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The unique human habit of taking in and employing animals—even competitors like wolves—spurred on human tool-making and language

admin2022-08-27  23
问题     The unique human habit of taking in and employing animals—even competitors like wolves—spurred on human tool-making and language, which have both driven humanity’s success, Pat Shipman says, paleoanthropologist of Perm State University. "Wherever you go in the world, whatever ecosystem (生态系统), whatever culture, people live with animals," Shipman said.
    For early humans, taking in and caring for animals would seem like a poor strategy for survival. "On the face of it, you are wasting your resources. So this is a very weird behavior," Shipman said. But it’s not so weird in the context something else humans were doing about 2.6 million years ago: switching from a mostly vegetarian diet to one rich in meat. This happened because humans invented stone hunting tools that enabled them to compete with other top predators. Quite a rapid and bizarre switch for any animal. So we invented the equipment, learned how to track and kill, and eventually took in animals who also knew how to hunt—like wolves and other canines. Others, like goats, cows and horses, provided milk, hair and, finally, hides and meat.
    Managing all of these animals—or just tracking them—requires technology, knowledge and ways to preserve and convey information. So languages had to develop and evolve to meet the challenges. Tracking game has even been argued to be the origin of scientific inquiry, said Peter Richerson, professor emeritus (名誉退休的) in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis. One of the signs that this happened is in petroglyphs (史前岩画) and other rock art left by ancient peoples. At first they were abstract, geometric patterns that are impossible to decipher (破译). Then they converge on one subject: animals.
    There have also been genetic changes in both humans and our animals. For the animals those changes developed because human bred them for specific traits, like a cow that gives more milk or a hen that lays more eggs. But this evolutionary influence works both ways. Dogs, for instance, might have been selectively taken in by humans who shared genes for more compassion. Those humans then prospered with the dogs’ help in hunting and securing their homes.
Why did Shipman say taking in animal is a poor strategy for survival?
选项 A、Early humans were poor in survival resources.
B、Taking in animal was a very weird behavior.
C、Early humans didn’t know how to track and kill.
D、Early humans switched from a vegetarian diet to meat.
答案A
解析 根据题干中的关键词a poor strategy for survival，可以把答题线索定位到第二段的第一句话。文章第二段的第一句话说驯养和照顾动物似乎不是一个能使人类生存下来的好策略，即这种方法不利于人类自己的生存，接下来希普曼说从表面上看，这是在浪费资源，这是一种很怪异的行为，而选项A说早期人类的生存资源少，两者正好契合，所以本题应该选A。选项B也是希普曼说的话，但并没有解释为什么驯养动物不是使人类生存下来的好策略。选项C说早期的人类不知道如何追踪和猎杀动物，但是第二段的中间部分提到人类开始食用肉类，“这是因为人类发明了用来捕猎的石制工具”，从这两点可以看出，早期人类是有能力捕杀动物的。选项D说人类从素食转向食用肉类，但文章中说的是“从以素食为主转向食用大量的肉类”，显然选项D的概括不够准确，而且不是希普曼这么说的原因。
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