考研英语二源文章阅读集锦教材分析.docVIP

2016考研英语阅读题源经济学人文章：孔雀的性选择与进化 　　Sexual selection and evolution 　　性选择与进化 　　My pretty maid 　　美丽的雌性 　　A glamorous raiment sometimes helps a female birdas much as it helps a male 　　华丽的外表有时给雌性的益处和雄性一样多 　　HOW the peacock got his tail is one of naturalhistorys “Just So” stories that biologists like to thinkthey have cracked. His tail is for showing off to the ladies just how fit he and his genes are. Aless-than-perfect tail means no offspring. Genes for spectacular male tails are thuspreserved and promoted over the generations in a process that is called sexual selection. 　　孔雀是如何得到它的尾巴，生物学家乐意认为这是他们已经破解的自然界奥秘故事之一。它的尾巴是向雌性炫耀它和它的基因是多么优秀。稍有瑕疵的尾巴意味着没有后代。受世代性选择的过程的影响，雄性华丽的尾巴的基因因此得到保留并进化。 　　There is, though, a problem with this story. Peahens, though not as showy as cocks, are by nomeans dowdy. Their heads have fetching crests, and their necks are a beautiful, iridescentblue. Such flummery is costly to grow and likely to attract predators. If you do not have tostrut your stuff to get a mate, why do you need it? 　　然而，这个故事有一个疑问。雌孔雀虽不如雄性那样艳丽，但也绝不俗气。它们头上有迷人的羽冠，以及光泽艳丽的蓝色脖子。这种装饰物会威胁生存，可能招致天敌。如果你不是为了求偶炫耀，那你为什么需要它? 　　Even more confusingly, in many species both sexes are equally showy—the Gouldian finchesoverleaf, for example (the female is on the right). So, though no one thinks the theory isincorrect, as far as it goes, it clearly does not go far enough. To understand things betterJames Dale of Massey University, in Auckland, New Zealand, and his colleagues have thereforeexamined the plumage of both sexes of all 5,983 species of passerine bird (peafowl, not beingpasserines, are not among them), and compared them in exquisite detail. 　　更不解的是，许多物种雄性和雌性都绚丽——例如上图的彩虹鸟(右为雌性)。虽然没人认为这个理论是错的，但就现状而言，显然不够正确。为了了解更多，新西兰奥克兰区梅西大学的詹姆斯戴尔，和同事调查了总共5,983种雀形目鸟类雌雄的羽毛，并比较了他们的细微细节(孔雀不是雀形目，不在调查之中)。 　　First, the team had to devise a way to deal with the 11,966 types of plumage they had set outto examine. Using the “Handbook of the Birds of the World”, regarded by ornithologists as thedefinitive work in the field,