2020托业阅读考试介绍题型详解
Short Conversations
Format
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This part of TOEIC consists of thirty short conversations, either between a man and a woman or between two men. The conversations airs three-part exchanges： The first speaker says something, the second speaker responds, and the first speaker says something else. Two typical patterns airs given below：
Speaker 1： Asks a question. Speaker 1： Makes a statement.
Speaker 2： Responds to the question. Speaker 2：
Questions the statement.
Speaker 1： Comments on the response. Speaker 1：
Responds to the question.
In your test book, each question is written out, followed by four possible answer choices. Your job is to decide which one of these best answers the question. Then you need to mark the corresponding answer on your answer sheet.
Tactics
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1. Between each conversation theirs is an eight-second pause. This may not sound like a long time, but you can actually accomplish quite a bit during this pause. You need
to mark the answer for the item that you just heard and then preview the next item. Previewing the item consists of reading the question —— this tells you what to listen for —— and of quickly looking over the four answer choices.
2. While listening to the conversation, keep your eyes on the answer choices. Don't close your eyes or look away. Try to evaluate the four choices as you airs listening.
3. Remember that distractors are sometimes mentioned in the conversations but are not answers to the question. Don't choose an answer just because you hear a word or two from the answer in the conversation.
4. If the correct answer is not obvious, try to eliminate answers that seem to be incorrect. If more than one answer choice is left, take a guess.
5. Mark your answers as quickly as possible so that you can preview the next item.
6. Never leave any answers blank. If you are not sure, always guess.
* Testing Points and Skill-Building Exercises
A. Overview Questions
B. Detail Questions
C, Inference Questions
2020托业阅读考试介绍：题型详解（一）Short Readings Format ------ Part VII is the longest part of TOEIC. It's also the last part, so you may be starting to get tired. However, you need to stay focused on the test for a little longer. (Of course, if you want, you may work on part VII before you work on parts V and VI.) Part VII consists of short reading passages followed by questions about the passages. There are four possible answer choices for each question. You must pick the best answer choice based on the information in the passage and then mark that answer on your answer sheet. The Passages There are from twelve to fifteen passages. Most are quite short. Some consist of only three or four sentences; the longest have around 150 words. The passages deal with a wide variety of topics and involve many different types of written materials. There are from two to five questions per passage for a total of 40 questions. They include these three main types： 1. Overview questions 2. Detail questions 3. Inference questions
剑桥雅思口语真题解析 Part 1: 1.1姓名 1. What’s your full name? 2. Can I have your name, please? 3. Are there any special meanings of your name? 4. Do you like your name? Why? 5. Do Chinese people like changing their names? 6. What kind of people in China like changing their names? 7. Is there any rule for Chinese people giving names to their children? 1.2故乡 My hometown is Guangzhou. It is the capital of Guangdong province in the southwest of China. It is a large industrial city. It is close to Hong Kong so a lot of the industries involve trade and retail. It is also a finance area. The people in Guangzhou are very genial and helpful, also are very easy to get around. If you lose your way and ask someone, he will give you the direction immediately, he can also give you a hand if you are in trouble. By the year 2011, it is believed that my hometown Guangzhou has become the economic center of China. 2. Where is it located? 3. How about the climate in your hometown? Which season do you like? In my hometown Guangzhou, the four seasons are not evident, which only has spring and summer. It is too hot in the summer and it is also humid in the winter. I like summer better, for we will go swimming and start our outdoor activities in the summer, it gives us pretty environment, which full of various kinds of colors. Another reason is that it is suitable for traveling around. 4. How about the people in your hometown? The people in my hometown Guangzhou are very genial and helpful, also are very easy to get around. People will always give you a hand with things. If you lose your way and ask someone, he will give you the direction immediately, he can also give you a hand if you are in trouble. 5. What do most people do in your hometown? 6. Oh yes. Even though Guangzhou is very modern, it has some interesting temples and streets. There is one called the Temple of Six Banyan Trees and it was built about 1500 years ago. There is also a famous cultural and commercial street in Guangzhou called Beijing Road. In this street, you can not only see a historic exhibition about different years roadbed, which has more than thousand histories, but also has many business shops sale almost all kinds of things. Besides, you can taste traditional snacks and refreshments or experience temples with /unusual special architectural style nearby. Anyway, it is an interesting place so worth to visit! 7. How about the style of the building in your hometown? 8. What is one of the greatest changes having taken place over the years? 9. What problems still exist in your hometown? 10. How to improve the situation in your hometown? 11. Where is Chinese population mainly distributed? 12. What changes have occurred in people’s dwelling? 1.3学习 1. Are you an employee or a student? (Are you working or studying?) 2. What is your major?
