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
Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balanc
Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balanc
admin
2016-11-17
71
问题
Being a man has always been dangerous. There are about 105 males born for every 100 females, but this ratio drops to near balance at the age of maturity, and among 70-year-olds there are twice as many women as men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed. Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do. This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby (particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death. Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone.
There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children. Few people are as fertile as in the past. Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children. Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average. Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring. Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples. The grand mediocrity of today—everyone being the same in survival and number of offspring—means that natural selection has lost 80% of its power in upper-middle-class India compared to the tribes.
For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physical change. No other species fills so many places in nature. But in the past 100,000 years—even the past 100 years—our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not. We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us. Darwin had a phrase to describe those ignorant of evolution: they "look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something wholly beyond his comprehension". No doubt we will remember a 20th century way of life beyond comprehension for its ugliness. But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.
The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because________.
选项
A、life has been improved by technological advance
B、the number of female babies has been declining
C、our species has reached the highest stage of evolution
D、the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing
答案
A
解析
在第三段第五句中作者写道:我们不再进化。这是因为机器和社会代替我们进化了。换言之,机器的使用、社会的进步使我们的生活发生了变化,即A技术的进步提高了生活质量。文章称这种现象为“进化方面的自杀”,故应否定。C我们的物种已进化到了最高阶段,B女婴数量一直呈下降趋势和D贫富差距正在消失文中并未提及。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/h8Rd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语四级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语四级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
Howeverimportantwemayregardschoollifetobe,thereisnodenyingthefactthatchildrenspendmoretimeathomethaninth
Properarrangementofclassroomspaceisimportanttoencouraginginteraction.Mostofushavenoticedhowimportantphysicalse
Accordingtotheradioprogram,whichoneofthefollowingfoursentencesiswrong?
WhydosomanyAmericansdistrustwhattheyreadintheirnewspapers?TheAmericanSocietyofNewspaperEditorsistryingtoans
ThepopulationoftheUnitedStatesisonly6%oftheworld’spopulation,butAmericans【21】______onethirdofalltheener
WhattypeofprogramisChineseMothers?
WhowontheWorldCup1994footballgame?WhathappenedattheUnitedNations?Howdidthecriticslikethenewplay?【21】_____
StandardEnglishisthevarietyofEnglishwhichisusuallyusedinprintandwhichisnormallytaughtinschoolsandtonon-nat
Sailorsandfishermeninparticular,havealwaysbeenextremelysuperstitious.Thisishardlysurprisingwhenoneconsidersthe
Iamafraidtosleep.Ihavebeenafraidtosleepforthelastfewweeks.Iamsotiredthat,finally,Idosleep,butonlyfor
随机试题
患者,男性,55岁。既往体健,近6个月来有进行性厌食,消瘦乏力,伴上腹部不适,近2个月来上述症状逐日加重,检查:Hb80g/L,尿常规正常,SGVI、30U,血清白蛋白30g/L,球蛋白20g/L,BSP潴留试验:45min<5%,大便隐血试验(+++)。
不属于精神分裂症常见症状的是
按照税法效力的不同,可以将税法分为( )。
2016年7月1日,人民法院裁定受理了A公司的破产申请,并同时指定了管理人。在该破产案件中,存在下述情况:(1)A公司的股东甲公司抽逃出资100万元,其中A公司董事张某协助其抽逃出资。2016年7月10日,管理人代表A公司对甲公司和张某提起诉讼,要求
下列项目适用17%税率的是()。
教育家()曾说:“我十分明确地把培养有用的国家公民当作国家国民学校的教育目标,并且是国民教育的根本目标。”这是教育史上较为典型的社会本位目的论思想。
若大气降水是100%,以前渗入某城市地下和转化为城市地表径流的数量分别占降水的50%和10%。随着城市化进程,现在渗入地下和转化为地表径流的数量分别占降水的32%和43%。据此回答问题。产生城市地表径流比重增加的原因是()。
甲、乙、丙、丁参加体育训练,近期10次跳绳测试的平均成绩都是每分钟174个,其方差如下表:则这10次跳绳中,这四个人发挥最稳定的是()
甲、乙双方签订了货物买卖合同,由甲方向乙方提供货物。后经甲方同意,乙方将合同中的权利、义务转给丙。这样,法律关系的()就发生了变更。
现代科学技术开始于19世纪末叶,当时出现了有组织的规模较大的科学技术研究单位,这有内在的和外部的原因。内在原因是科学技术到这时期比较复杂,专业、专科很多。外部原因是当时出现的一场技术革命。这段话主要支持了这样一种观点( )
最新回复
(
0
)