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
Can eating a cheeseburger be considered an act of war? Yes, but only if you understand the delicate and intricate relationship o
Can eating a cheeseburger be considered an act of war? Yes, but only if you understand the delicate and intricate relationship o
admin
2016-03-10
32
问题
Can eating a cheeseburger be considered an act of war? Yes, but only if you understand the delicate and intricate relationship of the many living creatures on Earth.
Consider first the place humans occupy in the food chain. We think of ourselves as being on top, right? We are not, generally speaking, hunted and consumed by other animals and being humans, we like to think we’re king of the hill, A-number-one.
But according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Homo sapiens(AH)are at roughly the same level as pigs and anchovies. If it’s any consolation, the report says our species is moving up in the rankings—but that could be seriously bad news for the planet.
Biologists don’t really like the term food chain anymore. Chains are linear, while nature is multidimensional , to say the least. Instead they speak of food webs, often with vast numbers of different trophic(营养的)levels shared by different organisms, like neighbors in a New York high-rise. The living things that used to occupy the bottom of the food chain—algae and multicellular plants—are now said to inhabit " trophic level 1. " They are autotrophs, manufacturing their own food through photosynthesis. Trophic level 2 consists of rabbits and other basic herbivores, which get their energy by eating plants.
Simple, right? From there, however, the trophic numbers get complicated. Many species subsist(维持生活)on mixed diets of animal and vegetable protein. Take foxes: If they ate nothing but rabbits, you could call them level 3. Unfortunately, they also eat fruit, so their trophic score might be less than a full 3. At the same time, some animals prey on other predators. You might be tempted to call them "trophic level 4" and be done with it—but again, take foxes. Besides eating fruit and herbivores, they also catch and consume level-3 animals like moles and other insectivores.
So how do scientists even begin to crunch the fox’s trophic numbers? First they need an army of graduate students and a calculator with plenty of decimal places. Field zoologists are a tough and determined breed. Species by species, they are mapping the global food web, all the way up to the " apex predators" at trophic level 5(or higher, depending on who’s keeping score)—tigers, killer whales, and the like—what everyone once called the top of the food chain.
Science had never settled on a trophic level for humans—until now. It’s not easy to quantify the eating habits of the most diverse, widespread, and omnivorous species of all. But the newly published study, led by fisheries scientist Sylvain Bonhommeau of the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, attempts to change that. Using the most recent data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Bonhommeau and his team have estimated that as of 2009, humanity’s worldwide median trophic level was approximately 2.21—"closer to a herbivore than a carnivore," as Bonhommeau told Nature. "It changes the preconception of being top predator. "
The worrisome part is what else they discovered: Our global population is growing more and more carnivorous, and that trend threatens to send us off an environmental precipice. Humanity’s meat market has more than quadrupled since 1961, from about 70 million tons back then to almost 300 million tons in 2010, according to the FAO. Much of that increase has come from India and China. Those two countries, accounting for about a third of the world’s total population, once relied mostly on rice and vegetables to feed their people. Now their booming economies are enabling them to buy meat, and vast tracts of Amazon rainforest are being clear-cut to satisfy the unprecedented demand for corn and soybeans as animal feed.
And that’s not all that humanity’s appetite for meat is doing to the world. The livestock industry accounts for some 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2006 FAO study. Then there’s the grain and water it takes to raise cattle. NPR ran the numbers and found that it takes 6.7 pounds of grain and forage and 52.8 gallons of water to produce a single quarter-pound ground-beef patty—hold the pickle, the lettuce and the bun.
And Americans are in no position to wag a finger. Despite the incessant claims on talk shows that they’re eating healthier these days, Americans remain among the most voraciously(贪婪地)carnivorous people on the planet, devouring 270. 7 pounds of meat a year per capita. That’s way more than double the world average of 102.5 pounds.
It’s worth remembering that we’re all part of the food web. If it were a chain, humans might be able to keep up our predatory ways with impunity(不受损失). But in a web, what goes around is likely to come around.
