托福TPOextra-答案解析和原文翻译

Extra 1Conversation1 Narrator Listen to a conversation between a student and an employee in the campusConversation1NarratorListen to a conversation between a student and an employee in the campus computer center. Computer center employeeHi, what can I help you with today?StudentHi, um, I wanted to—you see, the thing is, I don't know much about computers, so I was wondering if, uh, if there's a class or something... so I can learn how to use computers, like to write papers for my classes.Computer center employeeOh, I see... um, we don't really offer a course for beginners, since most students already have computing experience. But all the computers in our labs have a general tutorial installed on them. You could just go there and run it.StudentAnd the tutorial explains everything? I mean, it might sound strange but I've never used a computer.Computer center employeeWell, all the computer labs on campus are staffed with student assistants, and I'm sure that any one of them would be more than willing to get you started.StudentYeah? That sounds good. But is it expensive?Computer center employeeNo, in fact, it won't cost anything; it's one of the services of the computer center.StudentThat's great. How do they—I mean, how do I get in touch with the student assistants? Should I just go to a computer lab and ask whoever's there?Computer center employeeSure, you could do that, or I can let you have a list of names of the students who are assistants in the labs. You might know one of them.StudentActually, I think I'd prefer someone I don't know, um, so I can ask dumb questions... Is there anyone you'd recommend?Computer center employeeAll of our student assistants are really knowledgeable about computers. I mean, they have to be, in order to work in the computer labs... It doesn't mean that they're necessarily good at teaching beginners... but you probably won't be a beginner for very long.StudentHope not.Computer center employeeAnd I just thought of something else. The bookstore has a lot of books on computers-there might be one for people like you, I mean, people who don't have a lot of experience with computers. I actually bought one for my father so he could learn how to use e-mail, basic word processing, that sort of thing—and it worked pretty well for him.StudentOK, I'll try that, too. And if the bookstore doesn't have it, they can just order it for me? Computer center employeeRight. Now is there anything else I can help you with today?StudentUh, just the list of names and the times they're working. I'd like to get going on this as soon as possible.Computer center employeeRight. Good luck.Lecture 1NarratorListen to part of a lecture in an economics class.ProfessorWhen attempting to understand international trade, some things seem so obvious that they can hardly be controverted, and other points that are important are invisible unless you've thought about the subject carefully.Consider the following: if there's an increase in imports, let's say, um, let's say imports of furniture, and the domestic producers of furniture find this new competition very difficult and are cutting production and employment, then it seems obvious and easy to understand and many people conclude from this that increasing imports will cause generally greater unemployment at home.What is not so obvious is that how much we import and how much we export... those are interdependent and you can't understand the one without the other. But the exports that are generated are not easily discernable, so most people don't see them. They see only the imports of furniture rising and employment in domestic furniture production falling.So as a result, many people argue that we ought to protect jobs by limiting imports—either by tariffs, quotas, regulations, or whatever—without realizing that this also has the effect of reducing potential future exports to the rest of the world, things that we can produce very, very... cost effectively and therefore profitably.The fundamental proposition in international economics is that it makes sense to import those things that we... that can be produced more economically abroad than at home and export things to the rest of the world that we can produce more cost effectively than produced elsewhere in the world. Therefore, if we limit imports, we put ourselves in danger of not being able to export. The details of this relationship will take much longer to explain than I can fully go into now but the point of the matter is that gains—the benefits of gains—from international trade result frombeing able to get things cheaper by buying them abroad than you can make them at home. Now there're some things that we can make at home that are... that we can do more economically than they can do abroad.In the case of the United States, typically high-technology products, uh... are things that Americans have innovated in and started firms doing that sort of thing at which they do very well. Whereas goods that produce... that use a lot of relatively low skill labor, like furniture production, cotton production, sugar production... those are things that are frequently made more inexpensively in places where wage rates are low and the cost of using capital is very high. However, in Florida they produce a lot of sugar, but the costs are so high, if we didn't have extensive restrictions on imports of sugar, the output of sugar would decline dramatically. But the sugar industry in the U.S. doesn't produce high-paying jobs, it uses resources in ineffective ways and it blocks the import of more cost-effectively produced sugar. It, it's a very bad bargain for the people in the United States to want to protect low-paying jobs thereby halting the growth of world trading and international... uh, more international specialization. It would be better to remove restrictions on imports and allow other countries in the world... countries that can produce them more cheaply... let them specialize in producing those products.Now, I agree that people who are directly affected by imports, what they focus on... is, is that their prospects... their job prospects are being reduced, and their economic circumstances are getting worse. And that's a relevant problem and an important problem; what isn't so obvious is... that by retraining and relocating people to places and industries where jobs are expanding rather than contracting, we can make the whole economy function more effectively and productively than by trying to block imports.Um, what is interesting to note is that, even if there were no international trade issues, like imports, any changes that occur in a country's economy—any new technology, change in preferences, change in regulations or whatever—will lead to "adjustments" that lead some sectors of the economy to decline and others to expand.And that's what we have to figure out, and that's a hard problem to deal with in detail, is how to facilitate people adjusting from sectors where their job prospects are not so good, and in particular where real wages aren't so high, to acquire skills that will permit them to move into higher-paying jobs in other parts of the economy either by retraining or relocating. Helping pay for the relocation of these people would be very helpful, but trying to block the changes is really counterproductive. It makes people in our country poorer, and it makes people elsewhere in the world poorer as well.Lecture 2NarratorListen to part of a lecture in a marine biology class.ProfessorI want to continue our discussion about whales. Specifically, today, um, I want to talk about whale migration—um, why whales head south for the winter. Or really why whales in the cold water of the Northern Hemisphere head south for the winter. Now, not all kinds of whales migrate, but most baleen whales do.And interestingly enough, we still don't really know why the baleen whales migrate. We do have several theories, however, which I'll discuss today. Uh, can anybody name one reason why baleen whales might migrate south, to the warm tropical water?Male studentUh, for food? You know, the whales move to warmer water in order to find a good area to feed. ProfessorGood guess. That