题型分类：否定事实信息题

原文定位：题干中没有明显的定位词，结合选项进行一一排除。

选项分析：

C选项中“Darwin’s evolutionary thesis was rejected”，第一段中没有提到达尔文的进化理论被否定的信息，属于无中生有。

A选项说“Darwin saw evolutionary change as happening slowly and gradually.”对应第一段第二句“Darwin’s original thesis, and the viewpoint supported by evolutionary gradualists, is that species change continuously but slowly and in small increments.”

B选项说“Gaps in the fossil record were used to explain why it is difficult to see continuous small changes in the evolution of species.”对应第一段第三句“Such changes are all but invisible over the short time scale of modern observations, and, it is argued, they are usually obscured by innumerable gaps in the imperfect fossil record.”

D选项说“By the early twentieth century, most biologists believed that gradualism explained evolutionary change.”对应第一段最后一句“By the early twentieth century, the question about the rate of evolution had been answered in favor of gradualism to most biologists’ satisfaction.”