Question

【题目】There are two ways to look at this question --- 【1】 relating to eggs in general or to the chicken egg specifically. Either way, the answer is the same: the egg came before the chicken. 【2】 the case of eggs in general, animals such as dinosaurs were laying eggs long before the modern chicken came into existence, 【3】 (mean) that in this sense, the egg predated (早于) the chicken by thousands of years. As for the chicken egg specifically , according to NPR’s Robert Krulwich, the modern chicken 【4】 (hatch 孵化) from an egg, meaning the egg came first.

The key to understanding the answer, and indeed the question itself, is to understand what the question is getting at. The dilemma is to understand 【5】 a chicken-like bird transformed into 【6】 is known as a modern chicken after being hatched or whether two chicken-like birds 【7】 (lay) and fertilized an egg that then hatched a fully formed chicken. In this case, the latter option is the most realistic, therefore answering the question of which came first. 【8】 (essential), a bird that was similar to a hen and another bird that is similar to 【9】 rooster combined their genetic material, leading to a gene mutation (突变) that resulted in the chicken that is 【10】 (good) known and loved today.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】either

【2】In

【3】meaning

【4】was hatched

【5】whether / if

【6】what

【7】laid

【8】essentially

【9】a

【10】well

【解析】本文讨论的是千古之谜——先有鸡还是先有蛋的问题。

【1】固定搭配：either---or---，要么---，要么---，此处填either。

【2】固定词组：in the case of至于，在---的情况下，答案为In。注意大写开头。

【3】句意：像恐龙这样的动物在现代鸡出现之前就已经开始下蛋了，也就是说，在这个意义上，鸡蛋比鸡早了几千年。此处是现在分词做自然的结果状语，答案为meaning。

【4】句意：现代鸡是由一个鸡蛋孵化出来的，这意味着先有蛋。此处chicken和hatch之间是被动关系，这里指过去发生的事情，所以句子用一般过去时态的被动语态，答案为was hatched。

【5】句意：现在的困境是要弄清楚一只鸡样的鸟是否在孵出后变成了所谓的现代鸡，或者是两只像鸡一样的鸟产下并受精了一只蛋，然后孵出了一只完全成形的鸡。根据后面的or whether可知，understand后面是whether / if引导的宾语从句。

【6】句意：现在的困境是要弄清楚一只鸡样的鸟是否在孵出后变成了所谓的现代鸡，或者是两只像鸡一样的鸟产下并受精了一只蛋，然后孵出了一只完全成形的鸡。介词into后面是一个宾语从句，从句没有引导词和主语，故答案为what。

【7】句意：现在的困境是要弄清楚一只鸡样的鸟是否在孵出后变成了所谓的现代鸡，或者是两只像鸡一样的鸟产下并受精了一只蛋，然后孵出了一只完全成形的鸡。lay and fertilized之间是并列关系，所以用一般过去时态，答案为laid。

【8】副词修饰整个句子，用副词，故答案为essentially。

【9】句意：一种类似于母鸡的鸟和另一种类似于公鸡的鸟结合了它们的遗传物质，导致了一种基因突变，导致了今天人们所熟知和喜爱的鸡。根据前面的a bird，所以与之相匹配的是不定冠词+名词，答案为a。

【10】句意：一种类似于母鸡的鸟和另一种类似于公鸡的鸟结合了它们的遗传物质，导致了一种基因突变，导致了今天人们所熟知和喜爱的鸡。well-known著名的；众所周知的，是固定短语。