托福TPO13阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析
¡¡¡¡ÎªÁË°ïÖú´ó¼Ò¸ßЧ±¸¿¼Íи££¬Îª´ó¼Ò´øÀ´Íи£TPO13ÔĶÁPassage2Ô-ÎÄÎı¾+ÌâÄ¿+´ð°¸½âÎö£¬Ï£Íû¶Ô´ó¼Ò±¸¿¼ÓÐËù°ïÖú¡£¡¡¡¡¨ Íи£TPO13ÔĶÁPassage2Ô-ÎÄÎı¾£º¡¡¡¡Biological Clocks¡¡¡¡Survival and successful reproduction usually require the activities of animals to be coordinated with predictable events around them. Consequently, the timing and rhythms of biological functions must closely match periodic events like the solar day, the tides, the lunar cycle, and the seasons. The relations between animal activity and these periods, particularly for the daily rhythms, have been of such interest and importance that a huge amount of work has been done on them and the special research field of chronobiology has emerged. Normally, the constantly changing levels of an animal's activity¡ªsleeping, feeding, moving, reproducing, metabolizing, and producing enzymes and hormones, for example¡ªare well coordinated with environmental rhythms, but the key question is whether the animal's schedule is driven by external cues, such as sunrise or sunset, or is instead dependent somehow on internal timers that themselves generate the observed biological rhythms. Almost universally, biologists accept the idea that all eukaryotes (a category that includes most organisms except bacteria and certain algae) have internal clocks. By isolating organisms completely from external periodic cues, biologists learned that organisms have internal clocks. For instance, apparently normal daily periods of biological activity were maintained for about a week by the fungus Neurospora when it was intentionally isolated from all geophysical timing cues while orbiting in a space shuttle. The continuation of biological rhythms in an organism without external cues attests to its having an internal clock.¡¡¡¡When crayfish are kept continuously in the dark, even for four to five months, their compound eyes continue to adjust on a daily schedule for daytime and nighttime vision. Horseshoe crabs kept in the dark continuously for a year were found to maintain a persistent rhythm of brain activity that similarly adapts their eyes on a daily schedule for bright or for weak light. Like almost all daily cycles of animals deprived of environmental cues, those measured for the horseshoe crabs in these conditions were not exactly 24 hours. Such a rhythm whose period is approximately¡ªbut not exactly¡ªa day is called circadian. For different individual horseshoe crabs, the circadian period ranged from 22.2 to 25.5 hours. A particular animal typically maintains its own characteristic cycle duration with great precision for many days. Indeed, stability of the biological clock's period is one of its major features, even when the organism's environment is subjected to considerable changes in factors, such as temperature, that would be expected to affect biological activity strongly. Further evidence for persistent internal rhythms appears when the usual external cycles are shifted¡ªeither experimentally or by rapid east-west travel over great distances. Typically, the animal's daily internally generated cycle of activity continues withoutchange. As a result, its activities are shifted relative to the external cycle of the new environment. The disorienting effects of this mismatch between external time cues and internal schedules may persist, like our jet lag, for several days or weeks until certain cues such as the daylight/darkness cycle reset the organism's clock to synchronize with the daily rhythm of the new environment.¡¡¡¡Animals need natural periodic signals like sunrise to maintain a cycle whose period is precisely 24 hours. Such an external cue not only coordinates an animal's daily rhythms with particular features of the local solar day but also¡ªbecause it normally does so day after day-seems to keep the internal clock's period close to that of Earth's rotation. Yet despite this synchronization of the period of the internal cycle, the animal's timer itself continues to have its own genetically built-in period close to, but different from, 24 hours. Without the external cue, the difference accumulates and so the internally regulated activities of the biological day drift continuously, like the tides, in relation to the solar day. This drift has been studied extensively in many animals and in biological activities ranging from the hatching of fruit fly eggs to wheel running by squirrels. Light has a predominating influence in setting the clock. Even a fifteen-minute burst of light in otherwise sustained darkness can reset an animal's circadian rhythm. Normally, internal rhythms are kept in step by regular environmental cycles. For instance, if a homing pigeon is to navigate with its Sun compass, its clock must be properly set by cues provided by the daylight/darkness cycle.