Question

For thousands of years, mankind has produced plants and animals to create more desired and useful plants and animals. For example, modern com has been produced to such a large size that it is no longer able to reproduce without man’s assistance. Modern dairy cows produce too much milk and if they are not often emptied of milk, they could leak, burst, become infected, and possibly die. Besides, most dogs raised by people can not survive in the wild even with special training.

Since natural evolution is extremely slow and mankind’s selective production programs only take a few generations to produce a completely new species, natural evolution has already taken a back seat to mankind’s production programs. In addition, mankind has successfully killed off several species all together. For example, there are no more European wolves in existence and mammoths (猛犸象) probably died out because of mankind. Even certain diseases have been permanently got rid of from the planet, and dozens of other diseases will soon be too. Again, natural evolution did i»t cause most of the destruction during man’s rule of the world.

Currently, scientists are creating new species with desired characteristics in the lab significantly faster than natural evolution creates new species. In a single generation, new species can be created and destroyed by mankind, while natural evolution could take thousands of years to do the same but only accidentally. Scientists are even able to replace defective (有缺陷的) or damaged genes with different genes to attempt to cure genetic defects. This is something that natural evolution could possibly never correct.

Eventually scientists will even be able to improve the quality of people. For example, imagine not only correcting your eyesight with gene treatment, but also ensuring that all of your children do not receive your old genes of poor eyesight too. Scientists will one day be able to improve the memory and intelligence of your children, so that they will do better in school and achieve more in life. Doctors and scientists will be able to customize (订制) babies before they are born just like picking options at a car store.

1.According to the first paragraph,______ .

A. man-made evolution has improved all species

B. man-made evolution has weakened some species

C man-made evolution can make up for all natural losses

D. natural evolution won’t happen without man’s assistance

2.What does the underlined part “taken a back seat to” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A. Become powerful assistance to.   

B. Become a huge barrier to.

C Speeded up the process of.   

D. Played a less important role than.

3.What does the third paragraph mainly talk about?

A. Why natural evolution happens so slowly.

B. The way scientists adopt to have genetic defects repaired.

C. The advantages of man-made evolution over natural evolution.

D. How scientists make use of man-made evolution to create new species.

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A. Near-sighted parents will be able to produce babies with good eyesight in the future.

B. Doctors and scientists will be responsible for mass production of babies in the future.

C. It is natural evolution that is to blame for the destruction of European wolves and mammoths.

D. Children can now have their memory and intelligence improved with the help of gene treatment.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.B

2.D

3.C

4.A

【解析】

试题分析：人为进化比自然进化好吗？进化为人类带来了财富，如奶牛可以专门产奶，玉米的产量比以前也高很多，但是 离开人类的照料那些动植物都不会很好的生存。但是的确人为的科学进化给那些有疾病的人带来新希望。科学家甚至能修补基因以试图治愈基因缺陷。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段可知，没有人类的帮助玉米不能再栽种；没有人类狗不能再野外生存。没有人类挤空牛奶，奶牛就会得病甚至死亡。所以人类的改进是弱化了一些物种的能力。故选B。

2.词意猜测题。根据该短语所在的句子的意思判断，自然的进化很慢，而人类的精选高产计划只用了几代的时间就可以培养出全新的品种。这样对比，自然的进化就落后于人类了。故选D。

3.段落大意题。该段提到人为进化的优点如：时间短，还可以改变基因缺陷等都是比自然进化强的地方。所以选C。

4.推理判断题。最后一段提到，科学家可以改变人的质量。如人的视力、智慧和记忆力等。所以视力不好的人将来可以有视力好的孩子。选A。

考点：科普类短文阅读。