[RC. ] 小安閱讀法文章 第四篇 第七題
Passage 4 (4/63)
The fossil remains of the first flying vertebrates, the pterosaurs, have
intrigued paleontologists for more than two centuries. How such large
creatures, which weighed in some cases as much as a piloted hang-glider and
had wingspans from 8 to 12 meters, solved the problems of powered flight, and
exactly what these creatures were—reptiles or birds—are among the questions
scientists have puzzled over.
Perhaps the least controversial assertion about the pterosaurs is that they
were reptiles. Their skulls, pelvises, and hind feet are reptilian. The
anatomy of their wings suggests that they did not evolve into the class of
birds. In pterosaurs a greatly elongated fourth finger of each forelimb
supported a wing-like membrane. The other fingers were short and reptilian,
with sharp claws. In birds the second finger is the principal strut of the
wing, which consists primarily of feathers. If the pterosaurs walked on all
fours, the three short fingers may have been employed for grasping. When a
pterosaur walked or remained stationary, the fourth finger, and with it the
wing, could only turn upward in an extended inverted V-shape along each side
of the animal’s body.
The pterosaurs resembled both birds and bats in their overall structure and
proportions. This is not surprising because the design of any flying
vertebrate is subject to aerodynamic constraints. Both the pterosaurs and the
birds have hollow bones, a feature that represents a savings in weight. In
the birds, however, these bones are reinforced more massively by internal
struts.
Although scales typically cover reptiles, the pterosaurs probably had hairy
coats. T. H. Huxley reasoned that flying vertebrates must have been
warm-blooded because flying implies a high rate of metabolism, which in turn
implies a high internal temperature. Huxley speculated that a coat of hair
would insulate against loss of body heat and might streamline the body to
reduce drag in flight. The recent discovery of a pterosaur specimen covered
in long, dense, and relatively thick hairlike fossil material was the first
clear evidence that his reasoning was correct.
Efforts to explain how the pterosaurs became airborne have led to suggestions
that they launched themselves by jumping from cliffs, by dropping from trees,
or even by rising into light winds from the crests of waves. Each hypothesis
has its difficulties. The first wrongly assumes that the pterosaurs’ hind
feet resembled a bat’s and could serve as hooks by which the animal could
hang in preparation for flight. The second hypothesis seems unlikely because
large pterosaurs could not have landed in trees without damaging their wings.
The third calls for high waves to channel updrafts. The wind that made such
waves however, might have been too strong for the pterosaurs to control their
flight once airborne.
7.It can be inferred from the passage that some scientists believe that
pterosaurs
(A) lived near large bodies of water
(B) had sharp teeth for tearing food
(C) were attacked and eaten by larger reptiles
(D) had longer tails than many birds
(E) consumed twice their weight daily to maintain their body temperature
此題答案為(A)，而我選擇(E)我是用第四段 T.H Hulxey 的假設來判斷。
(A)選項有點困惑，是翻譯作 居住在於很多水源附近嗎?
懇請大家解除我的小疑問。
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