Question

【題目】The discovery of an ancient giant panda skull has confirmed its bamboo diet dates back more than 2 million years and may have played a key part in its survival.

A Chinese-US research team reports its results today following studies on a fossil skull found in south China’s Cuangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 2001.

The six fossils unearthed in Jinyin Cave are dated between 2.4 and 2 million years ago, according to the report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an influential US journal.

Jin Changzhu, of the chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and lead author of the paper, said the smaller fossil skull indicates the giant pandas were about a third smaller than today’s pandas.

Researchers knew the panda reached its maximum size about 500,000 years ago, when it peaked ,and then gradually became smaller.

Jin, a paleontologist (古生物學(xué)者) at the Institute of Vertebrate paleontology and Paleoanthropology (古人類學(xué)) attached to the CAS, said the size variation was a basic rule of evolution.

“A species tends to grow bigger when it reaches the peak of its population , but becomes smaller when numbers decline,” he said.

The dental remains of the skull, which is the oldest giant panda skull ever found, are similar to today’s pandas, indicating the type of teeth that could munch (津津有味地嚼)mountains of bamboo. A panda can eat up to 40kg of bamboo per day.

Paleoanthropologist Russell Ciochon, the US co-author at the University of lowa, said the panda’s focus on bamboo could have helped it survive all these years.

“Once an animal begins to rely on a common and stable food source, such as bamboo, it tends to evolve a larger body size,” he said. “As individuals of the evolving species grow bigger, they have a better chance not to be eaten by predators (肉食動(dòng)物) due to their larger body size.”

【1】According to the research of the CAS , there were most pandas in the world .

A. 2 million years ago

B. between 2.4 and 2 million years ago

C. 500,000 years ago

D. Nowadays

【2】The underlined word “variation” in para 6 means .

A. fall B. change C. increase D. decrease

【3】From the passage, we can learn .

A. pandas began to eat bamboo 2 million years ago

B. a species tends to grow smaller when numbers decline

C. the giant pandas were about a third the size of today’s pandas

D. pandas’ bamboo has played an important role in its development

Answer 1

【答案】

【2】C

【3】B

【4】B

【解析】

試題分析:文章主要講述了熊貓的進(jìn)化以及竹子是維持熊貓生命的必需品。

【2】C考察細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)文意he six fossils unearthed in Jinyin Cave are dated between 2.4 and 2 million years ago, according to the report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an influential US journal可知熊貓起源于2到2.4億年之間，所以答案是B。

【3】B考察詞意猜測(cè)題。根據(jù)下文文意“A species tends to grow bigger when it reaches the peak of its population , but becomes smaller when numbers decline,”當(dāng)任何一種生物的數(shù)量達(dá)到頂峰時(shí)，其數(shù)量就會(huì)變少，所以應(yīng)該是“變化”，答案是B。

【4】B考察主旨大意。有文章內(nèi)容可知B為正確答案，當(dāng)一種生物的數(shù)量變少，其體型也會(huì)變小。