职称英语理工类阅读理解备考之练习题(2)

　　Most of us walk and carry items in our hands every day. These are seemingly simple activities that the majority of us dont question. But an international team of researchers, including Dr. Richmond from GWs Columbian College of Arts and Sciences，have discovered that human walking upright, may have originated millions of years ago as an adaptation to carrying scarce, high- quality resources. The team of researchers from the U. S., England, Japan and Portugal investigated the behavior of modern-day chimpanzees as they competed for food resources，in an effort to understand what ecological settings would lead a large ape one that resembles the 6 million-year old ancestor we shared in common with living chimpanzees to walk on two legs. 　　The research findings suggest that chimpanzees switch to moving on two limbs instead of four in situations where they need to monopolize a resource. Standing on two legs allows them to carry much more at one time because it frees up their hands. Over time，intense bursts of bipedal activity may have led to anatomical changes that in turn became the subject of natural selection where competition for food or other resources was strong. 　　When the rare coula nuts were available only in small numbers, the chimpanzees transported more at one time. Similarly, when coula nuts were the majority resource, the chimpanzees ignored the oil palm nuts altogether. The chimpanzees regarded the coula nuts as a more highly-prized resource and competed for them more intensely. 　　The second study, by Kimberley Hockings of Oxford Brookes University, was a 14-month study of Bossou chimpanzees crop-raiding, a situation in which they have to compete for rare and unpredictable Resources. Here, 35 percent of the chimpanzees activity involved some sort of bipedal movement, and once again, this behavior appeared to be linked to a clear attempt to carry as much as possible at one time. 　　chimpanzee n.黑猩猩 　　bipedal adj. 二足的 　　coula nuts可乐果 　　2. ecological settings: 生态环境 　　4. anatomical chaiige: 解剖学上的变化 　　6. Bossou: 博苏,几内亚的一个地名。博苏森林生活着黑猩猩群落。 　　8. increased by a factor of four:增加了四倍 　　10. Oxford Brookes University: 牛津布鲁克斯大学，创立于1865年，是英国最具特色的综合性大学之一。牛津布鲁克斯大学位于世界学术名城牛津。这里学风浓郁、精英荟萃，历来为求学圣地。 　　B Chimpanzees behaviors may suggest why humans walk on two legs. 　　D Our ancestors ecological conditions resembled those of modern-day chimpanzees. 　　A when humans began walking on two legs. 　　C what benefits walking upright brought to our ancestors. 　　3. Kyoto, Universitys study discovered that chimpanzees. 　　B preferred oil palm nuts to coula nuts. 　　D ignored both types of nut altogether. 　　A Because they imitated the human way of walking just for fun. 　　C Because they wanted to get to die nut-rich forest faster by walking that way. 　　5. What can we infer from the reading passage? 　　B Chimpanzees are similar to humans in many behaviors. 　　D Human walking on two legs developed as a means of survival. 　　2. B 文章报道，科学家通过实验证实黑猩猩直立行走是为了解放前肢，让前肢搬运对其生命至关重要的资源，从而推断出人类祖先也经历了从四足到二足的进化过程。科学家想通过对黑猩猩的实验解释人类直立行走的成因。所以B是答案，A、C、D选项不是科学家进行研究的目的。 　　4. D黑猩猩用后肢直立行走，搬运资源的效率提高了四倍。选项D符合原意，是答案。选项 A、B、C的内容文章中没有提到，所以不是答案。 　　参考译文： 　　第四十八篇 研究人员发现人类开始直立行走的原因 　　我们大多数人每天都走路而且手里搬着东西。这样的活动看似太简单，大多数人没有疑问。但是一个国际研究者团队已经发现了人类直立行走可能源于数百万年以前适应搬运稀有的、高质量的资源。这些来自美国、英国、日本和葡萄牙的研究者研究了当代黑猩猩争抢食物时的行为特征，试图对什么样的生态环境竟然导致大猿直立行走作出解释。 　　有两项研究是在几内亚完成的。第一项研究是在京都大学博苏森林的一块天然空地室外实验室进行的。研究者们允许森林里的黑猩猩能得到两种不同的坚果，一种叫油棕榈坚果，自然界随处可见，一种叫可乐果，自然环境中不常见。人们监控黑猩猩在下列三种情形下的行为：只有油棕榈坚果;只有少量的可乐果，大多数是油棕榈坚果;大多数是可乐果，少数是油棕榈坚果。 　　处于这种激烈竞争的环境中，黑猩猩直立行走的频率增加了四倍。很显然，双足行走可以使它们拿走更多的稀有资源，而且，为了尽可能地一口气多拿，它们积极利用可用到的任何方法，甚至嘴巴。