【托福阅读考前必备】托福阅读背景知识-Native Americans in the popular imagination

2012新托福阅读备考解析：NativeAmericans了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

Native Americans were living in North America for many hundreds of years before Europeans reached the continent. For a long time white people called them Indians. Today, many people do not like this name since it is based on a mistake: it was given to the people living in the Americas by Christopher *Columbus who, when he arrived there, thought he had discovered India. Instead, people prefer to use the term Native Americans. There are also native peoples living in *Alaska and Canada, e.g. *Inuits and Aleuts, but they are separate groups and are not called Native Americans.Early contact with EuropeansIn *Pre-Columbian North America there were many tribes who lived by hunting animals and gatheringplants. Many of the tribes moved from one place to another according to the season and what food was available. Most of what is known about Native Americans dates from the time when they came into contact with Europeans.The first place in the US where Europeans settled permanently was *Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607. At first Native Americans were positive about the Europeans and were happy to have the many new things they brought, e.g. metal cooking pots, cloth and guns. But the Europeans also introduced diseases that Native Americans had no resistance to, so many became ill and died. They also brought alcohol, the effects of which Native Americans did not know. Some Europeans took advantage of this by getting them drunk and then paying low prices for their goods.The worst problem for Native Americans, which lasted into the late 20th century, was that the new settlers wanted their land. To native Americans owning land was a strange idea. Tribes moved around as they pleased and shared land with any other tribe that was friendly. They did not understand that a person mightbelieve a piece of land was theirs, or that they would try to keep others from using it. The settlers, on the other hand, assumed that they would take control of North America and used all means to do this, including making agreements, which they usually did not keep, tricking Native Americans into selling land cheaply, and taking it by military force. Native American chiefs like *Sitting Bull, *Tecumseh and *Geronimo fought against the settlers.As Whites began moving west, Native American tribes had to be moved on. Some were forced to go to other parts of North America, to areas very different from the ones they were used to. The *Trail of Tears was one of many terrible examples: in the cold winter of 18389 17 000 *Cherokees had to move from their land in the south-east to what is now *Oklahoma and more than 4 000 died. The government promised tribes that if they agreed to stay in one part of the country they could keep that land forever. But the promises lasted only until Americans discovered that the land they had given them was good for farming or had gold.Whites have explained this behaviour indifferent ways. When the Indians fought and killed white people they said that this proved that Native Americans were wild and had to be controlled. People also believed that the Native Americans were wasting good land by not developing it. In the 19th century Americans believed in *manifest destiny, meaning that they thought God wanted them to occupy the whole continent. They also believed that it was better for the Native Americans to learn to live like white people and tried to teach them Christianity. Many Native American children, including the athlete Jim *Thorpe, were taken away from their tribe and sent to schools where they were not allowed to speak their own language.以上就是今天的托福阅读背景知识，每天熟悉一部分托福常考知识点，坚持下来，一定会有不小的进步，了解背景知识的同时不要忘记，找些相关知识的单词造句试试，以便考试的时候能派上用场，英语不是一朝一夕的事，所以大家一定要勤加练习。

托福阅读背景知识大全托福考试中，阅读每篇文章篇幅在700字左右，总共3-4篇。

托福阅读是托福考试中相当重要的一个科目，而它涵盖的题材又十分广泛。

如果在考场上，同样的考题，考生熟悉并掌握了阅读文章的背景知识，做起题来就会非常轻松，做题的速度和准确率也会提高很多。

虽然托福阅读并不考察背景知识，但背景知识又绝对是需要备考的资料之一。

本篇文章雷哥托福小托君就带领大家一起来看看托福阅读中常常出现的背景知识。

一、历史历史背景知识在托福阅读中出现得还是比较多的，历史是一个很宽泛的概念，它包括不同国家的发展进程，从文化、政治到生活、社会等等。

比如说，在欧美近代史中，工业革命占据着特别重要的位置。

从托福TPO中出现的有关工业革命的文章可以看到，它也会涉及工业革命中的农业发展、铁路建设等，还涉及那个时期的人口增长等方方面面。

工业革命起源于英国，它的发展包括了当时的棉花、运输、钢铁、汽车等等产业。

大家在进行阅读备考的时候，可以留意一下文章内容。

除了工业革命之外，还有诸如美国发展史、民族融合、文化融合等等。

二、地理地理学题材包括地球的构成、地理现象、降雨降雪、冰川的形成、河流森林等。

三、文学一般文学都是与历史分不开的，文学就是在记录历史。

研究文学就是重温历史。

托福阅读中常常出现诸如美国文学作品的介绍，包括作者生平、文学流派等。

比如，各种古希腊罗马神话故事作品、史诗文学、自传等等；有黑人文学、男方作家、纽约作家以及诗歌流派等。

四、天文学涉及宇宙、银河、八大行星、日食月食极光天文现象、火星上有水、雷电现象等。

五、社会社会生活中大家比较关心的问题以及比较有争议的问题等，比如说，男女平等、抑郁症的治疗、节日庆典、人际交往、社会群体、社交媒体、交通问题、教育问题、城市规划等等。

