湖南省衡阳八中、永州四中2017届新高三文理科实验班暑期第一次联考英语试卷.doc

衡阳八中永州四中2016年下期高三年级实验班第一次联考 英语 一、听力 二、阅读理解 第一部分 A An article published recently in the scientific journal Nature is shedding new light on an important, but so far little has been appreciated, aspect of human evolution. In this article, Professors Dennis Bramble, and Daniel Lieberman suggest that the ability to run was a decisive factor in the development of our species. According to the two scientists, humans possess a number of anatomical（人体结构的）features that make them surprisingly good runners. “We are very confident that strong selection for running，which came at the expense of the historical ability to live in trees-was helpful in the origin of the modern human body form,” says Bramble, a biology professor at the University of Utah. Traditional thinking up to now has been that the upright body form of modern humans has come about as a result of the ability to walk, and that running is simply a by-product of walking. Furthermore, humans have usually been regarded as poor runners compared to such animals as dogs, horses or antelopes. However, this is only true if we consider fast running over short distances. Even Olympic athlete can hardly run as fast as a horse can gallop, and can only keep up a top speed for fifteen seconds or so. Horses and antelopes, on the other hand, can run at top speed for several minutes, clearly outperforming us in this respect. But when it comes to long-distance running, humans do astonishingly well. They can maintain a steady pace for miles, and their overall speed compares favorably with that of horses or dogs. Bramble and Lieberman examined twenty-six anatomical features found in humans. One of the most interesting of these is the nuchal ligament（颈背的韧带）. When we run, it is this ligament that prevents our head from pitching back and forth or from side to side. Therefore, we are able to run with steady heads held high. The nuchal ligament is not found in any other surviving primates（灵长类动物）, although the fossil（化石）record shows th