21. One method of dating the emergence of species is to compare the genetic material of related species. Scientists theorize that the more genetically similar two species are to each other, the more recently they diverged from a common ancestor. After comparing genetic material from giant pandas, red pandas, raccoons, coatis, and all seven bear species, scientists concluded that bears and raccoons diverged 30 to 50 million years ago. They further concluded that red pandas separated from the ancestor of today’s raccoons and coatis a few million years later, some 10 million years before giant pandas diverged from the other bears.
Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?
(A) Giant pandas and red pandas are more closely related than scientists originally thought they were.
(B) Scientists now count the giant panda as the eighth species of bear.
(C) It is possible to determine, within a margin of just a few years, the timing of divergence of various species.
(D) Scientists have found that giant pandas are more similar genetically to bears than to raccoons.(D)
(E) There is substantial consensus among scientists that giant pandas and red pandas are equally related to raccoons.
确实相比之下,D是最合理的infer,但是我觉得并不严谨。原文说:
more genetically similiar -> more recent diverging from a common ancestor
genetically simiilar是后者的充分条件,但没有提到逆命题。换句话说:如果giant pandas are more similiar genetically to bears than to racoons, 我们可以籍此推出the diverging of giant pandas and bears from a common ancestor is more recent than the diverging of giant pandas and racoons from a common ancestor。然而,原文只告诉我们giant pandas diverged from bears是最recent的,因此D选项是上述逻辑的逆命题,并不能确定的推导出。
请问各位前辈这样的理解正确吗?还是说infer只是讲一个大概的可能性,不要求非常严谨呢?
非常感谢!
[此贴子已经被作者于2005-10-13 7:53:21编辑过] |