文勇ibt黄金阅读：共生关系.docxVIP

智课网TOEFL备考资料文勇ibt黄金阅读：共生关系 摘要： 刘文勇新托福黄金阅读最新版文本及答案，高清PDF格式支持免费下载，一共71篇，包括原刘文勇黄金阅读29篇，下面是文勇ibt黄金阅读：共生关系，希望对大家备考托福阅读考试有所帮助。 文勇ibt黄金阅读：Symbiotic Relationships 共生关系 A symbiotic relationship is an interaction between two or more species in which one species lives in or on another species. There are three main types of symbiotic relationships: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. The first and the third can be key factors in the structure of a biological community; that is, all the populations of organisms living together and potentially interacting in a particular area. At times, it is actually possible to watch the effects of natural selection in host-parasite relationships. For example, Australia during the 1940 s was overrun by hundreds of millions of European rabbits. The rabbits destroyed huge expanses of Australia and threatened the sheep and cattle industries. In 1950, myxoma virus, a parasite that affects rabbits, was deliberately introduced into Australia to control the rabbit population. Spread rapidly by mosquitoes, the virus devastated the rabbit population. The virus was less deadly to the offspring of surviving rabbits, however, and it caused less and less harm over the years. Apparently, genotypes (the genetic make-up of an organism) in the rabbit population were selected that were better able to resist the parasite. Meanwhile, the deadliest strains of the virus perished with their hosts as natural selection favored strains that could infect hosts but not kill them. Thus, natural selection stabilized this host-parasite relationship. In contrast to parasitism, in commensalism, one partner benefits without significantly affecting the other. Few cases of absolute commensalism probably exist, because it is unlikely that one of the partners will be completely unaffected. Commensal associations sometimes involve one species obtaining food that is inadvertently exposed by another. For instance, several kinds of birds feed on insects flushed out of the gra