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
There is something intrinsically fascinating about the idea of evolutioa What principles govern the evolution of a species? And
There is something intrinsically fascinating about the idea of evolutioa What principles govern the evolution of a species? And
admin
2023-01-17
38
问题
There is something intrinsically fascinating about the idea of evolutioa What principles govern the evolution of a species? And what does evolution tell us about the place of Homosapiens in the grand order of things? The writer George Bernard Shaw held that a mystical guiding force impels life to evolve toward eventual perfection Modem scientists may not believe in this guiding force or in the possibility of perfection, but many would agree that life has been improving itself through evolution for billions of years. (Note that this conveniently makes Homosapiens, a very recent product of evolution, one of the newest and most improved versions of life.) In the view of these scientists, constant competition among species is the engine that drives the process of evolution and people’s life upward
To Darwin, nature was a surface covered with thousands of sharp wedges, all packed together and jostling for the same space. Those wedges that fared best moved toward the center of the surface, improving their position by knocking other wedges away with violent blows. The standard example that textbooks give of such competitive wedging is the interaction between the brachiopods and the clams. Clams were long held to be ancient undersea competitors of
brachiopods
due to the fact that the two species inhabited the same ecological niche. Clams are abundant today, whereas brachiopods (dominant in ancient times) are not. Modem clams are also physiologically more complex than brachiopods are. The standard interpretation of these facts is that the clams’ physiology was an evolutionary improvement that gave them the ability to "knock away" the brachiopods.
In recent years, however, the prominent naturalists Stephen Jay Gould and C. Brad Calloway have challenged the validity of this example as well as the model it was meant to support. Gould and Calloway found that over most geological time clams and brachiopods went their separate ways. Never did the population of brachiopods dip as that of the clams rose, or vice versa In fact, the two populations often grew simultaneously, which belies the notion that they were fighting fiercely over the same narrow turf and resources. That there are so many more clams than brachiopods today seems rather to be a consequence of mass deaths that occurred in the Permian period. Whatever caused the mass deaths—some scientists theorize that either there were massive ecological or geological changes, or a
comet
crashed down from the heavens—clams were simply able to weather the storm much better than brachiopods.
Out of these observations, Gould and Calloway drew a number of far-reaching conclusions. For instance, they suggested that direct competition between species was far less frequent than Darwin thought. Perhaps nature was really a very large surface on which there were very few wedges, and the wedges consequently did not bang incessantly against each other. Perhaps the problem facing these wedges was rather that the surface continually altered its shape, and they had to struggle independently to stay in a good position on the surface as it changed.
So where does that leave Homosapiens if evolution is a response to sudden, unpredictable and sweeping changes in the environment rather than the result of a perpetual struggle? No longer are we the kings of the mountain who clawed our way to the top by advancing beyond other species. We are instead those who looked to the mountains when floods began to rage below and then discovered that living high up has its definite advantages, so long as our mountain doesn’t decide to turn into a volcano.
The word "comet" underlined in Paragraph 3 refers to________.
选项
A、an event that could have obscured the geological record
B、a possible cause for the decline of brachiopods
C、massive ecological or geological changes
D、the acceleration of evolutionary adaptation
答案
B
解析
文中第3段最后两句提到,物种大规模死亡的可能原因之一是彗星掉落在地球上引发的,而腕足类数量减少则是大规模死亡其中一个后果,因此B项“是腕足类动物数量减少的一个可能原因”正确。C项“大型生态或地理变化”,这是在or之前与彗星并列的表述,两者不能互换。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/TNcD777K
本试题收录于:
CATTI二级笔译综合能力题库翻译专业资格(CATTI)分类
0
CATTI二级笔译综合能力
翻译专业资格(CATTI)
相关试题推荐
Everyonewantstobeauthentic.Youwanttobetruetoyourself,notaslavishfollowerofsocialexpectations.Youwantto"liv
Thinnerisn’talwaysbetter.Anumberofstudieshave【C1】________thatnormal-weightpeopleareinfactathigherriskofsomedi
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Peekthroughtheinspectionwindowsofthenearly100three-dimensional(3D)printersquietlymakingthingsatRedEye,acompany
Peekthroughtheinspectionwindowsofthenearly100three-dimensional(3D)printersquietlymakingthingsatRedEye,acompany
Itiscommonknowledgethathealthyfoodssuchasfruitsandvegetablescontaincertainnutrientsthatpromotegoodhealth—namel
雪崩效应指明文或密钥的少量变化会引起密文的很大变化。下列密码算法中不具有雪崩效应的是________。
トランプ大統領は日米同盟を破壊するのかこの写真は、ドイツ首相官邸がツイッターで拡散したことで、世界中で広く閲覧されることになった。写真では、中間に安倍首相が腕を組んで立っている様子が象徴的であった。あたかも、熾烈(しれつ)化する米欧対立を、日本が
「お天道様に顔向けできない」という言葉がある。他人が________,悪いことはできないし、したくもないという意味である。
英語のアルファベットのような表音文字は意味でなく音を表しますから、象形文字の場合のような連想は同じ形では起こってきません。しかし、例えばIとOというアルファベット文字を比較してみて、Iは「イ」の音の細い感じ、Oは「オ」の音の太い感じにふさわしい恰好をしてい
随机试题
酒制大黄的作用较好的是
Informationtechnologythathelpsdoctorsandpatientsmakedecisionshasbeenaroundforalongtime.CrudeonlinetoolslikeW
细菌的ONPG试验阳性呈现的颜色是
A.X射线B.电子线C.γ射线D.质子E.β射线60Co释放的射线是
A.附着水平B.探诊出血C.X线检查D.菌斑指数E.龈沟液检测
属于水利工程施工项目招标程序的有()。
农业统计是反映农业再生产经营现状和过程的统计,包括种植业、林业、牧业和渔业等4个行业大类的统计。()
在保证流动资产正常需要量和正常保险储备量的基础上,再增加一部分额外的储备量,这种资产组合策略是()。
张某、李某、刘某共同出资设立的甲普通合伙企业(下称甲企业),经全体合伙人一致同意决定解散。清算过程中,甲企业的财产及其合伙人的财产不足以偿清合伙企业的债务。清算结束后,下列关于甲企业可否注销及其剩余债务解决方法的表述中,符合合伙企业法律制度规定的是()
Thefundamentaldistinctionbetweenaconstitutionandordinarylawsissimilartothatbetweenlawsingeneralandtheirapplic
最新回复
(
0
)