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  3. When two drunken men fight over a woman, alcohol and stupidity may not be the only things at work. Sadly, evolution may have sha

When two drunken men fight over a woman, alcohol and stupidity may not be the only things at work. Sadly, evolution may have sha

admin2022-11-05  65
问题     When two drunken men fight over a woman, alcohol and stupidity may not be the only things at work. Sadly, evolution may have shaped men to behave this way. Almost all of the traits considered to be masculine—big muscles, facial hair, square jaws, deep voices and a propensity to violence—evolved, it now seems, specifically for their usefulness in fighting off or intimidating other men, allowing the winner to get the girl.
    That, at least, is the contention of David Puts, an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University, in an upcoming paper in Evolution and Human Behavior. Dr Puts is looking at how sexual selection gave rise to certain human traits. A trait is sexually selected if it evolved specifically to enhance mating success. They come in two main forms: weapons, such as an elk’s horns, which are used to fight off competitors; and ornaments, like a peacock’s tail, which are used to advertise genetic fitness to attract the opposite sex.
    Researchers have tended to consider human sexual selection through the lens of the female’s choice of her mate. But human males look a lot more like animals designed to battle with one another for access to females, says Dr Puts. On average, men have 40％ more fat-free mass than women, which is similar to the difference in gorillas, a species in which males unquestionably compete with other males for exclusive sexual access to females. In species whose males do not fight for access to females, males are generally the same size as, or smaller than, females.
    The heavier brow and jaw of males might have developed to withstand blows from other males. Heavy eyebrows, facial hair and deep voices all could serve to make a man more imposing to other men. Dr Puts does not dismiss mate selection outright. Women are attracted to some of the same traits that are good for dominating other men because they signal that the man will sire sons who will also be successful at mating. But female choice probably is not the primary cause of the traits.
    It is a disturbing idea to modern minds, harking back to old stereotypes about violent cavemen battling with clubs while a passive woman, fetching in furs, waits helplessly to see who will win her. But Dr Puts emphasizes that evolutionary biology is not destiny. Regardless of our evolutionary past, in modern societies men and women freely choose their mates. However, understanding the evolutionary pressures that made men the way they are could help us better understand male violence, including murder, domestic abuse, gang violence and perhaps even warfare.
Elk’s horn and peacock’s tail are mentioned in Paragraph 2 to show that ________.
选项 A、they are sexual traits unique to males
B、they are ornaments to attract females
C、they are weapons to fight off competitors
D、they evolved to make mating successful
答案D
解析 根据elk’s horn以及peacock’s tail可定位到第二段。该段第三句说，某个特征如果是进化来提高交配成功率的(enhance mating Success)，那这个特征就是性选择导致的。第四句则举例麋鹿的角和孔雀的尾巴来说明性选择导致的特征的两种形式，elk’s horns属于第一种形式——weapons，而peacock’s tail则属于第二种形式——ornaments，两种形式的目的都是为了enhance mating Success，D项中make mating successful与此对应，故确定D项为正确选项。原文并没有特别指出麋鹿的角和孔雀的尾巴都是雄性特有的，A项内容无法从原文得出。麋鹿的角是击退竞争者的武器，孔雀的尾巴是吸引异性的美化外表，B项和C项都只提到其中一点，不全面。
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