2. 外语
  3. MacArthur and Wilson suggested that the biodiversity of an island will vary in direct proportion to a function of the island’s s

MacArthur and Wilson suggested that the biodiversity of an island will vary in direct proportion to a function of the island’s s

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问题     MacArthur and Wilson suggested that the biodiversity of an island will vary in direct proportion to a function of the island’s size (i.e., larger islands can support a greater number of species) and in inverse proportion to a function of its distance from the mainland (i.e., many remote islands will tend to support fewer species). Reduced biodiversity in an island context is likely to require significant adaptation on the part of colonizing human populations. Evans argues that this limitation makes islands ideal laboratories for the study of human adaptations to the natural environment, whilst Renfrew and Wagstaff, in the introduction to their study of Melos, focus on this limitation in biodiversity as a “significant characteristic of the island ecosystem.” For human communities, however, this limitation may potentially be offset by other factors. The reduced biodiversity of an island ecosystem applies only to terrestrial resources: the resources of the sea will be as rich as on any other coastal area, and may be equally important to human communities. A small island such as Malta or Melos allows all communities direct access to the sea, providing an important nutritional “safety net,” as well as an element of dietary diversity, which may actually give island communities an advantage over their landlocked counterparts. Islands may also have specific nonbiological resources (such as obsidian on Melos), which may be used in exchange with communities on other islands and adjacent mainlands.
The author suggests that in considering the biodiversity of islands, Evans
选项 A、focuses too exclusively on terrestrial resources
B、misunderstands the relationship between an island’s size and its terrestrial resources
C、misinterprets the work of MacArthur and Wilson
D、is wrong to assume that more remote islands support fewer species
E、downplays the ways that human communities adapt to island biodiversity
答案A
解析 本题考查的是作者对埃文斯的评价，因此应该关注文中作者和埃文斯之间的交锋。埃文斯认为岛屿生物多样性低，因此人类需要对其进行适应，但是作者认为岛屿的资源丰富，包括海洋生物资源和非生物资源，因此人类不需要刻意适应。因此，埃文斯之所以得出岛屿生物多样性低这一结论的原因在于他只关注到了岛屿的陆地资源，选项A正确。E项：埃文斯只是认为岛屿适合观察自然状态下人类的适应能力，但是本身没有评论人类的适应能力是强还是弱。因而也就无从谈起人类的适应性是否被低估了。
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