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  3. (1) Culture is only a relatively recent invention in the history of the human species. It seems that we first developed the abil

(1) Culture is only a relatively recent invention in the history of the human species. It seems that we first developed the abil

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问题     (1) Culture is only a relatively recent invention in the history of the human species. It seems that we first developed the ability to acquire knowledge, beliefs, and practices from others about 160,000 to 200,000 years ago. Our predecessors roamed the African savannah for at least a million years as hunter- gatherers in small family groups, whereas our more recent ancestors homo sapiens sapiens lived in larger tribal societies where people worked together. In these larger groups, they developed common systems of customs, beliefs, and cultural identities, and learnt new skills, technologies, and languages from each other. Broadly defined as the evolution of "culture", this enabled humans to cooperate with and learn from people from outside their immediate family group. Culture gave humans the critical advantage they needed to survive and expand out across the world, becoming the dominant species on the planet.
    (2) Culture has become our species’ strategy for survival, and our genes have adapted to make best use of their new social environment. In other words, we are all "wired" for culture, inheriting something similar to a software operating system which enables us to acquire cultural identities and to cooperate and thrive in social environments. This is unique to the human species, and influences every aspect of our behaviour and psychology. It’s what makes us all truly social animals.
    (3) So why, if culture and language are so fundamental to our survival, do we have so many separate ones? It’s certainly not a case of geographical distance. In the tribes of Papua New Guinea, a different language is spoken every few miles. New Guinea, just one island in the Australasian archipelago, is home to 800—or some 15％—of the world’s languages. There are no obvious explanations for this in terms of political barriers. In fact, it appears that these tribes deliberately alter their languages to maintain their separation from their neighbours. Under this hypothesis, linguistic diversity is a result of our social psychology, which values and preserves distinct languages as a key marker of the cultural identity we rely upon for survival. Separate languages also act as a form of basic intellectual property protection, reducing the ability from those outside of the group to steal the ideas you are communicating within it. Our enduring linguistic diversity reflects one key lesson from the cultural history of evolution: the inherent and unique propensity (倾向) of humans to form separate social and cultural identities.
    (4) This brings us to an inherent tension. Our cultural instincts have given us an unmatched ability to get along with each other. They drive us to do all kinds of things not found in the animal kingdom towards those to whom we are not related—to be charitable to strangers, to look after old people and the sick, to support our local sports team, and to work together to innovate and create knowledge, technology, and spectacular works of art. However, these instincts are a double-edged sword linked to a much darker side of our nature. For most of their existence humans have faced a continuous struggle to survive, with competition from other humans one of the main threats. As a result, these societies developed hostile attitudes to outsiders, which has left a legacy on our behaviour today, in the form of xenophobia, parochialism, racism and, in some cases, a drive to carry out violence and war. The same instinct can also drive violence against group members who are seen to violate group norms. This is because their actions are seen as threatening the sense of togetherness on which the group’s survival depends.
    (5) Our cultural psychology, developed over millennia living in (relatively) distinct cultural groups with shared values and allegiances, is adapting to the new age of globalization and the emergence of multicultural societies. On the surface, such societies have a lower sense of cultural relatedness than has been true for the much of humans’ evolutionary history. This puts under strain social rules which have been developed for different cultures. To maintain cohesion these societies will depend upon the clear enforcement of cultural or democratically derived rules. And they will face pressure as individualistic and self-interested behaviour grows and groups seek to break away from the whole. However, our unique social talent for cooperation with others will ultimately overcome our narrow instincts and find new ways to build a sense of shared culture and purpose.
Para. 1 seems to suggest that________.
选项 A、culture cannot be found in prehistory
B、culture is essential to human’s success
C、culture is formed by immediate family
D、culture influences every aspect of our life
答案B
解析 归纳总结题。此题考查对文段的理解。第1段先是简述了“文化”在人类历史的发展情况，之后指出了“文化”对人类的作用。本段最后一句指出，文化赋予人类生存和扩展到世界各地所需的关键优势，使人类成为主导地球的物种。B项概括了这一信息，符合原文的意思。第1段第3、4句指出，人类祖先现代智人生活在更大的部落社会中，在这些部落中。人们形成了共同的风俗、信仰和文化认同体系，并学习新的技能、技术和语言。而这广义上被定义为“文化”的进化，可见史前人类是有形成“文化”的，并且形成“文化”的环境是部落，故A项和C项错误。D项是个宽泛的说法，并非第1段要体现的信息。
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