¡¡¡¡Paragraph 1: Survival and successful reproduction usually require the activities of animals to be coordinated with predictable events around them. Consequently, the timing and rhythms of biological functions must closely match periodic events like the solar day, the tides, the lunar cycle, and the seasons. The relations between animal activity and these periods, particularly for the daily rhythms, have been of such interest and importance that a huge amount of work has been done on them and the special research field of chronobiology has emerged. Normally, the constantly changing levels of an animal's activity¡ªsleeping, feeding, moving, reproducing, metabolizing, and producing enzymes and hormones, for example¡ªare well coordinated with environmental rhythms, but the key question is whether the animal's schedule is driven by external cues, such as sunrise or sunset, or is instead dependent somehow on internal timers that themselves generate the observed biological rhythms. Almost universally, biologists accept the idea that all eukaryotes (a category that includes most organisms except bacteria and certain algae) have internal clocks. By isolating organisms completely from external periodic cues, biologists learned that organisms have internal clocks. For instance, apparently normal daily periods of biological activity were maintained for about a week by the fungus Neurospora when it was intentionally isolated from all geophysical timing cues while orbiting in a space shuttle. The continuation of biological rhythms in an organism without external cues attests to its having an internal clock.。
托福TPO30阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析
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The Pace of Evolutionary Change A heated debate has enlivened recent studiesof evolution.Darwin's original thesis,and theviewpoint supported by evolutionary gradualists,isthat species change continuously but slowly and insmall increments.Such changes are all but invisible over the short time scale of modernobservations,and,it is argued,they are usually obscured by innumerable gaps in theimperfect fossil record.Gradualism,with its stress on the slow pace of change,is a comfortingposition,repeated over and over again in generations of textbooks.By the early twentiethcentury,the question about the rate of evolution had been answered in favor of gradualism tomost biologists'satisfaction. 最近的一个关于进化的研究引发了激烈的争论。
达尔文的原始论点和进化渐进主义者支持的观点是物种会持续地改变，但非常缓慢，增量也很小。
托福TPO38阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO38阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
The Plow and the Horse in Medieval Europe 1One of the most important factors driving Europe slow emergence from the economic stagnation of the Early Middle Ages(circa 500000 BC)was the improvement of agricultural technology.One innovation was a new plow,with a curved attachment(moldboard)to turn over wet,heavy soils,and a knife(or coulter)in front of the blade to allow a deeper and easier cut.(A)This more complex plow replaced the simpler cratch plow that merely made a shallow,straight furrow in the ground.(B)In the lands around the Mediterranean,with light rains and mild winters,this had been fine,but in the wetter terrain north and west of the Danube and the Alps,such a plow left much to be desired,and it is to be wondered if it was used at all.Cleared lands would more likely have been worked by hand tilling,with little direct help from animals,and the vast forests natural to Northern Europe remained either untouched,or perhaps cleared in small sections by fire,and the land probably used only so long as the ash-enriched soil yielded good crops and then abandoned for some other similarly cleared field.(C)Such a pattern of agriculture and settlement was no basis for sustained cultural or economic life.(D) 2With the new heavy plow,however,fields could be cleared,sowed,and maintained with little more difficulty than in the long-settled lands of Southern Europe,while the richness of the new soils,the reliability of the rains,and the variety of crops now possibly made for an extremely productive agriculture.The new tool,however,imposed new demands,technical,economic,and social.The heavy plow was a substantial piece of capital,unlike a simple hand hoe,and this had the same sorts of implications that capitalization always hasn’t favored the concentration of wealth and control.Moreover,making full use of it required more animal power,and this had a host of implications of its own.The full importance of this was even more apparent in the centuries after 1000,when oxen began to give way in certain parts of Western Europe to horses. 