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  3. Charles Darwin wed his cousin Emma and spawned 10 children, including four brilliant scientists. Albert Einstein’s second wife E

Charles Darwin wed his cousin Emma and spawned 10 children, including four brilliant scientists. Albert Einstein’s second wife E

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问题     Charles Darwin wed his cousin Emma and spawned 10 children, including four brilliant scientists. Albert Einstein’s second wife Elsa was his first cousin. Queen Victoria said “I do” to hers. So have millions worldwide. In parts of Saudi Arabia, 39% of all marriages are between first cousins.
    In the U. S., though, the practice bears a stigma of inbreeding just this side of incest. The taboo is not only social hut legislative; 24 states ban the marriage of first cousins: five others allow it only if the couple is unable to bear children. A major reason for this ban is the belief that kids of first cousins are tragically susceptible to serious congenital illnesses.
    That view may have to change. A comprehensive study published recently in the Journal of Genetic Counseling indicates such children run an only slightly higher risk of significant genetic disorders like congenital heart defects — about two percentage points above the average 3% to 4%. Says the study’s lead author, Robin Bennett, president-elect of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, which funded the study: “Aside from a thorough medical family history, there is no need to offer any genetic testing on the basis of consanguinity alone”.
    Publication of the study will do more than tweak public awareness; it will enlighten doctors who have urged cousin couples not to have children. “Just this week,” says Bennett, “I saw a 23-year-old woman who had had a tubal ligation because her parents were cousins and her doctor told her she shouldn’t have children.”
    The American proscription against cousin marriages grew in the 19th century as wilderness settlers tried to distinguish themselves from the “savage” Indians, says Martin, author of the book Forbidden Relatives: The American Myth of Cousin Marriage. “The truth is that Europeans were marrying their cousins and Native Americans were not.”
    And doesn’t God have stern words on the subject? Christie Smith, 37, a Nevada writer, says she felt guilty when she fell in love with her first cousin’s son Mark. “I was trying so hard to convince myself not to have these feelings,” she recalls, “that I went to the Bible looking for confirmation that it was wrong. And what I found was the exact opposite: support for cousin marriages.” The patriarch Jacob married two of his first cousins, Rachel and Leah. Smith married Mark in 1999.
    The medical ban is lifted; the social stain may take longer to disappear.
The word “consanguinity” (Line 6, Para. 3) is closest in meaning to
选项 A、cousin.
B、kinship.
C、congenital.
D、genetic disorders.
答案B
解析 语义理解题。consanguinity出现在第三段最后一句话。我们可以分别把选项代入再结合上文中提到的有关近亲结婚的研究看哪个选项合适。“除了需要一份详尽的家庭病史，不需要仅根据…就进行任何的基因测试”，四个选项中只有[B]“血缘关系”代入句子通顺合理，故为答案。另外，从构词法上也可得出答案。con-为前缀，表示“共同”；sangui-为词根，表示“血”；-ity为名词后缀，表示“性质”或“状态”。因此consanguinity意为“同族，血缘关系”，[B]为答案。
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