六、动植物此题材属于托福阅读必考题材。

涉及到的内容通常涵盖某种动物的起源、某地植物的起源、乌龟的习性、鹿群数量的变迁、植物与矿物等。

七、其他类包括艺术（陶器、瓷器、音乐、绘画、玻璃艺术、手工艺）、建筑、生物科技、经济金融等。

托福阅读tpo41R-1原文+译文+题目+答案+背景知识原文Navajo Art①The Navajo,a Native American people living in the southwestern United States, live in small scattered settlements.In many respects,such as education, occupation,and leisure activities,their life is like that of other groups that contribute to the diverse social fabric of North American culture in the twenty-first century.At the same time,they have retained some traditional cultural practices that are associated with particular art forms.For example,the most important traditional Navajo rituals include the production of large floor paintings.These are actually made by pouring thin,finely controlled streams of colored sands or pulverized vegetable and mineral substances,pollen,and flowers in precise patterns on the ground.The largest of these paintings may be up to5.5meters in diameter and cover the entire floor of a room.Working from the inside of the design outward,the Navajo artist and his assistants will sift the black,white, bluish-gray,orange,and red materials through their fingers to create the finely detailed imagery.The paintings and chants used in the ceremonies are directed by well-trained artists and singers who enlist the aid of spirits who are impersonated by masked performers.The twenty-four known Navajo chants can be represented by up to500sand paintings.These complex paintings serve as memory aids to guide the singers during the performance of the ritual songs,which can last up to nine days.②The purpose and meaning of the sand paintings can be explained by examining one of the most basic ideals of Navajo society,embodied in their word hozho (beauty or harmony,goodness,and happiness).It coexists with hochxo("ugliness," or"evil,"and"disorder")in a world where opposing forces of dynamism and stability create constant change.When the world,which was created in beauty, becomes ugly and disorderly,the Navajo gather to perform rituals with songs and make sand paintings to restore beauty and harmony to the world.Some illness is itself regarded as a type of disharmony.Thus,the restoration of harmony through a ceremony can be part of a curing process.③Men make sand paintings that are accurate copies of paintings from the past. The songs sung over the paintings are also faithful renditions of songs from thepast.By recreating these arts,which reflect the original beauty of creation,the Navajo bring beauty to the present world.As relative newcomers to the Southwest, a place where their climate,neighbors,and rulers could be equally inhospitable, the Navajo created these art forms to affect the world around them,not just through the recounting of the actions symbolized,but through the beauty and harmony of the artworks themselves.The paintings generally illustrate ideas and events from the life of a mythical hero,who,after being healed by the gods,gave gifts of songs and paintings.Working from memory,the artists re-create the traditional form of the image as accurately as possible.④The Navajo are also world-famous for the designs on their woven blankets. Navajo women own the family flocks,control the shearing of the sheep,the carding,the spinning,and dyeing of the thread,and the weaving of the fabrics. While the men who make faithful copies of sand paintings from the past represent the principle of stability in Navajo thought,women embody dynamism and create new designs for every weaving they make.Weaving is a paradigm of the creativity of a mythic ancestor named Spider woman who wove the universe as a cosmic web that united earth and sky.It was she who,according to legend,taught Navajo women how to weave.As they prepare their materials and weave,Navajo women imitate the transformations that originally created the world.⑤Working on their looms,Navajo weavers create images through which they experience harmony with nature.It is their means of creating beauty and thereby contributing to the beauty,harmony,and healing of the world.Thus,weaving is a way of seeing the world and being part of it.译文纳瓦霍人的艺术①纳瓦霍人是生活在美国西南部的土著美国人，居住在分散的小定居点。

老托福阅读真题及答案passage3为了帮助大家备考托福阅读，提高成绩，下面小编给大家带来老托福阅读真题及答案passage3，希望大家喜欢！老托福阅读真题及答案passage3PASSAGE 3The Native Americans of northern California were highly skilled at basketry, using the reeds,grasses, barks, and roots they found around them to fashion articles of all sorts and sizes —notonly trays, containers, and cooking pots, but hats, boats, fish traps, baby carriers, and ceremonialobjects.Of all these experts, none excelled the Pomo — a group who lived on or near the coast duringthe 1800's, and whose descendants continue to live in parts of the same region to this day. Theymade baskets three feet in diameter and others no bigger than a thimble. The Pomo people weremasters of decoration. Some of their baskets were completely covered with shell pendants;others with feathers that made the baskets' surfaces as soft as the breasts of birds. Moreover, thePomo people made use of more weaving techniques than did their neighbors. Most groups madeall their basketwork by twining —the twisting of a flexible horizontal material, called a weft,around stiffer vertical strands of material, the warp. Others depended primarily on coiling — aprocess in which a continuous coil of stiff material is held in the desired shape with tightwrapping of flexible strands. Only the Pomo people used both processes with equal ease andfrequency. In addition, they made use of four distinct variations on the basic twining process,often employing more than one of them in a single article.Although a wide variety of materials was available, the Pomopeople used only a few. Thewarp was always made of willow, and the most commonly used weft was sedge root, a woodyfiber that could easily be separated into strands no thicker than a thread. For color, the Pomopeople used the bark of redbud for their twined work and dyed bullrush root for black in coiledwork. Though other materials were sometimes used, these four were the staples in their finestbasketry.If the basketry materials used by the Pomo people were limited, the designs were amazinglyvaried. Every Pomo basketmaker knew how to produce from fifteen to twenty distinct patternsthat could be combined in a number of different ways.1. What best distinguished Pomo basketsfrom baskets of other groups?(A) The range of sizes, shapes, and designs(B) The unusual geometric(C) The absence of decoration(D) The rare materials used2. The word fashion in line 2 is closest in meaning to(A) maintain(B) organize(C) trade(D) create3. The Pomo people used each of the following materials to decorate baskets EXCEPT(A) shells(B) feathers(C) leaves(D) bark4. What is the author's main point in the second paragraph?(A) The neighbors of the Pomo people tried to improve onthe Pomo basket weaving techniques.(B) The Pomo people were the most skilled basket weavers in their region.(C) The Pomo people learned their basket weaving techniques from other Native Americans.(D) The Pomo baskets have been handed down for generations.5. The word others in line 9 refers to(A) masters(B) baskets(C) pendants(D) surfaces6. According to the passage , a weft is a(A) tool for separating sedge root(B) process used for coloring baskets(C) pliable maternal woven around the warp(D) pattern used to decorate baskets7. According to the passage , what did the Pomo people use as the warp in their baskets?(A) bullrush(B) willow(C) sedge(D) redbud8. The word article in line 17 is close in meaning to(A) decoration(B) shape(C) design(D) object9. According to the passage . The relationship between redbud and twining is most similar to therelationship between(A) bullrush and coiling(B) weft and warp(C) willow and feathers(D) sedge and weaving10. The word staples in line 23 is closest in meaning to(A) combinations(B) limitations(C) accessories(D) basic elements11. The word distinct in lime 26 is closest in meaning to(A) systematic(B) beautiful(C) different(D) compatible12. Which of the following statements about Pomo baskets can be best inferred from thepassage ?(A) Baskets produced by other Native Americans were less varied in design than those of thePomo people.(B) Baskets produced by Pomo weavers were primarily for ceremonial purposes.(C) There were a very limited number of basketmaking materials available to the Pomo people.(D) The basketmaking production of the Pomo people has increased over the years.PASSAGE 3 BDCBB CBDAD CA托福阅读备考新手常见的4个问题答疑1、托福阅读如何使用技巧?参加托福考试的考试一般集中在高中生、大学生，词汇量在四五千左右，他们在接触托福阅读的时候会遇到很多生词，尤其是分门别类的学科词汇，分为地理、天文、生物学、动物学四大块，学员就会有很多的误解，到底应该掌握多少词汇才能做好托福阅读。

