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adi_800
- Legendary Member
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- Location: Pune, India
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Numerous and varied are the objections that have
been advanced against the theory of selection since it
was first enunciated by Darwin and Wallace-from the
unreasoning strictures of Richard Owen and the acute and
(5) thoughtful criticisms of Albert Wigand and Nägeli to
the opposition of our own day, which contends that
selection cannot create but only reject, and which fails
to see that precisely through this rejection its
creative efficacy is asserted.
(10) The champions of this view are for discovering the
motive forces of evolution in the laws that govern
organisms-as if the norm according to which an event
happens were the event itself, as if the rails which
determine the direction of a train could supplant the
(15) locomotive. Of course, from every form of life there
proceeds only a definite, though extremely large, number
of tracks, the possible variations, whilst between them
lie stretches without tracks, the impossible variations,
on which locomotion is impossible. But the actual
(20) traveling of a track is not performed by the track, but
by the locomotive, and on the other hand, the choice of
a track, the decision whether the destination of the
train shall be Berlin or Paris, is not made by the
locomotive, the cause of the variation, but by the
(25) driver of the locomotive, who directs the engine on the
right track.
In the theory of selection the engine driver is
represented by utility, for with utility rests the
decision as to what particular variational track shall
(30) be traveled. The cogency, the irresistible cogency, of
the principle of selection is precisely its capacity of
explaining why fit structures always arise, and that
certainly is the great problem of life. Not the fact of
change, but the manner of the change, whereby all things
(35) are maintained capable of life and existence, is the
pressing question.
The author's tone in the passage is:
A. Impolitic
B. Vehement
C. Satirical
D. Expository
E. Obscurring
This passage can best be described as:
An extended metaphor linking natural selection and locomotive travel
A figurative rejection of one interpretation of Darwinian theory
An attempt to defend a theory of natural selection in rhetorical terms
An impassioned argument against detractors of natural selection
A defense of an evolutionary theory in light of certain challenges
The author of the passage is most likely:
A contemporary and friend of Charles Darwin
An engineer comparing railroad technology to nature
A zoologist advancing a modified theory of evolution
A modern scholar rejecting the notion of natural selection
A historian contrasting two sides of a scientific debate
I jst did not get this passage.. Just cudnt...
This one is from Grockit.. I was not aware of the meaning of the words for first question..
OA:
BEC
been advanced against the theory of selection since it
was first enunciated by Darwin and Wallace-from the
unreasoning strictures of Richard Owen and the acute and
(5) thoughtful criticisms of Albert Wigand and Nägeli to
the opposition of our own day, which contends that
selection cannot create but only reject, and which fails
to see that precisely through this rejection its
creative efficacy is asserted.
(10) The champions of this view are for discovering the
motive forces of evolution in the laws that govern
organisms-as if the norm according to which an event
happens were the event itself, as if the rails which
determine the direction of a train could supplant the
(15) locomotive. Of course, from every form of life there
proceeds only a definite, though extremely large, number
of tracks, the possible variations, whilst between them
lie stretches without tracks, the impossible variations,
on which locomotion is impossible. But the actual
(20) traveling of a track is not performed by the track, but
by the locomotive, and on the other hand, the choice of
a track, the decision whether the destination of the
train shall be Berlin or Paris, is not made by the
locomotive, the cause of the variation, but by the
(25) driver of the locomotive, who directs the engine on the
right track.
In the theory of selection the engine driver is
represented by utility, for with utility rests the
decision as to what particular variational track shall
(30) be traveled. The cogency, the irresistible cogency, of
the principle of selection is precisely its capacity of
explaining why fit structures always arise, and that
certainly is the great problem of life. Not the fact of
change, but the manner of the change, whereby all things
(35) are maintained capable of life and existence, is the
pressing question.
The author's tone in the passage is:
A. Impolitic
B. Vehement
C. Satirical
D. Expository
E. Obscurring
This passage can best be described as:
An extended metaphor linking natural selection and locomotive travel
A figurative rejection of one interpretation of Darwinian theory
An attempt to defend a theory of natural selection in rhetorical terms
An impassioned argument against detractors of natural selection
A defense of an evolutionary theory in light of certain challenges
The author of the passage is most likely:
A contemporary and friend of Charles Darwin
An engineer comparing railroad technology to nature
A zoologist advancing a modified theory of evolution
A modern scholar rejecting the notion of natural selection
A historian contrasting two sides of a scientific debate
I jst did not get this passage.. Just cudnt...
This one is from Grockit.. I was not aware of the meaning of the words for first question..
OA:
BEC