In the last paragraph, "what goes around is likely to come around" means that______.
选项
A、animal predators who go away will come back to prey on humans
B、different species will be connected in a multidimensional food web
C、humans’ carnivorous eating habit will change back to be herbivorous
D、the damages humans do to the planet will bring troubles to humans
答案
D
解析
语义题。由题干直接定位至最后一段。综合全文不难理解这句话是指“种下恶因,自吞恶果”,如果我们对同处于食物链中的其他生物造成伤害,这最终也将给人类带来麻烦,故答案为[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/In7O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Allthroughmyboyhoodandyouth,Iwasknownasanidler;andyetIwasalwaysbusyonmyownprivateend,whichwastolearnt
HowtoWriteaThesisI.Introductionpart—writingthe【B1】afterfinishingtherest【B1】______—includingahookatthebegin
StephenKrashen’sTheoryofSecondLanguageAcquisitionStephenKrashenisanexpertinthefieldoflinguistics.Somepointsab
QuestionandAnswerChoiceOrderThislectureisapartofaseriesoflecturesonsurveydesigning.Wetendtotalkabout
Freezingcold,exhausted,soakedthrough,withmassivewavescrashingdownonme,Iwasstrugglingtorightmycapsizedcatamara
ThenationaldayofCanadais______asacommemorationofthepassageoftheBritishNorthAmericanActin186
Dr.FaustusisaplaybasedontheGermanlegendofamagicianaspiringfor____andfinallymeetinghistragicendasaresulto
InflationInflation,asaneconomicphenomenon,isasufficientconditionforanincreaseinprice,butnotanecessaryone.
PASSAGETHREEWhydidthecoastguardcomeouttohelptheauthor?
A、Bysanitizingthewebsitestheyoftensurf.B、BysendingthemtoMissNewJersey.C、Bysupervisingthemwithproperadvice.D、
随机试题
A.自牙颈部牙骨质向牙冠方向散开,止于游离龈和附着龈固有层的牙龈纤维B.自牙槽嵴向牙冠方向展开,穿过固有层止于游离龈和附着龈固有层的牙龈纤维C.位于牙颈周围的游离龈中,呈环行排列的牙龈纤维D.自牙颈部的牙骨质,越过牙槽突外侧皮质骨骨膜,进入牙槽突、前
有关病毒性肝炎的描述下列哪项是错误的()
生产控制的目的主要有()。
张某某(女方)和王某某(男方)于2001年7月26日经朋友介绍相识,当时两人均20岁,相识后彼此之间互相产生了爱慕之情,并于次年4月23日到当地婚姻登记机关领取了结婚证。可婚后生活好景不长,两人常为家庭琐事发生激烈争吵,甚至发展到拳打脚踢的地步,夫妻之间的
1903年,清政府颁发《奏定学堂章程》,该学制体现了张之洞“中学为体,西学为用”的思想,主要借鉴了日本的学制,其最大的特点就是修业年限长。该学制标志着我国国民教育制度的开始,又称为()。
各月份中,平均每起火灾导致的损失和死亡人数最多的月份分别为()。
语言在人类的交流中起重要的作用。如果一种语言是完全有效的,那么,其基本语音的每一种可能的组合都能够表达有独立意义和可以理解的词。但是,如果人类的听觉系统接收声音信号的功能有问题,那么,并非基本语音每一种可能的组合都能够成为有独立意义和可以理解的词。如果上述
(2018年第28题)抗El民主根据地是认真贯彻和实现中国共产党全面抗战路线、坚持抗战和争取胜利的坚强阵地。中国共产党高度重视抗日民主根据地的政权建设,其主要举措有
某计算机中有四个进程P1、P2、P3、P4先后到达,它们分别需要20ms、4ms、2ms和6ms运行完成。若它们按P1、P2、P3、P4的顺序执行,且不可剥夺,则其平均周转时间为(12);若采用时间片原则的剥夺调度方式,且每个时间片长为2ms,则四个进程P
已知某汉字的区位码是1122,则其国标码是()。
最新回复
(
0
)