2019 年 06 月大学英语四级考试真题（第 2 套）

Questions __26__ to __35__ are based on the following passage.

Just because they can't sing opera or ride a bicycle doesn't mean that animals don't have culture. There's no better example of this than killer whales. As one of the most __26__ predators (食肉动物), killer whales may not fit the __27__ of a cultured creature. However, these beasts of the sea do display a vast range of highly __28__ behaviors that appear to be driving their genetic development.

The word "culture" comes from the Latin "colere," which __29__ means "to cultivate." In other words, it refers to anything that is __30__ or learnt, rather than instinctive or natural. Among human populations, culture not only affects the way we live, but also writes itself into our genes, affecting who we are. For instance, having spent many generations hunting the fat marine mammals of the Arctic, the Eskimos of Greenland have developed certain genetic __31__ that help them digest and utilize this fat-rich diet, thereby allowing them to __32__ in their cold climate.

Like humans, killer whales have colonized a range of different __33__ across the globe, occupying every ocean basin on the planet, with an empire that __34__ from pole to pole. As such, different populations of killer whales have had to learn different hunting techniques in order to gain the upper hand over their local prey (猎物). This, in turn, has a major effect on their diet, leading scientists to __35__ that the ability to learn population-specific hunting methods could be driving the animals' genetic development.

According to the majority of Americans, women are every bit as capable of being good political leaders as men. The same can be said of their ability to dominate the corporate boardroom. And according to a new Pew Research Center survey on women and leadership, most Americans find women indistinguishable from men on key leadership traits such as intelligence and capacity for innovation, with many saying they're stronger than men in terms of being passionate and organized leaders.

So why, then, are women in short supply at the top of government and business in the United States? According to the public, at least, it's not that they lack toughness, management talent or proper skill sets.

It's also not all about work-life balance. Although economic research and previous survey findings have shown that career interruptions related to motherhood may make it harder for women to advance in their careers and compete for top executive jobs, relatively few adults in the recent survey point to this as a key barrier for women seeking leadership roles. Only about one-in-five say women's family responsibilities are a major reason why there aren't more females in top leadership positions in business and politics.

Instead, topping the list of reasons, about four-in-ten Americans point to a double standard for women seeking to climb to the highest levels of either politics or business, where they have to do more than their male counterparts to prove themselves. Similar shares say the electorate (选民) and corporate America are just not ready to put more women in top leadership positions. As a result, the public is divided about whether the imbalance in corporate America will change in the foreseeable future, even though women have made major advances in the workplace. While 53% believe men will continue to hold more top executive positions in business in the future, 44% say it's only a matter of time before as many women are in top executive positions as men. Americans are less doubtful when it comes to politics: 73% expect to see a female president in their lifetime.

People have grown taller over the last century, with South Korean women shooting up by more than 20cm on average, and Iranian men gaining. 16.5cm. A global study looked at the average height of 18-year-olds in 200 countries 1914 and 2014.

The results reveal that while Swedes were the tallest people in the world in 1914, Dutch men have risen from 12th place to claim top spot with an average height of 182.5cm. Latvian women. Meanwhile, rose from 28th place in 1914 to become the tallest in the world a century later, with an average height of 169.8cm.

James Bentham, a co-author of the research from Imperial College, London, says the global trend is likely to be due primarily to improvements in nutrition and healthcare. "An individual's genetics has a big influence on their height, but once you average over whole populations, genetics plays a less key role," he added.

A little extra height brings a number of advantages, says Elio Riboli of Imperial College. "Being taller is associated with longer life expectancy," he said. "This is largely due to a lower risk of dying of cardiovascular (心血管的) disease among taller people."

But while height has increased around the world, the trend in many countries of north and sub-Saharan Africa causes concern, says Riboli. While height increased in Uganda and Niger during the early 20th century, the trend has reversed in recent years, with height decreasing among 18-year-olds.

"One reason for these decreases in height is the economic situation in the 1980s," said Alexander Moradi of the University of Sussex. The nutritional and health crises that followed the policy of structural adjustment, he says, led to many children and teenagers failing to reach their full potential in terms of height.

Bentham believes the global trend of increasing height has important implications. "How tall we are now is strongly influenced by the environment we grew up in," he said. "If we give children the best possible start in life now, they will be healthier and more productive for decades to come."