高中英语新教材外研版高二选修一unit5课文挖空

高中英语新教材外研版高二选修一unit5课文挖空

高中英语新教材外研版高二选修一

Unit 5

A Journey of Discovery

The captain of the ship, the Beagle, wanted someone who would “1.________ by the opportunity of visiting 2._______ countries yet little known”. The person who 3.________ the call was not the captain's first choice.It was a young man who had left medical school without 4.________ his degree. What's more, he had recently received a letter from his father predicting that he would be “a5.________ to yourself and all your family”. Despite all this, his adventures on this ship would 6.________ one of the most important 7.________ discoveries of all time.

The young man 8.________, Charles Darwin, was a geologist and naturalist, 9.________ by rocks, plants and animals. He left England on the ship, the Beagle, in 1831. The journey gave him the chance to study various living things in their 10.________environments. After Darwin had spent some time in South America，his room on the ship 11.________ samples of the plants and animals he had 12.________. As he studied these, he asked himself the question: how did different species come to 13.________？

At that time, people believed that all species had appeared on Earth at the same time, and had not changed 14.________ . But Darwin began to think 15.________. He noticed that some species of animals were very 16.________to each other. Maybe animals 17.________ as they adapted to their 18.________ environments? It was just an idea, but

enough to inspire Darwin to look for more 19.________ .

When the Beagle reached the Galapagos Islands in 1835, Darwin saw a 20.________of new species, but it was the birds that

21.________ him the most. Darwin noticed that there was a

22.________ between the finches on each of the islands. It seemed their beaks had evolved according to what food was 23.________on that particular island.

Darwin 24.________that the finches had evolved from a 25.________ ancestor, which had arrived on the islands a long time before.Over time, it had slowly evolved into many new species.And that was the answer to 26.________new species of plants and animals came to exist: they evolved from 27.________ ancestors.

It was a 28.________ new idea—a theory of evolution.Darwin explained this theory in his book, On the Origin of Species. It was not published 29.________ 1859 and immediately caused a 30.________. Many people 31.________to believe that living things, including humans, had evolved from 32.________forms of life. They were shocked.But Darwin's scientific studies were so 33.________ that more and more people started to believe his theory.

Today, On the Origin of Species is regarded as one of the most important works ever 34.________. It has changed ideas about life on Earth forever. And it all began with the 35.________on the Beagle.