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  3. Darwin and Lincoln Are Strangely Fit Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on the same day: Feb. 12

Darwin and Lincoln Are Strangely Fit Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on the same day: Feb. 12

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问题                     Darwin and Lincoln Are Strangely Fit
    Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on the same day: Feb. 12, 1809. How’s this for a coincidence? Instinctively, we want to say that they belong together. It’s not just because they were both great men, and not because they happen to be exactly at the same age. Rather, it’s because the scientist and the politician each touched off a revolution that changed the world.
    Lincoln and Darwin were both revolutionaries, in the sense that both men upended realities that prevailed when they were born.They seen—and sound—modern to us, because the world they left behind them is more or less the one we still live in. So, considering the joint magnitude of their contributions—and the coincidence of their conjoined birthdays—it is hard not to wonder: who was the greater man? It’s an apples and oranges—or Superman vs Santa—comparison. But if you limit the question to influence, it bears pondering, all the more if you turn the question around and ask, what might have happened if one of these men had not been born? Very quickly the balance tips in Lincoln’s favor. Great as Darvin’s book on evolution is, it does no harm to remember that he hurried to publish "The Origin of Species" because he thought he was about to be scooped (抢先) by his fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who had independently come up with much the same idea of evolution through natural selection. In other words, there was a certain inevitability to Darwin’s theory. Ideas about evolution surfaced thoroughout the first part of the 19th century, and while none of them was as conclusive as Darwin’s, it was not as though he was the only man who had the idea.
    Lincoln, in contrast, is unique. Take him out of the picture, and there is no telling what might have happened to the country. True, his election to the presidency did provoke secession and, in turn, the war itself, but that war seems inevitable—not a question of if but when. If Darwin were not so irreplaceable as Lincoln, that should not deny his accomplishment. No one could have formulated his theory any more elegantly—or anguished more over its implications. Like Lincoln, Darwin was brave. He risked his health and his reputation to advance the idea that we are not over nature but a part of it. Lincoln prosecuted a war—and became its ultimate casualty—to ensure that no man should have dominion over another. Their identical birthdays afford us a superb opportunity to observe these men in the shared context of their time—how each was shaped by his circumstances, how each reacted to the beliefs that steered the world into which he was born and ultimately how each reshaped his corner of that world and left it irrevocably changed.
What does the author think of Darwin’s evolution theory?
选项 A、He thinks it was a unique production by Darwin.
B、He thinks it was published in pursuit of fame.
C、He thinks it was as convincing as Wallace’s theory.
D、He thinks it should have been published by Wallace.
答案B
解析 观点态度题。根据题干关键词Darwin’s evolution theory定位到原文第二段。由第七句．．．“The Origin of Species”because he thought he was about to be scooped by his fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace，who had independently come up with much the same idea of evolution through natural selection．可知，达尔文急着发表它是因为他认为同行阿尔弗雷德·拉塞尔·华莱士会在他之前发表这一理论。可见，作者认为达尔文进化论的出版是出于以名声的追求，故选[B]。[A]项“他认为这项理论只是达尔文的产物”和[C]项“他认为达尔文的理论与华莱士的理论一样令人信服”，与文中说法有悖；[D]项“他认为该理论应该由华莱士发表”，文中未提及。
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