It is hard to box against a southpaw, as Apollo Creed found out when he fought Rocky Balboa in the first of an interminable series of movies. While "Rocky" is fiction, the strategic advantage of being left-handed in a fight is very real, simply because most right-handed people have little experience of fighting left-handers, but not vice versa. The orthodox view of human handedness is that it is connected to the bilateral specialisation of the brain that has concentrated language-processing functions on the left side of that organ. Because, long ago in the evolutionary past, an ancestor of humans underwent a contortion that twisted its head around 180°relative to its body, the left side of the brain controls the fight side of the body, and vice versa. In humans, the left brain is usually dominant. And on average, left-handers are smaller and lighter than right-handers. That should put them at an evolutionary disadvantage. Sporting advantage notwithstanding, therefore, the existence of left-handedness poses a problem for biologists. But Charlotte Faurie thinks he knows the answer. As any schoolboy could tell you, winning fights enhances your status. If, in prehistory, this translated into increased reproductive success, it might have been enough to maintain a certain proportion of left-handers in the population, by balancing the costs of being left-handed with the advantages gained in fighting. If that is tree, then there will be a higher proportion of left-handers in societies with higher levels of violence, since the advantages of being left-handed will be enhanced in such societies. Dr. Faurie set out to test this hypothesis. Fighting in modem societies often involves the use of technology, notably firms, that is unlikely to give any advantage to left-handers. So Dr. Faurie decided to confine his investigation to the proportion of left-handers and the level of violence in traditional societies. By trawling the literature, checking with police departments, and even going out into the field and asking people, Dr. Faurie found that the proportion of left-handers in a traditional society is, indeed, correlated with its homicide rate. One of the highest proportions of left-handers, for example, was found among the Yanomamo of South America. Raiding and warfare are central to Yanomamo culture. The murder rate is 4 per 1,000 inhabitants per year. And, according to Dr. Faufie, 22.6% of Yanomamo are left-handed. In contrast, Dioula-speaking people of Burkina Faso in West Africa are virtual pacifists. There are only 0.013 murders per 1,000 inhabitants among them and only 3.4% of the population is left-handed. While there is no suggestion that left-handed people are more violent than the right-handed, it looks as though they are more successfully violent. Perhaps that helps to explain the double meaning of the word "sinister".
单选题
The example of "Apollo Creed" is mentioned to show that
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：本题问文章列举"Apollo Creed"的例子是为了说明什么。首段中"It is hard to box against a southpaw"和"the strategic advantage of being left-handed in a fight is very real"都说明左撇子在拳击(运动)中更占有优势，故"左撇子在某些运动中占有优势"正确。右撇子在心理上被置于弱势地位：首段首句虽然谈到"Creed"发现左撇子很难应付，但这只是因为一般人都缺乏与左撇子打斗的经验，并没有说他心理上对左撇子感到恐惧。而且作者显然无意论述右撇子的心理状态，而是说明左撇子的运动优势，为下文内容作铺垫。右撇子在拳击方面不优秀：文章的中心是讲左撇子拥有某些优势而并非右撇子不优秀。左撇子经常与人打架：从"Apollo Creed"的例子中看不出左撇子与好斗有什么联系。而且末段也提到"there is no suggestion that left-handed people are more violent than the right-handed"，可以看出左撇子不一定好斗。
单选题
Dr. Faurie takes traditional societies as the subject of investigation because in them
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：本题问佛瑞博士以传统社会作为调查对象的原因。第三段倒数第二句谈到"Fighting in modern societies involves the use of technology…，that is unlikely to give any advantage the left-handers"，即现代社会的暴力活动都是用枪械的，左撇子不会有优势，这样调查起来没有意义，所以才会选择传统社会。也就是说，在传统社会中，左撇子的优势才能完全发挥出来。故"左撇子的优势得到完全发挥"正确。记录的犯罪率高：文中并没有谈到传统社会比现代社会犯罪率更高，实际上第四段中谈到的第二个社会犯罪率很低。左撇子的比例相对较高：传统社会左撇子的比例不一定比现代社会高。左撇子比右撇子更具暴力倾向：这与末段首句"there is no suggestion that left-handed people are more violent than the right-handed"矛盾。而且也与佛瑞博士选择传统社会作为调查对象没有关系。
单选题
Paragraph 4 is used in this passage to
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】解析：本题问文中的第四段用来做什么。文章首段说左撇子在打斗中占有优势；第二段从生物学的角度提出疑问；第三段回答了第二段的问题，并得出假设："there will be a higher proportion of left-handers in societies with higher levels of violence"；第四段就是用实例来证明这一假设。所以，"说明左撇子与暴力之间的联系"正确。暗示传统社会中高犯罪率的原因：文中第四段叙述了Dr. Faurie的研究，作者是用其研究为其主题服务，即证明左撇子与暴力关系，而不是说明高犯罪率的原因。不同部落地区谋杀率的比较：第四段的确比较了几个不同地方的谋杀率，但其侧重点并不在此，而是要从谋杀率和左撇子比例的比较来反映左撇子与暴力之间的联系。证明左撇子的犯罪倾向：由末段首句可知，第四段的例子只是说明在暴力型社会中，左撇子有优势，所以比例相对高些。这并不意味着左撇子更具暴力倾向或犯罪倾向。