. A research team which was led by Professor Alan Thorne of the Australian National University estimated for Mungo Man in 1999. There is some competition in the contemporary account of Mungo's scientific discovery. Therefore, the statement is regarded as True.