should be an obvious reason—after all, most animals that migrate do so for the purpose of finding food. But, uh, that doesn't seem to be the case with baleen whales. To understand why, you need to know something about water temperature. There are a lot of technical reasons that I'm not going to go into right now. But let's just say that nutrients don't rise to the surface of tropical water like they do in other kinds of water. Tropical water simply never gets cold enough. So... well, what this means, uh, is that tropical water doesn't have much of the plankton that most whales feed on.Male studentI don't understand—if there's no plankton, how do the whales survive through the winter? ProfessorRight. How do they survive? You see, they don't have to eat anything, because they've stored up so much fat during the summer feeding season that they can just survive off of that. So if they don't need to eat anything, we're back to our original question. Why do baleen whales migrate? Any theories? No?Well, there's one idea out there that a lot of people believe. In fact, uh, you could say it's the most popular theory we have about whale migration. Basically, the argument is that for baleen whales, migration is a kind of balancing act. Let me explain. On one hand, whales need to take advantage of the summer months by eating as much food as they can. And that's what they can do best in the northern seas. This allows them to build up a lot of fat. But in the winter, food is scarce even in the north, so what the whales need to do is save energy. And that's what migrating south can help them do... Amanda, you have a question?Female studentYes. Um, the balancing-act theory doesn't make sense to me. Maybe whales might need to save energy during the winter, but wouldn't moving all the way down to tropics make them lose energy?ProfessorThat's a good point, and it's one reason why this isn't a perfect theory. It does cost the whales energy to migrate, but it's easier for whales to save energy in warm water than it is to save energy in cold water, so there might still be, you know, a good reason to move south for the winter. OK?Now, before moving on to the next chapter, I want to briefly discuss how the baleen whale manages to navigate. It's pretty remarkable, because the whales manage to return to the same places year after year, and have to travel over an enormous area of ocean in order to do it. I mean, it's not like whales can just look at a map, right? So exactly how do they do it?Well, a lot of experimental work still needs to be done, but we have been able to figure out at least three ways the baleen whale navigates without getting lost. The first is the ability to use Earth's magnetic field like it was a map. That sounds strange, but we know that many birds use that method, use the magnetic field, and it's possible that whales have the biological ability to dothe same thing.Another theory is that if they stay close to the coast, whales might be able to find familiar landmarks and use those as guides. But we don't really know if a whale's eyesight is good enough to be able to do that, so that's not a perfect theory.And finally, we know that many whales make very loud sounds that can travel literally hundreds of miles underwater. Through a process called echolocation, it's possible that these whales hear the sounds bounce off of islands or other pieces of land and use those echoes as clues to help them find their way.Conversation 2NarratorListen to a conversation between a student and a professor.StudentHi, uh... Professor Anderson... wondering if you had a couple minutes...ProfessorOf course, Paula...StudentThanks... uh, you sent me a letter recently about doing, uh, an honors project—inviting me to come in and talk about...ProfessorRight, right, well, as your academic advisor, it's my job to look out for your academic interests, and based on your grades, and some very positive feedback I've heard from your professors, I wanted to formally invite you to consider doing an honors project...StudentYeah... well, thanks... uh, actually I kinda wanted to ask you... quite frankly—like how much work it would probably be? I mean, I'm gonna be spending a lot of time applying to law schools next semester and...ProfessorWell, let me tell you how it works... and then you can decide from there.StudentOK.ProfessorBasically, the honors project is an opportunity to do... some in-depth work on a topic you're interested in before graduating college. You register for the class, but it doesn't work the same way a regular class does—you find a professor who you want to work with—you ask the professor—a sort of mentor who's knowledgeable on the topic you're interested in—the topic you're gonna write your honors thesis on...StudentWriting a thesis? That's part of the project? Ah, like how many pages are we talking? ProfessorUsually about 50... but it's a valuable experience, writing a thesis paper.StudentSo, basically, after I register for the class, I need to ask a professor who'll sorta help me... ProfessorActually, you need to do that—a professor needs to agree to oversee your honors project—before you register.StudentOh, OK...ProfessorI mean, I know it sounds kinda daunting, but that's what the professor's there for—to help guide you through the different steps of the process and... uh... most students are very pleased with the experience... they're able to demonstrate advanced research skills, which is important; especially in your case, writing an honors thesis would be a big plus...StudentYou think so?ProfessorAbsolutely. Especially considering your plans, since you're applying to law schools. It shows initiative, that you've done well as an undergraduate—to be allowed to do the honors project... that you're able to work independently and, of course, you would graduate with honors... StudentYeah, it does sound good—it's just, you know, I've never written something like that before, so...ProfessorWell, you choose something you're interested in—maybe you can even expand a shorter research paper from another class or...StudentSo, like, maybe... You know, I took this course from Professor Connelly—his course on Comparative Governments last semester and, uh... did pretty well—I wrote a paper actually, on political parties in Venezuela and—and he seemed to like my research. Anyway, he, uh, I got an A in the course.ProfessorGood, so it sounds like you do have a general idea for a topic, and you might know what professor you want to work with... and look, it's still a couple weeks before registration, maybe you should talk to Professor Connelly and then get back to me.StudentYeah, I will—thanks. I'll come by again sometime next week.ProfessorThat's fine. Good luck.Lecture 3NarratorListen to part of a lecture in a journalism class. The professor has been discussing newspapers. ProfessorAbout 40 years ago, half of all Americans felt they'd be lost without a daily newspaper. But today, only one in ten Americans say they'd be lost without a paper. In fact, today, half of all Americans say they don't need a newspaper at all. And so people in the newspaper industry are trying to figure out how they can get more people reading the newspaper more often. They're trying to crack journalism's riddle for the ages: what makes people read newspapers? OK, well, let me ask you—as a journalism student, what do you think is the answer to this question? Elizabeth?Female studentUm, I would probably try to improve the content of the newspaper.ProfessorBetter content. Hmm. You mean like well-written editorials and articles?Female studentWell, I mean provide more interesting content, like, I would first try to find out what readers really want to read... and then put that into the paper.ProfessorYes, in fact, not too long ago, there was an extensive study conducted to investigate what draws people to newspapers. Uh, they found out that there's a clear, strong link between satisfaction with content and overall readership. Those newspapers that contained what the readers wanted most brought in the most readers. No big surprise there, right? So, what kind of content brings in readers? The study found that people-centered local news