2000年考研英语阅读理解全真题解析_新浪教育

2000年考研英语阅读理解全真题解析

http://www.sina.com.cn 2003/07/10 16:59 双博士丛书

　　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 universalof 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 inthose crucial years when they are searching for a mate. More important, anoth

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1" SRC="http://sina.allyes.com/main/adfshow?user=AFP6_for_SINA|Edu|WebPIP&db=sina&local=yes&js=on"></SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT><A HREF="http://sina.allyes.com/main/adfclick?user=AFP6_for_SINA|Edu|WebPIP&db=sina"><IMG SRC="http://sina.allyes.com/main/adfshow?user=AFP6_for_SINA|Edu|WebPIP&db=sina" WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1 BORDER=0></a></NOSCRIPT>

erchance for natural selection has been removed. Fifty years ago, the chance of ababy (particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight. A kilogram toolight 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 20thcentury 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.

　　5.What used to be the danger in being a man according to the first paragraph?

　　A. A lack of mates.

　　B. A fierce competition.

　　C. A lower survival rate.

　　D. A defective gene.

　　6.What does the example of India illustrate?

　　A. Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.

　　B. Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.

　　C. The middle class population is 80% smaller than that of the tribes.

　　D. India is one of the countries with a very high birth rate.

　　7.The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because .

　　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

　　8.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

　　A. Sex Ratio Changes in Human Evolution.

　　B. Ways of Continuing Man's Evolution.

　　C. The Evolutionary Future of Nature.

　　D. Human Evolution Going Nowhere.

　　5. C细节推理题。

　　文章第一段开头是答题的关键：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 womenas men. But the great universal of male mortality is being changed.可见，男性的出生率高于女性，但是随着年龄增加，男女比例呈明显下降趋势。作者试图用这些数据表明，生为男人的危险并不是在于寻找配偶的困难，而是男性的死亡率(male mortality)远远高于女性。

　　6. B细节理解题。

　　本题用“What”引出提问，后面需要接具体的内容，这种提问方式，答案我们可从本文第二段最后两句话“这个国家的大城市给少数人提供了财富，而其余的部落民族却一贫如洗。今天众多的普通人，每个人在存活子女的数量方面都一样，这意味着：与部落相比，自然选择在印度的中上阶层已失去了80%的效应。”这与(B)中的“自然选择在富人与穷人中已很难起作用”的意思相吻合，故应选B。A“富人生的孩子没有穷人生得多”，与上面的表述相矛盾。C“中等阶层的人口比部落人口少80%”和D“印度是个高出生率的国家”文中都未提及。

　　7. A细节因果题。在第3段第5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。

　　8. D全文主旨题。

　　文章最后一段对全文内容进行了总结：For us, this means that evolution is over; the biological Utopia has arrived. Strangely, it has involved little physicalchange.人类的进化已经结束了，身体上发生的变化却微乎其微。最后作者说，But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.尽管我们的后代会为我们距离理想的社会如此遥远而感到惊讶，但是他们将和我们的模样毫无二致。这进一步说明，人类的进化早已经停止。A“人类进化中性别比率的变化”比较片面，这只是影响进化的一个方面，不能以此作为文章的题目。本文并未讨论人类将来怎么办，故B“人类进化继续下去的各种办法”也不能作为文章的标题。本文作者并未从物种的角度来展望大自然的进化前景，因此C“大自然的进化前景”也应予以否定。

　　译文

　　作为男人总是充满危险的。出生时男女比例大约为105∶100，但是到了成熟期，这种比例的下降几乎达到了平衡，在七十岁的老年人中，女性比男性多了一倍。但是男性的死亡率高这一特点正在明显地改变。现在，男婴的存活率同女婴的一样高。这意味着在男孩到了寻找伴侣的关键年月，将第一次出现男孩过剩现象。更重要的是，又一个自然选择的机会被取消了。五十年前，婴儿(特别是男婴)生存下来的机会取决于其自身的重量。轻一公斤或重一公斤几乎就意味着其必死无疑。今天，重量几乎不再起作用。因为许多差别是由基因引起的，所以又一个进化因素消失了。

　　消除进化因素还有另一种方法，那就是保持存活，少生孩子。现在，几乎没有几个人像过去那样生殖力旺盛。除了一些宗教社区外，没有几个妇女能生15个孩子。现在，所生孩子的数目如同死亡年龄一样，人人相差无几。我们大多数人的子女几乎一样多。人与人之间的差别以及利用差别进行自然选择的机会越来越小。印度则能说明正在发生的一切。这个国家(印度)给大城市的一部分人提供财富，而给其余各部落民族以贫困。当今众多的普通人，每个人的生存机会和子女数量都相同。这意味着：与部落相比，自然选择在印度的中上阶层已失去80%的作用。

　　对我们来说，这意味着进化已经结束；已经达到了生物的理想境界。令人奇怪的是，这种进化几乎没有涉及到身体的变化。没有别的物种占据大自然中如此多的地方。但在过去的十万年中，甚至一百年中，我们的生活发生了巨大的变化，但我们的身体却没改变。我们没有进化，因为机器和社会替我们改变了生活。达尔文有一句话描述了那些对进化无知的人：那些无知的人“看有机的生命如同野人看一条船，看某种完全无法理解的东西”。毫无疑问，我们会记住20世纪的生活方式，虽然其丑态万千难以让人理解。但是，不论我们的后代多么惊讶于我们距理想状态的遥远，但他们的长相将和我们一样。

【评论】【推荐】【大中小】【打印】【关闭】

新闻查询
关键词一关键词二