Resin is a plant secretion that hardens when exposed to air; fossilized resin is called amber. Although Pliny in the first century recognized that amber was produced from “marrow discharged bytrees,” amber has been widely misunderstood to be a semiprecious gem and has even been described in mineralogy textbooks. Confusion also persists surrounding the term “resin,” which was defined before rigorous chemical analyses were available. Resin is often confused with gum, a substance produced in plants in response to bacterial infections, and with sap, an aqueous solution transported through certain plant tissues. Resin differs from both gum and sap in that scientists have not determined a physiological function for resin.
  In the 1950s, entomologists posited that resin may function to repel or attract insects. Fraenkel conjectured that plants initially produced resin in nonspecific chemical responses to insect attack and that, over time, plants evolved that produced resin with specific repellent effects. But some insect species, he noted, might overcome the repellent effects, actually becoming attracted to the resin. This might induce the insects to feed on those plants or aid them in securing a breeding site.Later researchers suggested that resin mediates the complex interdependence, or“coevolution,” of plants and insects over time. Such ideas led to the development of the specialized discipline of chemical ecology, which is concerned with the role of plant chemicals in interactions with other organisms and with the evolution and ecology of plant antiherbivore chemistry (plants' chemical defenses against attack by herbivores such as insects).


The author of the passage refers to Pliny most probably in order to


give an example of how the nature of amber has been misunderstood in the past

show that confusion about amber has long been more pervasive than confusion about resin

make note of the first known reference to amber as a semiprecious gem

point out an exception to a generalization about the history of people's understanding of amber

demonstrate that Pliny believed amber to be a mineral

考题讲解

题目分析:

文章推断题:文章提到Pliny是为了?

原文:虽然P认为琥珀是树流出的髓,但琥珀被广泛的误解为是一种宝石,并被记载在矿物质书里。

选项分析:

A选项:举出一个琥珀在之前如何被误解的例子:P的看法是正确的,没有误解琥珀。

B选项:表明对琥珀的误解比对resin的误解要普遍得多:无关。

C选项:标记一下第一个认为琥珀是宝石的记载:P没有认为琥珀是宝石。

D选项:正确。
指出一个 在人们对琥珀的理解中的例外:P与世人认为的不一样,所以是一个例外。

E选项:
表明P认为琥珀是矿物质:不是P的观点。

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