The thick, woolly fleece of the domestic sheep is its distinguishing feature and the
source of much of its economic importance. Yet only a moment, in evolutionary terms,
has passed since the domestic sheep had a coat resembling that of many other wild Line
animals. As recently as 8,000 years ago, it was covered not in a white, continuously
growing mass of wool but in a brown coat consisting of an outer array of kemps, or
coarse hairs, that was shed annually and a fine woolly undercoat that also molted. Such
an animal could not have supported the technology that has grown up around the domestic
sheep--the shearing, dyeing, spinning, and weaving of wool--any better than could a
wild sheep such as the bighorn of North America,
Much of the selective breeding that led to the fleece types known today took place
in prehistory, and even the later developments went largely unchronicled. Yet other kinds
of records survive, in three forms. Specimens of wool from as long ago as 1500 B.C. have
been found, mostly as ancient textiles, but also in the form of sheepskins. Antique
depictions of sheep in sculpture, relief, and painting give even earlier clues to the character
of ancient fleeces. The longest line of evidence takes the form of certain primitive breeds
that are still tended in remote areas or that escaped from captivity long ago and now live
in the wild. They retain the characteristics of ancient sheep, providing living snapshots of
the process that gave rise to modern fleeces.
【題組】14. According to the passage, the outer coat of sheep 8,000 years ago was
(A) white
(B) coarse
(C) warmer than that of bighorn sheep
(D) similar to that of the modern sheep
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