新GRE写作名人素材库：达尔文_GRE写作

新GRE写作名人素材库：达尔文

　　The Beagle left England on December 27, 1831. It was a small ship, only 90 feet long, with a crew of 74. Darwin s laboratory was a small space at the end of the chartroom, where he also had his hammock for sleeping. Not only was his space cramped, but Darwin suffered miserably from seasickness every day that the ship was at sea. He tried to remedy this by spending as much time ashore as possible and often traveled overland to meet up with the ship at another port.

　　From England the Beagle sailed to the Cape Verde Islands and then to the Brazilian port of Bahia, where it arrived on February 29, 1832. Darwin spent much of his time there collecting specimens from the surrounding forests. He also got into a violent quarrel with Fitzroy on the subject of slavery to which Darwin was adamantly opposed. Reaching Rio de Janeiro in early April, Darwin met an Irishman and traveled with him by horseback for seven days to his coffee plantation in the interior. Along the way, he collected specimens of the teeming insect life.

　　In July and August 1832 Darwin and the Beagle were in Montevideo in Uruguay. During this first visit, the ship s crew did not have many opportunities to go ashore because of civil unrest. On August 19, the Beagle headed south to begin surveying the coast of Patagonia in southern Argentina. On September 23 near Bahia Blanca, Darwin made a highly significant discovery he bones of numerous gigantic extinct Quadrupeds. There were remains of several different species, none of which existed any longer, and they were covered with seashells. The fact that these creatures had been alive whilst the sea was peopled with most of its present inhabitants was an important revelation.