托福TPO9阅读原文翻译及答案：Part1托福TPO是我们托福阅读的重要参考资料，为了方便大家备考，下面小编给大家整理了托福TPO9阅读原文翻译及答案：Part1，希望大家喜欢。

托福TPO9阅读原文：Part1It has long been accepted that the Americas were colonized by a migration of peoples from Asia, slowly traveling across a land bridge called Beringia (now the Bering Strait between northeastern Asia and Alaska) during the last Ice Age. The first water craft theory about this migration was that around 11,000-12,000 years ago there was an ice-free corridor stretching from eastern Beringia to the areas of North America south of the great northern glaciers. It was this midcontinental corridor between two massive ice sheets-the Laurentide to the east and the Cordilleran to the west-that enabled the southward migration. But belief in this ice-free corridor began to crumble when paleoecologist Glen MacDonald demonstrated that some of the most important radiocarbon dates used to support the existence of an ice-free corridor were incorrect. He persuasively argued that such an ice-free corridor did not exist until much later, when the continental ice began its final retreat.Support is growing for the alternative theory that people using watercraft, possibly skin boats, moved southward from Beringia along the Gulf of Alaska and then southward along the Northwest coast of North America possibly as early as 16,000 years ago. This route would have enabled humans to enter southern areas of the Americas prior to the melting of the continental glaciers. Until the early 1970s,most archaeologists did not consider the coast a possible migration route into theAmericas because geologists originally believed that during the last Ice Age the entire Northwest Coast was covered by glacial ice. It had been assumed that the ice extended westward from the Alaskan/Canadian mountains to the very edge of the continental shelf, the flat, submerged part of the continent that extends into the ocean. This would have created a barrier of ice extending from the Alaska Peninsula, through the Gulf of Alaska and southward along the Northwest Coast of north America to what is today the state of Washington.The most influential proponent of the coastal migration route has been Canadian archaeologist Knut Fladmark. He theorized that with the use of watercraft, people gradually colonized unglaciated refuges and areas along the continental shelf exposed by the lower sea level. Fladmark's hypothesis received additional support form from the fact that the greatest diversity in native American languages occurs along the west coast of the Americas, suggesting that this region has been settled the longest.More recent geologic studies documented deglaciation and the existence of ice-free areas throughout major coastal areas of British Columbia, Canada, by 13,000 years ago. Research now indicates that sizable areas of southeastern Alaska along the inner continental shelf were not covered by ice toward the end of the last Ice Age. One study suggests that except for a 250-mile coastal area between southwestern British Columbia and Washington State, the Northwest Coast of North America was largely free of ice by approximately 16,000 years ago. Vast areas along the coast may have been deglaciated beginning around 16,000 years ago, possibly providing a coastal corridor for the movement of plants, animals, and humans sometime between13,000 and 14,000 years ago.The coastal hypothesis has gained increasing support in recent years because the remains of large land animals, such as caribou and brown bears, have been found in southeastern Alaska dating between 10,000 and 12,500 years ago. This is the time period in which most scientists formerly believed the area to be inhospitable for humans. It has been suggested that if the environment were capable of supporting breeding populations of bears, there would have been enough food resources to support humans. Fladmark and other believe that the first human colonization of America occurred by boat along the Northwest Coast during the very late Ice Age, possibly as early as 14,000 years ago. The most recent geologic evidence indicates that it may have been possible for people to colonize ice-free regions along the continental shelf that were still exposed by the lower sea level between13,000 and 14,000 years ago.The coastal hypothesis suggests an economy based on marine mammal hunting, saltwater fishing, shellfish gathering, and the use of watercraft. Because of the barrier of ice to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and populated areas to the north, there may have been a greater impetus for people to move in a southerly direction.Paragraph 1: It has long been accepted that the Americas were colonized by a migration of peoples from Asia, slowly traveling across a land bridge called Beringia (now the Bering Strait between northeastern Asia and Alaska) during the last Ice Age. The first water craft theory about this migration was that around 11,000-12,000 years ago there was an ice-free corridor stretching from eastern Beringia to the areas of North America south of the great northern glaciers. It was this midcontinentalcorridor between two massive ice sheets-the Laurentide to the east and the Cordilleran to the west-that enabled the southward migration. But belief in this ice-free corridor began to crumble when paleoecologist Glen MacDonald demonstrated that some of the most important radiocarbon dates used to support the existence of an ice-free corridor were incorrect. He persuasively argued that such an ice-free corridor did not exist until much later, when the continental ice began its final retreat.托福TPO9阅读题目Part11. According to paragraph 1, the theory that people first migrated to the Americans by way of an ice-free corridor was seriously called into question by○paleoecologist Glen MacDonald's ar gument that the original migration occurred much later than had previously been believed○the demonstration that certain previously accepted radiocarbon dates were incorrect○evidence that the continental ice began its final retreat much later than had previously been believed○research showing that the ice-free corridor was not as long lasting as had been widely assumed2. The word "persuasively" in the passage is closest in meaning to○aggressively○inflexibly○convincingly○carefullyParagraph 2: Support is growing for the alternative theory that people using watercraft, possibly skin boats, moved southward from Beringia along the Gulf of Alaska and thensouthward along the Northwest coast of North America possibly as early as 16,000 years ago. This route would have enabled humans to enter southern areas of the Americas prior to the melting of the continental glaciers. Until the early 1970s,most archaeologists did not consider the coast a possible migration route into the Americas because geologists originally believed that during the last Ice Age the entire Northwest Coast was covered by glacial ice. It had been assumed that the ice extended westward from the Alaskan/Canadian mountains to the very edge of the continental shelf, the flat, submerged part of the continent that extends into the ocean. This would have created a barrier of ice extending from the Alaska Peninsula, through the Gulf of Alaska and southward along the Northwest Coast of north America to what is today the state of Washington.3. Paragraph 2 begins by presenting a theory and then goes on to○ discuss why the theory was rapidly accepted but then rejected○ present the evidence on which the theory was based○ cite evidence that now shows that the theory is incorrect ○ explain why the theor y was not initially considered plausible4. The phrase "prior to" is closest in meaning to○ before○ immediately after○ during○ in spite of5. Paragraph 2 supports the idea that, before the 1970s, most archaeologists held which of the following views about the earliest people to reach the Americas?