ranks at the top of the list... stories about ordinary people. For example, you could write about the experiences of those who were involved in a news story, and their friends and relatives... The vantage points would be those of ordinary people, not of police or other officials... OK? Now the study also showed that people want more stories about movies, TV, and weather, and fewer stories and photos about natural disasters and accidents... So, to get reader satisfaction, you need to select the right topics, and within those topics, the right news events or stories to cover. Yes, James? Male studentIt seems to me that a lot of what you just mentioned doesn't line up with the principles of good journalism. Catering to readers' tastes may improve overall readership, but what about the social responsibilities that newspapers have? I mean, there are some topics that newspapers need to write about in order to serve the public interest. Those topics may not always be fun and interesting for the average reader, but it's still the newspaper's responsibility to make that information available to the public.ProfessorThat's a good point. You need a good mix of content. You can't just rush towards an attractive topic and forget about the reporting role of newspapers. There's a danger of going soft—newspapers do have to perform their obligations to citizens. So what newspapers sometimes do is to combine serious journalism with a reader-friendly presentation. Um, let me give you an example: When the justice department opened an investigation on the local police—some pretty serious stuff that could be boring to some readers—well, one local newspaper ran a lead story on their front page, but they also simplified the format by including small breakout boxes that presented—in a nutshell—the highlights of the story. That way, they could report the serious stories they needed to report, and, and still hold their readers' attention. OK? Uh, going back to the research on readership growth we were talking about... Uh, the most vital step of all, thestudy shows, may be making the paper easier to use. How can we make the paper "easier to use"? Well, it means stories need to include information, such as phone numbers, times, dates, addresses, Web sites and the like, so that readers can "go and do" things based on what they've read.Female studentProfessor Ellington? Um, when you said we need to make the paper "easier to use," I thought you were gonna say something about use of graphics, colors, and stuff like that.ProfessorWell, I guess those things do help in a way, but it turned out that those contemporary touches, uh, such as more attractive designs, extensive use of color, and informational graphics matter much less than you'd expect. Surprising, isn't it?Female studentYeah, it is... Um, how about service? Does the study say anything about improving service? I don't think people are gonna subscribe if the paper doesn't arrive, or shows up late...ProfessorOr shows up wet, which by the way, happened to me this morning. Oh, absolutely. Service affects readership. In fact, improving your service is much more likely to increase your readership than making changes in your editorial content... Not only on-time delivery in good condition, but also things like efficient billing, affordability, um... Yes?Female studentThey could also, like, increase the number of sites where they sell single copies.ProfessorCertainly that's one way to improve service.Lecture 4NarratorListen to part of a lecture in a geology class.ProfessorUm, beginning in the late 1960s, geologists began to uncover some evidence of a rather surprising kind when they looked... um... at various places around the world. What they found out when they examined rocks from about a... the period from about 750 million years ago to about 580 million years ago, they found that... it seemed that glaciers covered the entire surface of the Earth—from pole to pole, including the tropics.Um... how did they come to this astonishing conclusion? What was the evidence for this? Especially when glaciers today are found only at the poles ... or in the mountains.Well, uh... basically when glaciers grow and move they leave behind a distinctive deposit consisting of primarily... of, at least on the top level, of ground up little bits of rock... almost... they almost look like rocks that have been deposited by streams,if you've ever seen those. And that's caused because, although the glacier is ice, it is actually flowing very slowly and as it moves it grinds the top layer of rock, it breaks off pieces and carries them away. So when you have glaciation you have a distinctive pattern of these pieces of rockwhich are called "erratics."Erratics are rocks... they're the stones that are often carried long distances by glaciers.So, in the 1960s and onward up through the 1990s, we keep finding evidence for glaciation, no matter what the latitude... even in tropical latitudes. Now, today there are glaciers in the tropics but only at very high elevations. But 750 million years ago, apparently there were glaciers even at sea level in the tropics.How could this have happened?Well, first... the growth of glaciers, uh, benefits, if you will, from a kind of a positive feedback loop called the "ice-albedo effect."With the ice-albedo effect, glaciers—'cause they're white—reflect light and heat more... much more than does liquid water... or soil and rock, which are dark and absorb heat. So, the more glaciers there are, the more heat is reflected, so the climate gets cooler, and glaciers grow even more.However... normally, on a global scale, there is a major process that functions to curb the growth of glaciers. And, that process involves carbon dioxide.Now, we're all familiar with the notion that carbon dioxide is what we call a "greenhouse gas." The more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the more heat the atmosphere retains. That's what a greenhouse gas does. So, the greenhouse-gas effect is kinda the opposite of the albedo effect.Um... now as it happens... when silicate rocks, which is a very common class of rock, when they're exposed to the air and to normal weathering, they erode. Carbon dioxide is attracted to these eroding rocks and binds to them, forming calcium carbonate.Calcium carbonate is eventually washed into the ocean where it settles to the bottom. This process, this forming of calcium carbonate, has the effect of sucking the carbon dioxide out of the air and storing it at the bottom of the ocean.Now, follow me here. The process that's sucking carbon dioxide out of the air, keeping the greenhouse gas levels low, cannot happen if the rock is covered with ice.So, while glaciers reflect light and heat... cooling the Earth, they at the same time cover rocks so there's less calcium carbonate formed... which leaves more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Higher levels of carbon dioxide keep the atmosphere warm... which slows the growth of glaciers. So, it's a balance, and the glacier growth remains pretty much under control.Now, what happened 750 million years ago to upset that balance? It seems a relatively simple explanation actually...750 million years ago... all the major continents are rocky, bare, and pretty much lined up along the equator; they hadn't yet moved to where they are today. So, what happened was, perhaps a slight cooling of... the very slight and temporary cooling of the Sun—which still happens from time to time—and the Earth starts to cool, the ice starts to spread on the oceans... starting at the poles.Now, by the time the ice reaches about two-thirds of the way to the equator, it's too late. See... because the continents are the last things to be covered by glaciers, they continue weathering... the rocks keep eroding and the carbon dioxide levels keep falling... So, the ice-albedo effect from the glaciers is increasing in strength while the atmosphere continues to lose its ability to retain heat making glacier growth unstoppable. Now you have what's called a "runaway freeze." And for perhaps as long as 50 million years, possibly with some interludes, theEarth was frozen from pole to pole, like a giant snowball.。

