More boys than girls are born all over the world, but a new study has found that the closer people live to the equator(赤道), the

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问题     More boys than girls are born all over the world, but a new study has found that the closer people live to the equator(赤道), the smaller the difference becomes. No one knows why.
    The imbalanced sex ratio at birth has been known for more than a hundred years, and researchers have found a large variety of social, economic and biological factors that relate to the sex ratio at birth-war, economic stress, age, diet, selective abortion and more. But latitude(纬度)is a natural phenomenon, unaffected by cultural or economic factors.
    To look at the effect of latitude, Kristen J. Navara of the University of Georgia used the latitude of the capital city in 202 countries, as well as 10 years of data on sex ratio at birth and annual variations in day length and temperature. Dr. Navara performed a statistical analysis which showed that there was a significant relation between sex ratios in favor of boys and latitude. African countries produced the lowest sex ratios—50. 7 percent boys—and European and Asian countries had the highest with 51. 4 percent.
    There are some possible explanations, but none entirely satisfactory. It could be that there is some survival value in producing more girls in warmer regions, but it is unclear what this might be. There may be genetic or racial differences that could explain it, but the connection persists over so many varied populations that this seems unlikely. Mice also produce more male offspring during shorter days or colder weather, but the reasons in these animals are just as mysterious as they are in humans.
    " There’s a possibility that humans might be responding to factors they were programmed to respond to a long time ago-not cultural or socioeconomic, but climate and things like latitude," Dr. Navara said. " What’s interesting is that we may be seeing something that connects us with our animal ancestry. "
Dr. Navara reached her conclusion through______.

选项 A、comparing data
B、field study
C、conducting a survey
D、map reading

答案A

解析 细节理解题。从第三段的“Kristen J.Navara of the University of Georgia used thelatitude of the capital city in 202 countries,as well as 10 years of data on sex ratio at birth andannual variations in day length and temperature”可知,Navara在研究中引用了data,由此可判断A正确。本段的最后一句:African countries produced the lowest sex ratios一50.7 percentboys—and European and Asian countries had the highest with 51.4 percent就是最佳的证明。而其他三项文章均未提及。
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