3The powerful,rugged farm horse was itself a product of improvement during the Middle Ages,and it was part of a complex set of technical changes and capabilities.The introduction of new forms of equipment for horses transformed this animal into the single most important assist to human labor and travel.Instead of the old harness used by the ancient Greeks and Romans,there appeared from Central Asia the rigid,padded horse collar.Now,when the horse pulled against a load,no longer did the load pull back against its neck and windpipe but rather rode on the sturdy shoulders.When this innovation was combined with the iron horseshoe,the greater speed and stamina of the horse displaced oxen wherever it could be afforded.The larger importance of this lay not only in more efficient farmwork,but in swifter and surer transportation between town and countryside.The farmer with horses could moveproducts to market more frequently and at greater distances than with only oxen,and the urban development that was to transform the European economic and social landscape after the eleventh century was propelled in large part by these new horse-centered transport capabilities. 4Another indicator of how compelling and important was the new horse agriculture was its sheer cost.Unlike oxen and other cattle,horses cannot be supported exclusively on hay and pasturage;they require,particularly in northern climates where pasturing seasons are short,cropped food,such as oats and alfalfa.Unlike grass and hay,these are grown with much of the same effort and resources applied to human nourishment,and thus their acquisition represents a sacrifice,in a real sense,of human food.The importance of this in a world that usually lived at the margins of sufficient diet is hard to overstate.The increased resources that went into making the horse central to both the medieval economy and,in a separate but related development,medieval warfare,are the surest signs of the great utility the animal now assumed. 1.The word“stagnation”in the passage is closest in meaning to A)instability B)lack of growth C)dependence on others D)decline (第1段)2.According to paragraph 1,what was the main advantage of the new plow over the scratch plow A)The new plow created straighter rows. B)The new plow was easier for animals to pull. C)The new plow could dig deeper into the soil. D)The new plow was easier to make. (第1段)3.According to paragraph 1,the scratch plow was particularly unsuited to A)the lands around the Mediterranean B)places where the soil was often dry。
托福TPO34阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析
托福TPO34阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO34阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
The Development of Steam Power蒸汽机的发展By the eighteenth century,Britain was experiencing a severe shortage of energy.Because of the growth of population,most of the great forests of medieval Britain had long ago been replaced by fields of grain and hay.Wood was in ever-shorter supply,yet it remained tremendously important.It served as the primary source of heat for all homes and industries and as a basic raw material.Processed wood(charcoal)was the fuel that was mixed with iron ore in the blast furnace to produce pig iron(raw iron).The iron industry’s appetite for wood was enormous,and by 1740 the British iron industry was stagnating.Vast forests enabled Russia to become the world’s leading producer of iron,much of which was exported to Britain.But Russia’s potential for growth was limited too,and in a few decades Russia would reach the barrier of inadequate energy that was already holding England back.在18世纪之前，英国正在经历一次严重的能源短缺。
托福TPO真题阅读答案解析
托福TPO真题阅读答案解析托福TPO真题阅读答案解析只有愚者才等待机会，而智者则造就机会。
下面是店铺为大家搜索整理的托福TPO真题阅读答案解析，希望大家能有所收获，l 答案及题目解析Key:1.B2.A3.C4.C5.A6.B7.D8.D9.B10.C 11.D 12.B 13-14.125题目解析：1. In paragraph 1, what does the author say about the presence of a blowhole in cetaceans?(Factual Information Question)A.It clearly indicates that cetaceans are mammals.B.It cannot conceal the fact that cetaceans are mammals.C.It is the main difference between cetaceans and land-dwelling mammals.D.It cannot yield clues about the origins of cetaceans.相关原句：Their streamlined bodies, the absence of hind legs, and the presence ofa fluke and blowhole cannot disguise their affinities with land dwelling mammals.(Paragraph 1)本题解析：cannot disguise…意为“不能掩盖…”，因此“the presence of blowhole cannot disguise their affinities with land dwelling mammals”意思是“具有blowhol(出气孔)并不能掩盖这一事实：鲸类动物和陆栖哺乳动物有姻亲关系(affinities)”;B选项中cannot concea(不能隐藏)l恰好与 cannot disguise相吻合，并指出鲸类动物是哺乳动物的事实，因此选择B。
剑桥雅思13Test1雅思阅读passage 2真题+解析
剑桥雅思13Test1雅思阅读passage 2真题+解析相关阅读：剑桥雅思13Test1阅读passage2真题+翻译体裁说明文主要内容本文探讨了厌倦情绪的分类及其科学上的意义。
结构A段：科学地定义厌倦情绪并不容易。
B段：德国科学家Thomas Goetz及团队将厌倦划分了5个类别。
C段：心理学家Sandi Mann认为厌倦有正面意义。
D段：心理学家John Eastwood表示反对，认为厌倦会造成注意力分散并引发不良后果。
E段：Eastwood的团队进一步调查注意力分散的原因和容易厌倦的人群。
F段：心理学家Francoise Wemelsfelder认为现代人信息过载是厌倦感的新源头。
Questions 14-19Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs, A-F.Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet.List of Headingsi The productive outcomes that may result from boredomii What teachers can do to prevent boredomiii A new explanation and a new cure for boredomiv Problems with a scientific approach to boredomv A potential danger arising from boredomvi Creating a system of classification for feelings of boredomvii Age groups most affected by boredomv iii Identifying those most affected by boredom14 Paragraph A15 Paragraph B16 Paragraph C17 Paragraph D18 Paragraph E19 Paragraph F考题解析Questions 14-19●题目归类：List of Headings小标题题目属于概括总结类题型，是雅思阅读中最难的题型之一。
托福阅读真题第13Develop...