○They could not have sailed directly from Beringia to Alaska and then southward because, it was thought, glacial ice covered the entire coastal region.○They were not aware that the climate would continue to become milder.○They would have had no interest in migrating southward from Beringia until after the continental glaciers had begun to melt.○They lacked the navigational skills and appropriate boats needed long-distance trips.Paragraph 3: The most influential proponent of the coastal migration route has been Canadian archaeologist Knut Fladmark. He theorized that with the use of watercraft, people gradually colonized unglaciated refuges and areas along the continental shelf exposed by the lower sea level. Fladmark's hypothesis received additional support form from the fact that the greatest diversity in native American languages occurs along the west coast of the Americas, suggesting that this region has been settled the longest.6. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways to leave out essential information.○Because this region has been settled the longest, it also displays the greatest diversity in Native American languages.○Fladmark's hypothesis states that the west coast of the Americas has been settled longer than any other region.○The fact that the greatest diversity of Native American languages occurs along the west coast of the Americans lends strength to Fradmark's hypothesis.○According to Fladmark, Native American languages have survived the longest along the west coast of the Americas.Paragraph 4: More recent geologic studies documented deglaciation and the existence of ice-free areas throughout major coastal areas of British Columbia, Canada, by 13,000 years ago. Research now indicates that sizable areas of southeastern Alaska along the inner continental shelf were not covered by ice toward the end of the last Ice Age. One study suggests that except for a 250-mile coastal area between southwestern British Columbia and Washington State, the Northwest Coast of North America was largely free of ice by approximately 16,000 years ago. Vastareas along the coast may have been deglaciated beginning around 16,000 years ago, possibly providing a coastal corridor for the movement of plants, animals, and humans sometime between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago.7. The author's purpose in paragraph 4 is to○ indicate that a number of recent geologic studies seem to provide support for the coastal hypothesis○ indicate that coastal and inland migrations may have happened simultaneously○ explain why humans may have reached America's northwest coast before animals and plants did○ show t hat the coastal hypothesis may explain how people first reached Alaska but it cannot explain how people reached areas like modern British Columbia and Washington State8. The word "Vast" in the passage is closest in meaning to○Frozen○Various○Isolated○H ugeParagraph 5: The coastal hypothesis has gained increasing support in recent years because the remains of large land animals, such as caribou and brown bears, have been found in southeastern Alaska dating between 10,000 and 12,500 years ago. This is the time period in which most scientists formerly believed the area to be inhospitable for humans. It has been suggested that if the environment were capable of supporting breeding populations of bears, there would have been enough food resources to support humans. Fladmark and other believe that the first human colonization of America occurred by boat along the Northwest Coast during the very late Ice Age, possibly as early as 14,000 years ago. The most recent geologic evidence indicates that it may have been possible for people to colonize ice-free regions along the continental shelf that were still exposed by the lower sea level between13,000 and 14,000 years ago.9. According to paragraph 5, the discovery of the remains of large land animals supports the coastal hypothesis by providing evidence that○ humans were changing their hunting techniques to adapt to coastal rather than inland environments○ animals had migrated from the inland to the coasts, an indication that a midcontinental ice-free corridor was actually implausible○ humans probably would have been able to find enough resources along the coastal corridor○ the continental shelf was still exposed by lower sea levels during the period when the southward migration of people began10. The word "inhospitable" in the passage is closest inmeaning to○ not familiar○ not suitable○ not dangerous○ not reachable11. According to paragraph 5, the most recent geologic research provides support for a first colonization of America dating as far back as○16,000 years ago○14,000 years ago○12,500 years ago○10,000 years agoParagraph 6: The coastal hypothesis suggests an economy based on marine mammal hunting, saltwater fishing gathering, and the use of watercraft. Because of the barrier of ice to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and populated areas to the north, there may have been a greater impetus for people to move in a southerly direction.12. The word "impetus" in the passage is closest in meaning to○ chance○ protection○ possibility○ incentiveParagraph 1: It has long been accepted that the Americas were colonized by a migration of peoples from Asia, slowly traveling across a land bridge called Beringia (now the Bering Strait between northeastern Asia and Alaska) during the last Ice Age. ■The fi rst water craft theory about the migration was that around 11,000-12,000 years ago there was an ice-free corridorstretching from eastern Beringia to the areas of North America south of the great northern glaciers. It was the midcontinental corridor between two massive ice sheets-the Laurentide to the west-that enabled the southward migration. ■But belief in this ice-free corridor began to crumble when paleoecologist Glen MacDonald demonstrated that some of the most important radiocarbon dates used to support the existence of an ice-free corridor were incorrect. ■He persuasively argued that such an ice-free corridor did not exist until much later, when the continental ice began its final retreat. ■13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.Moreover, other evidence suggests that even if an ice-free corridor did exist, it would have lacked the resources needed for human colonization.Where could the sentence best fit?14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some answer choices do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.Recent evidence favors a rival to the long-standing theory that the Americas were colonized 11,000-12,000 years ago by people migrating south from Beringia along a midcontinental ice-free corridor.●●●Answer Choices○Evidence that an ice-free corridor between two ice sheets developed when the continental ice first began to melt came primarily from radiocarbon dating.○There is growing support for the theory that migration took place much earlier, by sea, following a coastal route along Alaska and down the northwest coast.○Recent geologic evidence indicates that contrary to what had been believed, substantial areas along the coast were free of ice as early as 16,000 years ago.○Research now indicates that the parts of the inner continental shelf that remained covered with ice were colonized by a variety of early human groups well adapted to living in extremely cold environments.○There is evidence sugge sting that areas along the coast may have contained enough food resources between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago to have made human colonization possible.○Even though the northern part of the continent allowed for a more varied economy, several early human groups quickly moved south.托福TPO9阅读答案Part1参考答案：1. ○22. ○33. ○44. ○15. ○16. ○37. ○18.○49. ○310. ○211. ○212. ○413. ○414. There is growing supportRecent geologic evidenceThere is evidence suggesting托福TPO9阅读翻译Part1参考翻译：美国西北海岸的移民这种观念被人们接受很长时间了：美洲被一群来自亚洲的移民殖民统治着，他们在上一个冰河时代缓慢地跨越了一个叫做白令的大陆桥(现在白令海峡位于东北亚和阿拉斯加之间)。

