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  3. Sexual Reproduction Birds do it. Bees do it. But d

Sexual Reproduction Birds do it. Bees do it. But d

游客2023-12-26  63
问题                            Sexual Reproduction
   Birds do it. Bees do it. But dandelions don’t. The prodigious spread of these winsome weeds underscores a little-appreciated biological fact. Contrary to human experience, sex is not essential to reproduction. Asexual organisms can often churn out multiple generations of clones, gaining a distinct edge in the evolutionary numbers game. And therein lies the puzzle: If sex is such an inefficient way to reproduce, why is it so widespread?
   Sex almost certainly originated nearly 3. 5 billion years ago as a mechanism for repairing the DNA of bacteria. Because ancient earth was such a violent place, the genes of these unicellular organisms would have been frequently damaged by intense heat and ultraviolet radiation. " Conjugation" — the intricate process in which one bacterium infuses genetic material into another — provided an ingenious, if cumbersome, solution to this problem, although bacteria continued to rely on asexual reproduction to increase their numbers.
   Animal sex, however, is a more recent invention. Biologist Lynn Margulis of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst believes the evolutionary roots of egg and sperm cells can be traced back to a group of organisms known as rotests that first appeared some 1. 5 billion years ago.(Modern examples include protozoa, giant kelp and malaria parasite. ) During periods of starvation, Margulis conjectures, one rotest was driven to devour another. Sometimes this cannibalistic meal was incompletely digested, and the nuclei of prey and predator fused. By joining forces, the fused cells were better able to survive adversity, and because they survived, their penchant for union was passed on to their distant descendants.
   From this vantage point, human sexuality seems little more than a wondrous accident, born of a kind of original sin among protozoa. Most population biologists, however, believe sex was maintained over evolutionary time because it somehow enhanced survival. The mixing and matching of parental genes, they argue, provide organisms with a novel mechanism for generating genetically different offspring, thereby increasing the odds that their progeny could exploit new niches in a changing environment and, by virtue of their diversity, have a better chance of surviving the assaults of bacteria and other tiny germs that rapidly evolve tricks for eluding their hosts’ defenses. [br] The following can be inferred from the passage about sexual reproduction EXCEPT______.
选项 A、because of the mixing of genes in sexual reproduction, all offspring have genetic variations
B、because of sexual reproduction, a species can adapt more quickly to changes in its surroundings
C、with the help of sexual reproduction, humans are better able to combat bacteria and sperms
D、sexual reproduction leads to a greater variety in population
答案 C
解析 是非题型，答案是C。本题涉及对有性繁衍的描述，可采用排除法逐一考查。从第四段“a novel mechanism for generating genetically different offspring”一句可知，A选项陈述无误；从第三段“the fused cells were better able to survive adversity”、第四段“increasing the odds that their progeny could exploit new niches in a changing environment”等句可知，B选项陈述无误；D选项“有性繁衍可使种群种类更多样”是基于原文信息的合理推断。C选项对应原文第四段的“have a better chance of surviving the assaults of bacteria and other tiny germs”一句，选择项以sperms一词替代原文中的germs一词以混淆视听，故为有错选项。本题核心：重点关注选择项的陈述细节，需与文中相应字句一一对照以锁定出错点。
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