托福阅读真题第13Develop...在美国（US）发展廉价、可靠的城市交通之前，城市规模受到人们可以舒适地步行上班的距离的限制。
在这样的“步行城市”中，半径很少超过几英里，各个阶层的人们生活和工作都彼此靠近。
到十九世纪末，步行城市已经蜕变成了一个庞大的、分段的城市。
经济功能和收入大致将城市划分为同心圆格局。
一个中央商务区，或市中心，很少有人居住，被制造和批发区包围，移民和工作的低收入阶层挤进了公寓和细分的老房子。
在它们之外是中下阶级到中产阶级的排屋或公寓楼，那里有熟练的、文职的、和一些工厂工人居住。
然后来到了城市的边缘，专业人士、经理和商人撤退到他们宽敞的家中，过着舒适的生活，并照料修剪整齐的草坪和灌木，远离城市的恶臭、噪音、泥土和推搡。
新的交通方式使经济一体化和社会隔离的新城市地理成为可能。
早在 1820 年代和 1830 年代，波士顿、纽约和费城等东部城市就已经运营了称为综合巴士的马车公共交通工具。
综合巴士系统在1850 年代迅速普及，但缓慢而沉重的车辆只能容纳很少的乘客，而且高昂的票价限制了客流量。
到本世纪中叶，以蒸汽为动力的通勤铁路正在将城市边界向外推，以吸引富人。
纽约哈莱姆铁路将哈莱姆郊区与纽约连接起来。
芝加哥和密尔沃基铁路将埃文斯顿等社区联系起来。
威尔梅特和森林湖与芝加哥。
与此同时，许多城市已经改用马拉有轨电车。
与综合车轮在鹅卵石上的弹跳相比，铁轨使行驶更顺畅，它们使更大的运输和更快速的移动成为可能。
通过建立固定路线，马铁路保证了骑手的可预测性。
他们还将城市的指南针扩大到五英里或更多。
由于票价较低，马车系统吸引了中产阶级客户，他们通勤到市中心工作来自城市边缘地区新开发的住宅区或郊区。
到1880 年代，马车有轨电车每年在美国运送近1.9 亿乘客。
然而，马车并不像需要的那样干净、便宜或可靠。
技术很快用缆车取代了马车，缆车由蒸汽驱动，地下钢丝绳夹在车上。
介绍于萨在1873年的弗朗西斯科，缆车证明在那里以及匹兹堡和华盛顿特区等其他丘陵城市特别有效城市交通最重要的进步是电动手推车。
托福TPO21阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析
¡¡¡¡ÎªÁË°ïÖú´ó¼Ò¸ßЧ±¸¿¼Íи££¬Îª´ó¼Ò´øÀ´Íи£TPO21ÔĶÁPassage2Ô-ÎÄÎı¾+ÌâÄ¿+´ð°¸½âÎö£¬Ï£Íû¶Ô´ó¼Ò±¸¿¼ÓÐËù°ïÖú¡£¡¡¡¡¨ Íи£TPO21ÔĶÁPassage2Ô-ÎÄÎı¾£º¡¡¡¡The Origins of Agriculture¡¡¡¡How did it come about that farming developed independently in a number of world centers(the Southeast Asian mainland,Southwest Asia,Central America,lowland and highland South America,and equatorial Africa)at more or less the same time?Agriculture developed slowly among populations that had an extensive knowledge of plants and animals.Changing from hunting and gathering to agriculture had no immediate advantages.To start with,it forced the population to abandon the nomad's life and become sedentary,to develop methods of storage and,often,systems of irrigation.While hunter-gatherers always had the option of moving elsewhere when the resources were exhausted,this became more difficult with farming.Furthermore,as the archaeological record shows,the state of health of agriculturalists was worse than that of their contemporary hunter-gatherers.¡¡¡¡Traditionally,it was believed that the transition to agriculture was the result of a worldwide population crisis.It was argued that once hunter-gatherers had occupied the whole world,the population started to grow everywhere and food became scarce;agriculture would have been a solution to this problem.We know,however,that contemporary hunter-gatherer societies control their population in a variety of ways.The idea of a world population crisis is therefore unlikely,although population pressure might have arisen in some areas.¡¡¡¡Climatic changes at the end of the glacial period 13,000 years ago have been proposed to account for the emergence of farming.The temperature increased dramatically in a short period of time(years rather than centuries),allowing for a growth of the hunting-gathering population due to the abundance of resources.There were,however,fluctuations in the climatic conditions,with the consequences that wet conditions were followed by dry ones,so that the availability of plants and animals oscillated brusquely.¡¡¡¡It would appear that the instability of the climatic conditions led populations that had originally been nomadic to settle down and develop a sedentary style of life,which led in turn to population growth and to the need to increase the amount of food available.Farming originated in these ter on,it became very difficult to change because of the significant expansion of these populations.It could be argued,however,that these conditions are not sufficient to explain the origins of agriculture.Earth had experienced previous periods of climatic change,and yet agriculture had not been developed.