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  3. "The cat does not offer services," William Burroughs wrote. "The cat offers itself." But it does so with unapologetic contradict

"The cat does not offer services," William Burroughs wrote. "The cat offers itself." But it does so with unapologetic contradict

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问题    "The cat does not offer services," William Burroughs wrote. "The cat offers itself." But it does so with unapologetic contradictioa Greet a cat enthusiastically and it might respond with nothing more than a few unhurried blinks. Later, as you’re trying to work, it will occupy your lap, keyboard, and attention, making noises all the while. A cat will mew at the food bowl in the morning and set off on a multiple-day trek in the afternoon. 【F1】"Are cats domesticated?" is one of the most frequently Googled questions about the animals, based on the search engine’s autocomplete suggestions.
   It’s a question that scientists have been asking, too. The latest answer, based on insights from recent archeological discoveries and genome-sequencing studies, is that cats are semi-domesticated. 【F2】Whether this affiliation began five or ten millions of years ago, the evidence suggests that cats have not been part of our domestic domain for nearly as long as dogs, which have been our companions for perhaps forty thousand years.
   At first, the cat was yet another opportunistic creature that evolved to take advantage of civilization. It was essentially a larger version of the mice it caught. Somewhere along the line, people shifted from tolerating cats to welcoming them, providing extra food and a warm place to sleep. Why? 【F3】Perhaps it is because of the cat’s innate predisposition to tameness and its inherent pet-charm—what the Japanese would call kawaii.
   Not all researchers agree. "I don’t think it makes sense to talk about animals as semi- or fully domesticated," Greger Larson, an expert on domestication, said. "Any threshold you try to define will necessarily be arbitrary." Larson tends to agree with the views of Melinda Zeder, an archeologist at the Smithsonian Institution. 【F4】Zeder characterized domestication as an ongoing coexistence between humans and another species—"a sort of treaty that ends up being mutually beneficial" she said. This relationship, she argued, can follow many paths and result in somewhat different outcomes, which she has catalogued.
   "Cats are domesticated," Zeder said. 【F5】"But I think what confuses people about cats is that they still carry some of the more remote behaviors of their solitary wild ancestors. Sometimes they don’t give a damn about you, but they are very much part of your niche. Cats have us do everything for them. We clean their litter, stroke them, admire them, but unlike dogs they do not have to constantly please and satisfy our needs. They are probably the ultimate domesticate."
【F2】
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答案不管人类是否在几百万年前已经与猫建立了这种友好关系，但证据表明，猫成为家养动物的时间远没有狗那么久远，后者作为人类的同伴已经有四万年了。
解析 ①本句是复合句。句首的Whether引导让步状语从句，此为缩略形式，其完整形式应为Whether this affiliation began…or not；this affiliation指代前一句的semi-domesticated“半家养”。②that引导从句作suggests的宾语，说明证据指向什么；for nearly as long as dogs为宾语从句的时间状语。其中包含猫和狗成为家养动物时间的比较。③逗号后的which引导定语从旬，修饰先行词dogs，说明狗成为人类的同伴已长达四万年。
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