雅思阅读5大核心题型 对雅思阅读的题型烂熟于心，是备考雅思阅读的基本要求。今天小编给大家带来了雅思阅读5大核心题型，希望能帮助到大家，下面小编就和大家分享，来欣赏一下吧。 雅思阅读5大核心题型就这样被你征服 1.信息段落配对题 雅思阅读中的段落信息配对题一直是同学们取得高分的拦路虎。我们先来分析一下这种题型的特点和难点。配对题考察的重点只有一个，那就是同义替换。配对题看似简单，因为只要找到信息在那一段落就可以了，不需要像判断题那样的深度 理解和逻辑判断。但是，尤其对于阅读功底不强的同学，这种题目非常棘手。同学们会发现有的题目和原文对应的出题句样子长的一点都不一样，没有任何一个词是原词出现，但他们确实表达的一个意思。例如，剑桥雅思4第三套题第三篇文章中的配对题28题，题目是the importance of taking notes of body language,文中对应的句子却是the recording has to be supplemented by the observer’swritten comments of the non-verbal behavior of the participants. 这两个句子没有一个词是一样的，但细心的同学能发现很明显的三组同义替换那就是重要性、肢体语言、做笔记。因为配对题改写严重的特点，配对题的定位词很难确定，许多在判断题中不会改写的名词在配对题中也被改的面目全非。再加上配对题的出题顺序没有任何规律可言，还经常出现NB----一个段落里包含两个题目信息，所以这种题型蒙对的概率非常低。原则上来讲，配对题每做一道题都需要全文通读，因为每一题都可能在文中的任何位置。 配对题的难度是显而易见的，但是再难的题，我们也能把握其出题规律，找到最高效、快捷的做出尽可能多答案的方法。这种题在考场上我们肯定是没有时间去读很多遍文章的，我们必须做到文章读一遍，所有的题目就处理完了。绝大多数的配对题都是细节题，因此我们都要从题目入手，找到关键词。又由于名词也可能被替换成其他词，所以我们要采用多点撒网，重点抓鱼的策略，把题目中
雅思阅读判断题型解题方法 雅思阅读板块题型多样，其中判断题是必考题型，本文以剑桥雅思阅读真题为例，和大家解析雅思阅读中判断题型的解题方法。 剑桥雅思阅读真题解析判断题型解题方法 一、判断题题干有表示比较关系的词，考生需注意题目重点考察比较关系。 常见的比较关系词： 比较级：more/ less /adj-er than… 同级比较：as…as…/the same as…/equal/ like 试题中若出现以上比较关系词，需标记题中的比较对象(A 、B)，并明确比较逻辑(如A比B更聪明)，即可快速完成审题。如： 39. It is easier to find meaning in the field of science than in the field of art. – Test 2, Cambridge IELTS 11 审题步骤： 1.确定比较对象：A – field of science (科学领域)、B – field of art (艺术领域) 2.确定比较逻辑：科学的含义比艺术的含义更容易被人们理解(easier to find meaning)。 除了上述较明显的比较关系词外，出题人还会使用较隐晦的表达阐述比较关系，用以干扰考生的判断。因此，在审题时还需注意下列
具有隐含比较关系的表达： prefer to… compare to/compare with/contrast similar to…/similarly superior to/inferior to unusual 同样，考生在判定题干存在比较关系后，需标记题中的比较对象并明确比较逻辑。如： 35. Teachers say they prefer suggestopedia to traditional approaches to language teaching. – Test 1, Cambridge 7 1.确定比较对象：A –suggestopedia(暗示教学)、B –traditional approaches(传统教学方法) 2.确定比较逻辑：暗示教学比传统教学方法更受老师喜欢(teachers say they prefer)。 二、借助以下2种解题思路辅助解题： 1.题干中A、B存在比较关系但原文A、B不存在比较关系时，答案应为未提及——NOT GIVEN。 先看个简单的例子： 题干：喜茶比星爸爸贵得多。 原文：我的意中人是个盖世英雄，有一天他会踏着七彩祥云，排
Time to cool it 1 REFRIGERATORS are the epitome of clunky technology： solid， reliable and just a little bit dull. They have not changed much over the past century， but then they have not needed to. They are based on a robust and effective idea--draw heat from the thing you want to cool by evaporating a liquid next to it， and then dump that heat by pumping the vapour elsewhere and condensing it. This method of pumping heat from one place to another served mankind well when refrigerators' main jobs were preserving food and， as air conditioners， cooling buildings. Today's high-tech world， however， demands high-tech refrigeration. Heat pumps are no longer up to the job. The search is on for something to replace them. 2 One set of candidates are known as paraelectric materials. These act like batteries when they undergo a temperature change： attach electrodes to them and they generate a current. This effect is used in infra-red cameras. An array of tiny pieces of paraelectric material can sense the heat radiated by， for example， a person， and the pattern of the array's electrical outputs can then be used to construct an image. But until recently no one had bothered much with the inverse of this process. That inverse exists， however. Apply an appropriate current to a paraelectric material and it will cool down. 3 Someone who is looking at this inverse effect is Alex Mischenko， of Cambridge University. Using commercially available paraelectric film， he and his colleagues have generated temperature drops five times bigger than any previously recorded. That may be enough to change the phenomenon from a laboratory curiosity to something with commercial applications. 