¡¡¡¡It is archaeologist Steven Mithen's thesis,brilliantly developed in his book The Prehistory of the Mind(1996),that approximately 40,000 years ago the human mind developed cognitive fluidity,that is,the integration of the specializations of the mind:technical,natural history(geared to understanding the behavior and distribution of natural resources),social intelligence,and the linguistic capacity.Cognitive fluidity explains the appearance of art,religion,and sophisticated speech.Once humans possessed such a mind,they were able to find an imaginative solution to a situation of severe economic crisis such as the farming dilemma described earlier.Mithen proposes the existence of four mental elements to account for the emergence of farming:(1)the ability to develop tools that could be used intensively to harvest and process plant resources;(2)the tendency to use plants and animals as the medium to acquire social prestige and power;(3)the tendency to develop"social relationships"with animals structurally similar to those developed with people¡ªspecifically,the ability to think of animals as people(anthropomorphism)and of people as animals(totemism);and(4)the tendency to manipulate plants and animals.¡¡¡¡The fact that some societies domesticated animals and plants,discovered the use of metal tools,became literate,and developed a state should not make us forget that others developed pastoralism or horticulture(vegetable gardening)but remained illiterate and at low levels of productivity;a few entered the modern period as hunting and gathering societies.It is anthropologically important to inquire into the conditions that made some societies adopt agriculture while others remained hunter-gatherers or horticulturalists.However,it should be kept in mind that many societies that knew of agriculture more or less consciously avoided it.Whether Mithen's explanation is satisfactory is open to contention,and some authors have recently emphasized the importance of other factors.¡¡¡¡Paragraph 1:How did it come about that farming developed independently in a number of world centers(the Southeast Asian mainland,Southwest Asia,Central America,lowland and highland South America,and equatorial Africa)at more or less the same time?Agriculture developed slowly among populations that had an extensive knowledge of plants and animals.Changing from hunting and gathering to agriculture had no immediate advantages.To start with,it forced the population to abandon the nomad's life and become sedentary,to develop methods of storage and,often,systems of irrigation.While hunter-gatherers always had the option of moving elsewhere when the resources were exhausted,this became more difficult with farming.Furthermore,as the archaeological record shows,the state of health of agriculturalists was worse than that of their contemporary hunter-gatherers.¡¡¡¡¨ Íи£TPO21ÔĶÁPassage2ÌâÄ¿£º¡¡¡¡1.The word"option"in the passage is closest in meaning to¡¡¡¡O choice。
托福TPO32阅读Passage2原文文本+题目+答案解析
Siam,1851–1910
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 provinces;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.
