Some Modern Anthropologists hold that Biological Evolution has Shaped not only Human Morphology but also Human Behavior.

Reading Passage Question

Some modern anthropologists hold that biological evolution has shaped not only human morphology but also human behavior. The role those anthropologists ascribe to evolution is not of dictating the details of human behavior but one of imposing constraints— ways of feeling, thinking, and acting that “come naturally” in archetypal situations in any culture. Our “frailties”—emotions and motives such as rage, fear, greed, gluttony, joy, lust, love—may be a very mixed assortment, but they share at least one immediate quality: we are, as we say, “in the grip” of them. And thus they give us our sense of constraints. Unhappily, some of those frailties—our need for ever increasing security among them—are presently maladaptive. Yet beneath the overlay of cultural detail, they, too, are said to be biological in direction, and therefore as natural to us as are our appendixes. We would need to comprehend thoroughly their adaptive origins in order to understand how badly they guide us now. And we might then begin to resist their pressure.

“Some modern anthropologists hold that biological evolution has shaped not only human morphology but also human behavior.” - this is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to present

1. a position on the foundations of human behavior and on what those foundations imply
2. a theory outlining the parallel development of human morphology and of human behavior
3. a diagnostic test for separating biologically determined behavior patterns from culture-specific detail
4. a practical method for resisting the pressures of biologically determined drives
5. an overview of those human emotions and motives that impose constraints on human behavior

2. The author implies that control to any extent over the “frailties” that constrain our behavior is thought to presuppose

1. that those frailties are recognized as currently beneficial and adaptive
2. that there is little or no overlay of cultural detail that masks their true nature
3. that there are cultures in which those frailties do not “come naturally” and from which such control can be learned
4. a full understanding of why those frailties evolved and of how they function now
5. a thorough grasp of the principle that cultural detail in human behavior can differ arbitrarily from society to society

3. It can be inferred that in his discussion of maladaptive frailties the author assumes that

1. evolution does not favor the emergence of adaptive characteristics over the emergence of maladaptive ones
2. any structure or behavior not positively adaptive is regarded as transitory in evolutionary theory
3. maladaptive characteristics, once fixed, make the emergence of other maladaptive characteristics more likely
4. the designation of a characteristic as being maladaptive must always remain highly tentative
5. changes in the total human environment can outpace evolutionary change

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