首页
登录
职称英语
Public opinion is still largely unaware of or indifferent to the need to pre
Public opinion is still largely unaware of or indifferent to the need to pre
游客
2024-06-05
16
管理
问题
Public opinion is still largely unaware of or indifferent to the need to preserve rare species, whether for cultural or for scientific reasons. Some people indeed are actively hostile. Species have been dying out since life began, they argue, and have continuously been replaced by new species. Why, therefore, should we interfere with the process? Let us abandon to their fate the great Indian rhinoceros, the Arabian ostrich, the Tasmanian wolf, and all those other animals that cannot adapt themselves to the modern world. Others will arise to take their place.
But, of course, this argument has got its time-scale all wrong, It would take millions of years to evolve a set of new species to replace those we are now losing. In the meantime the world is filling up with the hardy and adaptable pests, rats and rabbits, starlings and house sparrows. The cultural argument for preserving wild life, that it is part of our natural heritage, argues itself, except to those who are blind to cultural values anyway, what is less obvious and more in need of explanation is the scientific case for preventing the extirpation of rare species.
In these days of torrential achievement in the physical sciences we are apt to forget that it is possible only because most of the basic thinking in the sciences has already been done. The seed has been sown and the fruit is now being harvested. Could that basic thinking have been brought to so triumphant a conclusion so early if the raw material, the fundamental physical phenomena, had been subjected to the sort of erosion and extinction that today constantly threatens the raw material of the biological sciences? Supposing the world stock of radium had gone the way of the dodo and the great auk by 1850. Who at that early date could have put up a sound argument in favor of conserving it if it had been known and in danger of destruction?
It is just this danger which now confronts the biological sciences, whose basic thinking is by no means yet done, but which hold the key to man’s achievement of a satisfactory mastery over both his nature and his nurture in the coming centuries. Animal and plants species are natural experiments in genetics and adaptation to environment that have taken millions of years to work out. Research as we may with fruit-flies, we can never catch up with nature. We have not the time. Is it not therefore folly to allow our vital experimental material to vanish through carelessness? [br] What is wrong with the argument for not preserving rare species is that it neglects ______.
选项
答案
the length of time for new species to evolve
解析
通读全文,第二段以“but”起头,提示将提出不同论点。第一、二两句说,持“濒危物种不需保护,自然界自会产生新物种替代它们”这一观点的人忘记考虑时间因素。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3621101.html
相关试题推荐
Publicopinionisstilllargelyunawareoforindifferenttotheneedtopre
Opinionpollsarenowbeginningtoshowthat,whoeveristoblameandwhatev
Opinionpollsarenowbeginningtoshowthat,whoeveristoblameandwhatev
Opinionpollsarenowbeginningtoshowthat,whoeveristoblameandwhatev
Opinionpollsarenowbeginningtoshowthat,whoeveristoblameandwhatev
Whoevercoinedthephrase"savetheplanet"isapublic-relationsgenius.It
Whoevercoinedthephrase"savetheplanet"isapublic-relationsgenius.It
Livelyargumentcentersaroundeffectofpubliccommunicationonaudiences,
Livelyargumentcentersaroundeffectofpubliccommunicationonaudiences,
Livelyargumentcentersaroundeffectofpubliccommunicationonaudiences,
随机试题
Whatwillthespeakertalkaboutfirstatthemeeting?Thecompany’s______thisy
[originaltext]M:Whydoyouthinkthatway?W:WhileIadmitthereisverylitt
WhichofthefollowingstatementsisNOTtrue?[br]Itisimpossibletowarnof
Somepeoplearguethatthepressureoni
以下哪些是住宅建筑给水系统的必要组成部分?( )A.水表 B.给水管道 C
A.Ⅴ~Ⅴ B.Ⅴ~Ⅴ C.Ⅴ~Ⅴ D.Ⅱ,Ⅲ,aVF E.Ⅴ~Ⅴ急性前
蟾酥的药用部位是A.贝壳 B.干燥分泌物 C.角 D.除去内脏的干燥体
我国商业银行之间的竞争日趋激烈,普遍面临着收益下降、产品/服务成本增加、产品/
下列不属于贷款合同制定原则的是()。A.适宜相容原则 B.维权原则 C
银行承兑汇票的承兑银行,应当按照票面金额向出票人收取()的手续费。A:千分之一
最新回复
(
0
)