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　　People diet to look more attractive. Fish diet to avoid being beaten up, thrown out of their social group, and getting eaten as a result. That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists.

　　The research team have discovered that subordinate fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors. “In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals, a male and female, had breeding (繁殖) rights within the group，” explains Marian Wong. “All other group members are nonbreeding females, each being 5­10% smaller than its next largest competitor. We wanted to find out how they maintain this precise size separation.”

　　The reason for the size difference was easy to see. Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5­10% of the size of its larger competitor, it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group. More often than not, the evicted fish is then eaten up.

　　It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish. Whether they did so voluntarily, by restraining how much they ate, was not clear. The research team decided to do an experiment. They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened. To their surprise, the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered, clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights, over having a feast.

　　The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group. Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves, so keeping their competitors small.

　　While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious, Dr. Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understanding how hierarchical (等級(jí)的) societies remain stable.

　　The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive to humans. “As yet, we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature，” the researchers comment. “Data on human dieting suggest that, while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness, rarely does it improve long­term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females' own ideal.”

　　文章大意：大千世界，無奇不有。人節(jié)食是為了苗條，有魅力。魚節(jié)食又是為何?作者從魚類與人在節(jié)食問題上的對(duì)比，揭示出了一個(gè)令人深思的話題——人類的節(jié)食真是發(fā)自內(nèi)心的嗎?其本質(zhì)目的何在?

　　1.When a goby grows to within 5­10% of the size of its larger competitor, it ________.

　　A.faces danger

　　B.has breeding rights

　　C.eats its competitor

　　D.leaves the group itself

　　答案：A　細(xì)節(jié)判斷題。文章第三段指出：當(dāng)稍小一些的魚一旦長(zhǎng)到它競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者體積的5～10%時(shí)，將引發(fā)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)。結(jié)果大多是小一點(diǎn)的刺鰭魚被逐出群體，最終被吞食掉。

　　2.The underlined words “the evicted fish” in Paragraph 3 refer to ________.

　　A.the fish beaten up

　　B.the fish found out

　　C.the fish fattened up

　　D.the fish driven away

　　答案：D　詞義猜測(cè)題。緊承前一句...which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group可知the evicted fish指的是被逐出群體的挑戰(zhàn)失敗者。

　　3.The experiment showed that the smaller fish ________.

　　A.fought over a feast

　　B.went on diet willingly

　　C.preferred some extra food

　　D.challenged the boss fish

　　答案：B　推理判斷題。文章第四段結(jié)尾the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered, clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights, over having a feast說明刺鰭魚的節(jié)食是自愿的。而第六段更指出小一點(diǎn)兒的刺鰭魚節(jié)食對(duì)于維護(hù)魚類社會(huì)穩(wěn)定的重要性。

　　4.What is the text mainly about?

　　A.Fish dieting and human dieting.

　　B.Dieting and health.

　　C.Human dieting.

　　D.Fish dieting.

　　答案：D　主旨?xì)w納題。文章主要論述了刺鰭魚節(jié)食的問題。指出這一行為是它自愿的，一種目的在于維護(hù)它們的整體穩(wěn)定的行為。