首页
登录
职称英语
COST AND BENEFITS OF SOCIAL LIFE (1)
COST AND BENEFITS OF SOCIAL LIFE (1)
游客
2025-02-03
8
管理
问题
COST AND BENEFITS OF SOCIAL LIFE
(1) Many think that the reason why so many animals live with others of their species is that social creatures are higher up the evolutionary scale and so are better adapted and leave more offspring than do animals that live solitary lives. However, in each and every species, generation after generation, relatively social and relatively solitary types compete unconsciously with one another in ways that determine who leaves more offspring on average. In some species, the more social individuals have won out, but in a large majority, it is the solitary types that have consistently left more surviving descendants on average.
(2) But how can living alone ever be superior to living together? Under some conditions, a cost-benefit comparison favors solitary life over a more social existence. For example, among most social species, animals have to expend time and energy competing for social status. Those that do not occupy the top positions regularly have to signal their submissive state to their superiors if they are to be permitted to remain in the group. This can take up a major share of a social subordinate’s life. In fact, even in small social groups there are both subtle competition and not-so-subtle competition.
(3) Social groups also offer opportunities for reproductive interference. Breeding males that live in close association with more attractive rivals may lose their mates to these individuals. In addition, sociality has two other potential disadvantages. The first is heightened competition for food, which occurs in animals as different as colonial fieldfares (a kind of songbird) and groups of lions, whose females are often pushed from their food by hungry males. [A] The second is increased vulnerability to parasites and diseases, which plague social species of all sorts. [B] While it is true that some social animals have evolved special responses designed to combat parasites and diseases, those responses can only reduce, but cannot totally eliminate, the damage caused by those threats, and the responses may even carry their own costs. [C] Thus, honeybees warm their hives in response to an infestation by a fungal pathogen, which apparently helps kill the heat-sensitive fungus, but at the price of time and energy expended by the heat-producing workers. [D]
(4) If social living carries a heightened risk of infection, then the larger the group, the greater the risk. This prediction holds for cliff swallows, which pack their nests side by side in colonies composed of anywhere from a handful of birds to several thousand pairs. The more swallows nesting together, the greater the chance that at least one bird will be infested with swallow bugs, which can then readily spread from one nest to another.
(5) The parasites and fungi that make life miserable for swallows and other social creatures demonstrate that if sociality is to evolve, the assorted costs of living together must be outweighed by compensatory benefits. Cliff swallows may join others to take advantage of the improved foraging that comes from following companions to good feeding sites, while other animals, such as male imperial penguins, save thermal energy by huddling shoulder to shoulder during the brutal Antarctica winter. Still others, such as lionesses, join forces to fend off enemies of their own species.
(6) The most widespread fitness benefit for social animals, however, probably is improved protection against predators. Many studies have shown that animals in groups gain by reducing the individual risk of being captured, or by spotting danger sooner, or by attacking their enemies in groups. Males in nesting colonies of bluegills cooperate in driving egg-eating bullhead catfish away from their nests at the bottom of a freshwater lake. While bluegills have adopted social behavior to avoid predation, closely related species that nest alone have evolved means to protect themselves while nesting alone. Thus, the solitary pumpkinseed sunfish, a member of the same genus as the bluegill, has a powerful biting jaw and so can repel egg-eating enemies on its own, whereas bluegills have small, delicate mouths good only for inhaling small, soft-bodied insect larvae. Pumpkinseed sunfish are in no way inferior to or less well adapted than bluegills because they are solitary; they simply gain less through social living, which makes solitary nesting the adaptive tactic for them. [br] The word "potential" in the passage is closest in meaning to________.
选项
A、possible
B、serious
C、common
D、related
答案
A
解析
本题属于词汇题,考查考生对potential的理解。potential意为“有可能的、潜在的”,A项possible“可能的”为其同义词,故选。B项serious “严重的”、C项common“普通的”和D项related“有关系的”与题干词汇的意思相差甚远。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3941691.html
相关试题推荐
COSTANDBENEFITSOFSOCIALLIFE(1)
COSTANDBENEFITSOFSOCIALLIFE(1)
COSTANDBENEFITSOFSOCIALLIFE(1)
COSTANDBENEFITSOFSOCIALLIFE(1)
当时如果逃避决斗,他将在社会上名声扫地。Atthattime,torunoutontheduelwouldmeansocialruin
Ifthebenefitsoutweighthecostswhenitcomestoutilizingsuchatool,then
PollutionandEcocrisisTheproblemofpollutionisalsoofgreatsocial
Thefirstandmostimportantagentsofsocializationarethepeoplewhocare
Thefirstandmostimportantagentsofsocializationarethepeoplewhocare
Thefirstandmostimportantagentsofsocializationarethepeoplewhocare
随机试题
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayonfate.Youre
A.两者拱轴力完全一样 B. C. D.两者受力完全不同,且Ⅰ中拱轴力小于
A. B. C. D.
《传染病防治法》规定,传染病暴发、流行时,当地政府应当A、限制或停止集市、集会
A.约束骨骼,活动关节 B.调节气血盛衰 C.沟通表里两经,补充经脉循行不足
患者,男,43岁。两耳轰鸣,按之不减,听力减退,兼见烦躁易怒,咽干,便秘,脉弦。
下边四个图形中,只有一个是由上边的四个图形拼合(只能通过上、下、左、右平移)而成
分项工程验收,应由()组织。A.总监理工程师 B.施工单位项目经理 C.监理
罗马最大的广场图拉真广场的轴线(),做多层纵深布局。A.交错 B.穿插
根据税收征收管理法律制度的规定,下列各项中,属于纳税主体权利的是()。A.
最新回复
(
0
)