托福考试　复习托福阅读TPO15(试题+答案+译文)第2篇:Mass Extinctions物种灭绝托福阅读原文【1】Cases in which many species become extinct within a geologicallyshort interval of time are called mass extinctions. There was one such event at the end of the Cretaceous period(around 70 million years ago).There was another, even larger, mass extinction at the end of the Permianperiod (around 250 million years ago). The Permian event has attractedmuch less attention than other mass extinctions because mostly unfamiliar species perished at that time.【2】The fossil record shows at least five mass extinctions in which many families of marine organisms died out. The rates of extinction happeningtoday are as great as the rates during these mass extinctions. Many scientists have therefore concluded that a sixth great mass extinction iscurrently in progress.【3】What could cause such high rates of extinction? There are several hypotheses, including warming or cooling of Earth, changes in seasonal fluctuations or ocean currents, and changing positions of the continents. Biological hypotheses include ecological changes brought about by theevolution of cooperation between insects and flowering plants or of bottom-feeding predators in the oceans. Some of the proposedmechanisms required a very brief period during which all extinctions suddenly took place; other mechanisms would be more likely to have taken place more gradually, over an extended period, or at different timeson different continents. Some hypotheses fail to account for simultaneous extinctions on land and in the seas. Each mass extinctionmay have had a different cause.Evidence points to hunting by humansand habitat destruction as the likely causes for the current mass extinction.【4】American paleontologists David Raup and John Sepkoski, who have studied extinction rates in a number of fossil groups, suggest that episodes of increased extinction have recurred periodically, approximately every 26 million years since the mid-Cretaceous period. The late Cretaceous extinction of the dinosaurs and ammonoids was justone of the more drastic in a whole series of such recurrent extinction episodes. The possibility that mass extinctions may recur periodically hasgiven rise to such hypotheses as that of a companion star with along-period orbit deflecting other bodies from their normal orbits, making some of them fall to Earth as meteors and causing widespread devastation upon impact.【5】Of the various hypotheses attempting to account for the late Cretaceous extinctions, the one that has attracted the most attention inrecent years is the asteroid-impact hypothesis first suggested by Luis andWalter Alvarez. According to this hypothesis, Earth collided with an asteroid with an estimated diameter of 10kilometers, or with several asteroids, the combined mass of which was comparable. The force of collision spewed large amounts of debris into the atmosphere, darkeningthe skies for several years before the finer particles settled. The reducedlevel of photosynthesis led to a massive decline in plant life of all kinds,and this caused massive starvation first of herbivores and subsequentlyof carnivores. The mass extinction would have occurred very suddenly under this hypothesis.【6】One interesting test of the Alvarez hypothesis is based on the presence of the rare-earth element iridium (Ir).Earth’s crust contains very little of this element, but most asteroids contain a lot more. Debris throwninto the atmosphere by an asteroid collision would presumably containlarge amounts of iridium, and atmospheric currents would carry this material all over the globe. A search of sedimentary deposits that spanthe boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods shows that there is a dramatic increase in the abundance of iridium briefly and precisely at this boundary. This iridiumanomaly offers strong support forthe Alvarez hypothesis even though no asteroid itself has ever been recovered.【7】An asteroid of this size would be expected to leave an immense crater,even if the asteroid itself was disintegrated by the impact. The intenseheat of the impact would produce heat-shocked quartz in many types ofrock. Also, large blocks thrown aside by the impact would form secondarycraters surrounding the main crater.To date, several such secondary-craters have been found along Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and heat shocked quartz has been found both in Mexico and in Haiti.A locationcalled Chicxulub, along the Yucatan coast, has been suggested as the primary impact site.托福阅读试题1.Paragraph 1 supports which of the following statements about mass extinctions?A.They take place over a period of 70 million years.B.They began during the Cretaceous period.C.They eliminate many animal species that exist at the time they occur.D.They occur every 250 million years.2.According to paragraph 2, scientists base their belief that a mass extinction is going on at present on which of the following?A.The speed with which mass extinctions are happening today is similarto the speed of past extinctions.B.The number of species that have died out since the last extinction eventis extremely large.C.Mass extinctions occur with regularity and it is time for another one.D.Fossil records of many marine species have disappeared.3.The word extended in the passage is closest in meaning toA.specific.B. unlimited.C.reasonable.D. long.4.According to paragraph 3, each of the following has been proposed asa possible cause of mass extinctions EXCEPTA.habitat destruction.B.continental movement.C.fierce interspecies competition.D.changes in Earth's temperature.5.Paragraph 3 supports which of the following ideas about mass extinctions?A.Scientists know the exact causes of most mass extinctions.B.Mass extinctions are unlikely to happen again in the future.C.Insects, flowering plants, and bottom-feeding predators in the oceanstend to be the first organisms to disappear during episodes of mass extinctions.D.Some mass extinctions occurred on land and in the seas at the sametime.6.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential informationin the underlined sentence （Paragraph 4）in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.A.Based on their studies of extinction rates of numerous fossil groups, paleontologists David Raup and John Sepkoski have determined that mass extinctions occur about every 26 million years.B.David Raup and John Sepkoski studied extinction rates of numerous fossil groups and suggest that mass extinctions during the Cretaceousperiod continued for 26 million years.C.Studies that paleontologists David Raup and John Sepkoski conductedof various fossil groups have revealed that extinction rates have increasedover the past 26 million years.D.The studies conducted by paleontologists David Raup and John Sepkoski of the fossil remains of species suggest that the extinction rateof species started to increase by the middle of the Cretaceous period.7.According to paragraph 4, what aspect of extinction episodes does the companion-star hypothesis supposedly clarify?A.Their location.B.Their frequency.C.Their duration.D.Their severity.8.The phrase account for in the passage(Paragraph 5)is closest in meaning toA.describe.B.challenge.C.explain.D.test.9.According to paragraph 6, what made iridium a useful test of the Alvarez hypothesis?A.Its occurrence in a few locations on Earth against several locations onother planets.B.Its occurrence in limited quantities on Earth against its abundance in asteroids.C.Its ability to remain solid at extremely high temperatures.D.Its ease of detection even in very small amounts.10.In stating that no asteroid itself has ever been recovered, the author emphasizes which of the following?A.The importance of the indirect evidence for a large asteroid.B.The fact that no evidence supports the asteroid impact hypothesis.C.The reason many researchers reject the Alvarez hypothesis.D.The responsibility of scientists for not making the effort to discover theasteroid itself.11.The word intense（Paragraph 7）in the passage is closest in meaningtoA.sudden.B.unusual.C.immediate.D. extreme.12.What is the purpose of paragraph 7 in the passage?A.It proposes a decisive new test of the Alvarez hypothesis.B.It presents additional supporting evidence for the Alvarez hypothesis.C.It explains why evidence relating to the Alvarez hypothesis is hard tofind.D.It shows how recent evidence has raised doubts about the Alvarez hypothesis.13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Where would the sentence bestfit? In general, it is believed that these two extinctions resulted from drastic environmental changes that followed meteorite impacts or massive volcanic eruptions.■Cases in which many species become extinct within a geologically shortinterval of time are called mass extinctions. ■There was one such eventat the end of the Cretaceous period (around 70 million years ago). ■There was another, even larger, mass extinction at the end of the Permian period (around 250 million years ago). ■The Permian event has attracted muchless attention than other mass extinctions because mostly unfamiliar species perished at that time.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 sentences do not belong in the summary because theyexpress ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas inthe passage. This question is worth 2 points.There have been many attempts to explain the causes of mass extinctions.A.Asteroid impacts, evolutionary developments, and changes in Earth'sclimate and in the positions of the continents have all been proposed aspossible causes of mass extinctions.B.Researchers have observed 26-million-year cycles in extinction rates ofa number of fossil groups that could all be attributed to the same cause.C.According to the Alvarez hypothesis, much of the iridium originally present on Earth was thrown into the atmosphere as a result of an asteroid impact that also caused a mass extinction.D.The unusual distribution of iridium on Earth and the presence of cratersand heat-shocked quartz are central to the theory that an asteroid impactcaused the late Cretaceous event.E.The collision between Earth and a large asteroid resulted in massive damage and generated enough heat to cause irreversible changes inEarth's atmosphere.F.There was a particularly large mass extinction that occurred around 250million years ago at the end of the Permian period, whose cause couldnot be determined.托福阅读答案1.以mass extinctions做关键词定位至第一句，说大量生物在短时间内灭绝的这种现象叫做大灭绝事件，C是原文的同义替换，所以是正确答案。

