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
2015-08-09
23
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 some-thing 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 always been dangerous...But the great universal of male mortality is being changed.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/ImRd777K
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
Comparisonsweredrawnbetweenthedevelopmentoftelevisioninthe20thcenturyandthediffusionofprintinginthe15thand1
TheSupremeCourt’sdecisionsonphysician-assistedsuicidecarryimportantimplicationsforhowmedicineseekstorelievedying
Scientistsbelievethatpeople"dressedup"longbeforetheymadeahabitofwearingclothes.Primitivemandressedhimselfinf
Properarrangementofclassroomspaceisimportanttoencouraginginteraction.Mostofushavenoticedhowimportantphysica
Accordingtothespeaker,whatshouldonepayspecialattentiontoifhewantstosaveup?
ReadthefollowingtextcarefullyandthentranslatetheUnderlinedsegmentsintoChinese.Yourtranslationshouldbewrittencl
HowlongdidEmilyDickinsonliveinthehousewhereshewasborn?
Researchersinvestigatingbrainsizeandmentalabilitysaytheirworkoffersevidencethateducationprotectsthemindfromthe
HowlongdidEmilyDickinsonliveinthehousewhereshewasborn?______
Thebigidentity-theftbustlastweekwasjustatasteofwhat’stocome.Here’showtoprotectyourgoodname.HERE’STHES
随机试题
A.抑制胃壁细胞H+泵B.阻断H2受体C.中和胃酸D.抗幽门螺杆菌E.阻断M1胆碱受体氢氧化铝治疗消化性溃疡病的机制是
患者,神思恍惚,魂蒙颠倒,心悸易惊,善悲欲哭,食少乏力,舌色淡,脉细无力。方选
【2011—4】题6~10:下图所示为一座110kV/35kv/10kV变电站,110kV和35kV采用敞开式配电装置,10kV采用户内配电装置,变压器三侧均采用架空套管出线。正常运行方式下任一路110kV电源线路带全所负荷,另一路热备用,两台主变压器分列
背景资料某城市南郊雨水泵站工程临近大治河,大治河常水位为+3.00m,雨水泵站和进水管道连接处的管内底标高为-4.00m。雨水泵房地下部分采用沉井法施工,进水管为3m×2m×l0m(宽×高×长)现浇钢筋混凝土箱涵,基坑采用拉森钢板桩围护。设计对雨
各国货币政策的首要目标通常是()。
招标人和投标人双方在招标投标活动中的地位平等,任何一方不得向另一方提出不合理的要求,不得将自己的意志强加给对方,这体现了()。
【2014四川泸州】教师职业道德的调节功能不仅指向教育过程,而且指向教师本身。()
左图为给定的多面体,从任一角度观看,下面哪一项不可能是该多面体的视图?
有如下过程:Subproc()DimchAsStringOpen"file1.txt"ForInputAs#1Open"file1_bak.txt"ForOutputAs#2DoWhi
A、Theevolutionofdanceinthetwentiethcentury.B、Artistsofthelastcentury.C、Naturalmovementindance.D、Apioneerinmo
最新回复
(
0
)