首页
登录
职称英语
On Mother’ Day, it’s customary to speak about the sacrifices our mothers mad
On Mother’ Day, it’s customary to speak about the sacrifices our mothers mad
游客
2024-05-06
18
管理
问题
On Mother’ Day, it’s customary to speak about the sacrifices our mothers made to improve our lives. But mothers also deserve credit for the pivotal (关键的) role they’ve played in the history of human evolution. Prehistoric mothers did nothing less than seed the development of our species’ remarkable intelligence.
The story begins at least two million years ago, when our brains started to grow larger, eventually making humans the most cognitively advanced species on earth. This evolution was not without its difficulties, particularly for mothers. That’s because, some five million to seven million years ago, soon after the human lineage (世系) branched from the ancestors of chimpanzees (黑猩猩), another peculiarity increasingly came to mark our ancestors: walking upright on two legs, or bipedalism.
The evolution of bipedalism gradually altered our ancestors’ skeletons. By the time brain size began trending upward, the shape of the human pelvis (骨盆) had changed to accommodate the muscle attachments that facilitated walking (and running) in a more vertical posture. As a result, parts of the birth canal narrowed, making the passage of big-brained infants increasingly difficult.
The combination of big brains and constricted birth canals was an obstetrical problem for early mothers and no doubt led to high rates of maternal and infant mortality. The infants who survived were the ones whose heads were small enough to squeeze through narrowed birth canals, but to thrive outside the womb, human development favored big brains. And so natural selection encouraged the early birth of human fetuses, before they had finished gestating (孕育). For that reason, our babies are born in immature, helpless states compared with those of the apes.
Had it not been for the natural selection of enlarged brains, our species would have evolved in a completely different direction. There would be no theory of relativity, no knowledge of "entangled" particles or the human genome; we’d have no great art, music or novels. The excruciating (极痛苦的) pain and trauma of childbirth are the cost our species has paid for its fancy cognition. And mothers continue to pay the debt.
But that’s hardly all prehistoric mothers gave us. They also may well have touched off the evolution of language from the sounds they made to reassure their helpless infants. Baby chimpanzees, after all, can cling to their mothers’ hairy chests and contentedly ride along, nursing on demand. But human infants, born immature, lack that dexterity. Before the advent of devices like baby slings, the burden of carrying helpless infants presented a dilemma for early mothers as they foraged for food and water. [br] The purpose of the author in wring this passage is ______.
选项
A、to celebrate Mother’s Day
B、to commend the role of the female in the history of human evolution
C、to have a general review of human evolution
D、in honor of mothers all over the world
答案
B
解析
文章一开始就谈到,在母亲节这一天,我们习惯于谈论有关母亲做出的牺牲。但是母亲在人类进化史上的关键作用也值得赞扬(deserve credit)。以后各段谈到母亲在生育孩子、抚养孩子、开发孩子语言能力等方面所经历的痛苦及付出的种种艰辛,故B为正确答案。其他选项均不符合题意。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3586285.html
相关试题推荐
OnMother’Day,it’scustomarytospeakaboutthesacrificesourmothersmad
OnMother’Day,it’scustomarytospeakaboutthesacrificesourmothersmad
OnMother’Day,it’scustomarytospeakaboutthesacrificesourmothersmad
[originaltext]MotheringSundayintheUKistheequivalentofMother’sDay
[originaltext]MotheringSundayintheUKistheequivalentofMother’sDay
Bycontrast,Americanmothersweremorelikely______(把孩子的成功归因于)naturaltalent.t
[originaltext]IntheUnitedStates,itisnotcustomarytotelephonesomeon
[originaltext]IntheUnitedStates,itisnotcustomarytotelephonesomeon
TheMartianmoonPhobosmayhavebeenblastedoffitsmotherplanetbyavio
TheMartianmoonPhobosmayhavebeenblastedoffitsmotherplanetbyavio
随机试题
SentencecompletionCompletethesentencesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDS
Ascollegeseniorshurtleintothejobhunt,littlefibsontheresume--fore
ThepollutionofHongKong’sbeachesbyoilfromadamagedtankerlastyear
Tensofthousandsofthepoorestpart-timestudentsaretogetextramoneyt
如果人所能承受的最大压强为1.274MPa(表压强),那么潜水员的极限潜水深度为
A.醋大黄B.酒大黄C.熟大黄D.大黄炭E.清宁片以消积化瘀为主的饮片是
根据下列资料回答问题。 保险密度表示的是人均保费,那么河南当年的人口数
下面的数字基本都有一个共同的特点,只有一个数字与众不同,这个数字是()。
乙公司2×21年有关持有待售非流动资产资料如下: (1)2×21年8月6日
施工企业项目经理部经营活动的法律后果由()。A.项目经理部承担 B.企业法人
最新回复
(
0
)