2015年职称英语理工类阅读理解备考之练习题(二)

　　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。