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  3. A New Study on Elephants A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has come up with the unexpected conclusion that the A

A New Study on Elephants A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has come up with the unexpected conclusion that the A

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问题                      A New Study on Elephants
   A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has come up with the unexpected conclusion that the African elephant is divided into two distinct (不同的) species.
   The discovery was made by researchers at York and Harvard universities when they were examining the genetic (基因的) relationship between the ancient woolly mammoth and mastodon to modern elephants—the Asian elephant, African forest elephant and African savanna (热带草原) elephant.
   Once they obtained DNA sequences from two fossils (化石) , mammoths and mastodons. The team compared them with DNA from modern elephants. They found to their amazement that modern forest and savanna elephants are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants and mammoths.
   The scientists used detailed genetic analysis to prove that the African savanna elephants and the African forest elephants have been distinct species for several million years. The divergence (分离)of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of Asian elephants and woolly mammoths. This result amazed all the scientists.
   There has long been debate in the scientific community that the two might be separate species but this is the most convincing scientific evidence so far that they are indeed different species.
   Previously, many naturalists believed that African savanna elephants and African forest elephants were two populations of the same species despite the elephants’ significant size differences. The savanna elephant has an average shoulder height of 3. 5 metres while the forest elephant has an average shoulder height of 2. 5metres. The savanna elephant weighs between six and seven tons, roughly double the weight of the forest elephant. But the fact that they look so different does not necessarily mean they are different species. However, the proof lay in the analysis of the DNA.
   Alfred Roca, assistant professor in the department of Animal Sciences at the University of Minois, said, " We now have to treat the forest and savanna elephants as two different units for conservation purpose. Since 1950 all African elephants have been conserved as one species. Now that we know the forest and savanna elephants are two very distinct animals, the forest elephant should become a bigger priority (优先)for conservation purpose. "
The modern elephants have three species, the Asian elephant, African forest elephant and African savanna elephant.
选项 A、TRUE
B、FALSE
C、Not Given
答案A
解析 题干要求判断现代大象是否有三个分支，即亚洲大象、非洲森林大象和非洲热带草原大象。第二段最后一句话提到“the Asian elephant，African forest elephant and African savanna elephant”，这三类大象是“modern elephants”的三个分支，所以题干表述是正确的。
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