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  3. How’s this for a coincidence? Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on the same day: Feb. 12, 1809. Alt

How’s this for a coincidence? Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on the same day: Feb. 12, 1809. Alt

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问题     How’s this for a coincidence? Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on the same day: Feb. 12, 1809. Although people hardly think of them in tandem, yet instinctively, we want to say that they belong together. It’s not just because they were both great men, and not because they happen to be exact contemporaries. Rather, it’s because the scientist and the politician each touched off a revolution that changed the world.
    They were both revolutionaries in the sense that both men upended realities that prevailed when they were born. They seem—and sound—modern to us, because the world they left behind them is more or less the one we still live in. So, considering the joint greatness of their contributions—and the coincidence of their conjoined birthdays—it is hard not to wonder: who was the greater man? It’s an apples-and-oranges—or Superman-vs.-Santa—comparison. But if you limit the question to influence, very quickly the balance tips in Lincoln’s favor.
    As great as his book on evolution is, it does no harm to remember that Darwin hurried to publish The Origin of Species because he thought he was about to be scooped by his fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. In other words, there was a certain inevitability to Darwin’s theory. Ideas about evolution surfaced throughout the first part of the 19th century, and while none of them was as convincing as Darwin’s—until Wallace came along—it was not as though he was the only man who had the idea.
    Lincoln, in contrast, is unique. Take him out of the picture, and there is no telling what might have happened to the country. True, his election to the presidency did provoke secession and, in turn, the war itself,  but that war seems inevitable—not a question of if but when.  Once in office,  he becomes the indispensable man. Certainly we know what happened once he was assassinated: Reconstruction was administered punitively and then abandoned, leaving the issue of racial equality to dangle for another century.
    If Darwin were not so irreplaceable as Lincoln, that should not negate his accomplishment. No one could have formulated his theory any more elegantly. Their identical birthdays afford us a superb opportunity to observe these men in the shared context of their time—how each was shaped by his circumstances, how each reacted to the beliefs that steered the world into which he was born and ultimately how each reshaped his corner of that world and left it irrevocably changed.
Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln belong together in that
选项 A、they were born on the same day.
B、they lived in the same period of time.
C、they brought up revolutions to the world.
D、they were born to be successful men.
答案C
解析 根据人名可定位到第一段。题干中的信号词in that表明这是因果关系考点，应在原文中留意相应的词出现的语句。原文提到他们两位都引发了改变世界的革命，故选C项。A项“他们出生于同一天”、B项“他们生活在同一个时代”是事实，但并不是他们属于同一类人的原因；该段中虽提到他们在同一天出生，而且都是伟人，但这并不代表他们生来就是伟人，故A项错误。
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