2000年考研练习---阅读理解2

passage 2 Being a man has always been dangerous.

做人总是危险的。

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.

每100名女性中约有105名男性出生，但是这个比例在成熟时下降到接近平衡，在70岁的人群中，女性是男性的两倍。

But the great universal of male mortality is being changed.

但是，男性死亡率的普遍性正在发生变化。

Now, boy babies survive almost as well as girls do.

现在，男孩婴儿的生存几乎和女孩一样好。

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.

这意味着，第一次在那些关键的几年里，当他们在寻找伴侣的时候，会有过多的男孩。

More important, another chance for natural selection has been removed.

更重要的是，另一个自然选择的机会已经被删除。

Fifty years ago, the chance of a baby (particularly a boy baby) surviving depended on its weight.

五十年前婴儿（特别是男婴）存活的机会取决于它的体重。

A kilogram too light or too heavy meant almost certain death.

一公斤太轻或太重意味着几乎肯定会死亡。

Today it makes almost no difference.

今天，它几乎没有区别。

Since much of the variation is due to genes, one more agent of evolution has gone.

由于大部分变异是由基因引起的，进化的一个代理已经消失。

There is another way to commit evolutionary suicide: stay alive, but have fewer children.

还有另一种自杀方式：活着，但孩子少一些。

Few people are as fertile as in the past.

很少有人像过去那样肥沃。

Except in some religious communities, very few women have 15 children.

除了一些宗教团体外，很少有妇女有15个孩子。

Nowadays the number of births, like the age of death, has become average.

如今，出生人数，如死亡年龄，已成为平均水平。

Most of us have roughly the same number of offspring.

我们大多数人的后代数量大致相同。

Again, differences between people and the opportunity for natural selection to take advantage of it have diminished.

再次人与人之间的差异和自然选择利用的机会已经减少。

India shows what is happening.

印度展示了正在发生的事情。

The country offers wealth for a few in the great cities and poverty for the remaining tribal peoples.

这个国家为大城市中的少数人提供了财富，为其余的部落人民提供了贫困。

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.

今天，大平庸——每个人在生存和后代数量上都是一样的——意味着与部落相比，自然选择在印度中上层阶级已经失去了80%的权力。

For us, this means that evolution is over;the biological Utopia has arrived.

对我们来说，这意味着进化已经结束;生物乌托邦已经到来。

strangely, it has involved little physical change.

奇怪的是，它几乎没有涉及物理上的改变。

No other species fills so many places in nature.

在自然界中，没有其它物种可以填满这么多地方。

But in the past 100,000 years — even the past 100 years — our lives have been transformed but our bodies have not.

但是在过去的10万年里——甚至过去100年——我们的生活已经改变，但我们的身体却没有改变。

We did not evolve, because machines and society did it for us.

我们没有进化，因为机器和社会为我们做了它。

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.

达尔文有一句话来形容那些对进化的无知：他们"把有机生物看成野蛮人看船，就像看完全超出他理解范围的东西一样。毫无疑问，我们会记住20世纪的生活方式，其丑陋让人无法理解。

But however amazed our descendants may be at how far from Utopia we were, they will look just like us.

但是，不管我们的后代多么惊讶于我们离乌托邦有多远，他们会像我们一样

15.

15.

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

根据第一段，做人有什么危险？

A lack of mates.

缺乏伴侣。

A fierce competition.

激烈的竞争。

A lower survival rate.

存活率较低。

A defective gene.

有缺陷的基因

16.

16.

What does the example of India illustrate?

印度的例子说明了什么？

Wealthy people tend to have fewer children than poor people.

富人的孩子往往比穷人少。

Natural selection hardly works among the rich and the poor.

自然选择在富人和穷人之间很难奏效。

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

中产阶级人口比部落人口少80%。

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

印度是出生率非常高的国家之一。

17.

17.

The author argues that our bodies have stopped evolving because life has been improved by technological advance the number of female babies has been declining our species has reached the highest stage of evolution the difference between wealth and poverty is disappearing 18.

作者认为，我们的身体已经停止进化，因为生活已经通过技术进步改善，女婴的数量一直在下降，我们的物种已经达到了进化的最高阶段，财富和贫穷的区别是消失18。

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

以下哪一项是文章的最佳标题？

Sex Ratio Changes in Human Evolution.

人类进化中的性别比例变化。

Ways of Continuing Man's Evolution.

人类进化的延续方式。

The Evolutionary Future of Nature.

自然的进化未来。

Human Evolution Going Nowhere.