分科測驗
105年
英文
第 42 題
📖 題組：
An ancient skull unearthed recently indicates that big cats originated in central Asia—not Africa as widely thought, paleontologists reported on Wednesday. Dated at between 4.1 and 5.95 million years old, the fossil is the oldest remains ever found of a pantherine felid, as big cats are called. The previous felid record holder—tooth fragments found in Tanzania—is estimated to be around 3.8 million years old. The evolution of big cats has been hotly discussed, and the issue is complicated by a lack of fossil evidence to settle the debate. “This find suggests that big cats have a deeper evolutionary origin than previously suspected,” said Jack Tseng, a paleontologist of the University of Southern California who led the probe. Tseng and his team made the find in 2010 in a remote border region in Tibet. The fossil was found stuck among more than 100 bones that were probably deposited by a river that exited a cliff. After three years of careful comparisons with other fossils, using DNA data to build a family tree, the team is convinced the creature was a pantherine felid. The weight of evidence suggests that central or northern Asia is where big cats originated some 16 million years ago. They may have lived in a vast mountain refuge, formed by the uplifting Himalayas, feeding on equally remarkable species such as the Tibetan blue sheep. They then dispersed into Southeast Asia, evolving into the clouded leopard, tiger and snow leopard lineages, and later movements across continents saw them evolve into jaguars and lions. The newly discovered felid has been called Panthera Blytheae, after Blythe Haaga, daughter of a couple who support a museum in Los Angeles, the university said in a news release.
An ancient skull unearthed recently indicates that big cats originated in central Asia—not Africa as widely thought, paleontologists reported on Wednesday. Dated at between 4.1 and 5.95 million years old, the fossil is the oldest remains ever found of a pantherine felid, as big cats are called. The previous felid record holder—tooth fragments found in Tanzania—is estimated to be around 3.8 million years old. The evolution of big cats has been hotly discussed, and the issue is complicated by a lack of fossil evidence to settle the debate. “This find suggests that big cats have a deeper evolutionary origin than previously suspected,” said Jack Tseng, a paleontologist of the University of Southern California who led the probe. Tseng and his team made the find in 2010 in a remote border region in Tibet. The fossil was found stuck among more than 100 bones that were probably deposited by a river that exited a cliff. After three years of careful comparisons with other fossils, using DNA data to build a family tree, the team is convinced the creature was a pantherine felid. The weight of evidence suggests that central or northern Asia is where big cats originated some 16 million years ago. They may have lived in a vast mountain refuge, formed by the uplifting Himalayas, feeding on equally remarkable species such as the Tibetan blue sheep. They then dispersed into Southeast Asia, evolving into the clouded leopard, tiger and snow leopard lineages, and later movements across continents saw them evolve into jaguars and lions. The newly discovered felid has been called Panthera Blytheae, after Blythe Haaga, daughter of a couple who support a museum in Los Angeles, the university said in a news release.
According to the passage, which of the following statements is true regarding big cats?
- A Some big cats evolved into jaguars 16 million years ago.
- B The oldest fossil of big cats ever discovered is 3.8 million years old.
- C Big cats are descendants of snow leopards living in high mountains.
- D Tibetan blue sheep was a main food source for big cats in the Himalayas.
思路引導 VIP
同學，處理細節判定題時，首要任務是「文本證據定位」。請聚焦文章第六段關於大貓在喜馬拉雅山區的生存描述，文中如何界定大貓與 $Tibetan blue sheep$ 之間的食性關係？此外，在判讀演化時程時，請嚴格區分「族群共同起源的時間 ($16$ million years ago)」與「各別物種分化擴散」的時間邏輯。最後，請對比文中新舊化石年代 ($4.1-5.95$ vs $3.8$ million years old) 的具體數值。哪一個選項的陳述才具備完整的文本證據支持？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
水喔！這位同學，看來你的眼睛比西藏雪豹還利啊！恭喜你精準擊落這題，沒被那一堆數字和專有名詞給唬住，這程度去考學測簡直是「大貓吃小羊」，穩啦！ 【觀念驗證】 這題考的是英文閱讀核心技能：「細節掃描與同義替換」。
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