托福阅读易错／难题

1. 托福阅读易错／难题 主讲人：叶磊华

3. 题目本身：Only the last of these was suited at all to the continuous operating of machines, and although waterpower abounded in and Scotland and ran grain mills as well as textile mills, it had one great disadvantage: streams flowed where nature intended them to, and water-driven factories had to be located on their banks whether or not the location was desirable for other reasons. • Running water was the best power source for factories since it could keep machines operating continuously, but since it was abundant only in Lancashire and Scotland, most mills and factories that were located elsewhere could not be water driven. • The disadvantage of using waterpower is that streams do not necessarily flow in places that are the most suitable for factories, which explains why so many water-powered grain and textile mills were located in undesirable places. • Since machines could be operated continuously only where running water was abundant, grain and textile mills, as well as other factories, tended to be located only in Lancashire and Scotland. • Running water was the only source of power that was suitable for the continuous operation of machines, but to make use of it, factories had to be located where the water was, regardless of whether such locations made sense otherwise.

4. Many plants and animals disappear abruptly from the fossil record as one moves from layers of rock documenting the end of the Cretaceous up into rocks representing the beginning of the Cenozoic (the era after the Mesozoic) The fossil record suggests that there was an abrupt extinction of many plants and animals at the end of the Mesozoic era. Few fossils of the Mesozoic era have survived in the rocks that mark the end of the Cretaceous. Fossils from the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic up to the beginning of the Cenozoic era have been removed from the layers of rock that surrounded them. Plants and animals from the Mesozoic era were unable to survive in the Cenozoic era.

5. From a plant’s evolutionary view point, however, it was also a land of opportunity, free of competitors and predators and full of carbon dioxide and sunlight (the raw materials for photosynthesis, which are present in far higher concentrations in air than in water). • Terrestrial plants had the advantages of not having rivals and having easy access to photosynthetic material. • The abundance of photosynthetic material made life on land easier for pioneering plants. • Once plants had eliminated their competitors and their predators, their evolutionary process proceeded smoothly. • Plant evolution eliminated competitors and made the process of photosynthesis more efficient.

6. 定位：The questions become more complicated when actual volumes of water are considered: how much water enters and leaves by each route? Discovering the inputs and outputs of rivers is a matter of measuring the discharges of every inflowing and outflowing stream and river. Then exchanges with the atmosphere are calculated by finding the difference between the gains from rain, as measured (rather roughly) by rain gauges, and the losses by evaporation, measured with models that correct for the other sources of water loss. For the majority of lakes, certainly those surrounded by forests, input from overland flow is too small to have a noticeable effect. Changes in lake level not explained by river flows plus exchanges with the atmosphere must be due to the net difference between what seeps into the lake from the groundwater and what leaks into the groundwater. Note the word "net": measuring the actual amounts of groundwater seepage into the lake and out of the lake is a much more complicated matter than merely inferring their difference. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about the movement of water into a lake?  • Heavy rain accounts for most of the water that enters into lakes. • Rainfall replaces approximately the amount of water lost through evaporation. • Overland flow into lakes is reduced by the presence of forests. • Seepage has a smaller effect on water level than any other input.

7. During NREM (the phase of sleep in which there is no rapid eye movement) breathing becomes deeper and more regular, but there is also a decrease in the breathing rate, resulting in less air being exchanged overall. This occurs because during NREM sleep the automatic, metabolic system has exclusive control over breathing and the body uses less oxygen and produces less carbon dioxide. Also, during sleep the automatic metabolic system is less responsive to carbon dioxide levels and oxygen levels in the blood. Two things result from these changes in breathing control that occur during sleep. First, there may be a brief cessation or reduction of breathing when falling asleep as the sleeper waxes and wanes between sleep and wakefulness and their differing control mechanisms. Second, once sleep is fully obtained, there is an increase of carbon dioxide and a decrease of oxygen in the blood that persists during NREM. Which of the following may occur just before NREM sleep begins?  • The automatic, metabolic system may increase its dependence on air exchanges. • Breathing can stop for a short time as a person falls asleep. • An increase in the oxygen level in the blood can occur as sleep becomes fully obtained. • The level of carbon dioxide in the blood may drop suddenly.

