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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.
What does the author mean by   "an apples-and-oranges—or Superman-vs.-Santa—comparison" (Lines 4-5, Paragraph 2)?
选项 A、It is hard to tell which one is greater as they are both outstanding.
B、The comparison between Darwin and Lincoln is meaningless.
C、It is difficult to compare them as they are as famous as Superman or Santa.
D、There is no point comparing them because both of them are well-known to us.
答案A
解析 根据题干要求定位在第二段。对句意的理解要结合具体语境。该段最后一句句首的But作为转折信号词往往提示重点信息的出现，此处讲的是：如果从影响力角度看则林肯占优势，故推断若不提出这种假设，则两者不分伯仲，选A项。文中提到superman(超人)和Santa(圣诞老人)只是因为他们都很有名，用他们之间不分伯仲的比较来喻指林肯和达尔文两个伟人之间的重量级较量，C项只是字面解释，忽略了深层次含义；此外，该段中指出林肯和达尔文都做出了巨大的贡献，而且又巧合地在同一天出生，很自然地会让人产生谁更伟大的疑问，故两者的比较是有意义的，而不是毫无意义的，所以B、D项与事实不符。
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