Question

【題目】There are two ways to look at this question --- 【1】 relating to eggs in general or to the chicken egg specifically. Either way, the answer is the same: the egg came before the chicken. 【2】 the case of eggs in general, animals such as dinosaurs were laying eggs long before the modern chicken came into existence, 【3】 (mean) that in this sense, the egg predated (早于) the chicken by thousands of years. As for the chicken egg specifically , according to NPR’s Robert Krulwich, the modern chicken 【4】 (hatch 孵化) from an egg, meaning the egg came first.

The key to understanding the answer, and indeed the question itself, is to understand what the question is getting at. The dilemma is to understand 【5】 a chicken-like bird transformed into 【6】 is known as a modern chicken after being hatched or whether two chicken-like birds 【7】 (lay) and fertilized an egg that then hatched a fully formed chicken. In this case, the latter option is the most realistic, therefore answering the question of which came first. 【8】 (essential), a bird that was similar to a hen and another bird that is similar to 【9】 rooster combined their genetic material, leading to a gene mutation (突變) that resulted in the chicken that is 【10】 (good) known and loved today.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】either

【2】In

【3】meaning

【4】was hatched

【5】whether / if

【6】what

【7】laid

【8】essentially

【9】a

【10】well

【解析】本文討論的是千古之謎——先有雞還是先有蛋的問題。

【1】固定搭配：either---or---，要么---，要么---，此處填either。

【2】固定詞組：in the case of至于，在---的情況下，答案為In。注意大寫開頭。

【3】句意：像恐龍這樣的動(dòng)物在現(xiàn)代雞出現(xiàn)之前就已經(jīng)開始下蛋了，也就是說，在這個(gè)意義上，雞蛋比雞早了幾千年。此處是現(xiàn)在分詞做自然的結(jié)果狀語(yǔ)，答案為meaning。

【4】句意：現(xiàn)代雞是由一個(gè)雞蛋孵化出來的，這意味著先有蛋。此處chicken和hatch之間是被動(dòng)關(guān)系，這里指過去發(fā)生的事情，所以句子用一般過去時(shí)態(tài)的被動(dòng)語(yǔ)態(tài)，答案為was hatched。

【5】句意：現(xiàn)在的困境是要弄清楚一只雞樣的鳥是否在孵出后變成了所謂的現(xiàn)代雞，或者是兩只像雞一樣的鳥產(chǎn)下并受精了一只蛋，然后孵出了一只完全成形的雞。根據(jù)后面的or whether可知，understand后面是whether / if引導(dǎo)的賓語(yǔ)從句。

【6】句意：現(xiàn)在的困境是要弄清楚一只雞樣的鳥是否在孵出后變成了所謂的現(xiàn)代雞，或者是兩只像雞一樣的鳥產(chǎn)下并受精了一只蛋，然后孵出了一只完全成形的雞。介詞into后面是一個(gè)賓語(yǔ)從句，從句沒有引導(dǎo)詞和主語(yǔ)，故答案為what。

【7】句意：現(xiàn)在的困境是要弄清楚一只雞樣的鳥是否在孵出后變成了所謂的現(xiàn)代雞，或者是兩只像雞一樣的鳥產(chǎn)下并受精了一只蛋，然后孵出了一只完全成形的雞。lay and fertilized之間是并列關(guān)系，所以用一般過去時(shí)態(tài)，答案為laid。

【8】副詞修飾整個(gè)句子，用副詞，故答案為essentially。

【9】句意：一種類似于母雞的鳥和另一種類似于公雞的鳥結(jié)合了它們的遺傳物質(zhì)，導(dǎo)致了一種基因突變，導(dǎo)致了今天人們所熟知和喜愛的雞。根據(jù)前面的a bird，所以與之相匹配的是不定冠詞+名詞，答案為a。

【10】句意：一種類似于母雞的鳥和另一種類似于公雞的鳥結(jié)合了它們的遺傳物質(zhì)，導(dǎo)致了一種基因突變，導(dǎo)致了今天人們所熟知和喜愛的雞。well-known著名的；眾所周知的，是固定短語(yǔ)。