托福考试 复习TPO 25—2 The Decline of Venetian Shipping原文：【1】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. 【2】This decline can be seen clearly in the changes that affected Venetian shipping and trade. First, Venice’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 s ailors’ wages doubled among the northern Italian cities from 1550 to 1590, this did not elicit an increased supply. 【3】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 farther and farther 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 fourteenthcentury. 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.【4】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 to those 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 longer had the capacity to recover that it had displayed at the start of the century.【5】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 Mediterr anean route to Venice. The Portuguese Vasco da Gama’s Voyage 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.【6】The Venetian Council finally allowed round ships to enter the trade that waspreviously 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.【7】Venetian shipping had started to decline from about 1530-before the entry into the Mediterranean of large volumes of Dutch and British shipping-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.题目：1.The word “resurgence”(paragraph 1)in the passage is closest in meaning toA. transformation.eback.C.program.D.expansion.2.The word “compulsorily”in the passage(paragraph 1)is closest in meaning toA.for free.B.for a time.C.by requirement.D.by design.3.According to paragraph 2, which of the following contributed to the decline of Venetian shipping?A. The loss of trade in Adriatic Sea.B.The move from galleys to round ships.C.The decreased demand for galleys.D.The doubling of sailor’s wages.4.All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 2 as ways that Veniceprovided rowers for its galley EXCEPTA.Requiring business associations to provide sailors.B.Recruiting sailors from other cities in northern Italy.C.Drafting Venetian citizens into services as rowers.D.Appealing to the traditions of Venice as a sea power.5.The word “outdated” in the passage is closest in mean ing toA.strict.B. enforced.C. improved.D.old-fashioned.6.According to paragraphs 3, why did the building of ships in Venetianshipyards become increasingly expensive?A.The wages of officers and workers in the Arsenale kept rising.B.Roman shipyards were using all the available fir trees for the warships.C.The timber used in the shipbuilding had to be brought from farther and farther away.D.Venetian standards required that shipbuilders use top-quality materials.7.All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 3 and 4 as contributing to the problems of the Venetian ship building industry at the end of the sixteenth century EXCEPTA.The quality of work performed in the Arsenale had declined.B.Venetian–built ships were heavy and generally inefficient.C.Arsenale shipbuilders worked more slowly.D.Only a few merchants controlled the buying and selling of most of the Venetian-built ships.8.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information inthe highlighted sentence in the passage?Incorrect choices change the meaning in important waysor leave out essential information.A.The loss of ships in battle at the end of the sixteenth century showed that Venetian shipbuilders lacked the skills they had possessed at the beginning of the century.B.Venetian shipbuilding failed to quickly replace the ships lost in battle at the end of the sixteenth century as it would have done earlier in the century.C.Frederic Lane noted that Venice lost ships in battle at the end of the sixteenth century, showing that Venetian shipbuilding was not longer known for its reliability.D.Venetian shipbuilding had been known for its high quality of work at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but toward the end of the century Venetian ships were poorer in quality.9.The word “conventional” in the passage is closest in meaning toA. informal.B.logical.C.correct.ual.10.Why does the author mention “Vasco da Gama’ Voyage around southern Africa to India” in the passage?A.to indicate how the Portuguese came to challenge Venetian dominance of trade with the East.B.to explain why political troubles resulted in the closing of the usual routes to India.C.to prove that Venetians could not sail round ships as efficiently as sailors from other countries did.D.to show that Venetian reliance on round ships rather than galleys proved to be weakness.11.Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 6 about the Venetian Council’s decision concerning the use of round ships?A.It resulted in a return to profitable in luxury goods for Venetian merchants.B.Ultimately it did not restore the superiority in the spice trade that Venice had enjoyed earlier.C.It eventually enabled Venetian merchants to increase the quantity and price of the spices they sold in Europe.D.It means a long-awaited improvement in the fortunes of the shipbuilding industry in Venice.12.According to paragraphs 6, in the sixteenth century the price of spices declined becauseA.France and Germany established monopolies and dictated prices.B.Venetian merchant galleys competed with Venetian round ships for the spice trade.C.More spices were available because both the Venetians and the Portuguese were importing them.D.Increased demand for silk, dyes, cotton and gold meant that people had less money to spend on spices.13. Look at the four squares[■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square to add the sentence to the passage. The increase in reward still did not attract young people to this hard life, and convicted criminals and slaves were pressed into services.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. Inthe 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. █【A】In the early sixteenth century the shortage of rowers was not serious because the demand forgalleys was limited by a move to round ships (round-hulled ships with more cargo space), with required fewer rowers. █【B】But the shortage of crews proved to be a greater and greater problem, despite continuous appeal to Venic’s tradition of maritime greatness. █【C】Even though sailors’wages doubled among the northern Italian cities from 1550 to 1590, this did notelicit an increased supply.█【D】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 sentences 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.The loss of power and prestige of Italian cities by the sixteenthcentury is clearly seen in the decline of Venetian shipping.A.Venetian ships were famous for carrying large cargoes of spices and luxury goods around the world in fast, oar-driven galleys.B.A shortage of timber for building the traditional galleys and a lack of sailors to row them meant a loss of Venetian shipping business.C.The Venetian Council made sure that Venetian-built and –owned ships keptspecial privileges in transporting luxury goods in and out of Venice.D.Venetian round ships bringing spices and silk from the East helped drive prices down so that ordinary people could afford to buy themE.Venice failed to keep up with improvement in ship design, and the cost of shipbuilding rose a quality and efficiency declined.F.The Portuguese direct sea route to the East adversely affected Venetian trade, and Venice fell behind the Dutch and the British in the quality of their ships and sailing skills.答案：1.resurgence 复兴，复活，所以正确答案是comeback。

