难题挑战｜90%的同学都跪了的一个GRE长难句……
今天要分享一句超多同学都跪了的长难句！
话不多说先上句子大家先来感受一下：
Whereas previously, it was assumed that monogamy and male certainty of paternity facilitated the evolution of male care, it now seems appropriate to consider the alternative possibility, whether the extraordinary capacity of male primates to look out for the fates of infants did not in some way pre-adapt members of this order for the sort of close, long-term relationships between males and females that, under some ecological circumstances, leads to monogamy!
这是一篇阅读机经长文章中出现的句子，很多同学在读文章的过程中就卡在了这里，心想：先继续往后看吧…待会做题也不一定考这里…结果后面就好巧不巧考了这句话…
题目大家也可以先做一下：
Which of the following statements, if true, would pose the greatest challenge to “the alternative possibility”?
A. The number of primate species in which male care of infants is exhibited is greater than the number of primate species that practice monogamy.
B. Male care of infants among primates can be seen earlier in the evolutionary record than can monogamy among primates.
C. Monogamous relationships among primates can be found in species living in a variety of physical environments.
D. Most primate species that practice monogamy do not show any evidence of male care of infants.
E. Male care of infants can be observed in some primate species that lack male confidence of paternity.
接下来就带大家详细分析一下这个句子到底应该怎么读！
这个句子的第一层结构是进行了对比，对比了过去的观点和现在的观点：
whereas previously it was assumed…,it now seems…
过去认为：monogamy和paternity促进了male care。
核心难点在于新观点的这个“whether从句”，很多同学哪怕句子结构梳理出来了，在语义上也不能理解这怎么就跟之前的观点对比了呢？
这就牵扯到一个语言点：
whether所在的句子如果是否定句的话，“否定词”不起作用，就是可以把否定词扔了~（因为whether本身就是“是否”,所以我们经常会说“whether or not”，这里的not并不是真的表达否定的）
那我们把whether这个句子简化一下：
whether the capacityof male primates to look out for infants pre-adapted members for the sort of relationships [that leads to monogamy]
简化后可以看出新观点是认为：
有可能是male care (maleprimates to look out for infants) 促进了某种关系，这种关系导致了monogamy！
因此我们就能够理解前后观点的对比了：
过去认为是monogamy导致了male care。
而现在觉得有可能是male care导致了monogamy。
现在再解刚刚那道题目就比较容易了~题目让我们削弱新观点提出的这种可能性，即：削弱“male care导致了monogamy”。
那我们对于选项形成的预判是：选项要起到说明“不是male care导致monogamy”的效果。
因此答案应该是D：有monogamy不一定有male care。那就说明不是mare care导致了monogamy啦！
今天的难题分享就到这里啦~ 关于whether从句中出现否定的读法可以记到小本本上！