8. Paragraph 2: The source had long been known but not exploited. Early in the eighteenth century, a pump had come into use in which expanding steam raised a piston in a cylinder, and atmospheric pressure brought it down again when the steam condensed inside the cylinder to form a vacuum. This “atmospheric engine,” invented by Thomas Savery and vastly improved by his partner, Thomas Newcomen, embodied revolutionary principles, but it was so slow and wasteful of fuel that it could not be employed outside the coal mines for which it had been designed. In the 1760s, James Watt perfected a separate condenser for the steam, so that the cylinder did not have to be cooled at every stroke; then he devised a way to make the piston turn a wheel and thus convert reciprocating (back and forth) motion into rotary motion. He thereby transformed an inefficient pump of limited use into a steam engine of a thousand uses. The final step came when steam was introduced into the cylinder to drive the piston backward as well as forward, thereby increasing the speed of the engine and cutting its fuel consumption. According to paragraph 2, Watt‘s steam engine differed from earlier steam engines in each of the following ways EXCEPT: It used steam to move a piston in a cylinder. It worked with greater speed. It was more efficient in its use of fuel. It could be used in many different ways.

9. Paragraph 5: A third likely explanation for infantile amnesia involves incompatibilities between the ways in which infants encode information and the ways in which older children and adults retrieve it. Whether people can remember an event depends critically on the fit between the way in which they earlier encoded the information and the way in which they later attempt to retrieve it. The better able the person is to reconstruct the perspective from which the material was encoded, the more likely that recall will be successful. Paragraph 6: This view is supported by a variety of factors that can create mismatches between very young children's encoding and older children's and adults' retrieval efforts. The world looks very different to a person whose head is only two or three feet above the ground than to one whose head is five or six feet above it. Older children and adults often try to retrieve the names of things they saw, but infants would not have encoded the information verbally. General knowledge of categories of events such as a birthday party or a visit to the doctor's office helps older individuals encode their experiences, but again, infants and toddlers are unlikely to encode many experiences within such knowledge structures. According to paragraphs 5 and 6, one disadvantage very young children face in processing information is that they cannot process a lot of information at one time organize experiences according to type block out interruptions interpret the tone of adult language

10. 原文：Even the kind of stability defined as simple lack of change is not always associated with maximum diversity. At least in temperate zones, maximum diversity is often found in mid-successional stages, not in the climax community. Once a redwood forest matures, for example, the kinds of species and the number of individuals growing on the forest floor are reduced. In general, diversity, by itself, does not ensure stability. Mathematical models of ecosystems likewise suggest that diversity does not guarantee ecosystem stability—just the opposite, in fact. A more complicated system is, in general, more likely than a simple system to break down. A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more likely to break down than a child’s tricycle. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 5 about redwood forests? They become less stable as they mature. They support many species when they reach climax. They are found in temperate zones. They have reduced diversity during mid-successional stages.

11. P1. A heated debate has enlivened recent studies of evolution. Darwin’s original thesis, and the viewpoint supported by evolutionary gradualists, is that species change continuously but slowly and in small increments. Such changes are all but invisible over the short time scale of modern observations, and, it is argued, they are usually obscured by innumerable gaps in the imperfect fossil record. Gradualism, with its stress on the slow pace of change, is a comforting position, repeated over and over again in generations of textbooks. By the early twentieth century, the question about the rate of evolution had been answered in favor of gradualism to most biologists’ satisfaction. P.2 Sometimes a closed question must be reopened as new evidence or new arguments based on old evidence come to light.In 1972 paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge challenged conventional wisdom with an opposing viewpoint, the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis, which posits that species give rise to new species in relatively sudden bursts, without a lengthy transition period. These episodes of rapid evolution are separated by relatively long static spans during which a species may hardly change at all. According to paragraph 1 and paragraph 2, the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis and the gradualism hypothesis differed about A. Whether the fossil record is complete B. Whether all species undergo change C. Whether evolution proceeds at a constant rate D. How many new species occur over long periods of time

12. Occasionally, a sequence of fossil-rich layers of rock permits a comprehensive look at one type of organism over a long period of time. For example, Peter Sheldon’s studies of trilobites, a now extinct marine animal with a segmented body, offer a detailed glimpse into three million years of evolution in one marine environment. In that study, each of eight different trilobite species was observed to undergo a gradual change in the number of segments --- typically an increase of one or two segments over the whole time interval. No significant discontinuous were observed, leading Sheldon to conclude that environmental conditions were quite stable during the period he examined. According to paragraph 7, Peter Sheldon’s studies demonstrated which of the following about trilobites? • They underwent gradual change over a long time period. • They experienced a number of discontinuous transitions during their history. • They remained unchanged during a long period of environmental stability. • They evolved in ways that cannot be counted for by either of the two competing theories.

