-水族馆
考研英语阅读理解试题及解析
Being a
man hasalways 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
among70-year-olds there are twice as many women as
men.
But
the
great
universal
ofmale
mortality
is
being
changed.
Now,
boy
babies
survive
almost
as
well
as
girlsdo.
This
means
that,
for
the
first
time, there will be an excess of boys
inthose crucial years when they are
searching for a mate. More important,
anotherchance for natural selection
has
been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of
ababy(particularly a boy
baby)
surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram
toolight or too heavy
meant
almost
certain
death.
Today
it
makes
almost
nodifference.
Since
much
of
the
variation
is
due
to
genes,
one
more
agent
ofevolution
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
insome
religious
communities,
very
few
women
have
15
children.
Nowadays thenumber of births, like the
age of death, has become average.
Most
of us haveroughly the same number of offspring.
Again, differences
between people and
theopportunity for natural selection to take
advantage
of it have shows what is
happening. The country offers
wealth
for
a
few
in
the
greatcities
and
poverty
for
the
remaining
tribal
peoples.
The
grand
mediocrity
oftoday―everyone
being
the
same
in
survival
and
number
of
offspring
meansthat
natural
selection
has
lost
80% of
its power in upper-middle-class Indiacompared to
the tribes
。
For
us,
this
means
that
evolution
is
over;
the
biological
Utopiahas
arrived. Strangely, it has involved
little physical change. No otherspecies
fills
so
many
places
in
nature.
But
in
the
past
100,000
years
—
even
thepast 100
years
—
our lives have been
transformed but our bodies have
not. We
did notevolve, because machines and society did it
for us. Darwin
had
a
phrase
todescribe
those
ignorant
of
evolution:
“they
look
at
anorganic
being
as
average
looks
at
a
ship,
as
at
something
wholly
beyond
hiscomprehension
。
” No doubt
we will remember a 20th century
way of
life beyondcomprehension for its ugliness. But
however amazed
our descendants may be
athow far from Utopia we were, they will look
just like us
。
1.
What
used
to
be
the
danger
in
being
a
man
according
to
thefirst
paragraph?
[A]A lack of
mates
。
[B]A fierce
competition
。
[C]A lower
survival rate
。
[D]A defective
gene
。
2. 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
thetribes
。
[D]India is one
of the countries with a very high birth
rate
。
3.
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
4. Which of the following would be the
best title for the passage?
[A]Sex Ration
Changes in Human Evolution
[B]Ways of Continuing Man’s
Evolution
[C]The Evolutionary Future
of Nature
[D]Human Evolution Going
Nowhere
名师解析
1.
What
used
to
be
the
danger
in
being
a
man
according
to
the
firstparagraph?
根据第一段，做男人以前有什么危险
?
[A]A lack of mates.
缺少配偶。
[B]A fierce
competition.
激烈竞争。
[C]A lower survival rate.
低存活率。
[D]A defective
gene.
有缺陷的基因。
【答案】
C
【考点】
事实细节题。
【分析】
文中第一段提到
“
做男人从来都充满危
险，新生儿男女
比例大约是
105:100
，但到了成年，这一比例基本持平，
而在
70
岁的
老人中女性是男性的两倍，但是男性死亡率高这种普遍情况正在改
变，现在男婴存活率同女婴的基本一样高
”
这
说明男人的存活率相对
是比较低的。
2. What does
the example of India illustrate?
印度的例子证明了什么
?
[A] Wealthy
people tend to have fewer children than poor
people
。
富人往往孩子比穷人少。
[B] Natural
selection hardly works among the rich and the
poor
。
自然选择在穷人和富人之间几乎不起作用。
[C]
The middle class population is 80% smaller than
that of thetribes
。
中产阶
级的人口比部落人口少
80%
。
[D]
India is one of the countries with a very high
birth rate
。
印度是出生率很高的国家之一。
【答案】
B
【考点】
推断题。
【分析】
使用事例来证明是常见的逻辑思维模式。既然有事例，
我们就需要看到它的论点是什么。
本文中提到，
“
进化意义上的自杀
还有
一种方法：存活，但少生孩子
”
。首先
“
现在几乎没有人像过去那
样多育。除了在一些宗教社区，几乎
没有几名妇女会生
15
个孩子
”