Genetically speaking, there are advantages to avoiding substantial height. During childbirth, larger babies have more difficulty passing through the birth canal. Moreover, even though humans have been upright for millions of years, our feet and back continue to struggle with bipedal posture and cannot easily withstand repeated strain imposed by oversize limbs. “There are some real constraints that are set by the genetic architecture of the individual organism,” says anthropologist William Leonard of Northwestern University.

　　Genetic maximums can change, but don’t expect this to happen soon. Claire C. Gordon, senior anthropologist at the Army Research Center in Natick, Mass., ensures that 90 percent of the uniforms and workstations fit recruits without alteration. She says that, unlike those for basketball, the length of military uniforms has not changed for some time. And if you need to predict human height in the near future to design a piece of equipment, Gordon says that by and large, “you could use today’s data and feel fairly confident.”

　　35. The text intends to tell us that

　　[A] the change of human height follows a cyclic pattern.

　　[B] human height is becoming even more predictable.

　　[C] Americans have reached their genetic growth limit.

　　[D] the genetic pattern of Americans has altered.

　　[答案] C

　　[解题思路]

　　纵观全文，主要谈论的是美国人的身高问题。A和B选项涉及了整个人类的身高问题，过于宽泛，可以首先排除。而D选项的表述则与原文最后一段相反，因为最后一段的第一句话指出“Genetic maximums can change, but don’t expect this to happen soon”( 基因的最大值可以改变，但是不要期望它们会很快地改变)，因此基因模型还没有改变，D选项错误。而C选项与文章从第二段开始讨论的主题比较契合。

　　[题目译文]

　　本文想要告诉我们的是

　　[A] 人类身高的改变遵循一个循环的模型

　　[B] 人类身高变得更有可预测性

　　[C] 美国人达到了基因上的生长极限

　　[D]美国人的基因模型已经改变