VI Reading Comprehension Read the passage and then choose the BEST answer to each question. 1. The genetic diversity of human populations in Europe has been the subject of intense scrutiny since the first" classical"markers became available. Most studies have focused on the identification of large-scale variation and its interpretation in terms of major events in prehistory, such as expansions from glacial refugia in the Paleolithic era and the spread of agriculture from the Near East in the Neolithic era. This approach seems reasonable, given that early events that occurred when populations were small are likely to have had major effects that could persist to the present day. However, Europe has also been subject to migrations and invasions within historical times, and these may have played an important role in shaping current patterns of diversity and could contribute to confusion over more ancient population movement. 2. The Iberian Peninsula has a complex recent history over the last two millennia, involving the long-term residence of two very different populations with very distinct geographical origins and their own particular cultural and religious characteristics--North African Muslims Sephardic Jews. 3. North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula are separated by a mere 15 km of water at the Gibraltar Strait, making the region a potential migration route between Africa and Europe. Historically documented contact began dramatically in 711, when a Berber army under Arab leadership crossed from Morocco, winning a key battle the following year. Within only four years, the invaders had conquered the entire peninsula, with the exception of the northern Basque country, Cantabria, Galicia, Asturias, and most of the Pyrenees in the north, which remained largely unoccupied. Arab and Berber forces then remained in control for more than five centuries, with a gradual withdrawal toward Andalusia in the south and a final expulsion in 1492. Today, signs of this lengthy Islamic occupation are abundantly obvious in the place names, language, archaeology, architecture, and other cultural traits of Spain and Portugal, but its demographic impact is less clear. 4. The established population of the Iberian Peninsula prior to 711 has been estimated at 7 to 8 million People, ruled by about 200,000 Germanic Visigoths, who had entered from the north in the fifth century. Though the initial invading North African force was between 10, 000 and 15,000 strong, the scale of subsequent migration and settlement is uncertain, with some claiming numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Islamization of the populace after the invasion was certainly rapid, but it has been argued that this reflects an exponential social process of religious conversion rather than a substantial immigration; a sizeable proportion of the indigenous population was allowed to retain its Christian practices, as a result of the religious tolerance of the Muslim rulers. There is also doubt about the extent of intermarriage between indigenous people and settlers in the early phase. After the overthrow of Islamic rule in most of the peninsula, a period of tolerant coexistence (convivencia) ensued in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but after 1492 (1496 in Portugal), religious intolerance forced Spanish Muslims to either convert to Christianity (as so-called moriscos) or leave. After the fifteenth century, moriscos were relocated across Spain on occasion, and, finally, during 1609-1616, over 200,000 were expelled, mostly from Valencia. 5. The people encountered by the Islamic invaders in the eighth century were not a religiously and culturally uniform group; they included among the Catholic Christian majority a substantial minority of Jewish people.They and their descendants are known as Sephardic Jews, from Sepharad,the Hebrew word for Spain.The Jewish presence was very long-established, with some evidence that it predated the Christian era; many Jews, however, are thought to have arrived during the Roman period, either voluntarily or as slaves brought from the Middle East after the defeat of Judea in 70 BC. The later arrival of others was due to their displacement by the Islamic invasion of their homelands in the Near East. Under the final years of Visigothic rule, the Jews suffered the first of a long series of persecutions, including forced religious conversion. It has been estimated that during the convivencia , their population size in Spain was around 100,000. In the late 14th century, a wave of pogroms affected the main Jewish quarters in Iberian cities, particularly Barcelona and Girona. One estimate gives a Spanish Jewish population of 400, 000 by the time of the expulsions of the late fifteenth century, during which some160,000 Spanish Jews were expelled, largely settling around the Mediterranean, while the remainder underwent conversion to Christianity, living as so-called conversos ( in Spain) or cristaos novos (in Portugal). 1. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?