▶ Your Answer : According to the reading passage, there was trade route between Africa and Americas long time ago. However, the points made in the article totally disagree with the lecturer's claim that there are some doubts to the points. Most of all, the article says that two drugs, nicotine and cocaine, were discovered in Egyptian mummies from thousands of years ago. Plants which are able to make the drugs didn't exist in Egypt at that time and grew in Americas. On the contrary, the lecturer expresses doubt on this point by asserting that it can't be evidence about trade routes. That's because botanist said that some palnts in Africa could make same chemicals. Also, scientist could accidently contribute to the discovery. Besides, the reading argues that image of coins in acient Egypt is simillar to the shape of the South American continent. So, it suggests that there were links between the Old and New Worlds. This perspective is challenged by the lecturer's claim that ancient Egyptians' mapping skills were pretty good;however, it was not enough for them to describe big landmass. The last point made in the reading is that there were many pyramids in Mesoamerica and it proves exchange of thinking between other religions. The speaker, however, contradicts this point by asserting that skills and styles which were contributed to make pyramids are quite different between two civilizations.
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