4 As to what those applications might be， Dr Mischenko is still a little hazy. He has， nevertheless， set up a company to pursue them. He foresees putting his discovery to use in more efficient domestic fridges and air conditioners. The real money， though， may be in cooling computers. 5 Gadgets containing microprocessors have been getting hotter for a long time. One consequence of Moore's Law， which describes the doubling of the number of transistors on a chip every 18 months， is that the amount of heat produced doubles as well. In fact， it more than doubles， because besides increasing in number，the components are getting faster. Heat is released every time a logical operation is performed inside a microprocessor， so the faster the processor is， the more heat it generates. Doubling the frequency quadruples the heat output. And the frequency has doubled a lot. The first Pentium chips sold by Dr Moore's company，Intel， in 1993， ran at 60m cycles a second. The Pentium 4--the last "single-core" desktop processor--clocked up 3.2 billion cycles a second. 6 Disposing of this heat is a big obstruction to further miniaturisation and higher speeds. The innards of a desktop computer commonly hit 80℃. At 85℃， they
今天给大家介绍雅思阅读SUMMARY题型该如何解答 一、SUMMARY题型要求 雅思阅读该类题目是一小段文字，是原文或原文中的几个段落主要内容的缩写或改写，称之为摘要。摘要中有几个空白部分要求考生填空。 SUMMARY要求考生要对原文的内容结构有精确的把握，更需要考生运用一定的综合概括能力，将原文和缩写文章进行词句、词语的比较，提取原文信息。 按照范围，摘要可分为两种： 全文摘要（8－10题）和部分段落摘要（涉及2－3段，5－6题）。 全文摘要，摘要信息来自全文，题目空格的数目较多。 部分段落摘要，摘要信息来自原文某几个连续的段落，题目空格的数目较少。 最近雅思考试中出现的大部分是部分段落摘要，信息来自原文连续的两到三段，题目空格的数量在5 题左右。对于部分段落摘要，有的在题目要求中会指出它来自原文的哪些段落，如complete the summary below of the first two paragraphs of the reading passage。 但大部分的部分段落摘要只是在题目要求中说它是原文的一个摘要或部分段落摘要，并不指出它来自原文的哪些段落。 按照填空内容，摘要也可分为三种：原文原词、从多个选项中选词和自己写词。 原文原词的题目要求中常有from the reading passage 的字样。从多个选项中选词，选项的数目常常超过题目空格的数目。从多个选项 中选词或自己写词的题目要求中没有from the reading passage 的字样，有时会有using the information in the passage 的字样。 先看选项，按词性归类。注意是否有同根异性词选项（其中可能一个是答案）。以先猜后找方法解题：猜——用语法；找——回原文。 最近雅思考试中，绝大部分是原文原词或从多个选项中选词，很少有自己写词的。这类题在A类和G类考试中出现的频率一般都是每两次考一次， 每次考一组，共五题左右。 二、SUMMARY解题步骤 （1）雅思考试该类题型，要求仔细读摘要的第一句话，找出它在原文中的出处，通常是和原文某段话的 第一句相对应。确定填空部分是所给阅读文章的全篇还是部分的SUMMARY，确定是用题目所提供的单词表填空，还是需要自己从原文中挑选 单词填空。如果题目要求中已经指出了摘要的出处，则此步可以略去不做。 （2）略读缩写文章，了解大致内容，迅速回原文定位，确定是哪一段落的SUMMARY，或是涉及哪些段落的内容。 把空格前后的词作为signal words，到原文中去找这些词的对应词。 对应词的特点如下： a．原词 b．词性变化；如空格前的词为threatening, 形容词，原文中的词为threat, 名词。
2018年Toeic托业考试真题及答案--手打请支持 （非听力部分） Part V Direction : In this part of the test has incomplete sentences. Four words or phrases, marked (A), (B), (C) and (D) are given beneath each sentence. You are to choose the one that best completes the sentence. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and mark on your answer sheet. 101. For several years now, we have seen a marked in attendance and exhibitions at the PCB design conferences. (A) increase (B) increased (C) increasing (D) TO increase 102. Make sure that transportation to and from the river is arranged to your . (A) satisfactory (B) satisfaction (C) satisfy (D) to satisfy 103. The imposing that will soon be Rand Corporation‘s R&D center was renovated by the highly admired designer Haewook Lee. (A) structural (B) structure (C) structurally (D) in structural 104. Employees may receive 50% tuition reimbursement for job-related courses taken with a supervisor‘s . (A) approves (B) approval (C) approve (D) to approve 105. Mr. Hui, a freelance writer here at ESS Newspapers, has impeccable for the position of senior editor. (A) qualified (B) qualifications (C) qualify (D) be qualified 106. Because of an illness is much cheaper than treatment, the local health clinic will be offering free flu vaccinations this weekend. (A) prevention (B) prevent (C) to prevent B) prevented 107. Legal experts have presented that the DNA samples and fingerprints match. (A) evident (B) evidence (C) evidently (D) to evident 108. Mach Corp. has a system that allows clients to manage to employees‘ files. (A) access (B) accessible (C) to accessible (D) accessibly
Reading One READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1. Bovids The family of mammals called bovids belongs to the Artiodactyl class, which also includes giraffes. Bovids are highly diverse group consisting of 137 species, some of which are man’s most important domestic animals. Bovids are well represented in most parts of Eurasia and Southeast Asian islands, but they are by far the most numerous and diverse in the latter. Some species of bovid are solitary, but others live in large groups with complex social structures. Although bovids have adapted to a wide range of habitats, from arctic tundra to deep tropical forest, the majority of species favour open grassland, scrub or desert. This diversity of habitat is also matched by great diversity in size and form: at one extreme is the royal antelope of West Africa, which stands a mere 25 cm at the shoulder; at the other, the massively built bisons of North America and Europe, growing to a shoulder height of 2.2m. Despite differences in size and appearance, bovids are united by the possession of certain common features. All species are ruminants, which means that they retain undigested food in their stomachs, and regurgitate it as necessary. Bovids are almost exclusively herbivorous. Typically their teeth are highly modified for browsing and grazing: grass or foliage is cropped with the upper lip and lower incisors (the upper incisors are usually absent), and then ground down by the cheek teeth. As well as having cloven, or split, hooves, the males of all bovid species and the females of most carry horns. Bovid horns have bony cores covered in a sheath of horny material that is constantly renewed from within; they are unbranched and never shed. They vary in shape and size: the relatively simple horns of a large Indian buffalo may measure around 4m from tip to tip along the outer curve, while the various gazelles have horns with a variety of elegant curves. Five groups, or sub-families, may be distinguished: Bovinae, Antelope, Caprinae, Cephalophinae and Antilocapridae. The sub-family Bovinae comprises most of the larger bovids, including the African bongo, and nilgae, eland, bison and cattle. Unlike most other bovids they are all non-territorial. The ancestors of the various species of domestic cattle banteng, gaur, yak and water buffalo are generally rare and endangered in the wild, while the auroch (the ancestor of the domestic cattle of Europe) is
1.题型：按照考试顺序来说吧。 (1)雅思考试分为听力、阅读、写作和口语四部分。听力有四个section，分别为两个对话，两个独白，每个section只读一遍，难度依次递增。考试时间为半个小时，有单独的10分钟作为将答案誊写在答题纸上的时间，即一共40分钟。 (2)阅读有三篇文章，考试时间为一个小时，没有专门誊写答案时间。 (3)写作分为两个task，task1是小作文，要求考生根据题目所给出的图示写一篇描述性的文章，150字左右，task2是大作文，题目给出一个论题，要求考生根据题目要求写一篇论属性的文章，250字左右，考试时间一个小时。 (4)口语跟其他三项考试不在一个时间，具体时间安排会在报名网站上登录后的“我的状态”中公布，公布时间大约在笔试时间的前两天。考试的时候是一对一与考官交流，问题包括对自己的介绍，相关的热门话题等等，可以经常登录环球雅思王陆老师的博客看看最新的口语预测，非常准，我13号考试的所有题目都囊括在她的预测之中。 2.复习的时候主要在作文和口语，据我所知，雅思考试中一般听力和阅读分数要高于作文和口语的分数，而雅思考试的总成绩是按照4项成绩的均分计算的（也不完全是平均分，简单举个例子说明，比如说平均分5，25，那你最后的成绩应该是5.5；平均分5.75，最后成绩是6），所以这两项很容易拉分，应该多注意复习。 3.一套雅思试题，这个直接给你粘过来不太容易，因为网上有的全都是pdf文件格式，直接用粘贴的会有很多错误，雅思真题只有两个途径可以获得。 一是买剑桥雅思系列，现在一共有1-6册，全部都是考过的真题，很权威，是考雅思的必做书目，非常重要！！！二是到各大雅思论坛上下载剑桥雅思系列，都是pdf文件，还可以省下买书钱，就是做题时候费点劲，或者你也可以打印。近期的就是剑桥雅思6了。貌似有人说已经出7了，我是9月13号考的，我考以前还没出，所以不知道是不是真的。 出名的雅思论坛有（而且非常有帮助的）3g雅思论坛，无忧雅思论坛，在百度上输入搜索一下就可以了。 4.现在还有一个月时间考试，最主要的就是做剑桥雅思系列，熟悉题型，剑桥5和6最接近现在考试的方向，所以重点也在这两本，要把它认真研究，前面的1-4就要用作练习材料，练习作提的熟练度。 5.雅思5.5的水平真的很容易得，应该有4级水平就差不多了，高中生也差不多能拿到， 6.5是六级水平。这里再详细说明一下，以阅读为例，一共40个题，对22-26个就差不多是5.5.
2018年托业考试(TOEIC)阅读试题及答案 1.The factory must be torn down because it is not allowed in _______ area. A) residential B) remote C) risky D) ridiculous 这工厂必须拆除，因为在住宅区禁设工厂。 答案: residential 2.The cowboy looked ________ in that strange-looking hat. A) residential B) remote C) risky D) ridiculous 那位牛仟戴着怪模怪样的帽子，看起来很可笑。 答案: ridiculous 3. It's too ______ to do the bungee jumping from the cliff. A) residential B) remote C) risky D) ridiculous 从悬崖上做高空弹跳太冒险了。 答案: risky 4.Don't believe him. What he said just now was _______. A) sacred B) rubbish C) secret D) satisfied 不要相信他。他刚刚说的都是废话。 答案: rubbish 5. Both the Bible and the Koran are regarded as ________ books. A) sacred B) rubbish C) secret D) satisfied 「圣经」与「可兰经」都被视为圣书。 答案: sacred
剑桥雅思Test阅读Passage真题解析
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剑桥雅思7 Test4阅读Passage1真题解析 篇章结构 体裁说明文 主题线牵金字塔 结构引言：引出Marcus Chown的新观点。 第一段：介绍Marcus关于金字塔修建的新观点。 第二段：该观点引起另一位科学家Morteza的兴趣。 第三段：为验证该观点提出的实验假设。 第四段：实验获得成功。 第五段：对实验结果的分析。 第六段：对该观点存在不同的声音。 第七段：对于该观点的其他解释及依据。 第八段：该实验在现实中的应用。 必背词汇 引言 pyramid n. 金字塔reckon v. 料想 第一段 conventional adj. 通常的，常规的hieroglyph n. 象形文字，图画文字slave n. 奴隶odd adj. 古怪的 drag vt. 拖，拉posture n. 姿势 sledge n. 雪橇via prep. 经由 back up 支持mechanical adj. 机械的 software n. 软件giant adj. 巨大的 consultant n. 顾问wonder v. 好奇 peruse vt. 翻阅，浏览object n. 物体 monument n. 历史遗迹，遗址 第二段 intrigue v. 激起……的兴趣keen adj. 强烈的，浓厚的 contact v. 联系puzzled adj. 困惑的 aeronautics n. 航空学spark v. 激发 institute n. 学院apparently adv. 显然 fascinate v. 强烈地吸引investigate v. 调查，研究 第三段 column n. 柱，圆柱sustain v. 维持 horizontal adj. 水平的pulley n. 滑车，滑轮 vertical adj. 垂直的magnify v. 放大 source n. 来源rig v. 装配 initial adj. 最初的tent-shaped adj. 帐篷形状的 calculation n. 计算scaffold n. 支架
雅思考试考试题型介绍 国际英语语言测试系统(International English Language Testing System，即IELTS，以下称雅思)是受广泛认可的语言评估系统，其目的是为准备进入英语国家学习的学生或到英语国家参加非学术培训、工作或移民人士测试英语水平。本书为广大雅思备考者客观评价自己的英文水平，提供了有力依据。 雅思考试由剑桥大学外语考试部(University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations)、英国文化协会(British Council) 与澳大利亚教育国际开发署(IDP Education Pty Limited，经由其下属公司IELTS Australia Pty Limited)联合开发并共同拥有。 考试类型和形式 雅思考试内容涵盖听力、阅读、写作和口语四项语言技能，分为学术列（Academic）和培训类（General Training）两种考试类型。雅思考试由6部分构成。无论是学术类考生还是培训类考生都必须参加内容相同的听力和口语考试，而两类考生因其考试类型的不同，他们的阅读和写作考试的内容也不同。 学术类：适用于计划申请国外高校本科或研究生课程的考生。 培训类：适用于计划移民、申请国外非学术培训、中学课程或出国工作的考生。 考试依据以下程序进行： 听力：4部分，共40题，30分钟。 学术类阅读：3部分，共40题，60分钟。 或 培训类阅读：3部分，共40题，60分钟。 学术类写作：2题，60分钟。 或 培训类写作：2题，60分钟。 口语：11~14分钟。 总考试时间：2小时44分钟。 听力 该部分共有四组考题，每组10题。前两组题目涉及社会课题，开始是两个人的对话，接着是一段独白。后两组题目与教育或培训课题有关，开始是最多4人的对话，跟着是一段独白。考题类型多样化，包括：选择题、简答题、完成句子题、完成笔记／表格／图表／摘要／流程图／时间表题、为图表／设计图／地图做标记题、分类及配对题等。 考生只能听一遍录音，并且需要一边听一边记录答案。录音播完后，考生有10分钟的时间把答案写在答题纸上。 学术类阅读 该部分有三组考题，共40题。考生将阅读三篇文章，文章选自期刊、书本、杂志、报纸等。文章多为大众普遍感兴趣的课题。至少有一篇文章涉及详细的逻辑论证。 考题类型多样化，包括：选择题、简答题、完成句子题、完成笔记／摘要／流程图／图表题、图解标签题、分类及配对题等，以及从一组选项中找出合适的段落标题，说明作者的观点或主张(赞成／反对／没有表明)，或确认对文章内容的理解(正确／错误／没有提供答案)。 培训类阅读 该部分有三组考题，共40题。文章选自通告、广告、传单、报纸、说明书、书本、杂志等。第一组的文章与生活化英语有关，主要是测试考生对正确信息的掌握程度。第二组着重于工作环境，文章内容涉及较复杂的句子。第三组的文章篇幅较长，结构也较为复杂，着重描写和说明而不着重于论证。
READING PASSAGE 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below. AUSTRALIA'S SPORTING SUCCESS A They play hard, they play often, and they play to win. Australian sports teams win more than their fair share of titles, demolishing rivals with seeming ease. How do they do it? A big part of the secret is an extensive and expensive network of sporting academies underpinned by science and medicine. At the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), hundreds of youngsters and pros live and train under the eyes of coaches. Another body, the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), finances programmes of excellence in a total of 96 sports for thousands of sportsmen and women. Both provide intensive coaching, training facilities and nutritional advice. B Inside the academies, science takes centre stage. The AIS employs more than 100 sports scientists and doctors, and collaborates with scores of others in universities and research centres. AIS scientists work across a number of sports, applying skills learned in one - such as building muscle strength in golfers - to others, such as swimming and squash. They are backed up by technicians who design instruments to collect data from athletes. They all focus on one aim: winning. ‘We can't waste our time looking at ethereal scientific questions that don't help the coach work with an athlete and improve performance,' says Peter Fricker, chief of science at AIS. C A lot of their work comes down to measurement - everything from the exact angle of a swimmer’s dive to the second-by-second power output of a cyclist. This data is used to wring improvements out of athletes. The focus is on individuals, tweaking performances to squeeze an extra hundredth of a second here, an extra millimetre there. No gain is too slight to bother with. It’s the tiny, gradual improvements that add up to world-beating results. To demonstrate how the system works, Bruce Mason at AIS shows off the prototype of a 3 D analysis tool for studying swimmers. A wire-frame model of a champion swimmer slices through the water, her arms moving in slow motion. Looking side-on, Mason measures the distance between strokes. From above, he analyses how her spine