托福TPO2阅读Passage1原文文本+题目+答案解析
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO2阅读Passage1原文文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
▉托福TPO2阅读Passage1原文文本： Desert Formation The deserts, which already occupy approximately a fourth of the Earth's land surface, have in recent decades been increasing at an alarming pace. The expansion of desertlike conditions into areas where they did not previously exist is called desertification. It has been estimated that an additional one-fourth of the Earth's land surface is threatened by this process. Desertification is accomplished primarily through the loss of stabilizing natural vegetation and the subsequent accelerated erosion of the soil by wind and water. In some cases the loose soil is blown completely away, leaving a stony surface. In other cases, the finer particles may be removed, while the sand-sized particles are accumulated to form mobile hills or ridges of sand. Even in the areas that retain a soil cover, the reduction of vegetation typically results in the loss of the soil's ability to absorb substantial quantities of water. The impact of raindrops on the loose soil tends to transfer fine clay particles into the tiniest soil spaces, sealing them and producing a surface that allows very little water penetration. Water absorption is greatly reduced; consequently runoff is increased, resulting in accelerated erosion rates. The gradual drying of the soil caused by its diminished ability to absorb water results in the further loss of vegetation, so that a cycle of progressive surface deterioration is established. In some regions, the increase in desert areas is occurring largely as the result of a trend toward drier climatic conditions. Continued gradual global warming has produced an increase in aridity for some areas over the past few thousand years. The process may be accelerated in subsequent decades if global warming resulting from air pollution seriously increases. There is little doubt, however, that desertification in most areas results primarily from human activities rather than natural processes. The semiarid lands bordering the deserts exist in a delicate ecological balance and are limited in their potential to adjust to increased environmental pressures. Expanding populations are subjecting the land to increasing pressures to provide them with food and fuel. In wet periods, the land may be able to respond to these stresses. During the dry periods that are common phenomena along the desert margins, though, the pressure on the land is often far in excess of its diminished capacity, and desertification results. Four specific activities have been identified as major contributors to thedesertification processes: overcultivation, overgrazing, firewood gathering, and overirrigation. The cultivation of crops has expanded into progressively drier regions as population densities have grown. These regions are especially likely to have periods of severe dryness, so that crop failures are common. Since the raising of most crops necessitates the prior removal of the natural vegetation, crop failures leave extensive tracts of land devoid of a plant cover and susceptible to wind and water erosion. The raising of livestock is a major economic activity in semiarid lands, where grasses are generally the dominant type of natural vegetation. The consequences of an excessive number of livestock grazing in an area are the reduction of the vegetation cover and the trampling and pulverization of the soil. This is usually followed by the drying of the soil and accelerated erosion. Firewood is the chief fuel used for cooking and heating in many countries. The increased pressures of expanding populations have led to the removal of woody plants so that many cities and towns are surrounded by large areas completely lacking in trees and shrubs. The increasing use of dried animal waste as a substitute fuel has also hurt the soil because this valuable soil conditioner and source of plant nutrients is no longer being returned to the land. The final major human cause of desertification is soil salinization resulting from overirrigation. Excess water from irrigation sinks down into the water table. If no drainage system exists, the water table rises, bringing dissolved salts to the surface. The water evaporates and the salts are left behind, creating a white crustal layer that prevents air and water from reaching the underlying soil. The extreme seriousness of desertification results from the vast areas of land and the tremendous numbers of people affected, as well as from the great difficulty of reversing or even slowing the process. Once the soil has been removed by erosion, only the passage of centuries or millennia will enable new soil to form. In areas where considerable soil still remains, though, a rigorously enforced program of land protection and cover-crop planting may make it possible to reverse the present deterioration of the surface. ▉托福TPO2阅读Passage1题目： Question 1 of 13 The word “threatened ” in the passage is closest in meaning to A. restricted. B. endangered.。
TPO53托福阅读Passage2原文及答案解析
TPO53托福阅读Passage2原⽂及答案解析 托福备考时TPO托福模考软件对于托福成绩的提升是⾮常有帮助的。
托福阅读可以说是整个托福考试当中⽐较重要的⼀个部分，如何利⽤现有资料TPO模考软件来提升⼤家的托福成绩呢?今天⼩编在这⾥整理了TPO53托福阅读Passage2原⽂及答案解析来分享给⼤家，希望对⼤家托福阅读备考有帮助。
