Bu siness skills: b et ter me etings 1 — 21 business englisch bu sin es s e n g L is

Cell maintenance
“A mouse’s internal processes don’t invest very much 
in cell maintenance,” says Kirkwood. “There is no 
point, because the mouse is not going to live for very 
long. Why bother to keep cells in good repair if you 
are doomed to die in a year?” 
Cell maintenance is a costly business that uses up 
internal energy resources, and an animal will provide 
just enough to keep itself in good shape for as long as 
it is likely to survive in the wild. 
“Instead, the mouse ‘bets’ its survival strategy — 
unconsciously, of course — on having large numbers 
of babies as quickly as possible,” adds Kirkwood. But 
what would happen if the mouse evolved wings, he 
asks. It could then fly about and avoid predators, just 
like a bat. “However, its internal processing will still 
be providing poor maintenance to cells. It will die 
fairly quickly and so waste the benefit of evolving 
and growing those wings.”
Humans and chimps
Evolutionary change would then begin, according 
to Kirkwood’s hypothesis, which is known as the 
ancestor
,
Vorfahr(in)
bat
,
Fledermaus
bet sth. on sth.
,
bei etw. auf etw. setzen
bother to do sth.
,
sich die Mühe machen, 
etw. zu tun
chimpanzee 
(
chimp 
ifml.
)
 
[)tSImpÄn(zi:]
)
,
Schimpanse
costly
,
kostspielig;
hier:
aufwändig
crucial 
[(kru:S&l]
,
ausschlaggebend
disposable soma theory
,
Theorie zur Evolution 
des Alterns
doomed to die: be ~ 
,
dem Tode geweiht sein
evolve sth.
,
 
etw. entwickeln
hypothesis
[haI(pQTEsIs]
,
[wg. Aussprache]