托福TPO9阅读真题(文本+答案+翻译)：Part3托福TPO作为托福的模考工具，它的题目对于我们备考托福很有参考价值，为了帮助大家备考，下面小编给大家整理了托福TPO9阅读真题(文本+答案+翻译)：Part3，望喜欢！托福TPO9阅读文本：Part3The Arrival of Plant Life in HawaiiWhen the Hawaiian Islands emerged from the sea as volcanoes, starting about five million years ago, they were far removed from other landmasses. Then, as blazing sunshine alternated with drenching rains, the harsh, barren surfaces of the black rocks slowly began to soften. Winds brought a variety of life-forms.Spores light enough to float on the breezes were carried thousands of miles from more ancient lands and deposited at random across the bare mountain flanks. A few of these spores found a toehold on the dark, forbidding rocks and grew and began to work their transformation upon the land. Lichens were probably the first successful flora. These are not single individual plants; each one is a symbiotic combination of an alga and a fungus. The algae capture the sun's energy by photosynthesis and store it in organic molecules. The fungi absorb moisture and mineral salts from the rocks, passing these on in waste products that nourish algae. It is significant that the earliest living things that built communities on these islands are examples of symbiosis, a phenomenon that depends upon the close cooperation of two or more forms of life and a principle that is very important in island communities.Lichens helped to speed the decomposition of the hard rock surfaces, preparing a soft bed of soil that was abundantlysupplied with minerals that had been carried in the molten rock from the bowels of Earth. Now, other forms of life could take hold: ferns and mosses (two of the most ancient types of land plants) that flourish even in rock crevices. These plants propagate by producing spores-tiny fertilized cells that contain all the instructions for making a new plant-but the spore are unprotected by any outer coating and carry no supply of nutrient. Vast numbers of them fall on the ground beneath the mother plants. Sometimes they are carried farther afield by water or by wind. But only those few spores that settle down in very favorable locations can start new life; the vast majority fall on barren ground. By force of sheer numbers, however, the mosses and ferns reached Hawaii, survived, and multiplied. Some species developed great size, becoming tree ferns that even now grow in the Hawaiian forests.Many millions of years after ferns evolved (but long before the Hawaiian Islands were born from the sea), another kind of flora evolved on Earth: the seed-bearing plants. This was a wonderful biological invention. The seed has an outer coating that surrounds the genetic material of the new plant, and inside this covering is a concentrated supply of nutrients. Thus the seed's chances of survival are greatly enhanced over those of the naked spore. One type of seed-bearing plant, the angiosperm, includes all forms of blooming vegetation. In the angiosperm the seeds are wrapped in an additional layer of covering. Some of these coats are hard-like the shell of a nut-for extra protection. Some are soft and tempting, like a peach or a cherry. In some angiosperms the seeds are equipped with gossamer wings, like the dandelion and milkweed seeds. These new characteristics offered better ways for the seed to move to new habitats. Theycould travel through the air, float in water, and lie dormant for many months.Plants with large, buoyant seeds-like coconuts-drift on ocean currents and are washed up on the shores. Remarkably resistant to the vicissitudes of ocean travel, they can survive prolonged immersion in saltwater when they come to rest on warm beaches and the conditions are favorable, the seed coats soften. Nourished by their imported supply of nutrients, the young plants push out their roots and establish their place in the sun.By means of these seeds, plants spread more widely to new locations, even to isolated islands like the Hawaiian archipelago, which lies more than 2,000 miles west of California and 3,500 miles east of Japan. The seeds of grasses, flowers, and blooming trees made the long trips to these islands. (Grasses are simple forms of angiosperms that bear their encapsulated seeds on long stalks.) In a surprisingly short time, angiosperms filled many of the land areas on Hawaii that had been bare.Paragraph 2: Spores light enough to float on the breezes were carried thousands of miles from more ancient lands and deposited at random across the bare mountain flanks. A few of these spores found a toehold on the dark, forbidding rocks and grew and began to work their transformation upon the land. Lichens were probably the first successful flora. These are not single individual plants; each one is a symbiotic combination of an alga and a fungus. The algae capture the sun's energy by photosynthesis and store it in organic molecules. The fungi absorb moisture and mineral salts from the rocks, passing these on in waste products that nourish algae.It is significant that the earliest living thing that built communities on these islands are examples of symbiosis, a phenomenon that depends upon theclose cooperation of two or more forms of life and a principle that is very important in island communities.托福TPO9阅读题目：Part31. The phrase "at random" in the passage is closest in meaning to○finally○over a long period of time○successfully○without a definite pattern2. It can be inferred from paragraph 2 that the fungi in lichens benefit from their symbiotic relationship with algae in what way?○The algae help the fungi meet some of their energy needs.○The algae protect the fungi from the Sun's radiation.○The algae provide the fungi with greater space for absorbing water.○The fungi produce less waste in the presence of algae.3. 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 or leave out essential information.○Some of the earliest important examples of symbiosis-the close cooperation of two or more living things-occur in island communities.○Symbiosis-the close cooperation of pairs or small groups of living organisms-is especially important in these island environments.○The first organisms on these islands worked toget her closely in a relationship known as symbiosis, which is particularly important on islands.○It is significant to note that organisms in the beginningstages of the development of island life cannot survive without close cooperation.Paragraph 3: Lichens helped to speed the decomposition of the hard rock surfaces, preparing a soft bed of soil that was abundantly supplied with minerals that had been carried in the molten rock from the bowels of Earth. Now, other forms of life could take hold: ferns and mosses (two of the most ancient types of land plants) that flourish even in rock crevices. These plantspropagate by producing spores-tiny fertilized cells that contain all the instructions for making a new plant-but the spore are unprotected by any outer coating and carry no supply of nutrient. Vast numbers of them fall on the ground beneath the mother plants. Sometimes they are carried farther afield by water or by wind. But only those few spores that settle down in very favorable locations can start new life; the vast majority fall on barren ground. By force of sheer numbers, however, the mosses and ferns reached Hawaii, survived, and multiplied. Some species developed great size, becoming tree ferns that even now grow in the Hawaiian forests.4. The word "abundantly" in the passage is closest in meaning to○ occasionally○ plentifully○ usefully○ fortunately5. The word "propagate" in the passage is closest in meaning to○ multiply○ emerge○ live○ evolve6. According to paragraph 3, what was the relationship between lichens and ferns in the development of plant life on Hawaii?○Ferns were able to grow because lichens created suitable soil.○The decomposition of ferns produced minerals that were used by lichens.○Lichens and ferns competed to grow in the sam e rocky environments.○Lichens and ferns were typically found together in volcanic areas.Paragraph 4: Many millions of years after ferns evolved (but long before the Hawaiian Islands were born from the sea), another kind of flora evolved on Earth: the seed-bearing plants. Thiswas a wonderful biological invention. The seed has an outer coating that surrounds the genetic material of the new plant, and inside this covering is a concentrated supply of nutrients. Thus the seed's chances of survival are greatly enhanced over those of the naked spore. One type of seed-bearing plant, the angiosperm, includes all forms of blooming vegetation. In the angiosperm the seeds are wrapped in an additional layer of covering. Some of these coats are hard-like the shell of a nut-for extra protection. Some are soft and tempting, like a peach or a cherry. In some angiosperms the seeds are equipped with gossamer wings, like the dandelion and milkweed seeds. These new characteristics offered better ways for the seed to move to new habitats. They could travel through the air, float in water, and lie dormant for many months.7. The word "This" in the passage refers to○the spread of ferns and mosses in Hawaii○the creation of the Hawaiian Islands○the evolution of ferns○the development of plants that produce seeds8. According to paragraph 4, why do seeds have a greater chance of survival than spores do? To receive credit, you must select TWO answer choices.○Seeds need less water to grow into a mature plant than spores do.○Seeds do not need to rely on outside sources of nutrients.○Seeds are better protected from environmental dangers than spores are.○Seeds are heavier than spores and are therefore more likely to take root and grow.9. Why does the author mention "a nut", "a peach", and "a cherry"?○To indicate that some seeds are less likely to survive than others○To point out that many angiosperms can be eaten○To provide examples of blooming plants○To illustrate the variety of coverings among angiosperm seeds10. The word "dormant" in the passage is closest in meaning to○hidden○inactive○underground○preservedParagraph5: Plants with large, buoyant seeds-like coconuts-drift on ocean currents and are washed up on the shores.Remarkably resistant to the vicissitudes of ocean travel, they can survive prolonged immersion in saltwater when they come to rest on warm beaches and the conditions are favorable, the seed coats soften. Nourished by their imported supply of nutrients, the young plants push out their roots and establish their place in the sun.11. According to paragraph 5, a major reason that coconuts can establish themselves in distant locations is that their seeds can○survive long exposure to heat on island beaches○float and survive for long periods in ocean water○use saltwater for maintenance and growth○maintain hard, protective coats even after growing roots12. According to the passage, which of the following characteristics do spores and seeds have in common?○They may be surrounded by several layers of covering.○They are produced by flowering plants.○They may be spread by wind.○They are able to grow in barren soils.Paragraph 3: Lichens helped to speed the decomposition of the hard rock surfaces, preparing a soft bed of soil that was abundantly supplied with minerals that had been carried in the molten rock from the bowels of Earth. Now, other forms of life could take hold: ferns and mosses (two of the most ancient types of land plants) that flourish even in rock crevices. ■These plants propagate by producing spores-tiny fertilized cells that contain all the instructions for making a new plant-but the spore are unprotected by any outer coating and carry no supply of nutrient. ■Vast numbers of them fall on the ground beneath the mother plants. ■Sometimes they are carried farther afield by water or bywind. ■But only those few spores that settle down in very favorable locations can start new life; the vast majority fall on barren ground. By force of sheer numbers, however, the mosses and ferns reached Hawaii, survived, and multiplied. Some species developed great size, becoming tree ferns that even now grow in the Hawaiian forests.13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.So since the chances of survival for any individual spore are small, the plants have to produce many spores in order to propagate.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.After the formation of the Hawaiian Islands, much time passed before conditions were suitable for plant life.●●●Answers Choices○Algae are classified as symbiotic because they produce energy through the process of photosynthesis.○The first successful plants on Hawaii were probably lichens, which consist of algae and fungi living in a symbiotic relationship.○Lichens helped create favorable conditions for the growthof spore-producing plants such as ferns and mosses.○Seed-bearing plants evolved much later than spore-producing plants, but both types of plants had evolved well before the formation of the Hawaiian Islands.○Unlike spores, seeds must move to new habitats in order to have a strong chance of survival and growth.○Seed-bearing plants arrived and spread quickly in Hawaii, thanks to characteristics that increased their seeds' ability to survive and to move to different areas托福TPO9阅读答案：Part3参考答案：1. ○42. ○13. ○34. ○25. ○16. ○17. ○48. ○2, 39. ○410. ○211. ○212. ○313. ○214. The first successful plants…Lichens helped create favorable…Seed-bearing plants arrived…托福TPO9阅读翻译：Part3参考翻译：夏威夷植物的到来大约500万年以前，当夏威夷群岛作为火山从海洋中出现的时候，它们与其他大陆相距甚远。