TPO53托福阅读Passage2原⽂⽂本 Sounds In The Film Listen to part of a lecture in a film studies class. Professor: Nowadays we take sound in films for granted. I mean you still might see black and white films occasionally. But you'll hardly ever see silent films anymore. So it's interesting to note that the use of recorded sound was originally controversial. And some directors, uh, some filmmakers even thought it shouldn't be used, that it would destroy the purity of cinema, somehow reverse all the progress that had been made in the art of cinema. Abby? Abby: What about all the sounds you hear in some silent movies? Like, you know, a loud sound when somebody falls down or something? Professor: Okay, you're talking about a soundtrack added much later, which has over time become part of the film we know. But this recorded track didn't exist then. And it's not that most people didn't want sound in films. It's just that the technology wasn't available yet. Don't forget that instead of recorded sound, there was often live music that accompanied movies in those days, like a piano player or a larger orchestra in the movie theater. Also, think of the stage, the live theater, it has used wonderful sound effects for a long time. And if wanted, these could be produced during the viewing of a film. You know, the rolling of drums for thunder or whatever. But that wasn't as common. Oh, and another thing, that they might have in movie theaters in the early days, was a group of live actors reading the parts to go along with the film, or, and this seems a particularly bad idea to us now, one person narrating the action, an early example of a long tradition of movie producers, the ones concerned mostly about making money, not having much confidence in their audience, thinking that people somehow couldn't follow the events otherwise. So, it finally became possible to play recorded sound as part of the film in the 1920s. Trouble was, it wasn't always used to very good effect. First it was, you know, amazing to see somebody's mouth move at the same time you hear the words, or hear a door close when you see it closing on screen. But that luster wears off, of course. And if you're a director, a filmmaker, what's the next step? Abby: Well, you sound to enhance the movie right? Bring something more to it that wasn’t possible? Professor: Yes. That’s exactly what directors, who were more interested in cinema as art, not commerce, were thinking. But they also predicted that there would be a problem that sound would be misused and, boy, was it ever.Because the commercial types, the producers and so on, were thinking, “Okay. Now that sound is possible, let's talk as much as possible and forget about the fact that we're making a movie, that we have this powerful visual medium.” So many of the films of the twenties were basically straight adaptations of successful shows from the stage, theatre. The name they used for sound films then was “talking films” and that was on the mark, since, well, all they pretty much did was talk and talk. So, remedy? Well what was proposed by a number of filmmakers and theorists was the creative expressive use of sound, what they generally called nonsynchronous sound. Okay, synchronous sound means basically that what we hear is what we see. Everything on the soundtrack is seen on the screen. And everything was recorded simultaneously, which… Well, since thesound technicians working on films often had experience with live radio that made sense to them. Recording the sound separately and adding it in afterward? Well, that idea was less obvious. Anyway synchronous sound means the source of the sound is the image on the screen.Nonsynchronous sound then is… Abby: The sound doesn't match the picture? Professor: Right. Now we can look at this in various ways. But let's take it as literally as possible. Music, unless we see the radio or the orchestra, that's nonsynchronous. If the camera shot is of the listener rather than the speaker that's nonsynchronous. If we hear, say, background sounds that aren't on the screen, that's nonsynchronous. So, that doesn't seem so radical, does it? But again, those early producers didn't think their audiences could keep up with this. Abby: Excuse me, but did you say earlier that some filmmakers actually advocated not using sound at all? Professor: Well, yes. But that was a bit of an exaggeration, I guess. What I meant to say was that some filmmakers thought that the way the film sound was actually used was setting the art of filmmaking back.But everyone agreed that sounds solved some very difficult issues and offered potentially exciting tools. TPO53托福阅读Passage2题⽬ Question 1 of 5 What is the lecture mainly about? A. The influence of theater on early sound films B. Conflicting views on uses of sound during the early days of sound films C. The great progress in cinema after the development of sound D. Viewer reactions to early sound films Question 2 of 5 According to the professor, what types of sound were used in silent film theaters? Click on 3 answers A. Live music performed in the theater B. Sound effects created in the theater C. Recorded sound tracks played with the film D. Live narration during the film E. Musical entertainment offered before the film Question 3 of 5 What is the professor's attitude toward early movie producers? A. He is critical of their influence on films. B. He thinks they had little influence on films. C. He thinks they understood what audiences wanted. D. He acknowledges that they made progress possible. Question 4 of 5 According to the professor, what was characteristic of sound films in the 1920s? A. Dialogues between characters were kept to a minimum. B. Many films were closely based on theater plays. C. Musical sound tracks were added to most films. D. Sounds were recorded separately and added to films later. Question 5 of 5 What is an example of synchronous sound in a film? A. A character hearing a train that is not visible B. A past conversation being replayed in a character's mind C. A character playing guitar and singing on screen D. A song playing at the end of a film as credits appear on the screen TPO53托福阅读Passage2解析 正确答案：B 题⽬解析：本题定位到原⽂：So it's interesting to note that the use of recorded sound was originally controversial. 此处原⽂的⼤意是：我们不妨来说说声⾳最开始应⽤的时候是怎样有争议的。