新托福阅读背景知识汇总新托福阅读背景知识：19世纪后半叶经济迅速发展南北战争后，由于南部种植园制度的废除，为资本主义在全国范围的发展创造了条件;造船业和机器制造业迅速发展，横贯大陆的4条铁路建成，西部广大土地的垦殖，边疆的消失，促进了国内统一市场的形成和扩大。

在中西部、远西部和南部日益开拓进程中，各地区发展了具有本地特点的工业。

外国移民的大量涌入，提供了丰富的劳动力，使北美能够大规模进行农业生产。

19世纪后半叶农业机械化迅速发展。

从1860-1916年，耕地面积由4.07亿英亩增加到8.79亿英亩，改良的土地面积扩大了3倍多，小麦和玉米的产量约增加了3倍多。

农业中大生产排挤和兼并小生产，在以工业为主的北部，农业日益采用集约耕作，在其他地区，大农场数字逐渐增加，1900年美国农产品总数的一半是由1/6的大农户生产的，形成了美国式农业资本主义发展道路。

19世纪后半叶，科学技术领域有重要发明和突破，其中首推电力的应用;1876年A.G：贝尔发明电话机，1886年T.A.爱迪生制造了电灯，1892年杜里雅兄弟试制成功汽车，1903年莱特兄弟试制飞机航行成功。

电力广泛应用于工业，导致美国经济的全面发展。

1880年工业在全国生产总值中的比重已超过农业，工业生产总值由1860年的世界第4位，跃居至1894年的首位。

美国成为高度发达的资本主义国家。

第一次世界大战前的内外政策(1889—1914)1889年美国召开泛美会议，1898年美西战争爆发，美国击败了西班牙，夺取了加勒比海的古巴和波多黎各、太平洋的关岛及菲律宾群岛，接着合并了夏威夷群岛。

