passage2

注解：標(biāo)題為紅色，翻譯為藍(lán)色，分析為綠色。

? ? ? ? ①Being a man has always been dangerous.②There 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.③ But the great universal of male mortality is beingchanged.④Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do.⑤This means that, for the first time, there will be an excess of boys in those crucial years when they are searching for a mate.⑥More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed.⑦Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby(particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight.A kilogram toolight or too heavy meant almost certain death.⑧ Today it makes almost no difference. Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone.

? ? ? ? ?①There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children.②Few people are as fertile as in the past.③ Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children.④Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average.⑤ Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring.⑥(16) Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished.⑦. India shows what is happening. The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples.⑧ 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.②Strangely, it has involved little physical change.③No other species fills so many places in nature.④But in the past 100,000 years-even the past 100 years-our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not.⑤We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us.⑥. 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."⑦No 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.

[406 words]

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??

一、文章結(jié)構(gòu)分析? ??

? ? ? ?本文是一篇關(guān)于人類進(jìn)化的文章。先指出人類進(jìn)化自然選擇的因素已消失，進(jìn)而說明人類身體已經(jīng)停止進(jìn)化并指出其社會(huì)原因。

? ? ? ? ?第一段：指出自然選擇的兩個(gè)因素都已消失：男性死亡率和嬰兒體重的差別。主要使用了（現(xiàn)在與過去）對(duì)比論證。

? ? ? ? 第二段：指出造成人類進(jìn)化停止的另一個(gè)因素是：子女?dāng)?shù)目減少，并以印度為例進(jìn)行說明。

? ? ? ??第三段：總結(jié)全文，指出以上這些現(xiàn)象意味著人類進(jìn)化已經(jīng)結(jié)束，并分析其社會(huì)原因。

15.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.

15.按照文章第一段，過去身為男性面臨的危險(xiǎn)是什么？

[A]缺乏配偶。

[B]激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。

[C]存活率低。

[D]基因缺陷。

16.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.

16.印度的例子說明了什么？

[A]富人往往比窮人的孩子少。

[B]自然選擇在窮人和富人中幾乎都不起用。

[C]中產(chǎn)階級(jí)的人口比部落人口少80%。

[D]印度是出生率很高的國家之一。

17.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

17.作者認(rèn)為我們的身體不再進(jìn)化的原因是。

[A]技術(shù)的進(jìn)步改進(jìn)了人的生活

[B]女嬰數(shù)量一直在減少

[C]我們這種物種已達(dá)到了進(jìn)化的最高階段

[D]貧富差別正在逐漸消失

18. 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.

18.下面哪一個(gè)是文章最好的題目？

[A]人類進(jìn)化過程中性別比例的改變。

[B]延續(xù)人類進(jìn)化的方法。

[C]自然進(jìn)化的未來。

[D]人的進(jìn)化已窮盡。

二、核心詞匯與超綱詞匯

核心詞匯：

①.agent?

n.[C]

1.代理人，代理商，代理公司；（演員等的）經(jīng)紀(jì)人

2.特工人員，情報(bào)員，間諜

*3 sb or sth that affects or changes a situation or that exerts power or produces an effect原動(dòng)力，動(dòng)因；作用者；作用物

例：Technological advances are the chief agents of change.技術(shù)進(jìn)步是變革的主要原動(dòng)力。

②.commit suicide自殺；

文中commit evolutionary suicide指的是“阻礙、扼殺進(jìn)化”

③.excess n.[U]

*1.過分，過量

例：an excess of enthusiasm過度熱情

2.[C，U]

過多的量，超過的量

例：We cover costs up to 600 and you pay the excess.我們最多支付600英鎊的費(fèi)用，超過的部分由你承擔(dān)。

3.[用復(fù)數(shù)]過分的行為，暴行，越軌的行為

例：to curb the excesses of the secret police約束秘密警察的越軌行為

a.[僅用于名詞前]過多的，多余的，超額的

例：Cut any excess fat from the meat.把多余的肥肉切掉。

④.fertile

a.1.（土地或土壤）肥沃的，富饒的*2.可繁殖的，能生育的3.that produces good results；that encourages activity 能產(chǎn)生好結(jié)果的，促進(jìn)的例：a fertile partnership有成效的合伙關(guān)系

⑤.mortality?

n.1.必死性

例：man's mortality人總有一死

*2.死亡數(shù)，死亡率；

mortala.必死的，臨死的，致命的

⑥.universal

a.

