In this section there are four passages followed by
questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked [ A
] , [ BI, [ C], and [ D]. Choose the one that you think is the best
answer. Mark your answers on your ANSWER
SHEET. TEXT A The evolution of sex ratio
has produced, in most plants and animals with separate sexes, approximately
equal numbers of males and females. Why should this be so Two main kinds of
answers have been offered. One is couched in terms of advantage to population.
It is argued that the sex ratio will evolve so as to maximize the number of
meetings between individuals of the opposite sex. This is essentially a "group
selection" argument. The other, and in my view correct, type of answer was first
put forward by Fisher in 1930. This "genetic" argument starts from the
assumption that genes can influence the relative numbers of male and female
offspring produced by an individual carrying the genes①. That sex
ratio will be favored which maximizes the number of descendants an individual
will have and hence the number of gene copies transmitted. Suppose that the
population consisted mostly of females, and then an individual who produced sons
only would have more grandchildren. In contrast, if the population consisted
mostly of males, it would pay to have daughters. If, however, the population
consisted of equal numbers of males and females, sons and daughters would be
equally valuable. Thus a one-to-one sex ratio is the only stable ratio; it is an
"evolutionarily stable strategy". Although Fisher wrote before the mathematical
theory of games had been developed, his theory incorporated the essential
feature of a game that the best strategy to adopt depends on what others are
doing. Since Fisher’s time, it has been realized that genes can
sometimes influence the chromosome or gamete in which they find themselves so
that the gamete will be more likely to participate in fertilization②.
If such a gene occurs on a sex-determining (X or Y) chromosome, then highly
aberrant sex ratios can occur. But more immediately relevant to game theory are
the sex ratios in certain parasitic wasp species that have a large excess of
females. In these species, fertilized eggs develop into females and unfertilized
eggs into males. A female stores sperm and can determine the sex of each egg she
lays by fertilizing it or leaving it unfertilized. By Fisher’s argument, it
should still pay a female to produce equal numbers of sons and daughters.
Hamilton, noting that the eggs develop within their host—the larva of another
insect—and that the newly emerged adult wasps mate immediately and disperse,
offered a remarkably cogent analysis. Since only one female usually eggs in a
given larva, it would pay her to produce one male only, because this one could
fertilize all his sisters on emergence. Like Fisher, Hamilton looked for an
evolutionarily stable strategy, but he went a step further in recognizing that
he was looking strategy. It can be inferred from the passage that the mathematical theory of games ______.
A.has been developed by scientists with an interest in genetics B.is useful in explaining some biological phenomenon C.got some inspiration from the work of Fisher D.emphasize the optimization of the total sum