首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females , but this ratio drops to near balan
Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females , but this ratio drops to near balan
admin
2014-03-25
25
问题
Being a man has always 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 among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby(particularly a boy baby)surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution 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 in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today—everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring—means that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes.
For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many places in nature. But in the past 100,000 years—even the past 100 years—our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they " look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension". No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.
What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?
选项
A、A lack of mates.
B、A fierce competition.
C、A lower survival rate.
D、A defective gene.
答案
C
解析
文章第一段开头是答题的关键:Being a man has alwaysbeen dangerous…But the great universal of male mortality is beingchanged.可见,男性的出生率高于女性,但是随着年龄增加,男女比例呈明显下降趋势。作者试图用这些数据表明,生为男人的危险并不是在于寻找配偶的困难,而是男性的死亡率远远高于女性。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Gixd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语四级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语四级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
Inthe18thcentury,NewYorkwassmallerthanPhiladelphiaandBoston.TodayitisthelargestcityinAmerica.Howtoexplain
Duringthe1980s,unemploymentandunderemploymentinsomecountrieswasashighas90percent.Somecountriesdidnot【21】_____
Duringthe1980s,unemploymentandunderemploymentinsomecountrieswasashighas90percent.Somecountriesdidnot【21】_____
Doanimalshavefights?Thisishowthequestionisusuallyput.Itseemsauseful,ground-clearingwaytostart.【61】Actually,
Inthe18thcentury,NewYorkwassmallerthanPhiladephiaandBoston.TodayitisthelargestcityinAmerica.Howtoexplain
Therearemorerichpeoplethaneverbefore,includingsome7millionmillionaires,andover400billionaires.Fromsippingcham
Researchersinvestigatingbrainsizeandmentalabilitysaytheirworkoffersevidencethateducationprotectsthemindfromthe
Whenwillshowersreachsouth-westEnglandandthesoutherncoastofWales?
Whatmustyoumakesurewhenyouloadthecassette?
Whatmustyoumakesurewhenyouloadthecassette?
随机试题
车辆在冰雪路面紧急制动易产生侧滑,应低速行驶,可利用发动机制动进行减速。
最易变色的药材组是
估价机构的法定代表人必须是注册后从事房地产估价工作2年以上的专兼职注册房地产估价师。()
不属于要约的是()。
锤击沉管灌注桩施工方法适用于在()中使用。
甲公司为增值税一般纳税人,增值税税率为13%,产品价目表标明产品的不含税销售价格为每件1200元,购买100件以上,可获得3.5%的商业折扣,购买500件以上,可获得5%的商业折扣。某客户购买该产品180件,规定付款条件为2/10,1/20,n/30(按含
东汉蔡伦发明造纸术,对中国和世界文化的发展作出了卓越贡献。()
同理心是指在人际交往过程中,能够体会他人的情绪和想法,理解他人立场和感受,并站在别人的角度来思考和处理问题的能力。 根据以上定义,下列不属于同理心的是()。
以下关于文件读写的描述中,错误的是()。
Whenyouhavetomeetsomeonefromadifferentculture,beprepared.Ifyouunderstandculturaldifferences,you’llbeabetter
最新回复
(
0
)