首页
登录
职称英语
There can be few more depressing stories in the entire history of man’s expl
There can be few more depressing stories in the entire history of man’s expl
游客
2025-01-01
12
管理
问题
There can be few more depressing stories in the entire history of man’s exploitation of nature than the destruction of the unfortunate great whales. The whales have not only suffered untold cruelty but now face total extermination. Already entire populations have been wiped out, and the only reason why no species has yet been finished off is due to the vastness and inaccessibility of the oceans; a pocket or two somewhere has always managed to escape. How ironic of biological extinction were to complete the job.
The basic rule of extinction is very simple: it occurs when a species mortality is continually greater than its recruitment. There are though, some very special additional factors in the case of whales.
Man does not actually have to kill the last whales of a species with his own hands, as it were, to cause its disappearance. Biological extinction will quickly follow the end of commercial whaling, should that end be due to a shortage of raw material, i. e. of whales. Whalers have long sought to defend their wretched trade by insisting that whales are automatically protected: as soon as they become rare, and therefore uneconomic to pursue, man will have no choice but to stop the bunting. That is a very nice theory, but it is the theory of an accountant and not of a biologist; only an accountant could apply commercial economics to complex biological systems. The reasons for its absurdity are many and varied. In the case of whaling it can be summed up in the following way. When the stock has been reduced below a critical level, a natural, possibly unstoppable downward spiral begins because of three main factors. First, the animals lucky enough to survive the slaughter will be too scattered to locate one another owing to the vastness of the oceans. Secondly, whales being sociable animals probably need the stimulus of sizeable gatherings to induce reproductive behaviour (which has social inferences as well as sexual). It is quite likely that two individuals meeting through chance will not be compatible. (They can hardly be expected to be aware of their own rarity or to realize any need for adjusting their natural inclinations.)
This is especially so with polygamous species like the Sperm Whale. Thirdly, and perhaps most important in the long term, even allowing that the ~whales might still be able to band together in socially acceptable groups (thanks to their undeniably excellent communicative systems), there is a real danger, possibly even a probability, that the whales’ gene pools would by then have sunk so low as to be biologically unviable. That is to say, the characteristics possessed by the original population would be whittled down to those characters possessed by only the few remaining individuals. The result of such a biological calamity is inbreeding, less ability to adapt to new conditions, and less individual variety. Three words can sum it up: protracted biological extinction. The future "hopes" of these animals are further discussed in the final chapter. [br] Whalers argue that whales will not become extinct ______.
选项
A、because they are not self-protected
B、because they are not worth pursuing
C、because the oceans are so vast
D、because hunting will stop when whales become rare
答案
D
解析
作者在文章的第三段介绍了Whalers的观点:鲸鱼是根据其数量多寡自然得到发展或减少的,即数量多,人们自然就会去捕捉,数量减少濒临灭绝状况时,人们就会自然停止对其的捕捉。(Whalers have long sought to defend their wretched trade by insisting that whales are automatically protected: as soon as they become rare, and therefore uneconomic to pursue, man will have no choice but to stop the hunting. )本题属于主旨理解题。因此,选项D为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3893957.html
相关试题推荐
WhichofthefollowingisnotaworkofEdgarAllanPoeinAmericanhistory?A、Th
Smallasitis,thepenhaschangedthecourseofhistory,shapedthedestinyof
Theshortstoriesoftenwithsurpriseendingssuchas"TheGiftofMagi"and"Th
OncefoundalmostentirelyinthewesternUnitedStatesandinAsia,dinosaur
OncefoundalmostentirelyinthewesternUnitedStatesandinAsia,dinosaur
OncefoundalmostentirelyinthewesternUnitedStatesandinAsia,dinosaur
Thishasbeenquiteaweekforliterarycoups.Inanalmostentirelyunexpecte
StudentsofUnitedStateshistory,seekingtoidentifythecircumstancesthat
StudentsofUnitedStateshistory,seekingtoidentifythecircumstancesthat
StudentsofUnitedStateshistory,seekingtoidentifythecircumstancesthat
随机试题
Britain’sexcitablepresssometimesgetsintoaflapoveroddissues.Onere
Caughtinasqueezebetweenthehealthneedsofagingpopulationsononehan
Mostofushaveformedanunrealisticpictureoflifeonadesertisland.We
Manypeoplehitthegymorpoundthepavementtoimprovecardiovascularhealt
小李在网上通过手机支付,购买了两张电影票。以下选项中同小李的操作不同的是()A
A.疏肝补肾,育阴清热 B.滋养肝肾,育阴清热 C.化瘀清热 D.补益血气
工业产品生产量包括的内容,可分为()。A.企业各车间用自备原材料生产的全部产品产
下列哪项不符合病毒性心肌炎的特点? A.可出现各种类型的心律失常B.可听到第
根据霍兰德职业兴趣测试,职业兴趣为()的人适合从事企业性质的工作,担任领导
下列各项中,能够作为法律关系主体的有( )。A.乙农民专业合作社 B.甲市财政
最新回复
(
0
)