托福备考托福阅读34套TPO样题+解析+译⽂32—2Siam,1851-1910托福考试复习TPO 32—2 Siam,1851-1910原⽂：【1】In the late nineteenth century, political and social changes were occurring rapidly in Siam (now Thailand). The old ruling families were being displaced by an evolving centralized government. These families were pensioned off (given a sum of money to live on) or simply had their revenues taken away or restricted; their sons were enticed away to schools for district officers, later to be posted in some faraway province; and the old patron-client relations that had bound together local societies simply disintegrated. Local rulers could no longer protect their relatives and attendants in legal cases, and with the ending in 1905 of the practice of forcing peasant farmers to work part-time for local rulers, the rulers no longer had a regular base for relations with rural populations. The old local ruling families, then, were severed from their traditional social context.【2】The same situation viewed from the perspective of the rural population is even more complex. According to the government's first census of the rural population, taken in 1905, there were about thirty thousand villages in Siam. This was probably a large increase over the figure even two or three decades earlier, during the late 1800s. It is difficult to imagine it now, but Siam's Central Plain in the late 1800s was nowhere near as densely settled as it is today. There were still forests closely surrounding Bangkok into the last half of the nineteenth century, and even at century’s end there were wild elephants and tigers roaming the countryside only twenty or thirty miles away.【3】Much population movement involved the opening up of new lands for rice cultivation. Two things made this possible and encouraged it to happen. First, the opening of the kingdom to the full force of international trade by the Bowring Treaty (1855) rapidly encouraged economic specialization in the growing of rice, mainly to feed the rice-deficient portions of Asia (India and China in particular). The average annual volume of rice exported from Siam grew from under 60 million kilograms per year in the late 1850s to more than 660 million kilograms per year at the turn of the century; and over the same period the average price per kilogram doubled. During the same period, the area planted in rice increased from about 230,000 acres to more than 350,000 acres. This growth was achieve as the result of the collective decisions of thousands of peasants families to expand the amount of land they cultivated, clear and plant new land, or adopt more intensive methods of agriculture.【4】They were able to do so because of our second consideration. They were relatively freer than they had been half a century earlier. Over the course of the Fifth Reign (1868-1910), the ties that bound rural people to the aristocracy and local ruling elites were greatly reduced. Peasants now paid a tax on individuals instead of being required to render labor service to the government. Under these conditions, it made good sense to thousands of peasant families to in effect work full-time at what they had been able to do only part-time previously because of the requirement to work for the government: grow rice for the marketplace.【5】Numerous changes accompanied these developments. The rural population both dispersed and grew, and was probably less homogeneous and more mobilethan it had been a generation earlier. The villages became more vulnerable to arbitrary treatment by government bureaucrats as local elites now had less control over them. By the early twentieth century, as government modernization in a sense caught up with what had been happening in the countryside since the 1870s, the government bureaucracy intruded more and more into village life. Provincial police began to appear, along with district officers and cattle registration and land deeds and registration for compulsory military service. Village handicrafts diminished or died out completely as people bought imported consumer goods, like cloth and tools, instead of making them themselves. More economic variation took shape in ruralvillages, as some grew prosperous from farming while others did not. As well as can be measured, rural standards of living improved in the Fifth Reign. But the statistical averages mean little when measured against the harsh realities of peasant life.题⽬：1.The word "severed" in the passage (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning toA.cut off.B.viewed.C.protected.D.rescued.2.According to paragraph 1, the situation for Siam's old ruling families changed in all of the following ways EXCEPT:A.Their incomes were reduced.B.Their sons were posted as district officers in distant provinces.C.They could sell lands that had traditionally belonged to them.D.They had less control over the rural populations.3.According to paragraph 2, which of the following was true of Siam in 1905?A.Its urban population began to migrate out of the cities and into the country.B.Its Central Plain was almost as densely populated as it is today.C.It was so rural that wild elephants and tigers sometimes roamed Bangkok.D.It had many more villages than it did in the late 1800s.4.The phrase "rice-deficient portions" in the passage (paragraph 3) is closest in meaning toA.the parts that consume rice.B.the parts that do not have enough rice.C.the parts where rice is grown.D.the parts that depend primarily on rice.5.Paragraph 3 mentions all of the following as signs of economic growth in Siam EXCEPTA.an increase in the price of rice.B.an increase in the amount of rice leaving Siam.C.an increase in the nutritional quality of the rice grown.D.an increase in the amount of land used for rice production.6.According to paragraph 3, farming families increased the amount of rice they grewA.growing varieties of rice that produced greater yields.B.forming collective farms by joining together with other farm families.C.planting rice in areas that had previously remained unplanted.D.hiring laborers to help them tend their fields.7.According to paragraph 4, what happened after the government ended the practice of requiring rural people to perform labor for it?A.Rural people became more closely connected to the aristocracy.B.Rural people spent more time growing rice for profit.C.The government began to pay the laborers who grew rice for it.D.The government introduced a special tax on rice.8.Which of the following best describes the relationship between paragraphs 3 and4 in the passage?A.Paragraph 4 provides further evidence of the economic growth of Siam discussed in paragraph 3.B.Paragraph 4 continues the discussion begun in paragraph 3 of farming improvements that led to economic growth.C.Paragraph 4 examines a particular effect of the Bowring Treaty mentioned in paragraph 3.D.Paragraph 4 discusses the second of two factors that contributed to the expansion of rice farming mentioned in paragraph 3.9.The word "dispersed" in the passage (paragraph 5) is closest in meaning toA.spread out.B.gained power.D.specialized.10.The word "compulsory" in the passage (paragraph 5) is closest in meaning toA.foreign.B.formal.C.required.D.preferred.11.According to paragraph 5, which of the following was true of Siam's rural people during the Fifth Reign?A.They were forced to spend most of the profits from rice growing on registrations required by the government.B.Their lives remained very difficult even though statistics suggest that their quality of life improved.C.The non-farmers among them were helped by the government more than the farmers among them were.D.They were more prosperous when they were ruled by local elites than when they were ruled by the more modern government of the Fifth Reign.12.According to paragraph 5, the government bureaucracy intruded in village life byA.requiring the people to register their cattle and land.B.requiring the people to buy certain kinds of imported goods.C.discouraging the people from making handicrafts and tools.D.encouraging more people to take up farming.13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Where does the sentence best fit? And yet, how is it that the peasants were able to choose to expand their economic activity in response to the market opportunities?■【A】They were able to do so because of our second consideration.■【B】They were relatively freer than they had been half a century earlier.■【C】Over the course of the Fifth Reign (1868-1910), the ties that bound rural people to the aristocracy and local ruling elites were greatly reduced. Peasants now paid a tax on individuals instead of being required to render labor service to the government.■【D】Under these conditions, it made good sense to thousands of peasant families to in effect work full-time at what they had been able to do only part-time previously because of the requirement to work for the government: grow rice for the marketplace. 14. Prose SummaryDuring the late nineteenth century, changes in Siam's power structure had important economic consequences.A.Population movement occurred and rice cultivation intensified because Siam became more actively involved in international trade.B.Changes in taxation and the ending of the requirement that people work part-time for the rulers allowed farmers to produce more rice for the marketplace.C.Population increases occurred in part because Siam's farmers were able to produce more rice to feed the population. /doc/48bba030f9c75fbfc77da26925c52cc58ad690d7.html nd became so valuable that villagers had to pay the government for the land that they worked on.E.Although rural living standards may have improved somewhat, prosperity varied from village to village and government bureaucracy played a greater role in village life./doc/48bba030f9c75fbfc77da26925c52cc58ad690d7.html ernment modernization in the early twentieth century resulted in the loss of some freedoms that the rural population had gained from the traditional ruling classes.答案：1.sever表⽰"分离，切开"，对应cut off。

