III. Reading Comprehension 1

One of the most famous (or infamous) frauds in the history of science is known as the Piltdown Man, remains of a supposed primitive hominid found in 1912 by an amateur paleontologist named Charles Dawson and a professional paleontologist named Arthur Smith Woodward. (a)In fact, two sets of these remains were discovered between the years 1912 and 1917. (b)The first of these two was found in the Piltdown gravel pit in Sussex, England. (c)While digging in the pit, the paleontologists found a humanlike skull with a jawbone similar to that of an ape. (d)This finding appeared to be the remains of a missing link, the connecting evolutionary step between apes and humans. (e) The discoverers named the remains Eoanthropus dawsoni, or “Dawson’s Dawn Man,” but it was later known as “Lucy” because they discovered the bones had come from a British woman. 1. Choose the sentence that does not belong.

(A) (a) (B) (b) (C) (c) (D) (d) (E) (e)

2-4. Choose the correct word or phrase to fill in the blanks.

However, some investigators were doubtful of the origins ___2___ the Piltdown Man since some initial evidence led to the idea that the jaw could be from a chimpanzee. In addition, the researchers expressed strong doubt ___3___ the skull and the jaw were from the same species. The perpetrators of the hoax solved this problem by planting a second jaw and a second skull at another nearby location. Therefore, the report in 1917 of the discovery of “Piltdown Man II” converted many of the skeptics. The reasoning was that one accident of placement was plausible, ___4___ two were not. So after this second finding, some of the doubters were satisfied. Moreover, a few prominent British scientists failed to perform tests that they should have done and obstructed other scientists’ access to the fossils. 2. (A) and (B) of (C) or (D) between 3. (A) that (B) than (C) and (D) for 4. (A) therefore (B) and (C) still (D) but

During the 1950s, the validity of the Piltdown Man discovery was questioned further. Researchers claimed that almost all, if not all, of the fossils had been planted in the pit in modern times and that several of these items had even been fabricated by someone. These scientific detectives, among them Joseph Weiner and Kenneth Oakley, disproved the validity of the Piltdown Man with technical evidence showing that the skull belonged to an English lady and the jaw to an Asian orangutan. Chemical tests in 1953 further proved that in fact, everything was fake! The found pieces had been stained, filed, smashed, and so on, in a fairly clever way, thus leading people to initially believe that the Piltdown Man was real. 5. What is the purpose of the paragraph?

(A) To show that Piltdown man was real (B) To show that investigators tested the fossils and proved Piltdown man was fake (C) To show how easily people are fooled into believing skeptics (D) To show that Joseph Weiner was not a real scientist