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
考研
When George Price died in January 1975, his funeral in London was attended by five homeless men: untidy, smelly and cold. Alongs
When George Price died in January 1975, his funeral in London was attended by five homeless men: untidy, smelly and cold. Alongs
admin
2022-11-05
81
问题
When George Price died in January 1975, his funeral in London was attended by five homeless men: untidy, smelly and cold. Alongside them were Bill Hamilton and John Maynard Smith, both distinguished British evolutionary biologists. All seven men had come to mourn an American scientist who helped to unpick the riddle of why people should ever be kind to one another, who had chosen to give away his clothes, his possessions and his home, and who, when his generosity was exhausted, slashed his own throat with a pair of scissors, aged 52.
Ever since Charles Darwin had published his theory of evolution in 1859, scientists have pondered whether it can explain the existence of altruism: behavior that decreases an individual’s fitness but which increases the average fitness of the group to which he belongs. Such kindness is not unique to humans but exists also in complex insect societies. Bees, for example, live in colonies headed by a queen and populated by sterile workers. One reading of Darwin’s theory says that, because the workers do not breed, evolution should result in their elimination. Yet this is not what happens in nature.
In the 1960s, Hamilton proposed that evolution acts on characteristics that favor the survival of close relatives of a certain individual. The bee colonies that survive are those in which sterile workers provide the "fittest" service to their mother. Each worker thus strives to favor the reproductive success of the queen, even at the price of her own reproductive failure.
Price wanted to describe mathematically how a genetic predisposition to altruism could evolve. He devised a formula, now called the Price equation, that describes how characteristics that can, in some cases, prove disadvantageous, nevertheless persist in the population. By slightly changing the variables, he was able to describe populations in which kindness was widespread, everyone benefited and altruism was passed down the generations, and other, more brutal worlds, where charity was abused and kindness died out.
Ultimately, Price ended up in such a place. In 1967 he moved to London, where he hooked up with Hamilton and derived the equation for which he is famed. At the same time, his interest in altruism blossomed into something less kin-based and more practical: he began to seek out needy strangers. At one stage, he had four homeless men staying in his flat, while he slept in his office. As he became increasingly unwell, both physically and mentally, he redoubled his efforts to help the poor, moving into a dirty cabin where, one freezing night, he committed suicide. Price ultimately became one of the homeless he had set out to save.
It can be inferred that Price’s motivation to help strangers is ________.
选项
A、selfless personality
B、enthusiastic pursuit of science
C、devotion to charity and donation
D、interest in his field of study
答案
D
解析
根据出题顺序的原则定位到最后一段。根据题干的help strangers定位到第三句“他对利他主义的兴趣延伸到了更没什么血缘关系的人,……他开始寻找需要帮助的陌生人”。这一想法是源自于他对利他主义的兴趣,D项与文意相符。A项说是由于他无私的本性,文中没有相关句子佐证。B项所说的enthusiastic pursuit,“狂热追求”有点过头,文中只说是interest,且science的范围也太广。C项中的charity在第四段的末句出现,但文中说的是在其他一些残酷的团体中,慈善总被滥用,与本题的题干无关。且donation这类字眼文中并未出现。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Tfi4777K
0
考研英语二
相关试题推荐
Theauthorbelievesinthepassagethat______.Thepropertitleforthispassageshouldbe______.
Inthissection,youareaskedtowriteanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)interpretthe
RuthSimmonsjoinedGoldmanSachs’sboardasanoutsidedirectorinJanuary2000:ayearlatershebecamepresidentofBrownUni
HenricIbsen,authoroftheplay"ADoll’sHouse",inwhichapretty,helplesshousewifeabandonsherhusbandandchildrentose
HenricIbsen,authoroftheplay"ADoll’sHouse",inwhichapretty,helplesshousewifeabandonsherhusbandandchildrentose
Parentsofchildrenwhohappilyeatwhat’sputinfrontofthemmightassumetheirkidsarewellnourished.Buttwonewstudies
Afterclashesbetweenriotpoliceandprotesters,workersattheKeihinHotelinTokyowereforciblyejectedonJanuary25th.Th
Inasweepingchangetohowmostofits1,800employeesarepaid,theUnionSquareHospitalityGroupwilleliminatetippingatU
Manypeopletaketosocialmediatosharenewsofbigevents.OnDecember1stFacebook’sboss,MarkZuckerberg,followedinthe
StateandlocalauthoritiesfromNewHampshiretoSanFranciscohavebegunbanningtheuseoffacial-recognitiontechnology.The
随机试题
牛膝用治胃火上炎,牙龈肿痛是因其能
以下关于我国历史上土地权利制度的表述,错误的是()。
当初步设计有详细设备清单时,可按( )编制单位设备安装工程概算。
关于从事危险化学品特种作业人员条件的说法,正确的是()。[2014年真题]
计算机的工作简单说是由数据输入、数据加工处理和()三部分组成。
在内部控制审计中,注册会计师需要针对期后期间询问并检查,下列信息不恰当的是()。
莫泊桑,19世纪后半期法国优秀的批判现实主义作家,对后世影响极大,下列对他的描述中,正确的是()。
某学校高二年级8个班,举行篮球比赛,采取单循环制,一共要进行_______场比赛,共_______轮。
A.活髓切断术B.直接盖髓术C.根管治疗术D.根尖诱导成形术E.间接盖髓术根尖口呈喇叭口的牙髓炎患牙,治疗方法宜选用()。
Don’tdrinkthemilk:itsmells______sour.
最新回复
(
0
)