TPO 34阅读解析第一篇Population and Climate【P1】地球人口的增长已经对大气和生态环境产生了影响。

化石燃料的燃烧，毁林，城市化，种植大米，养殖家畜，生产作为助推燃料和制冷剂的CFC增加了空气中CO2，甲烷，二氧化氮，二氧化硫灰尘和CFOs 的含量。

约70%的太阳能量穿过大气直射地球表面。

太阳射线提高了土地和海洋表面的温度，随后土地和海洋表面将红外射线反射会太空中。

这能使地球避免温度过高。

但是并不是所有的红外射线被返回会太空中，一些被大气中的气体吸收，然后再次反射回地球表面。

温室气体就是其中吸收了红外射线的一种气体，然后再次反射一些红外线到地球。

二氧化碳，CFC，甲烷和二氧化氮都是温室气体。

大气中温室效应形成和建立的很自然。

事实上，大气中如果没有温室气体，科学家预测地球温度比当前的能够低33度。

【P2】大气中当前二氧化碳浓度是360ppm。

人类活动正在对大气中二氧化碳浓度的增加有着重要的影响，二氧化碳浓度正在快速增长，目前预估在未来50-100年内，浓度将是目前的一倍。

IPCC在1992中做出一份报告，在该份报告中大多数大气科学家中观点一致，预测二氧化碳浓度翻倍可能会将全球气温提高1.4-4.5度。

IPCC在2001年的报告中做出的预测是气温几乎将会提高2倍。

可能发生的气温升高比在冰河时期发生的变化要大很多。

这种温度的升高也不会是一直的，在赤道周围变化最小，而在极点周围的变化则是2-3倍。

这些全球变化的本地化影响很难预测，但是大家一致认为可能会影响洋流的改变，在北半球的一些区域可能增加在冬天发洪水的可能性，在一些区域夏天发生干旱的概率提高，还有海平面的升高也可能会淹没位置较低的国家。

【P3】科学家积极参与地球气候系统中物理，化学和生物成分的调查，为了对温室气体的增加对未来全球气候的影响做出准确预测。

全球环流模型在这个过程中是重要的工具。

这些模型体现包含了当前对大气环流模式，洋流，大陆影响和类似东西所掌握的知识，在变化的环境下预测气候。

根据2023年托福考试二真题答案及解析本文档旨在提供2023年托福考试二真题的答案及解析，帮助考生更好地理解和应对考试。

以下是各部分的题目答案和简要解析：听力部分：1. 答案：A解析：根据听力材料可知，对话中提到了去博物馆参观古代艺术品。

2. 答案：B解析：听力中提到了他们计划在周末一起去露营。

3. 答案：C解析：对话中提到了订购一份海鲜披萨。

阅读部分：4. 答案：D解析：根据第一段最后一句话可知，这位教授对环境问题持乐观态度。

5. 答案：A解析：根据第二段第一句话可知，家庭成员之间的交流关系对一个人的发展至关重要。

6. 答案：C解析：根据第三段最后两句话可知，通过运动可以增强身体健康。

口语部分：7. 答案：In my opinion, the best way to relax is to take a walk in nature. It helps me clear my mind and relieve stress.解析：根据个人观点，最好的放松方式是在大自然中散步。

这有助于清理思路和减轻压力。

写作部分：8. 答案：The advantages of studying abroad outweigh the disadvantages. Firstly, it provides students with a multicultural environment, which broadens their horizons. Secondly, studying abroad enhances language skills and promotes personal growth. Finally, international experience can be a valuable asset for future career opportunities.解析：留学的优势大于劣势。

托福综合写作TPOExtra2The reading and the listening both discuss whether the smart cars will bring benefits for people or not. The author presents several plausible merits of this sort of new technology. However, what the lecturer states rejects most of the main ideas in the reading.To begin with, the author points out that smart cars which are equipped with a variety of sensors will prevent many accidents, thereby saving lives. Whereas, the lecturer demonstrates a different idea that even smart cars can cause serious accidents. The reason is that technologically advanced devices may fail occasionally. Despite the smart cars are able to pack tightly, accidents might pile up and invlove more cars which proves to be even worse. Thus there is little reason to believe that smart cars are effective to save lives and deminish injures in automobile accidents.Furthermore, the author holds the opinion that with the wide use of smart cars, traffic problems will disappear and commuting time will be diminished as well. On the contrary, the lecturer confuts it by saying that smart cars are not helpful in saving more commuting time, resulting from the fact that history has shown that the introduction of driving convenience will only result in more car uses, since drivers expect the easier driving experience. Hence, more traffic conjection resulted from the additional smart cars are sure to eliminate the advatange of high speed of smart cars.Finally, the author maintains that smart cars will bring a reduction in the costs of driving, since they are directed to opt the most direct routes, and require less repairs and replacement. In contrast, the lecturer opposes it by raising that smarts cars in fact cost more. The truth is that the global positioning system which help to determine the smart cars' destination are far more expensive. Other technological costs such as sensors, the device to control the distance between two cars cost more to repair. As a result, these new expense might offset the savings from the repairing and replacement of traditonal cars.。

托福听力: TPO听力题目与答案1-37全套汇总(附译文)目前托福TPO内容已经更新到37套，很多同学在使用TPO听力内容时不是缺少音频资料就是内容不全，针对大家使用TPO听力内容的诸多不方便，小编特给出一份托福TPO 听力题目与答案1-37全套汇总(附译文)资料，同学们可以拿去好好练习一下，进而也可对比一下与之前内容的不同，所增加的套题与之前的区别。

托福TPO听力题目与答案1-37全套汇总(附译文)内容如下：1.Why does the student go to see the librarian?To sign up for a seminar on using electronic sources for researchTo report that a journal is missing from the reference areaTo find out the procedure for checking out journal articlesTo ask about how to look for resources for a class paper2.What does the librarian say about the availability of journals and articles in the library?They are not easy to find if a professor put them on reserveMost of them are accessible in an electronic formatMost of them can be checked out for three weeksPrinted versions from the past three years are located in the reference section3.What does the librarian suggest the student should do to save time?Choose an easier research topicConcentrate on five journalsRead the summaries of the articles firstInstall a new program on her home computer4.What can be inferred about why the woman decides to use the computer in the library?She thinks she might need additional help from the manShe does not have a computer at homeShe has to hand in her assignment by the end of the dayShe will be meeting a friend in the library later on5.Why does the woman say thisShe had forgotten about the informationShe is surprised she was not aware of the informationShe is annoyed that the information was published only recentlyShe is concerned that the librarian gave her incorrect informationStudentHi, um…, I really hope you can help me.LibrarianThat’s why I’m here. What can I do for you?StudentI’m supposed to do a literature review for my psychology course, but I’m… having a hard time finding articles. I don’t even know where to start looking.LibrarianYou said this is for your psychology course, right? So your focus is on …StudentDream Interpretation.LibrarianWell, you have a focus, so that’s already a good start. Hmmm… well, there’re a few things… oh wait… have you checked to see if your professor put any material for you to look at on reserve?StudentAha, that’s one thing I did know to do. I just copied an article, but I still need three more on my topic from three different journals.LibrarianLet’s get you going on looking for those then. We have printed versions of twenty or so psychology journals in the Reference Section. These are ones published within the last year. Now that I think about it… there’s a journal named Sleep and Dreams.StudentOh, yeah, the article I just copied is from that journal, so I’ve got to look in other sources.正确答案，D。