考研英语

阅读原文第三段：

This dichotomy has its uses， but it can cause problems if taken too literally. For one thing， no population can be driven entirely by density-independent factors all the time. No matter how severely or unpredictably birth， death， and migration rates may be fluctuating around their long-term averages， if there were no density-dependent effects， the population would， in the long run， either increase or decrease without bound (barring a miracle by which gains and losses canceled exactly)。 Put another way， it may be that on average 99 percent of all deaths in a population arise from density-independent causes， and only one percent from factors varying with density. The factors making up the one percent may seem unimportant， and their cause may be correspondingly hard to determine. Yet， whether recognized or not， they will usually determine the long-term average population density.

1.The author of the text is primarily concerned with

[A] discussing two categories of factors that control population growth and assessing their relative importance.

[B] describing how growth rates in natural populations fluctuate over time and explaining why these changes occur.

[C] proposing a hypothesis concerning population size and suggesting ways to test it.

[D] posing a fundamental question about environmental factors in population growth and presenting some currently accepted answer

「答案」A

「考点解析」这是一道中心主旨题。本文的中心主旨句在第三段的首句。如果考生能够抓住第三段的首句就等于抓住了整篇文章的论述结构。该句中的“dichotomy”(两分法) 就是正确选项A中的“two categories”。考生在解题时应首先抓住每篇文章的中心主旨句，因为这决定了对全文结构的认识以及对原文整体的把握。