2016年考研理学类英语阅读理解模拟题及答案(5)

The once radical notion that birds descended from dinosaurs——or may even be dinosaurs， the only living branch of the family that ruled the earth eons ago——has got stronger and stronger since paleontologists first started taking it seriously a couple of decades ago. Remarkable similarities in bone structure between dinos and birds were the first clue. Then came evidence， thanks to a series of astonishing discoveries in China's Liaoning province over the past five years， that some dinosaurs may have borne feathers. But a few scientists still argued that the link was weak; the bone similarities could be a coincidence， they said. And maybe those primitive structures visible in some fossils were feathers——but maybe not. You had to use your imagination to see them.
　　Not anymore. A spectacularly preserved fossil of a juvenile dinosaur， announced by a team of paleontologists from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and New York City's American Museum of Natural History in the latest issue of Nature， is about as good a missing link as anyone could want. “It has things that are undeniably feathers，” exults Richard Prum， of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum， an expert on the evolution of feathers. “But it is clearly a small， vicious theropod similar to the velociraptors that chased the kids around the kitchen in Jurassic Park.”

　　The find helps cement the dinosaur-bird connection， but it also casts new light on the mystery of why nature invented feathers in the first place. For the better part of a century， biologists have assumed that these specialized structures evolved for flight， but that's clearly not true. “The feathers on these dinosaurs aren't flight-worthy， and the animals couldn't fly，” says paleontologist Kevin Padian， of the University of California， Berkeley. “They're too big， and they don't have wings.” So what was the original purpose of feathers? Nobody knows for sure; they might have been useful for keeping dinos dry， distracting