考研英语历年阅读理解真题精析--2000年part2

考研英语历年阅读理解真题精析

--2000

年

part2

Part Two

Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100

females, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among

70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male

mortality is being changed. Now, by babies survive almost as well as girls do. This

means

that,

for

the

first

time,

there

will

be

an

excess

of

boys

in

those

crucial

years

when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural

selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby

（

particularly a

boy baby

）

surviving depended on

its

weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant

almost

certain

death.

Today

it

makes

almost

no

difference.

Since

much

of

the

variation

is due to genes one more agent of evolution has gone.

There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer

children.

Few

people

are

as

fertile

as

in

the

past.

Except

in

some

religious

communities,

very

few

women

has

15

children.

Nowadays

the

number

of

births,

like

the

age

of

death,

has

become

average.

Most

of

us

have

roughly

the

same

number

of

offspring.

Again,

differences

between

people

and

the

opportunity

for

natural

selection

to

take

advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers

wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples.

The grand mediocrity of today ---everyone being the same in survival and number of

offspring--- means

that

natural

selection

has

lost

80%

of

its

power

in

upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes.

For

us,

this means

that

evolution

is

over; the

biological

Utopia has

arrived.

Strangely, it has involved little physical change No other species fills so many

places

in

nature.

But

in

the

pass

100,000

years---

even

the

past

100year

---our

lives

have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines

and

society

did

it

for

us.

Darwin

had

a

phrase

to

describe

those

ignorant

of

evolution:

they

beyond

his

comprehension.

No

doubt

we

will

remember

a

20th

century

way

of

life

beyond

comprehension

for

its

ugliness.

But

however

amazed

our

descendants

may

be

at

how

far

from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.

5. What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?

［

A

］

A lack of mates.

［

B

］

A fierce competition.

［

C

］

A lower survival rate.

［

D

］

A defective gene.

6. What does the example of India illustrate?

［

A

］

Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.

［

B

］

Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.

［

C

］

The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.

［

D

］

India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.

7. The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because____ .

［

A

］

life has been improved by technological advance

［

B

］

the number of female babies has been declining

［

C

］

our species has reached the highest stage of evolution

［

D

］

the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing

8. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

［

A

］

Sex Ration

Changes

in Human Evolution

［

B

］