1903年美国夺取了巴拿马运河区。

在远东，1899年美国提出对华“门户开放”政策。

美国在1904-1905年日俄战争中支持日本。

在日俄战争结束后，美日双方经过谈判，于1908年签订了罗脱—高平协定。

在1912年总统选举中，民主党总统候选人T.W.威尔逊上台。

威尔逊以“新自由”作为号召进行改革，降低关税，建立联邦储备银行制度，通过克莱顿反托拉斯法(1914)，征收累进所得税。

托福阅读生物类背景知识及真题珊瑚礁珊瑚礁(coral reef)是指造礁石珊瑚群体死后其遗骸(remains)构成的岩体。

珊瑚礁的主体是由珊瑚虫(polyp)组成的。

珊瑚虫是海洋中的一种腔肠动物在生长过程中能吸收海水中的钙和二氧化碳，然后分泌出石灰石(limestone)，变为自己生存的外壳。

每一个单体的珊瑚虫只有米粒那样大小，它们一群一群地聚居在一起，一代代地新陈代谢(metabolism)，生长繁衍，同时不断分泌出石灰石，并粘合在一起。

这些石灰石经过以后的压实、石化，形成岛屿和礁石，也就是所谓的珊瑚礁(coral reef)。

达尔文根据礁体与岸线的关系，划分出岸礁(fringing reef)、堡礁(barrier reef)和环礁(atoll)。

fringing reef暗礁沿大陆(mainland)或岛屿(island)岸边(shore)生长发育，亦称裙礁或边缘礁。

现代最长的岸礁沿红海沿岸发育，绵延约2700多公里，分布水深约36米。

中国台湾恒春半岛和海南岛沿岸也有岸礁发育。

barrier reef堡礁又称堤礁，是离岸有一定距离的堤状礁体，它与陆地隔以泻湖(环礁湖)(lagoon)。

现代规模最大的堡礁是澳大利亚昆士兰大堡礁，全长约2000公里，分布水深约30米。

atoll环礁礁体呈环带状围绕泻湖(lagoon)，有的与外海有水道相通。

环礁直径在几百米至几十公里，形态多样。

已知的环礁有330个之多,主要分布在西太平洋的信风带和印度洋热带海域。

环礁多坐落在大洋火山锥上，孤立于汪洋大海之中，展布受洋底火山(volcano)作用的控制，某些也可在大陆架(continental shelf)上见到。

环礁礁坪上常有灰砂(砾)岛或礁岩岛，统称为珊瑚岛。

马绍尔群岛上的夸贾林环礁和马尔代夫群岛的苏瓦迪瓦环礁，面积都在1800平方公里以上，是世界上最大的两个环礁。

南海发育的环礁颇具特色，有泻湖全被封闭的玉琢礁;有泻湖与外海有3个通道的华光礁;还有多通道开放式的永乐环礁，半月形全开放式的宣德环礁。

1关于美国的历史The continent's first inhabitants walked into North America across what is now the Bering Strait from Asia. For the next 20,000 years these pioneering settlers were essentially left alone to develop distinct and dynamic cultures. In the modern US, their descendants include the Pueblo people in what is now New Mexico; Apache in Texas; Navajo in Arizona, Colorado and Utah; Hopi in Arizona; Crow in Montana; Cherokee in North Carolina; and Mohawk and Iroquois in New York State.The Norwegian explorer Leif Eriksson was the first European to reach North America, some 500 years before a disoriented Columbus accidentally discovered 'Indians' in Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 1492. By the mid-1550s, much of the Americas had been poked and prodded by a parade of explorers from Spain, Portugal, England and France.The first colonies attracted immigrants looking to get rich quickly and return home, but they were soon followed by migrants whose primary goal was to colonize. The Spanish founded the first permanent European settlement in St Augustine, Florida, in 1565; the French moved in on Maine in 1602, and Jamestown, Virginia, became the first British settlement in 1607. The first Africans arrived as 'indentured（合同的，契约的）laborers' with the Brits a year prior to English Puritan pilgrims' escape of religious persecution（迫害）. The pilgrims founded a colony at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, in 1620 and signed the famous Mayflower Compact - a declaration ofself-government that would later be echoed in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. British attempts to assert authority in its 13 North American colonies led to the French and Indian War (1757-63). The British were victorious but were left with a nasty war debt, which they tried to recoup（赔偿，付还）by imposing new taxes. The rallying cry 'no taxation without representation' united the colonies, who ceremoniously dumped caffeinated cargo overboard during the Boston Tea Party. Besieged British general Cornwallis surrendered to American commander George Washington five years later at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. In the 19th century, America's mantra was 'Manifest Destiny.' A combination of land purchases, diplomacy and outright wars of conquest had by 1850 given the US roughly its present shape. In 1803, Napoleon dumped the entire Great Plains for a pittance（微薄收入）, and Spain chipped in with Florida in 1819. The Battle of the Alamo during the 1835 Texan Revolution paved the way for Texan independence from Mexico, and the war with Mexico (1846-48) secured most of the southwest, including California.The systematic annihilation（消灭，歼灭）of the buffalo hunted by the Plains Indians, encroachment（侵犯）on their lands, and treaties not worth the paper they were written on led to Native Americans being herded into reservations, deprived of both their livelihoods and their spiritual connection to their land. Nineteenth-century immigration drastically altered the cultural landscape as settlers of predominantly British stock were joined by Central Europeans and Chinese, many attracted by the 1849 gold rush in California. The South remained firmly committed to an agrarian life heavily reliant on African American slave labor. Tensions were on the rise when abolitionist Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. The South seceded from （脱离）the Union, and the Civil War, by far the bloodiest war in America's history, began thefollowing year. The North prevailed（胜利）in 1865, freed the slaves and introduced universal adult male suffrage（选举权）. Lincoln's vision for reconstruction, however, died with his assassination. America's trouncing of the Spaniards in 1898 marked the USA's ascendancy as a superpower and woke the country out of its isolationist slumber.The US still did its best not to get its feet dirty in WWI's trenches, but finally capitulated（停止抵抗，有条件投降）in 1917, sending over a million troops to help sort out the pesky（讨厌的，棘手的）Germans. Postwar celebrations were cut short by Prohibition in 1920, which banned alcohol in the country. The 1929 stock-market crash signaled the start of the Great Depression and eventually brought about Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which sought to lift the country back to prosperity. After the Japanese dropped in uninvited on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US played a major role in defeating the Axis powers. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 not only ended the war with Japan, but ushered in the nuclear age. The end of WWII segued into the Cold War - a period of great domestic prosperity and a surface uniformity belied by paranoia and betrayal. Politicians like Senator Joe McCarthy took advantage of the climate to fan anticommunist flames, while the USSR and USA stockpiled nuclear weapons and fought wars by proxy in Korea, Africa and Southeast Asia. Tensions between the two countries reached their peak in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.The 1960s was a decade of profound social change, thanks largely to the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam War protests and the discovery of sex, drugs and rock & roll. The Civil Rights movement gained momentum in 1955 with a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. As a nonviolent mass protest movement, it aimed at breaking down segregation and regaining the vote for disfranchised Southern blacks. The movement peaked in 1963 with Martin Luther King Jr's 'I have a dream speech' in Washington, DC, and the passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act. Meanwhile, America's youth were rejecting the conformity of the previous decade, growing their hair long and smoking lots of dope. 'Tune in, turn on, drop out' was the mantra of a generation who protested heavily (and not disinterestedly) against the war in Vietnam. Assassinations of prominent political leaders - John and Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr - took a little gloss off the party, and the American troops mired in Vietnam took off the rest. NASA's moon landing in 1969 did little to restore national pride. In 1974 Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign from office, due to his involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate burglaries, bringing American patriotism to a new low.The 1970s and '80s were a period of technological advancement and declining industrialism. Self image took a battering at the hands of Iranian Ayatollah Khomeni. A conservative backlash, symbolized by the election and popular two-term presidency of actor Ronald Reagan, sought to put some backbone in the country. The US then concentrated on bullying its poor neighbors in Central America and the Caribbean, meddling in the affairs of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Grenada. The collapse of the Soviet Bloc's 'Evil Empire' in 1991 left the US as the world's sole superpower, and the Gulf War in 1992 gave George Bush the opportunity to lead a coalition supposedly representing a 'new world order' into battle against Iraq. Domestic matters, such as health reform, gun ownership, drugs, racial tension, gay rights, balancing the budget, the tenacious Whitewater scandal and the Monica Lewinsky 'Fornigate' affair tended to overshadow international concerns during the Clinton administration. In a bid to kickstart its then-ailing economy, the USA signed NAFTA, a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, in 1993, invaded Haiti in its role of upholder of democracy in 1994, committed thousands of troops topeacekeeping operations in Bosnia in 1995, hosted the Olympics in 1996 and enjoyed, over the past few years, the fruits of a bull market on Wall St. The 2000 presidential election made history by being the most highly contested race in the nation's history.The Democratic candidate, Al Gore, secured the majority of the popular vote but lost the election when all of Florida's electoral college votes went to George W Bush, who was ahead of Gore in that state by only 500 votes. Demands for recounts, a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court in favor of partial recounts, and a handful of lawsuits generated by both parties were brought to a halt when the US Supreme Court split along party lines and ruled that all recounts should cease. After five tumultuous weeks, Bush was declared the winner. The early part of Bush's presidency saw the US face international tension, with renewed violence in the Middle East, a spy-plane standoff with China and nearly global disapproval of US foreign policy with regard to the environment. On the domestic front, a considerably weakened economy provided challenges for national policymakers. Whether the US can continue to hold onto its dominant position on the world stage and rejuvenate its economy remains to be seen.2英属北美殖民地的建立（1607--1733）北美洲原始居民为印第安人。

