大连理工大学考博英语试题2008 3

努力,再努力。

博宸考博英语辅导学员专用同步资料 2011年大连理工大学考博英语考试资料汇编 starve down to the carrying capacity of their habitat. This is nature's “indifferent” ______.

A. flexibility B. justice

C. plasticity D. sensibility

II. Reading Comprehension 50%

Directions: Read the following passages and choose from the choices marked A, B, C and D that best complete or answer the questions after each passage. Then put a ‘V’ in the corresponding place on the Answer Sheet.

Passage One

Throughout the history of life, species of living creatures have made use of chemical energy by the slow combination of certain chemicals with oxygen within their cells. The process is analogous to combustion, but is slower and much more delicately controlled. Sometimes use is made of energy available in the bodies of stronger species as when a remora hitches a ride on a shark or a human being hitches an ox to a plough.

Inanimate sources of energy are sometimes used when species allow themselves to be carried or moved by wind or by water currents. In those cases, though, the inanimate source of energy must be accepted at the place and time that it happens to be and in the amount that happens to exist.

The human use of fire involved an inanimate source of energy that was portable and could be used wherever desired. It could be ignited or extinguished at will arid could be used when desired. It could be kept small or fed till it was large, and could be used in the quantities desired.

The use of fire made it possible for human beings, evolutionarily equipped for mild weather only, to penetrate the temperate zones. It made it possible for them to survive cold nights and long winters, to achieve security against fire-avoiding predators, and to roast meat and grain, thus broadening their diet and limiting the danger of bacterial and parasitic infestation.

Human beings multiplied in number and that meant there were more brains to plan future advances. With fire, life was not quite so hand-to-mouth; and there was more time to put those brains to work on something other than immediate emergencies.

In short, the use of fire put into motion an accelerating series of technological advances. About 10 000 years ago, in the Middle East, a series of crucial advances were made. These included the development of agriculture, herding, cities, pottery, metallurgy, and writing. The final step, that of writing, took place in the Middle East about 5 000 yea years ago.

This complex of changes stretching over a period of 5 000 years introduced what we call civilization, the name we give to a settled life, to a complex society in which human beings are specialized for various tasks.

To be sure other animals can build complex societies and can be composed of different types of individuals specialized for different tasks. This is most marked in such social insects as bees, ants, and termites, where individuals are in some cases physiologically specialized to the point where they cannot eat, but must be fed by others. Some species of ants practice agriculture and grow small mushroom gardens, while others herd aphids; still others war on and enslave smaller species of ants. And, of course, the beehive and the ant or termite colony have many points of analogy with the human city.

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