Our ape-men forefathers had no obvious natural weapons in the struggle for (1) in the open. They had neither the powerful teeth nor the p claws of the big cats. They could not (2) with the bear, whose strength, speed and claws (3) an impressive " small fire" weaponry. They could not even defend themselves (4) running swiftly like the horses, zebras or small animals. If the ape-men had attempted to compete on those terms in the open, they would have been (5) to failure and extinction. But they were (6) with enormous concealed advantages of a kind not possessed by any of their competitors.
In the search (7) the pickings of the forest, the ape-men had (8) efficient stereoscopic vision and a sense of color that the animals of the grasslands did not (9) . The ability to see clearly at close range permitted the ape-men to study practical problems in a way that lay far (10) the reach of the original inhabitants of the grassland. Good long-distance sight was (11) another matter. Lack of long-distance vision had not been a problem for forest-dwelling apes and monkeys because the (12) the viewpoint, the greater the range of sight-so (13) they had had to do was climb a tree. Out in the open, however, this simple solution was not (14) . Climbing a hill would have helped, but in many places the ground was flat. The ape-men (15) the only possible solution. They reared up as high as possible on their hind limbs and began to walk (16) . This vital change of physical position brought about considerable disadvantages. It was extremely unstable and it meant that the already slow ape-men became (17) still. (18) , they persevered and their bone structure gradually became (19) to the new, unstable position that (20) them the name Homo erectus, upright man.
2()
A.match
B.compare
C.rival
D.equal
参考答案:A
解析:
rival意为“与……相匹敌;比得上”,常用的搭配是rival sb./sth.for/in sth.;equal意为“比得上,和……相等”,做动词时是及物动词;match意为“和……相配; 和……相称”,常用搭配为match with,意为“与……相匹敌”;compare意为“比较; 对照”,常用的搭配有compare with,意为“与……相比较”。这里是说“他们无法与熊相比”,故根据句意和搭配,答案应选A。