Why Humans Walk On Two Legs
A team of scientists that studied chimpanzees trained to use treadmills has gathered new evidence suggesting that our earliest apelike ancestors started walking on two legs because it required less energy than getting around on all fours.
The five chimps also wore face masks used to help the researchers measure oxygen consumption. While the chimps worked out, the scientists collected metabolic and other data that allowed them to calculate which method of locomotion used less energy and why. The team gathered the same information for four adult humans walking on a treadmill.
We were prepared to find that all of the chimps used more energy walking on two legs but that finding wouldnt have been as interesting, Sockol said. What we found was much more telling. For three chimps, bipedalism3 was more expensive, but for the other two chimps, this wasnt the case. One spent about the same energy walking on two legs as on four. The other used less energy walking upright. These two chimps had different gaits and anatomy than their knucklewalking peers.
Fossil and molecular evidence suggests the earliest ancestors of the human family lived in forested areas in equatorial Africa in the late Miocene era some 8 to 10 million years ago, when changes in climate may have increased in distance between food patches. That would have forced our earliest ancestors to travel longer distances on the ground and favored those who could cover more ground using less energy.
词汇:
chimp )calorie n. 卡,小卡
treadmill n. 踏轮;踏车;单调工作gait n. 步态,步法
knucklewalk v. 用膝关节走路Quadruped n. 四足动物
locomotion n. 运动
1. UC Davis :加州大学戴维斯分校。UC是University of California 的缩写,该校有多个分校,UC Davis是其中一个。Davis以前是UC Berkeley分校的农学院,后来独立出来。Davis是一个大学城,很小的城市,Davis校园基本就构成了这个城市。
3. bipedalism:系bipedal的对应名词,这里后缀-ism表示特征、特性。
1. What did Michael Sockol and his team find out in their study of chimpanzees?
B) The evidence why our apelike ancestors came to walk on four legs.
D) The evidence why chimpanzees can be trained to walk on two legs.
A) While the chimps worked in the lab
C) While the chimps tried to figure out what they should do
雅思口语答题思路总结:多重细节
雅思口语范文:教育频道
雅思口语:和out of 搭配的经典短语
雅思口语备考须知:8个“做与不做”
雅思口语Part 2话题练习30题
雅思口语范文:Animal
雅思口语范文:Positive Change
雅思口语范文:Clothing
雅思口语备考计划分享
雅思口语素材:勇敢做自己
雅思口语5分的考生存在哪些问题?
雅思口语素材:好句推荐-责任与命运
雅思口语备考攻略解析:提升技巧总结
雅思口语素材:关于sweet的俚语
雅思口语范文:Bad Weather
浅析国内雅思口语考生分数低的原因(二)
20个雅思口语常见话题
揭秘雅思口语高分秘诀:八做八不做
雅思口语素材:做事犯错好过无所事事
雅思口语考官常问的问题分析
雅思口语范文:Walk
雅思口语话题万能模板
雅思口语话题练习题:Drawing
雅思口语答题思路总结:多重角度
雅思口语范文:Work Plans
雅思口语素材:名人名言-罗宾·威廉姆斯名言
看美剧学雅思:《越狱》第1季实用口语-6
看美剧学雅思:《越狱》第1季实用口语-4
雅思口语范文:报纸和杂志
雅思口语话题解析:媒体
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |