passage

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▉托福TPO1阅读Passage3原文文本： Groundwater Groundwater is the word used to describe water that saturates the ground, filling all the available spaces. By far the most abundant type of groundwater is meteoric water; this is the groundwater that circulates as part of the water cycle. Ordinary meteoric water is water that has soaked into the ground from the surface, from precipitation (rain and snow) and from lakes and streams. There it remains, sometimes for long periods, before emerging at the surface again. At first thought it seems incredible that there can be enough space in the “solid” ground underfoot to hold all this water. The necessary space is there, however, in many forms. The commonest spaces are those among the particles—sand grains and tiny pebbles—of loose, unconsolidated sand and gravel. Beds of this material, out of sight beneath the soil, are common. They are found wherever fast rivers carrying loads of coarse sediment once flowed. For example, as the great ice sheets that covered North America during the last ice age steadily melted away, huge volumes of water flowed from them. The water was always laden with pebbles, gravel, and sand, known as glacial outwash, that was deposited as the flow slowed down. The same thing happens to this day, though on a smaller scale, wherever a sediment-laden river or stream emerges from a mountain valley onto relatively flat land, dropping its load as the current slows: the water usually spreads out fanwise, depositing the sediment in the form of a smooth, fan-shaped slope. Sediments are also dropped where a river slows on entering a lake or the sea, the deposited sediments are on a lake floor or the seafloor at first, but will be located inland at some future date, when the sea level falls or the land rises; such beds are sometimes thousands of meters thick. In lowland country almost any spot on the ground may overlie what was once the bed of a river that has since become buried by soil; if they are now below the water’s upper surface (the water table), the gravels and sands of the former riverbed, and its sandbars, will be saturated with groundwater. So much for unconsolidated sediments. Consolidated (or cemented) sediments, too, contain millions of minute water-holding pores. This is because the gaps among the original grains are often not totally plugged with cementing chemicals; also, parts of the original grains may become dissolved by percolating groundwater, either while consolidation is taking place or at any time afterwards. The result is that sandstone,for example, can be as porous as the loose sand from which it was formed. Thus a proportion of the total volume of any sediment, loose or cemented, consists of empty space. Most crystalline rocks are much more solid; a common exception is basalt, a form of solidified volcanic lava, which is sometimes full of tiny bubbles that make it very porous. The proportion of empty space in a rock is known as its porosity. But note that porosity is not the same as permeability, which measures the ease with which water can flow through a material; this depends on the sizes of the individual cavities and the crevices linking them. Much of the water in a sample of water-saturated sediment or rock will drain from it if the sample is put in a suitable dry place. But some will remain, clinging to all solid surfaces. It is held there by the force of surface tension without which water would drain instantly from any wet surface, leaving it totally dry. The total volume of water in the saturated sample must therefore be thought of as consisting of water that can, and water that cannot, drain away. The relative amount of these two kinds of water varies greatly from one kind of rock or sediment to another, even though their porosities may be the same. What happens depends on pore size. If the pores are large, the water in them will exist as drops too heavy for surface tension to hold, and it will drain away; but if the pores are small enough, the water in them will exist as thin films, too light to overcome the force of surface tension holding them in place; then the water will be firmly held. ▉托福TPO1阅读Passage3题目： Question 1 of 14 Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 about the ground that we walk on? A. It cannot hold rainwater for long periods of time. B. It prevents most groundwater from circulating. C. It has the capacity to store large amounts of water. D. It absorbs most of the water it contains from rivers. Question 2 of 14 The word “incredible ” in the passage is closest in meaning to。

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▉托福TPO25阅读Passage1原文文本： The Surface of Mars The surface of Mars shows a wide range of geologic features,including huge volcanoes-the largest known in the solar system-and extensive impact cratering.Three very large volcanoes are found on the Tharsis bulge,an enormous geologic area near Mars’s equator.Northwest of Tharsis is the largest volcano of all:Olympus Mons,with a height of 25 kilometers and measuring some 700 kilometers in diameter at its base.The three large volcanoes on the Tharsis bulge are a little smaller-a “mere”18 kilometers high. None of these volcanoes was formed as a result of collisions between plates of the Martian crust-there is no plate motion on Mars.Instead,they are shield volcanoes-volcanoes with broad,sloping slides formed by molten rock.All four show distinctive lava channels and other flow features similar to those found on shield volcanoes on Earth.Images of the Martian surface reveal many hundreds of volcanoes.Most of the largest volcanoes are associated with the Tharsis bulge,but many smaller ones are found in the northern plains. The great height of Martian volcanoes is a direct consequence of the planet’s low surface gravity.As lava flows and spreads to form a shield volcano,the volcano’s eventual height depends on the new mountain’s ability to support its own weight.The lower the gravity,the lesser the weight and the greater the height of the mountain.It is no accident that Maxwell Mons on Venus and the Hawaiian shield volcanoes on Earth rise to about the same height(about 10 kilometers)above their respective bases-Earth and Venus have similar surface gravity.Mars’s surface gravity is only 40 percent that of Earth,so volcanoes rise roughly 2.5 times as high.Are the Martian shield volcanoes still active?Scientists have no direct evidence for recent or ongoing eruptions,but if these volcanoes were active as recently as 100 million years ago(an estimate of the time of last eruption based on the extent of impact cratering on their slopes),some of them may still be at least intermittently lions of years,though,may pass between eruptions. Another prominent feature of Mars’s surface is cratering.The Mariner spacecraft found that the surface of Mars,as well as that of its two moons,is pitted with impact craters formed by meteoroids falling in from space.As on our Moon,the smaller craters are often filled with surface matter-mostly dust-confirming that Mars is a dry desert world.However,Martian craters get filled in considerably faster than their lunar counterparts.On the Moon,ancient craters less than 100 meters across(corresponding to depths of about 20 meters)have been obliterated,primarily by meteoritic erosion.OnMars,there are relatively few craters less than 5 kilometers in diameter.The Martian atmosphere is an efficient erosive agent,with Martian winds transporting dust from place to place and erasing surface features much faster than meteoritic impacts alone can obliterate them. As on the Moon,the extent of large impact cratering(i.e.craters too big to have been filled in by erosion since they were formed)serves as an age indicator for the Martian surface.Age estimates ranging from four billion years for Mars’s southern highlands to a few hundred million years in the youngest volcanic areas were obtained in this way. The detailed appearance of Martian impact craters provides an important piece of information about conditions just below the planet’s surface.Martian craters are surrounded by ejecta(debris formed as a result of an impact)that looks quite different from its lunar counterparts.A comparison of the Copernicus crater on the Moon with the(fairly typical)crater Yuty on Mars demonstrates the differences.The ejecta surrounding the lunar crater is just what one would expect from an explosion ejecting a large volume of dust,soil,and boulders.■However,the ejecta on Mars gives the distinct impression of a liquid that has splashed or flowed out of crater.■Geologists think that this fluidized ejecta crater indicates that a layer of permafrost,or water ice,lies just a few meters under the surface.■Explosive impacts heated and liquefied the ice,resulting in the fluid appearance of the ejecta.■ ▉托福TPO25阅读Passage1题目： Q1 The word“enormous”in the passage is closest in meaning to A.Important B.Extremely large C.Highly unusual D.Active Q2 According to paragraph 1,Olympus Mons differs from volcanoes on the Tharsis bulge in that Olympus Mons A.Has more complex geologic features B.Shows less impact cratering C.Is taller。

Unit1Passage 1I began learning Spanish when I was in high school, using a traditional academic method of studying verbs, sentence structures, and grammar by using textbooks and not much else. I found it very easy to learn, but was frustrated with the slow pace and repetitive nature of all my Spanish classes. So I worked extra hard in my spare time and asked my teacher if I could skip alevel by the end of the semester.This was unsuccessful, however, because the school was not willing to test me or otherwise prove that I could be successful in the top level after skipping a level. This made things even more frustrating, as then I was stuck in a class where I already knew the material!Then I went on to college where I then used the language extensively both in and out of the classroom. I studied Spanish literature, culture, and linguistics and very much enjoyed the cultural and linguistic elements, but found thein-depth study of literature a very unbalanced way to study Spanish.I got a lot out of using my Spanish outside of the classroom, including a trip to Mexico with a church group, where I found myself acting as an interpreter. It was certainly challenging, but it was also a lot of fun.I then also volunteered to be an interpreter in the community schools and also used my Spanish to teach English to some Spanish speakers. This is probably where I learned the most!Passage 2Have you ever heard of homeschooling? It is a legal choice for parents in most countries to provide their children with a learning environment as an 1) alternative to public or private schools outside the home. Parents cite 2) numerous reasons for homeschooling their children. The three reasons that are selected by the majority of parents in the United States are the concern about the 3) traditional school environment, the lack of religious or moral instruction, and the dissatisfaction with the 4) academic instruction at public and private schools. Homeschooling may also be a factor in the choice of parenting style. Homeschooling can be a choice for families living in isolated 5) countryside or living briefly abroad. Also many young 6) athletes and actors are taught at home.Homeschoolers often 7) take advantage of educational opportunities at museums, libraries, community centers, athletic clubs, after-school programs, churches, parks, and other community resources. 8) Secondary school level students may take classes at community colleges, which typically have open admission policies.Groups of homeschooling families often join up together to create homeschool co-ops. These groups typically meet once a week and provide a classroom environment. These are family-centered support groups whose members seek to pool their talents and resources 9) in a collective effort to broaden the scope of their children's education. They provide a classroom environment where students can do hands-on and group learning such as performing, science experiments, art projects, foreign language study, spelling contests, discussions, etc. Parents whose children take the classes 10) serve as volunteers to keep costs low and make the program a success.TestMany people go to school for an education. They learn languages, history, (1) political methods, geography, physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Others go to school to learn skills in order to make a living. (2)Traditional education is very useful and important. Yet, no one can (3)acquire everything from school.A teacher, no matter how much he knows, cannot teach his students everything they want to know. The teacher's main job is to show his students how to learn. He teaches them how to read and how to think. So, much more is to be learned outside school by the students themselves.It is always more important to know how to study by oneself than to (4)bear in mind some facts or some skills. It is quite easy to learn a certain fact in history or a formula in mathematics. But it is very (5) difficult to use a formula in working out a math problem.Great scientists didn't get everything from school. Edison didn't even finish junior school. And yet, he (6) invented so many new things. These scientists were so (7)successful, but their teachers only showed them the way. The (8) reason for their success was that they knew how to study. They read books that they were not taught at school. They would ask many questions as they read. They did (9)thousands of experiments. They worked hard all their lives, wasting not a single moment. Most important was that they knew how to use their (10)brains.Unit 2Passage 1I believe watching nature programs on television is not going to give us and our children a real experience of nature. On the contrary, they may distance us from nature — actual nature — even further.Because real nature experiences mean contact with nature. It means being with and within nature, to experience it with all five senses.True, TV programs give us joy but they will never be able to help us form a relationship with nature. We watch our small screens come alive with the vividcolors and we all let out "aahhhh..." and "wooooow". But, never once will we feel the pleasure of being close to nature.Worse still — the programs such as those on the Discovery Channel make nature seem so strange, and so far away, in the forests of the Amazon or in the wilds of Africa. Children may grow up without even realizing that the flowers, plants or a couple of trees in their backyard are nature and they are equally precious. The truth is — nature is so close to us. We don't need to go anywhere far to enjoy such experiences. It is right there in our backyards. Or, in parks, gardens, forests, or national parks.All we need to do is make an effort to get closer to nature — know it, appreciate it, and explore it. Feeling the soil under our feet and the wind in our hair; listening to the sound of the fallen leaves and taking in the smell of the wet soil — all these are pure joy to the senses that we must experience.Passage 2I have never been able to understand people who don't see the point in traveling. The common reason is that traveling is a waste of time and money. I've heard some are 1) scared to travel too far away. I can't help but feel sorry particularly for those who 2) perceive the experience of seeing a new place as a 100 percent 3) negative one. Telling them stories about unusual encounters doesn't 4) result in the expected curiosity but a "Why would you wanna go there!?" It makes me 5) lose faith in humanity. Experience is the best teacher and knowledge is power. The things traveling can teach you are beautiful because you learn to trust in what you see rather than what you are told.It was Mark Twain who said, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry andnarrow-mindedness," which in my mind 6) goes down as the closest to the truth about traveling. Too bad there aren't enough people with the means to travel actually doing it. If you have the means to go abroad, you should do it despite going out of your comfort zone. You might realize why you loved it once you're back home.I think traveling is also the best thing you could do if you feel 7) depressed at home, don't know what to do with your future, your life, your partner —anything. Once you are away, 8) preferably somewhere very new and unknown, you are forced to 9) adapt and meet people. This works especially if you travel alone. A new life and especially the new relationships you build, even if only for a short period of time, 10) reveal opportunities and views you never would have thought of and had otherwise.TestNowadays it is very common for people to get away on a (1)vacation trip any time. People from all (2)walks of life, both young and old, enjoy traveling. Some even consider traveling as part of their (3)routine lifestyle.Most of the younger travelers tend to seek fun, discovery and (4)adventure in their travels. They prefer to visit strange and exotic (异国情调的) places. The older travelers, on the other hand, tend to look for a more pleasant and enjoyable trip. In fact, it was not too long ago that an increasing number of older people started to go for leisure trips more often. It could be that after spending a major part of their life working so hard, they felt that they needed to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Leisure traveling has become a (5)treat they give to themselves for the years of hard work they have done.Perhaps, the reason for the (6)popularity of traveling is that more people have come to realize its benefits. When we visit other countries, we (7)gain a better understanding of the people living there. We learn about their culture, history and background. We discover the (8)similarities they have with us, as well as their differences from us.Also, traveling helps to enrich our lives. It increases our knowledge and widens our (9)perspective. When we visit interesting places, we discover new people and things, which not only provide us fun, but also provide us (10)marvelous insights and enlightens our minds.Unit 3Passage 1Since I'm a student, I go to school on weekdays and so I don't have too much free time. I usually spend six or seven hours at school. After that I either go downtown for some shopping or go home and study. If I have some free time during the week I might read a book or watch TV. Lately my evenings have been spent preparing for my graduation examination, which takes up a lot of time.Even though I have a lot to do, I still have some free time for leisure activities. On weekends I like to go with my family to our cottage. I like taking long walks around the countryside and I like watching the seasons change. I have the most free time during the summer months. One of my favorite activities is to go canoeing with my friends. We borrow a couple of canoes and choose a nice spot on the river to begin. We spend the day floating down the river. Sometimes if it gets hot we jump in the water and go swimming. Of course we take breaks during the day; we stop along the river to prepare some food or to visit a local pub. In the evening we set up our tents and make a campfire. We spend the evening talking, singing songs, and enjoying nature. We often cook some sausages over the campfire. And one of my favorite things to do is wrap potatoes in foil and then cook them in the hot ashes. These wonderful trips, just like summer, always end too soon.Passage 2Rock climbing is an activity in which participants climb up, down or across natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. The goal of rock climbing is to reach the top of a formation or the endpoint of a predefined route without falling. Rock climbing competitions have 1) objectives of completing the route in the quickest possible time or reaching the 2) farthest point along an ever increasingly harder route. While not an Olympic event, rock climbing is 3) recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a sport.Rock climbing has been 4) separated into several different styles and subdisciplines. At its most basic, rock climbing 5) involves climbing a route with one's own hands and feet and little more than a cushioned bouldering pad for protection. This style of climbing 6) is referred to as bouldering, since the relevant routes are usually found on boulders no more than 10 to 15 feet tall. As routes get higher off the ground, the increased risk of 7) life-threatening injuries makes additional safety measures necessary. Climbers will usually work in pairs and use a system of ropes and anchors 8) designed to catch fallers.Rock climbing is a physically and mentally demanding sport that tests a climber's strength, 9) endurance, and balance along with their mental control. It can be a dangerous sport and climbers are 10) putting themselves at risk when they go climbing. However, the risk can be reduced by having the knowledge of proper climbing techniques and using specialized climbing equipment.TestMost young people enjoy some form of physical activity. It may be walking, cycling or swimming, or in winter, skating or skiing. It may be a game of some kind: football, golf or tennis. It may be mountaineering.Those who (1)have a passion for climbing high and difficult mountains are often (2)looked upon with astonishment. Why are men and women willing to suffer cold and hardships, and to (3)take risks on high mountains? This astonishment is caused (4)probably by the difference between mountaineering and other forms of activity.Mountaineering is a sport and not a game. There are no man-made rules, as there are for such games as golf and football. There are, of course, rules of a different kind which it would be dangerous to (5)ignore, but it is this freedom from man-made rules that makes mountaineering (6)attractive to many people. Those who climb mountains are free to use their own methods.If we compare mountaineering with other more (7)familiar sports, we might think that one big difference is that mountaineering is not a "team game". We are wrong about this. Yes, it's true that there are no "matches" between"teams" of climbers. But when climbers are on a rock face linked by a rope on which their lives may depend, there is (8)obviously teamwork.The mountain climber knows that he may have to fight forces that are more(9)powerful than man. He has to fight the forces of nature. His sport(10)requires high mental and physical qualities.Unit 4Passage 1Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955 in a family having a rich business, political and community service background. From childhood Bill was intelligent and competitive. In school, he had excellent records in mathematics and science. Still he was getting very bored in school and his parents knew it, so they always tried to feed him with more information to keep him busy. Bill's parents came to know about their son's intelligence and decided to send him to a private school, known for its serious academic environment. It was a very important decision in Bill's life, and it was there that he was introduced to a computer. Bill Gates and his friends were very much interested in the world of programming and formed the "Programmers Group" in late 1968. In the next year, they got their first opportunity in Information Sciences Inc. in which they were selected as programmers. Bill and his close friend Allen developed a small computer to measure traffic flow and they earned around $20,000 from this project. In 1973, he left home for Harvard University. He did well there, but he didn't find it interesting. He spent many long nights in front of the school's computer and the next day was asleep in class. Bill and his friend Allen remained in close contact even though Allen was away in Washington State University. They would often discuss new ideas for future projects and the possibility of starting a business one day. At the end of Bill's first year, Allen moved closer to him so that they could follow some of their ideas. Within a year, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, and then formed Microsoft with Allen.Passage 2Florence Nightingale was a celebrated English social reformer and the founder of modern nursing. She became famous while serving as a nurse during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. Early 21st century 1) commentators have asserted that Nightingale's achievements in the Crimean War had been 2) exaggerated by the media to satisfy the public's need for a hero. But later on her achievements remain widely accepted and she has generally been well regarded by historians.Nightingale was born to a wealthy upper-class family, at a time when women of her class were expected to 3) focus on marriage and child bearing. Her father had progressive social views, providing his daughter with a well-rounded education that included math, and supported her desire to 4) lead an active life.Nightingale rejected proposals of marriage so as to be free to pursue her calling. In 1860, Nightingale 5) laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school in London. It was the first nursing school in the world. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honor, and the 6) annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday. She made 7) a series of social reforms including improving health care for all sections of British society; improving healthcare and 8) advocating for better hunger relief in India; helping to 9) abolish laws that were overly harsh to women; and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce. Nightingale's ability to effect reform rested on her extraordinary skills, her good reputation, and her network of 10) influential friends.TestUnless you've been living under a rock, by now you have heard of Lance Armstrong. The unusual thing here is that you may have heard of him, but not always for the same reason. Some know him as a (1)champion cyclist who set the world record by winning the Tour de France six times. Others may know of him through his humanitarian works. Still others may know him as a cancer survivor who decided to meet the (2)challenges and came out the winner.(3)Regardless of how you know him, just knowing of him at all offers your life(4)inspiration when you may need it most.Millions around the world properly celebrate him and his lofty accomplishments, his (5)remarkable recovery from what was feared to be terminal cancer, his exhausting training program, his (6)legendary endurance, his dauntless determination, and his unequalled (7)dominance of cyclin's premier event.But what explains the enormous interest in Armstrong's success —or that of any other sports hero? Why do sports fans set such a strong personal stake in the victories of their heroes? After all, little of any practical significance depends on such victories; a seventh Armstrong —win won't get his fans a raise or help send their children to college. Why do sports have such an enormous, enduring (8)appeal in human life?The answer lies in a rarely recognized aspect of sports: their moral significance. Those of us who, physically, cannot cycle 2,000 miles or run the 100 meters in 9 seconds can still (9)aspire to significant achievements. The vision of Armstrong's (10)magnificent abilities and dauntless determination engenders in the best of us the question: What might I accomplish in my field and in my life if I embodied the same degree of dedication?Unit 5Passage 1Living in the city is hard enough for a single person, but if you have kids life can get more complex. Finding ways to keep the little ones occupied can be afull-time job. So it should be no surprise that parents will go to great lengths to get a little peace and quiet.However, when I first got to know that some parents bought their young children — not teenagers — iPads, I was shocked. Who spends $500 on an iPad for a young child when so many adults in the United States go without or have limited access to computers and the Internet? Whatever happened to Lego, building blocks and colored pencils? And for those slightly older kids how about a good, old-fashioned book instead of an iPad for the car journey to the beach?Recently, I was at dinner with a couple and I brought up the subject of parents buying iPads for their young children. I was curious to see how they responded since I knew they had three young kids. It turned out they are a part of this growing trend. The iPad can download or stream cartoons, so it makes for excellent entertainment when they're trying to get to the grocery store or head out of the city for the annual family vacation. But the best thing about iPads is that there are games and educational applications for nearly every age level. It got me thinking that maybe my first reaction was a little too "reactionary". Now I can understand the parents a little better. If I had three kids and was living in the city they would probably have an iPad, too.Passage 2Around the world smart cities are being built while those we have lived in for centuries are being upgraded for the future. A smart city may mean one that uses data on traffic to ease congestion or one that aims to 1) join up services to provide better information for citizens. For many it is about making cities greener and more efficient. It is partly a 2) reaction to overcrowding and pollution and partly because in an ever-connected world it 3) makes increasing sense to hook entire cities up to the network.Masdar is a city that stands in the middle of the desert of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. It is designed to be one of the most 4) sustainable cities on the planet. With a solar power station at its heart and wind farms providing energy for it, it 5) aims to be carbon free. Everything in the city, from water to rubbish, is measured and 6) monitored, becoming a source of information. The city is built on a raised platform to allow its "digital plumbers" easy 7) access to the system of advanced technologies that run it. It is pedestrian-friendly and entirely car free. The city is 8) experimenting with a network of electric driverless podcars. The PRT — personal rapid transit — will run six meters under street level across the city. The buildings in the city have been designed by Norman Foster's architecture firm, which designed a number of 9)eye-catching buildings including The City Hall in London.It is hoped that 40,000 people will eventually live in the city, with up to 50,000 10) commuting there each day.TestOf the many problems in the world today, none is as (1)widespread or as old as crime. Crime has many forms, including crimes against (2)property, person, and government. In all its forms crime (3)penetrates every layer of society and touches every human being. You may never have been (4)robbed, but you suffer the increased cost of store-bought items because of others' shoplifting, and you pay higher taxes because of others' tax evasion (逃避). Whatever you do, wherever you live, you are a (5)victim of crime whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not.Some people (6)argue about who is really to blame for criminal behavior: the individual or society. Researchers in the United States and Canada have identified several factors in society that (7)contribute to the crime rate: massive urbanization, unemployment and poverty, and a large immigrant (8)population. Other countries are more affected by factors such as politics, government corruption and religion. However, the most important problem that still(9)remains unsolved is how to stop crime from happening. So far, different types of solutions have been (10)proposed to combat various specific crimes. But they are not all very effective. Therefore, more effective measures and more powerful actions are to be taken against all sorts of crimes so that our world may be a better place to live in.Unit 6Passage 1In 1964, 19 million women were employed in the United States. Today they total 65 million, working in a wide variety of industries and increasingly pursuing higher education. The number of working women who have attended college has increased 200 percent since 1970, and the undergraduate class of XXXX was 57 percent female.Yet as far as women have come, they still earn on average only 81.2 percent as much as men and remain in lower-end jobs. What are the best-paying jobs for women? Using data on the weekly earnings of full-time workers in XXXX collected by BLS, we discovered that tech and health care is where the money's at.Female physicians and surgeons topped the list. These women earned a median of $1,618 per week, or about $84,000 a year, more than any other profession tracked by the BLS. Male doctors continue to earn more than female doctors, but the pay gap has narrowed each year; it's now at 29 percent versus 41 percent two years ago.Interestingly, the second best-paying job for women is a pharmacist. Female pharmacists make a median of $1,605 per week or about $83,500 annually, nearly as much as physicians and surgeons and more than chief executives, which came in at No. 3 on our list. Women account for 48 percent of thepharmacy profession and earn 83 percent as much as male pharmacists. Meanwhile, only 26 percent of CEOs are women, and they earn just 72 percent as much as their male peers.Now women have been moving into relatively higher-paying jobs that were traditionally male-dominated. It's been a very positive development. Overall, the gender pay gap is narrowing.Passage 2When you receive a job offer, it's important to take the time to carefully 1) evaluate the offer so you are making a sensible decision to accept or to reject it.Consider the entire 2) compensation package — salary, benefits, working environment — not just your paycheck. Money isn't the only factor to consider, but, it is an important one. Is the offer what you expected? If not, is it a salary you can accept without feeling insulted? If it isn't what you expected, consider 3) negotiating salary with your future employer.Before accepting a job, be sure that you are clear on the hours you need to work. Also, 4) confirm what, if any, travel is involved. If the position requires 45 or 50 hours of work a week and you're used to working 35 hours, consider whether you will have difficulty committing to the 5) schedule.The bottom line in accepting a job offer is that there really isn't one. Everyone has a different set of personal 6) circumstances. What might be the perfect job for you could be an awful job for someone else.It's much easier to 7) turn down an offer than to leave a job that you have already started. The same is true for your potential employer. The employer would prefer that you decline, rather than having to 8) start over the hiring process a couple of weeks down the road if you don't 9) work out. So, do take the time to thoroughly consider the offer. Ask questions, if you have them. Take your time to make an educated, 10) informed decision so you feel sure that you and the company make an excellent match.TestEvery day we hear about people making radical career changes. The(1)opportunities exist, but will all these changes make us any happier once we get there? The following are four (2)practical steps toward coming to terms with why you do what you're doing.First, realize that your job does not (3)define you, but how you do it does. Any job can be done well, done with (4)compassion, done with care. Second, stop (5)focusing on the money. Money will never be enough. Seeing where your money is really going can help you to refocus your spending toward the things you really want. Getting paid is only one small part of what you do; your work has to be more than just a pay check to be cashed. Third, find the(6)significance in what you do. This may require you to (7)think big, but it canbe done. Take some time to really think about what you do. The perspective (8)plays a huge role in personal satisfaction and the sense of well-being. Try to remember why you've taken the job in the first place. Fourth, dare to ask yourself if it's worth it. Maybe all that's needed is some refocusing. Learn to say "no". As long as you can choose the things you spend your time on, don't (9)attend events or meetings only because everyone expects it.Take a look at your life. How would you describe it? (10)Contented? Rushed? Exciting? Stressful? Moving forward? Being held back? For many of us it's all of the above at times. There are things we dream of doing one day; there are things we wish we could forget. What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?Unit 7Passage 1"Wilfing", or surfing the Web without any real purpose, has become a new national pastime. It is the virtual equivalent of window shopping, and a lot of us seem to be spending a lot of time doing it.Although a newly-identified habit, more than two-thirds of the 33.7 million Internet users in the UK admit to at least occasional "wilfing", while browsing the Internet.The attraction of pop-up sites and flashing online advertisements is too appealing to resist for many Internet users. Almost a quarter of those surveyed said they spent 30 percent or more of their Internet time wilfing — the equivalent of spending an entire working day every fortnight pointlessly jumping between random pages.The YouGov survey of more than 2,400 Web users found that shopping websites are the most likely destinations for wilfers. Other popular pulls include news, music and travel websites.The poll found the tendency to wilf is more widespread among men than women. Gazing at a series of pointless web pages also appeared to be the preserve of the young, with people aged 55 or over being three times less likely to browse absent-mindedly than those under 25.The time-consuming practice appears to have destructive effects, too: A third of males admitted that wilfing has a damaging effect on the relationship with their partners.One in five confessed to being "distracted" from work or study by adult entertainment websites, which often use pop-up mechanisms and bulk emails to trap users into transferring to their pages.Passage 2The New York Police Department (NYPD) announced it will form a new unit to search social media as part of the combined efforts against criminals. This is。

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▉托福TPO25阅读Passage2原文文本： The Decline of Venetian Shipping In the late thirteenth century,northern Italian cities such as Genoa,Florence,and Venice began an economic resurgence that made them into the most important economic centers of Europe.By the seventeenth century,however,other European powers had taken over,as the Italian cities lost much of their economic might. This decline can be seen clearly in the changes that affected Venetian shipping and trade.First,Venic’s intermediary functions in the Adriatic Sea,where it had dominated the business of shipping for other parties,were lost to direct trading.In the fifteenth century there was little problem recruiting sailors to row the galleys(large ships propelled by oars): guilds(business associations)were required to provide rowers,and through a draft system free citizens served compulsorily when called for.█In the early sixteenth century the shortage of rowers was not serious because the demand for galleys was limited by a move to round ships(round-hulled ships with more cargo space),with required fewer rowers.█But the shortage of crews proved to be a greater and greater problem,despite continuous appeal to Venic’s tradition of maritime greatness.█Even though sailors’wages doubled among the northern Italian cities from 1550 to 1590,this did not elicit an increased supply█. The problem in shipping extended to the Arsenale,Venice’s huge and powerful shipyard.Timber ran short,and it was necessary to procure it from father and father away.In ancient Roman times,the Italian peninsula had great forest of fir preferred for warships,but scarcity was apparent as early as the early fourteenth century.Arsenale officers first brought timber from the foothills of the Alps,then from north toward Trieste,and finally from across the Adriatic.Private shipbuilders were required to buy their oak abroad.As the costs of shipbuilding rose,Venice clung to its outdated standard while the Dutch were innovation in the lighter and more easily handled ships. The step from buying foreign timber to buying foreign ships was regarded as a short one,especially when complaints were heard in the latter sixteenth century that the standards and traditions of the Arsenale were running down.Work was stretched out and done poorly.Older workers had been allowed to stop work a half hour before the regular time,and in 1601 younger works left with them.Merchants complained that the privileges reserved for Venetian-built and owned ships were first extended tothose Venetians who bought ships from abroad and then to foreign-built and owned vessels.Historian Frederic Lane observes that after the loss of ships in battle in the late sixteenth century,the shipbuilding industry no long had the capacity to recover that it had displayed at the start of the century. The conventional explanation for the loss of Venetian dominance in trade is establishment of the Portuguese direct sea route to the East,replacing the overland Silk Road from the Black sea and the highly profitable Indian Ocean-caravan-eastern Mediterranean route to Venice.The Portuguese Vasco da Gama’s Voyaga around southern Africa to India took place at the end of the fifteenth century,and by 1502 the trans-Abrabian caravan route had been cut off by political unrest. The Venetian Council finally allowed round ships to enter the trade that was previously reserved for merchant galleys,thus reducing transport cost by one third.Prices of spices delivered by ship from the eastern Mediterranean came to equal those of spices transported by Paortuguese vessels,but the increase in quantity with both routes in operation drove the price far down.Gradually,Venice’s role as a storage and distribution center for spices and silk,dyes cotton,and gold decayed,and by the early seventeenth century Venice had lost its monopoly in markets such as France and southern Germany. Venetian shipping had started to decline from about 1530-before the entry into the Mediterranean of large volumes of Dutch and Britishshipping-and was clearly outclassed by the end of the century.A contemporary of Shakespeare(1564-1616)observed that the productivity of Italian shipping had declined,compared with that of the British,because of conservatism and loss of expertise.Moreover,Italian sailors were deserting and emigrating,and captains,no longer recruited from the ranks of nobles,were weak on navigations. This decline can be seen clearly in the changes that affected Venetian shipping and trade.First,Venic’s intermediary functions in the Adriatic Sea,where it had dominated the business of shipping for other parties,were lost to direct trading.century there was little In the fifteenth problem recruiting sailors to row the galleys(large ships propelled by oars):guilds(business associations)were required to provide rowers,and through a draft system free citizens served compulsorily when called for.█In the early sixteenth century the shortage of rowers was not serious because the demand for galleys was limited by a move to round ships(round-hulled ships with more cargo space),with required fewer rowers.█But the shortage of crews proved to be a greater and greater problem,despite continuous appeal to Venic’s tradition of maritime greatness.█Even though sailors’wages doubled among the northern Italian cities from 1550 to 1590,this did not elicit an increased supply█. ▉托福TPO25阅读Passage2题目：。

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▉托福TPO15阅读Passage1原文文本： A Warm-Blooded Turtle When it comes to physiology, the leatherback turtle is, in some ways, more like a reptilian whale than a turtle. It swims farther into the cold of the northern and southern oceans than any other sea turtle, and it deals with the chilly waters in a way unique among reptiles. A warm-blooded turtle may seem to be a contradiction in terms. Nonetheless, an adult leatherback can maintain a body temperature of between 25 and 26°C (77-79°F) in seawater that is only 8°C (46.4°F). Accomplishing this feat requires adaptations both to generate heat in the turtle’s body and to keep it from escaping into the surrounding waters. Leatherbacks apparently do not generate internal heat the way we do, or the way birds do, as a by-product of cellular metabolism. A leatherback may be able to pick up some body heat by basking at the surface; its dark, almost black body color may help it to absorb solar radiation. However, most of its internal heat comes from the action of its muscles. Leatherbacks keep their body heat in three different ways. The first, and simplest, is size. The bigger the animal is, the lower its surface-to-volume ratio; for every ounce of body mass, there is proportionately less surface through which heat can escape. An adult leatherback is twice the size of the biggest cheloniid sea turtles and will therefore take longer to cool off. Maintaining a high body temperature through sheer bulk is called gigantothermy. It works for elephants, for whales, and, perhaps, it worked for many of the larger dinosaurs. It apparently works, in a smaller way, for some other sea turtles. Large loggerhead and green turtles can maintain their body temperature at a degree or two above that of the surrounding water, and gigantothermy is probably the way they do it. Muscular activity helps, too, and an actively swimming green turtle may be 7°C (12.6°F) warmer than the waters it swims through. Gigantothermy, though, would not be enough to keep a leatherback warm in cold northern waters. It is not enough for whales, which supplement it with a thick layer of insulating blubber (fat). Leatherbacks do not have blubber, but they do have a reptilian equivalent: thick, oil-saturated skin, with a layer of fibrous, fatty tissue just beneath it. Insulation protects the leatherback everywhere but on its head and flippers. Because the flippers are comparatively thin and blade-like, they are the one part of the leatherback that is likely to become chilled. There is not much that the turtle can do about this without compromising the aerodynamic shape of the flipper. The problem is that as blood flows through the turtle’s flippers,it risks losing enough heat to lower the animal’s central body temperature when it returns. The solution is to allow the flippers to cool down without drawing heat away from the rest of the turtle’s body. The leatherback accomplishes this by arranging the blood vessels in the base of its flipper into a countercurrent exchange system. In a countercurrent exchange system, the blood vessels carrying cooled blood from the flippers run close enough to the blood vessels carrying warm blood from the body to pick up some heat from the warmer blood vessels; thus, the heat is transferred from the outgoing to the ingoing vessels before it reaches the flipper itself. This is the same arrangement found in an old-fashioned steam radiator, in which the coiled pipes pass heat back and forth as water courses through them. The leatherback is certainly not the only animal with such an arrangement; gulls have a countercurrent exchange in their legs. That is why a gull can stand on an ice floe without freezing. All this applies, of course, only to an adult leatherback. Hatchlings are simply too small to conserve body heat, even with insulation and countercurrent exchange systems. We do not know how old, or how large, a leatherback has to be before it can switch from a cold-blooded to a warm-blooded mode of life. Leatherbacks reach their immense size in a much shorter time than it takes other sea turtles to grow. Perhaps their rush to adulthood is driven by a simple need to keep warm. Paragraph 1: When it comes to physiology, the leatherback turtle is, in some ways, more like a reptilian whale than a turtle. It swims farther into the cold of the northern and southern oceans than any other sea turtle, and it deals with the chilly waters in a way unique among reptiles. ▉托福TPO15阅读Passage1题目： 1. The phrase “unique among” in the passage is closest in meaning to ○natural to ○different from all other ○quite common among ○familiar to 2. What can be inferred about whales from paragraph 1? ○They are considered by some to be reptiles. ○Their bodies are built in a way that helps them manage extremely cold temperatures.。

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Early Children Education Preschools—educational programs for children under the age of five—differ significantly from one country to another according to the views that different societies hold regarding the purpose of early childhood education.For instance,in a cross-country comparison of preschools in China,Japan,and the United States,researchers found that parents in the three countries view the purpose of preschools very differently.Whereas parents in China tend to see preschools primarily as a way of giving children a good start academically,Japanese parents view them primarily as a way of giving children the opportunity to be members of a group.In the United States,in comparison,parents regard the primary purpose of preschools as making children more independent and self-reliant,although obtaining a good academic start and having group experience are also important. 由于不同社会持有的关于儿童早教目的观点的不同，学前班(5岁以下儿童的教育项目)的形式在不同国家也大不相同。

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Question 28答案： Latin关键词：Europe/nation state/At first定位原文: 文中第1、5、6段解题思路: 在首段末句，作者提到了 Before that, Latin was regarded as the lingua franca for European intellectuals. 我们隐约可以感觉到拉丁文在学术界的盛行，但这还不足以让我们确定此空就要填Latin一词。

在第五和第六段中，作者提到了学术界流行拉丁文的原因。

其中第六段开头一句提到A second reason for writing in Latin may, perversely, have a concern for secrecy. 这正好就等同题目中28空后面的那句话，所以我们椎测答案应该填写Latin一词。

Question 29答案： doctors关键词： Mathematicians定位原文: 第6段中最后3句解题思路: 题目中告诉我们：有的时候保护个人观点的欲望远远大于与人分享观点的欲望，特别是对于数学家和___。

在这里应该填上一个表示职业的名词。

而第六段中在mathematician 之后，只有一个表示职业的名词，那就是doctors。

故答案应该填 doctors。

Question 30 and Question 31答案： technical vocabulary grammatical resources (in either order)关键词： Britain/ English/ neither... nor...定位原文: 第7段第3句“First, it lacked…”解题思路: 首先用English将此题定位在第七段中，这一段提到了英文为什么迟迟未被用作学术语言的原因。

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▉托福TPO4阅读Passage1原文文本： Deer Populations of the Puget Sound Two species of deer have been prevalent in the Puget Sound area of Washington State in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The black-tailed deer, a lowland, west-side cousin of the mule deer of eastern Washington, is now the most common. The other species, the Columbian white-tailed deer, in earlier times was common in the open prairie country; it is now restricted to the low, marshy islands and flood plains along the lower Columbia River. Nearly any kind of plant of the forest understory can be part of a deer's diet. Where the forest inhibits the growth of grass and other meadow plants, the black-tailed deer browses on huckleberry, salal, dogwood, and almost any other shrub or herb. But this is fair-weather feeding. What keeps the black-tailed deer alive in the harsher seasons of plant decay and dormancy? One compensationfor not hibernating is the built-in urge to migrate. Deer may move from high-elevation browse areas in summer down to the lowland areas in late fall. Even with snow on the ground, the high bushy understory is exposed; also snow and wind bring down leafy branches of cedar, hemlock, red alder, and other arboreal fodder. The numbers of deer have fluctuated markedly since the entry of Europeans into Puget Sound country. The early explorers and settlers told of abundant deer in the early 1800s and yet almost in the same breath bemoaned the lack of this succulent game animal. Famous explorers of the north American frontier, Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River on November 14, 1805, in nearly starved circumstances. They had experienced great difficulty finding game west of the Rockies and not until the second of December did they kill their first elk. To keep 40 people alive that winter, they consumed approximately 150 elk and 20 deer. And when game moved out of the lowlands in early spring, the expedition decided to return east rather than face possible starvation. Later on in the early years of the nineteenth century, when Fort Vancouver became the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, deer populations continued to fluctuate. David Douglas, Scottish botanical explorer of the 1830s, found a disturbing change in the animal life around the fort during the period between his first visit in 1825 and his final contact with the fort in 1832.A recent Douglas biographer states:" The deer which once picturesquely dotted the meadows around the fort were gone [in 1832], hunted to extermination in order to protect the crops. Reduction in numbers of game should have boded ill for their survival in later times. A worsening of the plight of deer was to be expected as settlers encroachedon the land, logging, burning, and clearing, eventually replacing a wilderness landscape with roads, cities, towns, and factories. No doubt the numbers of deer declined still further. Recall the fate of the Columbian white-tailed deer, now in a protected status. But for the black-tailed deer, human pressure has had just the opposite effect. Wildlife zoologist Helmut Buechner(1953), in reviewing the nature of biotic changes in Washington through recorded time, says that "since the early 1940s, the state has had more deer than at any other time in its history, the winter population fluctuating around approximately 320,000 deer (mule and black-tailed deer), which will yield about 65,000 of either sex and any age annually for an indefinite period." The causes of this population rebound are consequences of other human actions. First, the major predators of deer—wolves, cougar, and lynx—have been greatly reduced in numbers. Second, conservation has been insured by limiting times for and types of hunting. But the most profoundreason for the restoration of high population numbers has been the fate of the forests. Great tracts of lowland country deforested by logging, fire, or both have become ideal feeding grounds of deer.In addition to finding an increase of suitable browse, like huckleberry and vine maple, Arthur Einarsen, longtime game biologist in the Pacific Northwest, found quality of browse in the open areas to be substantially more nutritive. The protein content of shade-grown vegetation, for example, was much lower than that for plants grown in clearings. ▉托福TPO4阅读Passage1题目： Question 1 of 14 According to paragraph 1, which of the following is true of the white-tailed deer of Puget Sound? A. It is native to lowlands and marshes. B. It is more closely related to the mule deer of eastern Washington than to other types of deer. C. It has replaced the black-tailed deer in the open prairie. D. It no longer lives in a particular type of habitat that it once occupied. Question 2 of 14 It can be inferred from the discussion in paragraph 2 that winter conditions A. cause some deer to hibernate。

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Trade and Early State Formation Bartering was a basic trade mechanism for many thousands of years;often sporadic and usually based on notions of reciprocity,it involved the mutual exchange of commodities or objects between individuals or groups.Redistribution of these goods through society lay in the hands of chiefs,religious leaders,or kin groups.Such redistribution was a basic element in chiefdoms.The change from redistribution to formal trade—often based on regulated commerce that perhaps involved fixed prices and even currency—was closely tied to growing political and social complexity and hence to the development of the state in the ancient world. In the 1970s,a number of archaeologists gave trade a primary role in the rise of ancient states.British archaeologist Colin Renfrew attributed the dramatic flowering of the Minoan civilization on Crete and through the Aegean to intensified trading contacts and to the impact of olive and vine cultivation on local communities.As agricultural economies became more diversified and local food supplies could be purchased both locally and over longer distances,a far-reaching economic interdependence resulted.Eventually,this led to redistribution systems for luxuries and basic commodities,systems that were organized and controlled by Minoan rulers from their palaces.As time went on,the self-sufficiency of communities was replaced by mutual dependence.Interest in long-distance trade brought about some cultural homogeneity from trade and gift exchange,and perhaps even led to piracy.Thus,intensified trade and interaction,and the flowering of specialist crafts,in a complex process of positive feedback,led to much more complex societies based on palaces,which were the economic hubs of a new Minoan civilization. Renfrew’s model made some assumptions that are now discounted.For example,he argued that the introduction of domesticated vines and olives allowed a substantial expansion of land under cultivation and helped to power the emergence of complex society.Many archaeologists and paleobotanists now question this view,pointing out that the available evidence for cultivated vines and olives suggests that they were present only in the later Bronze Age.Trade,nevertheless,was probably one of many variables that led to the emergence of palace economies in Minoan Crete. American archaeologist William Rathje developed a hypothesis that considered an explosion in long-distance exchange a fundamental cause of Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica.He suggested that the lowland Mayan environment was deficient in many vital resources,among them obsidian,salt,stone for grinding maize,and many luxury materials.All these could be obtained from the nearby highlands,from the Valley of Mexico,and from other regions,if the necessary trading networks came into being.Such connections,and the trading expeditions to maintain them,could not be organized byindividual villages.The Maya lived in a relatively uniform environment,where every community suffered from the same resource deficiencies.Thus,argued Rathje,long-distance trade networks were organized through local ceremonial centers and their leaders.In time,this organization became a state,and knowledge of its functioning was exportable,as were pottery,tropical bird feathers,specialized stone materials,and other local commodities. Rathje’s hypothesis probably explains part of the complex process of Mayan state formation,but it suffers from the objection that suitable alternative raw materials can be found in the lowlands.It could be,too,that warfare became a competitive response to population growth and to the increasing scarcity of prime agricultural land,and that it played an important role in the emergence of the Mayan states. Now that we know much more about ancient exchange and commerce,we know that,because no one aspect of trade was an overriding cause of cultural change or evolution in commercial practices,trade can never be looked on as a unifying factor or as a primary agent of ancient civilization.Many ever-changing variables affected ancient trade,among them the demand for goods.There were also the logistics of transportation,the extent of the trading network,and the social and political environment.Intricate market networks channeled supplies along well-defined routes.Authorities at both ends might regulate the profits fed back to the source,providing the incentive for further transactions.There may or may not have been a market organization.Extensive long-distance trade was a consequence rather than a cause of complex societies. Paragraph 1 Bartering was a basic trade mechanism for many thousands of years;often sporadic and usually based on notions of reciprocity,it involved the mutual exchange of commodities or objects between individuals or groups.Redistribution of these goods through society lay in the hands of chiefs,religious leaders,or kin groups.Such redistribution was a basic element in chiefdoms.The change from redistribution to formal trade—often based on regulated commerce that perhaps involved fixed prices and even currency—was closely tied to growing political and social complexity and hence to the development of the state in the ancient world. 1.The word"notions"in the passage is closest in meaning to A.ideas B.rules C.degrees。

