留学360 新托福阅读修辞目的题解析.docxVIP

官网： 　　本类题目考察对于联系上下文、理解文章意思的能力 　　Paragraph 1: It should be obvious that cetaceans-whales, porpoises, and dolphins-are mammals. They breathe through lungs, not through gills, and give birth to live young. Their streamlined bodies, the absence of hind legs, and the presence of a fluke3 and blowhole4 cannot disguise their affinities with land-dwelling mammals. However, unlike the cases of sea otters and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses, whose limbs are functional both on land and at sea), it is not easy to envision what the first whales looked like. Extinct but, already fully marine cetaceans are known from the fossil record. How was the gap between a walking mammal and a swimming whale bridged? Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans. 　　Directions: Mark your answer by filling in the oval next to your choice. 　　1. In paragraph 1, what does the author say about the presence of a blowhole in cetaceans? 　　○It clearly indicates that cetaceans are mammals. 　　○It cannot conceal the fact that cetaceans are mammals. 　　○It is the main difference between cetaceans and land-dwelling mammals. 　　○It cannot yield clues about the origins of cetaceans. 　　Paragraph 5: An even more exciting find was reported in 1994, also from Pakistan. The now extinct whale Ambulocetus natans (“the walking whale that swam”] lived in the Tethys Sea 49 million years ago. It lived around 3 million years after Pakicetus but 9 million before Basilosaurus. The fossil luckily includes a good portion of the hind legs. The legs were strong and ended in long feet very much like those of a modern pinniped. The legs were certainly functional both on land and at sea. The whale retained a tail and lacked a fluke, the major means of locomotion in modern cetaceans. The structure of the backbone shows, however, that Ambulocetus swam like modern whales by moving the rear portion of its body up and down, even though a flu