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
Every summer, the peacocks that roam free within Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire expose their magnificent trains to t
Every summer, the peacocks that roam free within Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire expose their magnificent trains to t
admin
2019-07-19
58
问题
Every summer, the peacocks that roam free within Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire expose their magnificent trains to the critical and often disdainful gaze of the hens.
Darwin argues that living creatures came to be the way they are by e-volution: and that the principal mechanism of evolution was natural selection. This is, in a crowded and hence competitive world, the individuals best suited to the circumstances—the "fittest"—are the most likely to survive and have offspring.
But the implication is that fittest would generally mean toughest, swiftest, cleverest, most alert. The peacock’s tail, by contrast, was at best a waste of space and in practice a severe encumbrance: and Darwin felt obliged to invoke what he felt was a separate mechanism of evolution, which he called "sexual selection", the driving mechanism—in his words—"beauty for beauty’s sake".
But Darwin’s friend and collaborator, Alfred Russel Wallace, though in many ways more "romantic" than Darwin, was in others even more Darwinian. According to Wallace, then, the train was not an end in itself, but an advertisement for some genuine contribution to survival.
Now, 100 years later, the wrangle is still unresolved, for the natural behavior of peafowl is much harder to study than might be imagined. In practice, the mature cocks display in groups at a number of sites around Whipsnade, and the hens judge one against the other. Long observation from hides, backed up by photographs, suggests that the cocks with the most eyespots do indeed attract the most mates.
But whether the males with the best trains are also " better" in other ways remains to be pinned down. Do the children of the attractive cocks grow faster? Are they more healthy? If so, then the females’ choice will be seen to be utilitarian after all, just as Wallace predicted.
There is a final twist to this continuing story. The great mathematician and biologist R. A. Fisher in the thirties proposed what has become known as "Fisher’s Runaway". Just suppose, for example, that for whatever reason—perhaps for a sound "Wallacian" Reason—a female first picks a male with a slightly better tail than the rest. The sons of that mating will inherit their father’s tail, and the daughters will inherit their mother’s predilection for long tails. This is how the runaway begins. Within each generation, the males with the longest tails will get most mates and leave most offspring: and the females’ predilection for long tails will increase commensurately. Modern computer models show that such a feedback mechanism would alone be enough to produce a peacock’s tail. Oddly, too, this would vindicate Darwin’s apparently fanciful notion—once the process gets going, the females would indeed be selecting "beauty for beauty’s sake".
Question 61 to 65
Answer the following questions with the information given in the passage in a maximum of fifteen words for each question.
Why does the author say that Wallace was in other ways even more Darwinian ?
选项
答案
According to Wallace,peacocks’train is an advertisement for some genuine contribution to sur—vival.
解析
(第四段首句介绍到达尔文的朋友和合作者华莱士虽然在很多方面比达尔文更加“浪漫”,但在其他方面比达尔文有过之而无不及(even more Darwinian),接着该段对此进行了解释说明:当时华莱士认为,孔雀的尾屏不是一种目的,而彰显了其在生存方面所真正起到的作用。)
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/rnfK777K
本试题收录于:
A类竞赛(研究生)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
A类竞赛(研究生)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
ItisinterestingtoreflectforamomentuponthedifferencesintheareasofmoralfeelingandstandardsinthepeoplesofJap
TheLondonUndergroundMapTheLondonUndergroundmapisextremelywelldesigned.Simple,easytounderstandand【76】(ATTRACT
Oneofthequestionscomingintofocusaswefacegrowingscarcityofresourcesintheworldishowtodividelimitedresources
AnImportantEnglishTownThesiteofthetownofWinchesterwasanaturalplaceforasettlementatthepointwherearive
GuyMoreno—ProfessionalFootballerFavouriteinterestatschool:【D1】______Dateofbirth:【D2】______Winningaprize:aftertak
Thegiraffesurvivesinpartbecauseitcanreachthevegetationinthehighbranchesoftrees,whereotheranimals______.
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200yearsago.Eversincethen,forecastershavebeing
Recently,ImadeatriparoundEuropewithmyfamilyandittookbreathawaytoseehowmucheverythinghaschanged.Iwas【M1】_
food(录音中提到“Andheintroducesustohisworldashetravelsaround,lookingforfoodtotakebacktohisfamily.”,它向我们展现它到处游走,寻找食物并
随机试题
某男62岁,患前列腺增生5年,自昨日下午起一直未排尿,今日上午尿潴留急诊入院,入院后导尿管插不进,此时应采取何种最佳的方法解除尿潴留( )。
A.静脉给予支链氨基酸B.应用抗生素C.肥皂水灌肠D.口服乳果糖E.应用精氨酸酸中毒不宜
下列关于下消化道出血错误的是
下述药物中主要用于缓解胆汁淤积的是()。
关于胸膜炎性胸痛的描述,下列哪项是正确的
刘某某日休假,主动携邻居6周岁小孩去一塌陷区游泳,到了傍晚,刘某喊了几声小孩的名字,见没人答应,便径直回家了,之后既不寻找小孩,也没告知邻居,第二天,在塌陷区发现小孩的尸体。刘某行为属于:
根据《标准化法》的规定,工程建设强制性标准和推荐性标准主要体现在()。
人民检察院决定逮捕犯罪嫌疑人、被告人的,由人民检察院执行。()
2014年1—6月份,我国商品房销售面积48365万平方米,同比下降6.0%。其中,住宅销售面积下降7.8%,办公楼销售面积下降2.8%,商业营业用房销售面积增长7.7%。商品房销售额31133亿元,下降6.7%。其中,住宅销售额下降9.2%,办公楼销售额
在确定无形资产的经济寿命时,主要应该依据其带来的超额收益的时间长短来判断。()
最新回复
(
0
)