The size of a female animals’ brain may determine whether they live longer and have more healthy offspring (后代), according to new research led by the University of Cambridge.

The study, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, shows that female red deer with larger brains live longer and have more surviving offspring than those with smaller brains. Brain size is passed down through the generations. This is the first extensive study of individual differences in brain size in wild mammals and draws on data comparing seven generations of deer.

Across species of mammals, brain size varies widely. This is thought to be a consequence of specific differences in the benefits and costs of a larger brain. Mammals with larger brains may, for example, have greater cognitive abilities that enable them to adapt better to environmental changes or they may have longer lifespans (寿命) . But there may also be disadvantages: for instance, larger brains require more energy, so individuals that possess them may show reduced fertility (繁殖力).

The researchers, based at the University of Cambridge’s Zoology Department and Edinburgh University’s Institute of Evolutionary Biology, wanted to test if they could find more direct genetic or non-genetic evidence of the costs and benefits of large brain size by comparing the longevity (长寿) and survival of individuals of the same species with different sized brains. Using the skulls of 1,314 wild red deer whose life histories and breeding success had been monitored in the course of a long-term study on the Isle of Rum, they found that females with larger endocranial volumes (脑腔容量) lived longer and produced more surviving offspring in the course of their lives.

Lead author Dr Corina Logan, a Gates Cambridge Scholar, says, “The reasons for the association between brain size and longevity are not known, but other studies have suggested that larger brains are a consequence of the longer-lived species having longer developmental periods in which the brain can grow. These hypotheses (假设) were generated from cross-species correlations; however, testing such hypotheses requires investigations at the within-species level, which is what we did.”

Dr Logan adds, “We found that some of the cross-species predictions about brain size held for female red deer, and that none of the predictions were supported in male red deer. This indicates that each sex likely experiences its own set of trade-offs (权衡，协调) with regard to brain size.”The study also showed that females’ relative endocranial volume is smaller than that of males, despite evidence of selection for larger brains in females.

Professor Tim Clutton-Brock, who set up the Rum Red Deer study with Fiona Guinness in 1972 and initiated the work on brain size, points out, “The reason that this kind of study has not been conducted before is that it requires long term records of a large number of individuals across multiple generations and data of this kind are still rare in wild animals.”

62. What does the new research about brain size reveal?

A. Large-brain red deer tend to be more reproductive.

B. Large-brain female deer survive small-brain male deer.

C. Brain size causes individual differences in some mammals.

D. Brain size has been increasing from generation to generation.

63. For different species of mammals, brain size varies widely in that ______.

A. mammals can develop different adaptive abilities

B. a larger brain has its advantages and disadvantages

C. different mammals are born with different lifespans

D. brain size is affected by genetic or non-genetic factors

64. What can we learn about the relation between brain size and longevity?

A. The cause and effect needs to be further investigated.

B. Brain size absolutely determines animals’ longevity.

C. Longer-lived species allow brains to grow to a large size.

D. The cross-species assumptions apply to red deer of both sexes.

65. What can we infer from Professor Tim Clutton-Brock’s words?

A. Researchers can’t possibly reach a conclusion about the reason.

B. Researchers are not patient enough to keep long term records.

C. Such research has beenthoroughly conducted on wild animals before.

D. Such research will witness great difficulty in the long-term process.

D

My father and I have been separated for over two years. He was physically violent and emotionally abusive to me throughout my childhood, and I felt that I couldn’t forgive him. And yet, now he is dying, unconscious and struggling to breathe through an oxygen tube after a major stroke, all I can think of is how much he loved me.

How he would hold my fringe (刘海) back and kiss me on the forehead before school. How he bought me a pottery set and roller skates, although we were struggling by on just his salary, and allowed me to skate to school. How he would play chess and tennis with me, and take me to endless chess and tennis tournaments, even though I never won anything. How he would read the Guardian every day and fill in the quick crossword, but leave a few clues and praise me if I solved them. He kept every one of my Guardian columns, and every article I ever had published, even during our many estranged (疏远) periods. He gave me a lot of his savings to buy a flat after I became a single mum. And he set my date of birth as the passcode on his phone.

Yet I’m ashamed to say I blamed him, often, for everything: my anorexia (厌食症), my cutting, my anxiety,my depression.... He was there during the tough times, yet all I could think was that the tough times happened because of him, forgetting that the causes of events are complex, and that plenty of people who had happy childhoods have to deal with mental illness and domestic violence too.

I even stopped him from seeing my daughter, then three, the thing that brought him most happiness, because I was scared he would hurt her, and that her life would be like mine. That decision would mean he never spoke to me again.

When we spent time together in previous years, my father hugged me a lot yet never talked much. Born in 1930s America during the Depression, he was a man of few words, a silent romantic who signed his empty Valentine’s cards to my mother with only his first initial. I know he thought I talked too much; ironically, I never told him what I needed to. Knowing he was old, I tried to get back in touch several times to make things right, but my mother said he didn’t want to hear from me. I understand that. Why would he want to hear from the daughter who was never able to forgive him for his mistakes; who brought them up time after time, unable to accept his apologies? Who prevented him from seeing his granddaughter? Who scolded him for his faults, yet never acknowledged his numerous kindnesses?

It’s much too late now. When I sit by his hospital bed and hold his large wrinkled hand, far too warm, and ask him to squeeze it if he can hear me, he doesn’t. So I tell him a few of the things I should have told him when he was conscious, though it’s hard to say the words: that I love him very much, and that I’m sorry about the estrangement. And it reminds me of what I’ve known for a long time: that my dad didn’t know how to be a father to me when I was young, because his father was abusive to him as a child. His father died estranged from his son; my father is dying estranged from his daughter.

I never thought that I’d feel this broken at losing him. I fantasise that his eyes will open, and that he will be conscious again for just a few days. I will give him a letter thanking him for all the things I have remembered while writing this piece, and apologizing for all the ways I have wronged him. And when I deliver the letter, I will bring my five-year-old daughter with me, so he can see her happiness and sweetness, and learn that the chain of hurt that has been passed down from generation to generation has finally been broken.

66. The separation between Father and the daughter is mainly caused by ______.

A. Father’s cruelty towards the daughter

B. Father’s irresponsibility for the family

C. the daughter’s protection of her kid from harm

D. the daughter’s misunderstandingof her father