Passage #2: An Island of Questions
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Today, about 3,000 people live on Easter Island, a 64-square mile island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Tourists flock to the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site, mainly to see the moai, mysterious stone sculptures that decorate the landscape.
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Easter Island is home to more questions than answers. Archaeologists have uncovered clues, but mystery still prevails. Who first settled there, how did they get there, and why did they disappear? Why did these people create the massive multi-ton statues, and how did they know how to build and move them from the quarries to different parts of the island?
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One interesting fact we know is that the former inhabitants of Easter Island ate sweet potatoes and had great skill at stone carving. Thor Heyerdahl, an explorer, believed that Peruvians from South America sailed and settled on the island. He supported his theory by sailing 4,300 nautical miles from South America in a primitive boat like the ones used in ancient times. He further pointed out that sweet potatoes were first grown in South America. Last, he compared the walls on the island to ancient pre-Inca stonework found in Peru, both similar in construction and design.
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Heyerdahl’s theory was discounted when DNA samples tested on skeletons determined that the first inhabitants were Polynesian. So perhaps some Peruvian sailors visited the island and introduced the sweet potato, and perhaps they left some skilled stonemasons behind to teach the islanders how to carve. No one knows.
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Also, it’s unknown exactly when the Polynesians arrived. The estimates range from 400 A.D. to 1200 A.D. Questions remain about the population, but some scientists believe that the population swelled to some 9,000 people in 1550.
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When the first Europeans arrived in the 18th century, they reported the population to only be around 3,000. No one was carving statues anymore, and the society was dominated by fighting clans. By the 19th century, a little over a hundred people still survived on the island.
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What caused the decline? Some say that there were simply too many people on the island to sustain that many people, and the islanders fought one another for the food available.
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The Polynesians brought chickens with them to their new land for a food source. However, they also carried rats. Many people today believe that these rats contributed to the island’s decline, ruining the balance of nature. Rats would have eaten seeds, thereby stopping new growth of trees and eventually destroying the forests. Other animals, including birds, would have lost their habitat and would have disappeared as well.
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With no written records and conflicting evidence, Easter Island is likely to remain mysterious until new scientific tests are available. The solemn stone statues may have witnessed the events to answer the questions; but for the time being, they are not giving any answers.
(From "Easter Island: A Cautionary Tale" and "An Island of Questions", Illuminate)
Question: How do the facts in "Easter Island: A Cautionary Tale" and "An Island of Questions" differ from each other?
A. In "Easter Island: A Cautionary Tale," it says Europeans brought diseases that harmed people on Easter Island, but "An Island of Questions" says Europeans never came there.
B. "Easter Island: A Cautionary Tale" gives answers to the island's mysteries, while "An Island of Questions" only asks questions.
C. "Easter Island: A Cautionary Tale" tells us how the island got its name from a European explorer and talks about their influence, but "An Island of Questions" doesn't mention European exploration.
D. In "Easter Island: A Cautionary Tale," it says the forests disappeared because people cut down all the trees to move the statues, but "An Island of Questions" blames rats, who ate seeds that would have helped new trees grow.