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Extinction Episodes of the Past 【1】It was not until the Cambrian period,beginning about 600 million years ago,that a great proliferation of macroscopic species occurred on Earth and produced a fossil record that allows us to track the rise and fall of biodiversity.Since the Cambrian period,biodiversity has generally risen,but there have been some notable exceptions.Biodiversity collapsed dramatically during at least five periods because of mass extinctions around the globe.The five major mass extinctions receive most of the attention,but they are only one end of a spectrum of extinction events.Collectively,more species went extinct during smaller events that were less dramatic but more frequent.The best known of the five major extinction events,the one that saw the demise of the dinosaurs,is the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. 【2】Starting about 280 million years ago,reptiles were the dominant large animals in terrestrial environments.In popular language this was the era“when dinosaurs ruled Earth,”when a wide variety of reptile species occupying many ecological niches.However,no group or species can maintain its dominance indefinitely,and when,after over 200 million years,the age of dinosaurs came to a dramatic end about 65 million years ago,mammals began to flourish,evolving from relatively few types of small terrestrial animals into the myriad of diverse species,including bats and whales,that we know today.Paleontologists label this point in Earth’s history as the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary period,often abbreviated as the K-T boundary.This time was also marked by changes in many other types of organisms.Overall,about 38 percent of the families of marine animals were lost,with percentages much higher in some groups Ammonoid mollusks went from being very diverse and abundant to being extinct.An extremely abundant set of planktonic marine animals called foraminifera largely disappeared,although they rebounded later.Among plants,the K-T boundary saw a sharp but brief rise in the abundance of primitive vascular plants such as ferns,club mosses,horsetails,and conifers and other gymnosperms.The number of flowering plants(angiosperms)was reduced at this time,but they then began to increase dramatically. 【3】What caused these changes?For many years scientists assumed that a cooling of the climate was responsible,with dinosaurs being particularly vulnerable because,like modern reptiles,they were ectothermic(dependent on environmental heat,or cold-blooded).It is now widely believed that at least some species of dinosaurs had a metabolic rate high enough for them to be endotherms(animals that maintain a relatively consistent body temperature by generating heat internally).Nevertheless,climatic explanations for the K-T extinction are not really challenged by the ideas that dinosaurs may have been endothermic,because evenendotherms can be affected by a significant change in the climate. 【4】Explanations for the K-T extinction were revolutionized in 1980 when a group of physical scientists led by Luis Alvarez proposed that 65 million years ago Earth was stuck by a 10-kilometer-wide meteorite traveling at 90,000 kilometers per hour.They believed that this impact generated a thick cloud of dust that enveloped Earth,shutting out much of the incoming solar radiation and reducing plant photosynthesis to very low levels.Short-term effects might have included huge tidal waves and extensive fires.In other words,a series of events arising from a single cataclysmic event caused the massive extinctions.Initially,the meteorite theory was based on a single line of evidence.At locations around the globe,geologists had found an unusually high concentration of iridium in the layer of sedimentary rocks that was formed about 65 million years ago.Iridium is an element that is usually uncommon near Earth’s surface,but it is abundant in some meteorites.Therefore,Alvarez and his colleagues concludedthat it was likely that the iridium in sedimentary rocks deposited at the K-T boundary had originated in a giant meteorite or asteroid.Most scientist came to accept the meteorite theory after evidence came to light that a circular formation,180 kilometers in diameter in diameter and centered on the north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula,was created by a meteorite impact about 65 million years ago. 1.The word"proliferation"in the passage(paragraph 1)is closest in meaning to A.decline. B.extinction. C.increase. D.migration. 2.Paragraph 1 supports which of the following statements about life on Earth before the Cambrian period? A.Biodiversity levels were steady,as indicated by the fossil record. B.Levels of biodiversity could not be tracked. C.The most dramatic extinction episode occurred. D.Few microscopic species existed. 3.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage?Incorrect choices change the meaning in importantways or leave out essential information. A.The dominance of dinosaurs came to an end 65 million years ago,at which time mammals began to flourish and diversify. B.Because no group of species can remain dominant forever,mammals became the dominant group when dinosaurs became extinct. C.After being the dominant group for more than 200 million years,the age of dinosaurs came to a dramatic end 65 million years ago. D.The diverse group of mammals that we know today,including bats and whales,evolved from small terrestrial forms that had been dominated by dinosaurs. 4.According to paragraph 2,why are dinosaurs popularly said to have"ruled Earth"during the Cretaceous period? A.Dinosaurs were the only species of reptile that existed during the whole of the Cretaceous period. B.Dinosaurs won the battle for food resources over mammals during the Cretaceous period. C.Dinosaurs survived extinction during the Cretaceous period,whereas many other animal species did not. D.Dinosaurs were the physically and ecologically dominant animals during the Cretaceous period. 5.According to paragraph 2,which of the following species initially increased in number at the K-T boundary? A.Dinosaurs. B.Foraminifera. C.Ferns. D.Ammonoid mollusks. 6.Why does the author note that"even endotherms can be affected by a significant change in the climate"(paragraph 3)? A.To argue that there was a significant climate at the time that endothermicdinosaurs became extinct. B.To argue that climate change caused some dinosaurs to evolve as endotherms. C.To support the view that at least some of the dinosaurs that became extinct were endotherms. D.To defend climate change as possible explanation for the extinction of dinosaurs. 7.The word"generated"(paragraph 4)in the passage is closest in meaning to A.collected. B.produced. C.spread. D.added. 8.The word"extensive"(paragraph 4)in the passage is closest in meaning to A.widespread. B.sudden. C.numerous. D.subsequent. 9.According to paragraph 4,all of the following contributed to the massive extinctions of the K-T period EXCEPT: A.tidal waves. B.fires. C.insufficient solar radiation. D.iridium. 10.According to paragraph 4,which of the following statements explains the importance of the discovery of high levels of iridium rocks? A.It provided evidence that overexposure to solar radiation led to the K-T extinction. B.It showed that more than one cataclysmic event was responsible for the K-T extinction. C.It suggested that the cause of the K-T extinction may have been a meteorite striking Earth. D.It provided evidence that the K-T extinction occurred 65 million years ago. 11.According to paragraph 4,which of the following is true about the Yucatan Peninsula? A.The circular formation there was caused by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago. B.Sedimentary rocks from that area have the lowest iridium concentration of any rocks on Earth. C.There is evidence that a huge tidal wave occurred there 65 million years ago. D.Evidence found there challenged the meteorite impact theory. 12.Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 4 about the meteorite theory? A.The data originally presented as evidence for the theory were eventually rejected. B.Many scientists did not accept it when it was first proposed. C.It has not been widely accepted as an explanation for the K-T extinction. D.Alvarez subsequently revised it after a circular formation was found in the Yucatan Peninsula. 13.Look at the four squares[■]that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.Where would the sentence best fit?This focused on the chemical composition of ancient rocks. Explanations for the K-T extinction were revolutionized in 1980 when a group of physical scientists led by Luis Alvarez proposed that 65 million years ago Earth was stuck by a 10-kilometer-wide meteorite traveling at 90,000 kilometers per hour.Theybelieved that this impact generated a thick cloud of dust that enveloped Earth,shutting out much of the incoming solar radiation and reducing plant photosynthesis to very low levels.Short-term effects might have included huge tidal waves and extensive fires.In other words,a series of events arising from a single cataclysmic event caused the massive extinctions.■【A】Initially,the meteorite theory was based on a single line of evidence.■【B】At locations around the globe,geologists had found an unusually high concentration of iridium in the layer of sedimentary rocks that was formed about 65 million years ago.■【C】Iridium is an element that is usually uncommon near Earth's surface,but it is abundant in some meteorites.■【D】Therefore,Alvarez and his colleagues concluded that it was likely that the iridium in sedimentary rocks deposited at the K-T boundary had originated in a giant meteorite or asteroid.Most scientist came to accept the meteorite theory after evidence came to light that a circular formation,180 kilometers in diameter in diameter and centered on the north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula,was created by a meteorite impact about 65 million years ago. 14.Prose Summary The K-T extinction 65 million years ago is the best known of the five major extinction episodes since the Cambrian period. A.Collectively,the five major extinction episodes resulted in the elimination of a larger number of species than did all the minor extinction events. B.The K-T extinction eliminated the dinosaurs and ammonoid mollusks but was followed by the diversification of mammals and gymnospermous plants. C.An extreme cooling of the climate could not have caused the K-T extinction of dinosaurs,because,while most dinosaurs depended on environmental heat,some did not. D.The K-T extinction of the dinosaurs is the only mass extinction that has been explained by the impact of a meteorite. E.In 1980 Luis Alvarez proposed that the K-T extinction was caused by ecological disasters brought about by the impact of a meteorite striking Earth. F.A high concentration of iridium in sedimentary rocks at the K-T boundary and a large impact crater in the Yucatan Peninsula from 65 million years ago strongly support Alvarez'hypothesis. 1.proliferation，繁殖，激增，对应C。