Theradiois________astrangesignal.What’swrongwithit?
EinsteinwontheNobelPrizein1921andenjoyedgreatfameinGermanyuntiltheriseofNazism____hewasexpelledfromGermanybecausehewasaJew.
AsGilbertWhite，Darwin，andothersobservedlongago，allspeciesappeartohavetheinnatecapacitytoincreasetheirnumbersfromgenerationtogeneration.Thetaskforecologistsistountangletheenvironmentaandbiologicalfactorsthatholdthisintrinsiccapacityforpopulationgrowthincheckoverthelongrun.Thegreatvarietyofdynamicbehaviorsexhibitedbydifferentpopulationmakesthistaskmoredifficult：sompopulationsremainroughlyconstantfromyeartoyear;othersexhibitregularcyclesofabundanceandscarcity;stillothersvarywildly，withoutbreaksandcrashesthatareinsomecasesplainlycorrelatedwiththeweather，andinothercasesnot.Toimposesomeorderonthiskaleidoscopeofpatterns，oneschoolofthoughtproposesdividingpopulationsintotwogroups.Theseecologistspositthattherelativelysteadypopulationshavedensity-dependentgrowthparameters;thatis，ratesofbirth，death，andmigrationwhichdependstronglyonpopulationdensity.Thehighlyvaryingpopulationshavedensity-independentgrowthparameters，withvitalratesbuffetedbyenvironmentalevents;theseratesfluctuateinawaythatiswhollyindependentofpopulationdensity.Thisdichotomyhasitsuses，butitcancauseproblemsiftakentooliterally.Foronething，nopopulationcanbedrivenentirelybydensity-independentfactorsallthetime.Nomatterhowseverelyorunpredictablybirth，death，andmigrationratesmaybefluctuatingaroundtheirlong-termaverages，iftherewerenodensity-dependenteffects，thepopulationwould，inthelongrun，eitherincreaseordecreasewithoutbound(barringamiraclebywhichgainsandlossescanceledexactly)。Putanotherway，itmaybethatonaverage99percentofalldeathsinapopulationarisefromdensity-independentcauses，andonlyonepercentfromfactorsvaryingwithdensity.Thefactorsmakinguptheonepercentmayseemunimportant，andtheircausemaybecorrespondinglyhardtodetermine.Yet，whetherrecognizedornot，theywillusuallydeterminethelong-termaveragepopulationdensity.Inordertounderstandthenatureoftheecologist’sinvestigation，wemaythinkofthedensity-dependenteffectsongrowthparametersasthesignalecologistsaretryingtoisolateandinterpret，onethattendstomakethepopulationincreasefromrelativelylowvaluesordecreasefromrelativelyhighones，whilethedensity-independenteffectsacttoproducenoiseinthepopulationdynamics.Forpopulationsthatremainrelativelyconstant，orthatoscillatearoundrepeatedcycles，thesignalcanbefairlyeasilycharacterizedanditseffectsdescribed，eventhoughthecausativebiologicalmechanismmayremainunknown.Forirregularlyfluctuatingpopulations，wearelikelytohavetoofewobservationstohaveanyhopeofextractingthesignalfromtheoverwhelmingnoise.Butitnowseemsclearthatallpopulationsareregulatedbyamixtureofdensity-dependentanddensity-independenteffectsinvaryingproportions.
1.Theauthorofthetextisprimarilyconcernedwith
[A]Discussingtwocategoriesoffactorsthatcontrolpopulationgrowthandassessingtheirrelativeimportance.
[B]Describinghowgrowthratesinnaturalpopulationsfluctuateovertimeandexplainingwhythesechangesoccur.
[C]Proposingahypothesisconcerningpopulationsizeandsuggestingwaystotestit.
[D]Posingafundamentalquestionaboutenvironmentalfactorsinpopulationgrowthandpresentingsomecurrentlyacceptedanswer.
2.Itcanbeinferredfromthetextthattheauthorconsidersthedichotomydiscussedtobe
[A]Applicableonlytoerraticallyfluctuatingpopulations.
[B]instrumental，butonlyifitslimitationsarerecognized.
[C]Dangerouslymisleadinginmostcircumstances.
[D]Acompleteandsufficientwaytoaccountforobservedphenomena.
3.tothetext，allofthefollowingbehaviorshavebeenexhibitedbydifferentpopulationsEXCEPT
[A]Roughlyconstantpopulationlevelsfromyeartoyear.
[B]Regularcyclesofincreasesanddecreasesinnumbers.
[C]Erraticincreasesinnumberscorrelatedwiththeweather.
[D]Uncheckedincreasesinnumbersovermanygenerations.
4.Thediscussionconcerningpopulationinthethirdparagraphservesprimarilyto
[A]Demonstratethedifficultiesecologistsfaceinstudyingdensity-dependentfactorslimitingpopulationgrowth.
[B]Advocatemorerigorousstudyofdensity-dependentfactorsinpopulationgrowth.
[C]Provethatthedeathratesofanypopulationareneverentirelydensity-independent.
[D]underlinetheimportanceofevensmalldensity-dependentfactorsinregulatinglong-termpopulationdensities.
5.Inthetext，theauthordoesallofthefollowingEXCEPT
[A]Citetheviewsofotherbiologists.
[B]Defineabasicproblemthatthetextaddresses.
[C]Presentconceptualcategoriesusedbyotherbiologists.
[D]Describetheresultsofaparticularstudy.
Gene:ShallIopenthiswindow?
Jodie:______