单选题 Lazy? Shy? Live in a cave? Those might not be positive attributes for the average human, but they sure those are good for animals trying to survive in a changing environment. According to a new study, beasts that hibernate (冬眠) or crawl into holes are less likely to be listed as endangered than those that don"t.
Following up a previous study on extinct animals, which showed that species exhibiting "sleep or hide" (SLOH) behaviors did better than others, the researchers wanted to see if the same was true of modern creatures like moles and bears. To find out if our more timid animals have a leg up in the survival game, researchers made a master list of 443 sleep-or-hide mammals.
With their list in hand, the team compared their 443 to the "red list" of endangered species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. As suspected, a sleepy or hiding animal was less likely to be on the red list than a regular animal, and a red-list animal was also less likely to be a SLOH-er.
This makes a lot of sense, as animals that hide away in a cave or a tree hole are protected by their physical shelters from a variable environment outside, while hibernators enjoy a flexible metabolism (新陈代谢) that can help them adapt to a changing climate.
单选题 On the list of extinct animals studied, there were ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题的依据句是第二段第一个句子“Following up a previous study on extinct animals, which showed that species exhibiting "sleep or hide" (SLOH)behaviors did better than others”,大意为“冬眠的动物与普通动物相比更不容易灭绝”。
单选题 The phrase "a leg up" in Para. 2 probably means ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 将四个选项的意思放在原文进行对照,很容易就能判断出B项“an advantage(优势)”为正确答案。其他选项意思讲不通。
单选题 The study of modem creatures ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 注意第一段最后一个句子与第三段最后一个句子的比较,两个地方的研究结果是一致的,所以可以确定C项正确。
单选题 According to the passage, red-list animals are more likely to ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] A项和B项为并列关系,不能只选其一;C项与原文意思相反;由于研究结果已经证明,冬眠(睡得多)的动物不容易灭绝,那么可以推断出,灭绝的(red-list)动物就睡得少(sleep less)。
单选题 In the last paragraph the author ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 最后一个段落是对为什么冬眠的动物更有可能生存下来的结论所作的一种解释。其他选项信息没有支持信息。