13. Paragraph 5: Rome’s debt to Greece was enormous. The Romans adopted Greek religion and moral philosophy. In literature, Greek writers were consciously used as models by their Latin successors. It was absolutely accepted that an educated Roman should be fluent in Greek. In speculative philosophy and the sciences, the Romans made virtually no advance on early achievements. Paragraph 6: Yet it would be wrong to suggest that Rome was somehow a junior partner in Greco-Roman civilization. The Roman genius was projected into new spheres—especially into those of law, military organization, administration, and engineering. Moreover, the tensions that arose within the Roman state produced literary and artistic sensibilities of the highest order. It was no accident that many leading Roman soldiers and statesmen were writers of high caliber. Which of the following statements about leading Roman soldiers and statesmen is supported by paragraphs 5 and 6? They could read and write the Greek language. They frequently wrote poetry and plays. They focused their writing on military matters. They wrote according to the philosophical laws of the Greeks.

14. 选项：Nearly any kind of plant of the forest understory can be part of a deer‘s diet. Where the forest inhibits the growth of grass and other meadow plants, the black-tailed deer browses on huckleberry, salal, dogwood, and almost any other shrub or herb. But this is fair-weather feeding. What keeps the black-tailed deer alive in the harsher seasons of plant decay and dormancy? One compensation for not hibernating is the built-in urge to migrate. Deer may move from high-elevation browse areas in summer down to the lowland areas in late fall. Even with snow on the ground, the high bushy understory is exposed; also snow and wind bring down leafy branches of cedar, hemlock, red alder, and other arboreal fodder. It can be inferred from the discussion in paragraph 2 that winter conditions cause some deer to hibernate make food unavailable in the highlands for deer make it easier for deer to locate understory plants prevent deer from migrating during the winter

15. Another prominent feature of Mars’s surface is cratering. The Mariner spacecraft found that the surface of Mars, as well as that of its two moons, is pitted with impact craters formed by meteoroids falling in from space. As on our Moon, the smaller craters are often filled with surface matter-mostly dust-confirming that Mars is a dry desert world. However, Martian craters get filled in considerably faster than their lunar counterparts. On the Moon, ancient craters less than 100 meters across (corresponding to depths of about 20 meters) have been obliterated, primarily by meteoritic erosion. On Mars, there are relatively few craters less than 5 kilometers in diameter. The Martian atmosphere is an efficient erosive agent, with Martian winds transporting dust from place to place and erasing surface features much faster than meteoritic impacts alone can obliterate them. According to paragraph 4, what is demonstrated by the fact that craters fill in much faster on Mars than on the Moon? Erosion from meteoritic impacts takes place more quickly on Mars than Moon. There is more dust on Mars than on the on the Moon. The surface of Mars is a dry desert. Wind is a powerful eroding force on Mars.

16. The clock was the greatest achievement of medieval mechanical ingenuity. Its general accuracy could be checked against easily observed phenomena, like the rising and setting of the sun. The result was relentless pressure to improve technique and design. At every stage, clockmakers led the way to accuracy and precision; they became masters of miniaturization, detectors and correctors of error, searchers for new and better. They were thus the pioneers of mechanical engineering and served as examples and teachers to other branches of engineering. Paragraph 5 answers which of the following questions about mechanical clocks? • How did early mechanical clocks work? • Why did the design of mechanical clocks affect engineering in general? • How were mechanical clocks made? • What influenced the design of the first mechanical clock?

17. Paragraph 1: It should be obvious that cetaceans—whales, porpoises, and dolphins—are mammals. They breathe through lungs, not through gills, and give birth to live young. Their streamlined bodies, the absence of hind legs, and the presence of a fluke and blowhole cannot disguise their affinities with land dwelling mammals. However, unlike the cases of sea otters and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses, whose limbs are functional both on land and at sea), it is not easy to envision what the first whales looked like. Extinct but already fully marine cetaceans are known from the fossil record. How was the gap between a walking mammal and a swimming whale bridged? Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans. In paragraph 1, what does the author say about the presence of a blowhole in cetaceans? It clearly indicates that cetaceans are mammals. It cannot conceal the fact that cetaceans are mammals. It is the main difference between cetaceans and land-dwelling mammals. It cannot yield clues about the origins of cetaceans.

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