考试科目

考试日期

托福阅读

2014.1.18

Passage1

话题

大火对于森林的好处

内容

主题：环境类话题
主要讲述森林大火对于森林的好处，包括：促进循环，光照。如果长久没有火灾，就意味着更强大的火势。
并且举出黄石公园大火的例子，失火后长出了许多新物种。

难度分析

环境类话题，文章结构是分类列举的结构，框架结构清晰，但唯一麻烦的是与考生的常识略微有小出入，考生在备考期间还是需要注意素材知识的积累。

相关背景内容

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 together formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames quickly spread out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history.[1] Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres (3,213 km2), or 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires.[2]
Thousands of firefighters fought the fires, assisted by dozens of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft which were used for water and fire retardant drops. At the peak of the effort, over 9,000 firefighters were assigned to the park. With fires raging throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and other areas in the western United States, the staffing levels of the National Park Service and other land management agencies were inadequate for the situation; over 4,000 U.S. military personnel were soon brought in to assist in fire suppression efforts. The firefighting effort cost $120 million ($240 million as of 2014). No firefighters died while fighting Yellowstone fires, though there were two fire-related deaths outside the park.

Passage2

话题

欧洲城市设计

内容

主题：社会学类话题
从巴洛克和文艺复兴开始讲述欧洲城市设计的历史。
最初的城市设计是为了炫耀领地和权势，以巴黎为例子来说明更有效率。其次人性化的设计增加了绿化面积，注重效率，像机器一样的城市。
最后讲述国际化，都是水泥和玻璃，城市开始变得相似。

难度分析：

社会学类话题，对比类文章结构。
考生需要根据文章的时间线索掌握不同时期城市建设设计的特点。

相关背景内容

Passage3

话题

两种蜥蜴的对比

内容

主题 生物类素材
文中讲述到两种蜥蜴，一种好动、一种好静、两者捕食方式和对象，以及天敌都有所不同，静止多的蜥蜴喜欢吃运动的昆虫，但会被运动的天敌抓，其中主要是无氧运动，瞬间出击捕食。
运动多的蜥蜴喜欢吃静止的，可以追随痕迹，主要是有氧运动，可以长时间运动，两个都会断尾巴自保。

难度分析

生物类素材在托福阅读中是比较常见的素材，其中，大多以对比类结构出现，这篇也不例外，考生需要在此方面下功夫。

相关背景内容

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with approximately 6,000 species,[1] ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group, traditionally recognized as the suborder Lacertilia, is defined as all extant members of the Lepidosauria (reptiles with overlapping scales) that are neither sphenodonts (i.e., tuatara) nor snakes – they form an evolutionary grade.[2] While the snakes are recognized as falling phylogenetically within the Toxicofera clade from which they evolved, the sphenodonts are the sister group to the squamates, the larger monophyletic group, which includes both the lizards and the snakes.
Lizards typically have feet and external ears, while snakes lack both of these characteristics. However, because they are defined negatively as excluding snakes, lizards have no unique distinguishing characteristic as a group. Lizards and snakes share a movable quadrate bone, distinguishing them from the sphenodonts, which have more primitive and solid diapsid skulls. Many lizards can detach their tails to escape from predators, an act called autotomy. Vision, including color vision, is particularly well developed in most lizards, and most communicate with body language or bright colors on their bodies, as well as with pheromones. Lizards are the most speciose among extant reptiles, comprising about 60% of all living species.
The adult length of species within the suborder ranges from a few centimeters for chameleons such asBrookesia micra and geckos such as Sphaerodactylus ariasae to nearly 3 m (9.8 ft) in the case of the largest living varanid lizard, the Komodo dragon. Some extinct varanids reached great size. The extinct aquatic mosasaurs reached 17 m (56 ft), and the giant monitor Megalania is estimated to have reached perhaps 7 m (23 ft).