【备考技巧】托福阅读常用背景材料-关于美国历史想要在短期内提升自己的托福阅读水平，除了大量的词汇积累和练习之外，一些背景材料的阅读也会帮助大家提升托福阅读的提升。

那么，在以下内容中，我们就为大家带来一些最新的托福背景材料，希望能为大家的托福备考带来帮助。

托福阅读背景材料：关于美国历史The continent’s first inhabitants walked into North America across what is now the Bering Strait from Asia. For the next 20,000 years these pioneering settlers were essentially left alone to develop distinct and dynamic cultures. In the modern US, their descendants include the Pueblo people in what is now New Mexico; Apache in Texas; Navajo in Arizona, Colorado and Utah; Hopi in Arizona; Crow in Montana; Cherokee in North Carolina; and Mohawk and Iroquois in New York State.The Norwegian explorer Leif Eriksson was the first European to reach North America, some 500 years before a disoriented Columbus accidentally d iscovered ‘Indians’ in Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 1492. By the mid-1550s, much of the Americas had been poked and prodded by a parade of explorers from Spain, Portugal, England and France.The first colonies attracted immigrants looking to get rich quickly and return home, but they were soon followed by migrants whose primary goal was to colonize. The Spanish founded the first permanent European settlement in St Augustine, Florida, in 1565; the French moved in on Maine in 1602, and Jamestown, Virginia, became the first British settlement in 1607. The first Africans arrived as ‘indentured(合同的，契约的) laborers’ with the Brits a year prior to English Puritan pilgrims’ escape of religious persecution(迫害). The pilgrims founded a colony at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, in 1620 and signed the famous Mayflower Compact - a declaration of self-government that would later be echoed in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. British attempts to assert authority in its 13 North American colonies led to the French and Indian War (1757-63). The British were victorious but were left with a nasty war debt, which they tried to recoup(赔偿，付还) by imposing new taxes. The rallying cry ‘no taxation without representation’united the colonies, who ceremoniously dumped caffeinated cargo overboard during the Boston Tea Party. Besieged British general Cornwallis surrendered to American commander George Washington five years later at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. In the 19th century, America’s mantra was ‘Manifest Destiny.’ A combination of land purchases, diplomacy and outright wars of conquest had by 1850 given the US roughly its present shape. In 1803, Napoleon dumped the entire Great Plains for a pittance(微薄收入), and Spain chipped in with Florida in 1819. The Battle of the Alamo during the 1835 Texan Revolution paved the way for Texan independence from Mexico, and the war with Mexico (1846-48) secured most of the southwest, including California.The systematic annihilation(消灭，歼灭) of the buffalo hunted by the Plains Indians, encroachment(侵犯) on their lands, and treaties not worth the paper they were written on led to Native Americans being herded into reservations, deprived of both their livelihoods and their spiritual connection to their land. Nineteenth-century immigration drastically altered the cultural landscape as settlers of predominantly British stock were joined by Central Europeans and Chinese, many attracted by the 1849 gold rush in California. The South remained firmly committed to an agrarian life heavily reliant on African American slave labor. Tensions were on the rise when abolitionist Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. The South seceded from(脱离) the Union, and the Civil War, by far the bloodiest war in America’s history, bega n the following year. The North prevailed(胜利) in 1865, freed the slaves and introduced universal adult male suffrage(选举权). Lincoln’s vision for reconstruction, however, died with his assassination. America’s trouncing of the Spaniards in 1898 marked the USA’s ascendancy as a superpower and woke the country out of its isolationist slumber.The US still did its best not to get its feet dirty in WWI’s trenches, but finally capitulated(停止抵抗，有条件投降) in 1917, sending over a million troops to help sort out the pesky(讨厌的，棘手的) Germans. Postwar celebrations were cut short by Prohibition in 1920, which banned alcohol in the country. The 1929 stock-market crash signaled the start of the Great Depression and eventually brought about Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, which so ught to lift the country back to prosperity. After the Japanese dropped in uninvited on Pearl Harbor in 1941, theUS played a major role in defeating the Axis powers. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 not only ended the war with Japan, but ushered in the nuclear age. The end of WWII segued into the Cold War - a period of great domestic prosperity and a surface uniformity belied by paranoia and betrayal. Politicians like Senator Joe McCarthy took advantage of the climate to fan anticommunist flames, while the USSR and USA stockpiled nuclear weapons and fought wars by proxy in Korea, Africa and Southeast Asia. Tensions between the two countries reached their peak in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.The 1960s was a decade of profound social change, thanks largely to the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam War protests and the discovery of sex, drugs and rock & roll. The Civil Rights movement gained momentum in 1955 with a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. As a nonviolent mass protest movement, it aimed at breaking down segregation and regaining the vote for disfranchised Southern blacks. The movement peaked in 1963 with Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I have a dream speech’ in Washington, DC, and the passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act. Meanwhile, America’s youth were rejecting the conformity of the previous decade, growing their hair long and smoking lots of dope. ‘Tune in, turn on, drop out’ was the mantra of a generation who protested heavily (and not disinterestedly) against the war in Vietnam. Assassinations of prominent political leaders - John and Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr - took a little gloss off the party, and the American troops mired in Vietnam took off the rest. NASA’s moon landing in 1969 did little to restore national pride. In 1974 Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign from office, due to his involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate burglaries, bringing American patriotism to a new low.The 1970s an d ‘80s were a period of technological advancement and declining industrialism. Self image took a battering at the hands of Iranian Ayatollah Khomeni. A conservative backlash, symbolized by the election and popular two-term presidency of actor Ronald Reagan, sought to put some backbone in the country. The US then concentrated on bullying its poor neighbors in Central America and the Caribbean, meddling in the affairs of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Grenada. The collapse of the Soviet Bloc’s ‘Evil Empire’ in 1991 left the US as the world’s solesuperpower, and the Gulf War in 1992 gave George Bush the opportunity to lead a coalition supposedly representing a ‘new world order’ into battle against Iraq. Domestic matters, such as health reform, gun ownership, drugs, racial tension, gay rights, balancing the budget, the tenacious Whitewater scandal and the Monica Lewinsky ‘Fornigate’ affair tended to overshadow international concerns during the Clinton administration. In a bid to kickstart its then-ailing economy, the USA signed NAFTA, a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, in 1993, invaded Haiti in its role of upholder of democracy in 1994, committed thousands of troops to peacekeeping operations in Bosnia in 1995, hosted the Olympics in 1996 and enjoyed, over the past few years, the fruits of a bull market on Wall St. The 2000 presidential election made history by being the most highly contested race in the nation’s history.The Democratic candidate, Al Gore, secured the majority of the popular vote but lost the election when all of Florida’s electoral college votes went to George W Bush, who was ahead of Gore in that state by only 500 votes. Demands for recounts, a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court in favor of partial recounts, and a handful of lawsuits generated by both parties were brought to a halt when the US Supreme Court split along party lines and ruled that all recounts should cease. After five tumultuous weeks, Bush was declared the winner. The early part of Bush’s presidency saw the US face international tension, with renewed violence in the Middle East, a spy-plane standoff with China and nearly global disapproval of US foreign policy with regard to the environment. On the domestic front, a considerably weakened economy provided challenges for national policymakers. Whether the US can continue to hold onto its dominant position on the world stage and rejuvenate its economy remains to be seen.。

【考前必备】托福阅读背景材料-大众想象中的美国土著在我们的托福备考过程中，想要提高托福阅读水平最好方法莫过于增加自己的阅读量。

而在与此同时，除了托福真题和TPO的一些练习之外，许多阅读素材中的词汇积累也是会为大家带来很多帮助的。

那么，下面我们就为大家带来一些托福阅读素材，希望能为你的备考带来帮助。

托福阅读背景材料：大众想象中的美国土著Native Americans in the popular imaginationAn American tradition dating back to early times is *Thanksgiving. When theEnglish arrived in Jamestown many died during the long cold winter, but in thefollowing spring Native Americans showed them what local foods they could eat.In the autumn, well-prepared for the winter, settlers and Native Americans had aspecial dinner together, the first Thanksgiving, to thank God and the NativeAmericans for all the food they had.Another story describes how the Native American princess *Pocahontas savedthe life of John *Smith, the leader in Jamestown, when her father, *Powhatan,wanted to kill him. She later married another Englishman, John Rolfe, and wentto England with him. The story of Pocahontas is widely known and many Americansare proud to have her as an ancestor.But Native Americans were more often seen by white settlers as the enemy.*Westerns, i.e. films and books about the *Wild West, use the threat fromIndians as their central theme. In this context Native Americans are stillcalled ‘Indians’. Children often play ‘cowboys and Indians’ and pretend to kill each other. When *Buffalo Bill, began touring the US with his Wild West show,the chief Sitting Bull was one of many Native Americans in it, and many people went to see this former great enemy.Many Americans have an image of a ‘typical Indian’, a chief who lived in a teepee with his squaw (= wife), smoked a peace pipe after signing a treaty with the white man (whom he called pale face), sent smoke signals to communicate with people far away, and spoke broken English full of colourful expressions such as‘big heap wampum’ (a lot of money) and ‘speaks with forked tongue’ (is lying). Most of these ideas have some basis in Native American culture, but it is wrongto put them all together and believe that that was how Native Americanslived.Americans make such mistakes because they have little interest in Native Americans. Having succeeded in pushing them out of the way onto reservations, most Americans ignore them. This may be because the Native Americans who areleft are living proof of a hard truth: America wants to be, and often is, a land where everyone has a chance and where the government behaves fairly and honestly to all, but this America is built on land stolen from the people who lived there first.。