A child’s tooth discovered from a French cave has revealed the earliest evidence of humans—Homo sapiens(智人)—living in western Europe. The discovery of the molar from Grotte Mandrin, near Malataverne in the Rhône Valley in southern France, along with hundreds of stone tools dating back about 54,000 years ago, suggests that early humans lived in Europe about 10,000 years earlier than archaeologists had previously thought.

What’s more, the Homo sapiens’ tooth was sandwiched between layers of Neanderthal remains, showing that the two groups of humans coexisted in the region. These findings challenge the opinion that the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe caused the extinction of Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and parts of Asia for about 300,000 years before disappearing.

“We’ve often thought that the arrival of modern humans in Europe led to the pretty rapid death of Neanderthals, but this new evidence suggests that both the appearance of modern humans in Europe and disappearance of Neanderthals is much more complex than that,” said study coauthor Chris Stringer, a professor and research leader in human evolution at the Natural History Museum in London.

It’s the first time archaeologists have found evidence of alternating groups of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals living in the same place, and they took turns rapidly, even abruptly, at least twice, according to the study that published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday. Previously, the arrival of early humans in Europe was dated to between 43,000 and 45,000 years ago, according to remains found in Italy and Bulgaria—not long before the last surviving Neanderthal remains dating back 40,000 to 42,000 years ago were found. Humans and Neanderthals, who we know from genetic analysis encountered one another and had babies, resulting in Neanderthal traces in our DNA, overlapped(重叠) for a much longer period in Europe, this study suggests.

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1.The underlined word “molar” may mean _____.

A cave

B stone

C tooth

D human

解析：选C。C 词义猜测题。根据文章第一段第一句的“A child’s tooth discovered from a French cave has revealed the earliest evidence of humans...”得知发现的是儿童的“牙齿”，再结合“The discovery of the molar”可知指的是“这个牙齿的发现”，即molar指的是牙齿，故选C。

2.What conclusion did researchers draw from the layers of Neanderthal remains?

A Groups of human living together.

B Stones tools dating back long.

C Homo sapiens could travel farther.

D Neanderthals living in Asia.

解析：选A。A 推理判断题。根据文章第二段第一句的“showing that the two groups of humans coexisted in the region”可以得知，这枚牙齿位于尼安德特人的遗迹中间，据此可以推知至少有两个种族群生活在一起。故选A。

3.What did Chris Stringer mean by his words?

A The arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe made Neanderthals extinct.

B Modern humans in Europe led to the pretty demise of Neanderthals.

C People should think carefully again about the loss of Neanderthals.

D The problems of human evolution was already settled in London.

解析：选C。C 推理判断题。根据文章第三段第一句的 “but this new evidence suggests that both the appearance of modern humans in Europe and disappearance of Neanderthals is much more complex than that”可以得知，尼安德特人的消失有更加复杂的原因，因此需要人们更加仔细地综合考虑。故选C。

4.What happened when Homo sapiens and Neanderthals living together?

A They never communicated with each other.

B They considered each other as the enemies.

C They had some kind of complicated relations.

D They preferred to live in Europe than Asia.

解析：选C。C 推理判断题。根据文章最后一段第一句的 “archaeologists have found evidence of alternating groups of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals living in the same place, and they took turns rapidly, even abruptly, at least twice”可知，考古学家已经发现了智人和尼安德特人交替生活在同一个地方的证据，他们至少两次快速，甚至突然地交替生活。由此推断，这两个族群有着复杂的关系。故选C。