1.involving or understood by everyone in the world 普遍的，一般的

2.done by all the members of a group全體（做）的，一致的

例：universal agreement on this issue在這個(gè)問題上的一致觀點(diǎn)

n.*（存在于所有文化群落中的）普遍行為模式，普遍習(xí)俗（如家庭的存在）；（特定社會(huì)成年人中）普遍具有的文化特征

三、閱讀答案：C B?A D

四、全文翻譯：

? ? ???身為男性總是有危險(xiǎn)，男女出生時(shí)的比例大約是105：100，但到了成年期，這一比例幾乎持平，而在70歲的老年人中女性是男性的兩倍。（句式1）但是男性死亡率普遍偏高的情況正在改變。如今，男嬰存活率幾乎同女嬰一樣高。這就意味著到了男孩尋找伴侶的關(guān)鍵年齡，將首次出現(xiàn)男孩過剩現(xiàn)象。更重要的是，自然選擇的另一次機(jī)會(huì)也已不復(fù)存在了。50年前，嬰兒（尤其是男嬰）存活的機(jī)率取決于體重，輕一公斤或重一公斤幾乎意味著必死無疑。現(xiàn)在，體重幾乎不起什么作用。因?yàn)榇蟛糠植町愂怯苫蛞鸬?，所以進(jìn)化的又一個(gè)因素消失了。

? ? ? ?進(jìn)化自殺還有另一種方法：活著，但少生孩子。（句式2）現(xiàn)在，沒有幾個(gè)人像過去那樣具有旺盛的生育力。除了在一些宗教團(tuán)體之外，幾乎沒有婦女能夠生育15個(gè)孩子。當(dāng)今出生的人數(shù)同死亡年齡一樣已趨于平均化，我們多數(shù)人的子女?dāng)?shù)量大致相同。而且，人與人之間的差異和利用這種差異進(jìn)行自然選擇的機(jī)會(huì)都已經(jīng)減少。（句式3）印度可以說明正在發(fā)生的一切。這個(gè)國家給大城市里的少數(shù)人提供財(cái)富，而給其余的各部落民族以貧困。今天這種極其顯著的平均化——每個(gè)人的生存機(jī)會(huì)和子女?dāng)?shù)量都相同——意味著與部落相比，自然選擇在印度中、上階層已經(jīng)失去了80%的效力。（句式4）

? ? ? ?對(duì)我們來說，這意味著進(jìn)化已經(jīng)結(jié)束；生物學(xué)上的烏托邦已經(jīng)來臨。（句式5）奇怪的是，這一過程幾乎絲毫沒有牽涉到人身體上的變化。沒有其他哪種物種在自然界中占有這么大的空間。但在過去的10萬年一—甚至過去的100年中，我們的生活發(fā)生了變化，但我們的身體卻沒有改變。我們沒有進(jìn)化。因?yàn)闄C(jī)器和社會(huì)代替我們進(jìn)化了。達(dá)爾文曾用這樣一句話描述那些對(duì)進(jìn)化一無所知的人：他們“看有機(jī)的生命如同野人看船，好像看著某種完全不能理解的東西”。（句式6）毫無疑問，人類在回顧20世紀(jì)的生活方式時(shí)，會(huì)因其丑陋不堪而不能理解。但是，不管我們的子孫后代對(duì)我們離烏托邦的理想境界還差很遠(yuǎn)感到多么驚訝，他們的樣子會(huì)同我們差不了多少。（句式7）