环球英语 — 171：Easter Island
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Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight. I’m Rebekah Schipper.
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And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Can one small island serve as a model for all of planet earth? Today’s Spotlight will look at the history of Easter Island. This small island experienced the fall of a very special culture. Could what happened to the people of Easter Island happen to us?
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Easter Island is in the South Pacific. It is the loneliest piece of populated land in the world. It sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, all by itself. The closest people live over one thousand six hundred [1600] kilometres away.
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But Easter Island’s distance from other land did not keep people from populating it. In the middle of the first millennium the first people arrived on Easter Island. They settled there. And their population began to grow.
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For many years, Easter Island was a perfect place to live. It was beautiful. Clear blue water surrounded it. A thick palm forest offered many resources. There was a wide coastal plain with rich soil. The people could grow their main vegetables: sweet potatoes and yams. And more than thirty [30] different kinds of seabirds made the island their home. The birds’ songs filled the air with music.
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The people of Easter Island, the Rapanui, created wonderful stone structures that still stand on Easter Island today. In fact, Easter Island is known for these structures. They are called “Moai.” Moai look like large stone heads. There are hundreds of Moai on the island. They face the land. Their backs are turned away from the sea. The Moai served as the peoples’ gods.
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Over the years the Rapanui created a complex social system. They became one of Polynesia’s most advanced cultures. Different chiefs led eleven [11] different Rapanui tribes. The tribes lived together peacefully. But, over time something started to threaten that peace.
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At first the Rapanui population grew slowly. And then it began to grow more quickly. The Rapanui population reached its highest around the middle of the second [2nd] millennium. There were between ten thousand [10,000] and twenty thousand [20,000] Rapanui people at this time. But, beginning around the year 1600 their culture began to fall apart. And by the middle of the nineteenth century the Rapanui had almost disappeared completely!
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Many scientists have studied Easter Island. They had many questions about the Rapanui people. The scientists did not understand how such a complex society could just disappear. But now, after many years of research, scientists believe they have solved the mystery. They have theories about what happened to the Rapanui people.
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No one can be completely sure what happened to the people on Easter Island. But, the scientists’ theories may be important to our world today. In effect, the scientists believe that Easter Island may serve as a small model. What happened on Easter Island may represent what could happen to our planet.
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The scientists believe that the Rapanui culture rose and fell with the island’s trees. You see, the Rapanui used the same word for “tree” as for “riches” or “wealth.” Scientists studied the remains of trees on the island. And they found that the Rapanui used the island’s trees for everything. They ate the fruit the trees produced. They also ate the birds that lived in the trees. They used the leaves to build the tops of their houses. They used the trees’ outer parts to make clothes. They burned the wood to cook their food and to keep warm. They used the trees tall centres to make small boats for fishing in deep water. And they used fibre from the wood to create ropes. The Rapanui used every part of the island’s trees.
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Scientists believe the Rapunui soon started clearing the tree forest. They cut many trees down all at once to make room for their crops. The theory is that the lack of trees soon had a serious effect on the island and its people.
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Scientists think that without trees the Rapanui suffered greatly. The food from the trees disappeared. And the Rapanui could no longer make wood boats to hunt big fish in deep water. Instead, they had to eat the smaller fish they found closer to land. After a short time, they had eaten most of those small fish. The people became very hungry.
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The lack of trees may have also changed the climate on the island. Fewer trees meant less rain fall. Soon, the Rapanui’s crops started to die from lack of rain. And the soil became hard and dry.
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The chiefs believed building more Moai structures would save their people. Their gods would surely help them. But the people were too tired. They did not have enough to eat. They could not build more Moai. And their old stone gods did nothing for them. Scientists say that a civil war began on Easter Island. The Rapanui tribes began to fight each other for resources.
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During this time, explorers from different nations also came to Easter Island. They brought new diseases with them. The people were not used to these diseases. And, by 1872, the number of Rapanui fell to just one hundred eleven [111] individuals.
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So, can Easter Island serve as a model for the future of our planet? Does what happened on the island represent what could happen to us? Many situations on Earth today are similar to the situations on Easter Island. For example, the earth’s population is rising. Some of the earth’s resources are starting to disappear. Many of the earth’s animals are dying out. Too many people in the world do not have enough food to eat. And war threatens to destroy many societies. Will we soon start to lose whole cultures?
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Scientists believe that people should think seriously about the events on Easter Island. Jared Diamond, a scientist, has studied the history of Easter Island. He said,
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“Thanks to globalization, international trade, airplanes, and the Internet, all countries on Earth today share resources. We affect each other, just like Easter Island’s eleven [11] tribes. Polynesian Easter Island was as lonely in the Pacific Ocean as the Earth is today in space. When the Easter Islanders got into difficult times, there was nowhere they could go, or nowhere they could turn for help. Nor will we modern people on Earth have a place to go for help. Those are the reasons why people see the fall of Easter Island society as a model, a worst-case situation for what may lie ahead of us in our own future on Earth.”
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Jared Diamond believes people today may experience something similar to Easter Island. That is, unless we can learn from the Rapanui people. It is important to remember that the Earth cannot be replaced. It is important to take care of its resources. And, it is important that we, as people, take care of each other.
