Natural Selection First coined by Darwin, the term natural selection refers to the process at the core of evolutionary theory. Simply put, Darwin believed that every living organism had to struggle to survive and reproduce. By random chance, some individuals in a species would have characteristics that made them better adapted to this struggle than their contemporaries. Such individuals would be more likely to reproduce and pass their characteristics on to their offspring. Over many generations, a series of small differences in characteristics would accumulate, until eventually the creatures that were produced would be so different from their original ancestors that they would constitute a new species. ■(A) Although Darwin did not know how variations between individual members of the same species were able to arise in the first place or how such traits could then be passed on from species to species, we now know that this process occurs through genes. ■(B) Genes determine what characteristics an organism will possess, from its size to its skin color to its gender. ■(C) Sometimes these genes become damaged or altered--a process known as mutation. ■(D) Most mutations are either too small to have any effect, or have detrimental effects on the organism. A few, however, can be beneficial to helping an organism survive. The organisms with these beneficial mutations are the ones that .survive and reproduce, passing their particular genetic mutation on to future generations. Originally, Darwin thought that two particular types of traits were naturally selected for evolution. The first type included any and all traits that helped an organism survive, either by giving it easier access to food, better protection from predators, or superior adaptability to shifting environmental conditions. Several examples of the natural selection of such traits have been observed since Darwin first proposed his theory. The most often cited example is the coloration of moths near industrial centers. Some of them have white wings and the others have black wings. Under normal conditions, the lighter-colored moths predominate since white moths are less visible against the light-colored bark of the trees in the forests where they live, which means they can more easily avoid predators. Near industrial centers, however, darker-colored moths predominate, as the pollution from the factory has darkened the bark of the nearby trees. Moths landing on these trees are much more difficult to see if they have black wings. This trait has now become most common in moth populations living in areas where pollutants have changed the color of the tree bark. The second type of naturally selected traits envisioned by Darwin involved those characteristics of an organism that made it easier for that organism to find a mate. This form of natural selection, often called sexual selection, was thought to explain the existence of highly developed traits in certain animals that seemed to play no particular role in their survival, and that in some cases seemed to make it even harder for them to survive. A prime example of such a trait is the peacock’s elaborate, colorful tail feathers. A long, unwieldy tail that can expand into a display of bright colors that draws the attention of any predator in the vicinity seems less likely than that of other kinds of birds to help the bird survive. However, researchers discovered that peahens invariably chose to mate with those peacocks whose tail feathers produced the most artistic displays. Thus, although the peacock’s tail feathers have no adaptive function in terms of coping with survival pressure, the gene that controls feather color is the one that is most likely to be passed on because of its role in the mating process. Many scientists now believe that a third type of naturally selected characteristics exists, namely those that may be harmful to an individual organism but beneficial to that organism’s species. This helps to explain the persistence of certain traits that were viewed under traditional evolutionary theory as not assisting in adaptation. For instance, in many animal species, including humans, a small subset of the population is homosexual. Under the old view of evolution, this could not be accounted for since homosexual individuals do not normally reproduce, meaning the gene that codes for it should have long been phased out of the gene pool. However, recent studies among wild sheep populations have found that the prevalence of homosexuality in the sheep population increases in times of severe food shortages, causing the sheep to form stronger bonds with sheep of the same sex than they otherwise would. As a result, instead of fighting over a particular food source, these sheep share the food they find with each other, increasing the species’ chance of surviving hard times. Though still controversial, the idea that traits may be naturally selected because of their benefits to the species instead of their benefits to the individual is rapidly gaining acceptance in the scientific community because of the wide array of characteristics that it can explain, including the human tendency towards altruism, According to paragraph 1, what is the end result of natural selection
A. Special individuals.
B. New species.
C. Random traits.
D. Adapted characteristics.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: when will I be blown up Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed, love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeat in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and worst of all without pity, or compassion. He writes not of the heart but of the glands. Until he relearns these things he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure; that when the last ding-dong of doom has changed and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.