03月23号托福阅读机经

2014年013月23日考试回忆

考试科目

难度

加试

综合点评

托福听力

略难

经典

综合难度略难。

LISTENING 1

类型

话题

Conversation

Office Hour

详细内容

学生有一个暑期项目，之前在waiting list，现在通过了，但是他自己还有学术研究，所以时间有点紧张（重听题）。教授还提到另一个教授在做此方面的研究，希望学生参加。参加这个项目的还有一个学生，问他认不认识，提出建议说不如两个人同住一个宿舍，还比较了两个项目的异同。

话题拓展

本篇是办公时间，但是学术内容比较弱，所以更像服务咨询类

LISTENING 2

类型

话题

Lecture

Astronomy

天文学-太阳系

详细内容

天文学讲座，讲了太阳系植物的行星观测。教授说虽然技术有限，导致我们看不到，但是可以通过两种手段来探测。第一是通过orbital的半径来判断，涉及radius velocity,另一种是通过光谱的变化来判断。

话题拓展

此篇讲座结构比较清晰，主要围绕教授介绍的两个方法来展开，第二个方法中的光谱学知识多次出现在TPO中，大家可以参考T3L4和T5L3，两篇文章中有足够的背景知识。

LISTENING 3

类型

话题

Lecture

Art History

电影史

详细内容

电影史讲座，首先讲法国的卢米埃尔兄弟改进了原爱迪生的放映机，拍出了真正的电影。两兄弟的风格比较写实，在咖啡厅放映了他们拍摄的电影史上第一部电影-工厂大门和火车进站。后来又提到了另一位摄影师兼导演乔治梅里埃，他创造了一系列特技手法，在《灰姑娘》中他就运用了慢动作摄影，使小仙女的舞蹈像在空中飞翔。他拍摄的大量短片中，既有仙境般的镜头，又有令人恐怖的场景。他因此被誉为魔幻大师。他在1902年拍摄的世界上第一部神化片《月球旅行记》。梅里埃让一群身穿星相家服装的天文学家去旅行，他们坐在美丽女海员搬来的炮弹里， 被发射到浩渺的太空，并且目睹了许多梅里埃自己想像中的奇异景象。

话题拓展

电影史讲座，涉及电影的发明 以及和另一位巨匠的风格对比，大家可以参考T3L2关于Painlev和Cousteau的对比内容。

LISTENING 4

类型

话题

Conversation2

Office Hour

详细内容

一个学生要成立一个观鸟俱乐部，但是老师说没有地方给他们活动。学生问如果邀请别人来有地方没有，老师说有的。老师补充说有个教授正在做鸟类的研究，所以你们可以参加，这个研究提示了一个鸟类相关的知识。

话题拓展

本次考试两篇都不复杂，第一篇虽然是办公时间，但是由于学术内容比较弱，所以更像服务咨询类。两篇对话都有各种各样的建议考点，考生在备考的时候一定要关注老师和工作人员给学生提出的建议。

LISTENING 5

类型

话题

Lecture

考古学

花粉与考古学

详细内容

讲通过花粉pollen来研究考古学，提到花粉有几个优点。

第一， 比较容易取样，因为每颗花粉颗粒的形状都不同容易辨认。可以比较方便地在实验室研究，后来还发明了一个平方米计数法来分析。

第二， 通过花粉在土壤里的distribution来鉴别气候。

第三， 通过花粉来鉴别这个土地上曾经的建筑结构，因为墙上可能会粘上花粉。

话题拓展

本文系经典的分类举例（即总-分结构文章），涉及三大好处，文章内容结合了考古学和植物学，还有一些palnology孢粉学的知识，属于比较复合的主题。

LISTENING 6

类型

话题

Lecture

Biology

一种蝴蝶

详细内容

主要讲一种蝴蝶，幼虫会吃一种花，还会和蚂蚁一起住，并且会发出一种音乐骗蚂蚁让它们以为自己是蚁后。后来还提到了建自然保护区，但是没有成功保护，蝴蝶数量不断下降。还发现蚂蚁对地面温度很敏感，温度太低会死亡。

话题拓展

结合了生物讲座和环境类讲座的知识涉及动物中的共生关系，难度不大。

考试日期：2013年03月23日

Reading Passage 1

Topic:

远古鱼是怎么进化成陆地动物的—2012-9-2大陆：海洋生物的进化

文章内容回顾：

讲远古海洋生物、鱼是怎么上岸的。说是最开始的鱼都在海里，后来好多地方只要是aquatic的地方都有鱼，特别是一种鱼record最多，还有图。

然后说鱼不光有gill，还有lung辅助呼吸这样在干旱的时候他们能从要没水的地方到水很多的地方（出题）。

然后说到干旱，水量减少，河边上很多死鱼，in addition水生植物也都出来了，螃蟹也上岸了（出题）

然后提到牙齿，food什么的，并且提到虽然上岸了，但还是离水不远（出题）。

最后说了鱼的骨骼生长

难度分析：

本文属生物学文章，话题涉及动物进化史

相关背景内容：

Evolution of fish

Fish first appeared during the Cambrian explosion, around 530 million years ago. Early fish from the fossil record are represented by a group of small, jawless, armoured fish known as ostracoderms. Jawless fish lineages are mostly extinct. An extant clade, the lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. The first jaws are found in Placoderm fossils. The diversity of jawed vertebrates may indicate the evolutionary advantage of a jawed mouth. It is unclear if the advantage of a hinged jaw is greater biting force, improved respiration, or a combination of factors.

Age of fishes

The devonian, part of the Palozoic ear, is otherwise kown as the Age of fishs, as it spawned a remarkeable variety of fish. The most formidable of them were the armoured placoderms, a group that first appeared during the Silurian with powerful jaws lined with bladelike plates that acted as teeth. Early placoderms fed on mollusks and other invertebrates, but later species developd into ferocious, fish-slicing monsters measuring up to 33 feet (10 meters) long. Other types of bone-plated fish that lacked jaws developed a range of bizarre forms. Fossils specimens include species with horseshoe-shaped heads and others that looked like rounded shields.

From water to Land

One important idea in evolution is that creatures from the oceans slowly evolved to liv and walk on land. Fish have different muscles and bones structure than land animals, so the evolution of fish would have requrd the cahnge of many different kinds of body parts. One way scientists xamine these evolutionary changes is by looking at fossils, like the dinosaurs you seee in museums. Fossils are an ancient record of creatures that lived on earth hundreds of thousands of years  ago. But most fossils are only the hardened skeletons of creatures. Because muscles and other softer parts of animals  do not usually become fossls, scientist run into problems when trying to learn about muscle evolution. Instead of looking at fossils, they have to use creative ways to figure out  muscle evolution.

Reading Passage 2

Topic:

欧洲1400-1500年间经济蓬勃发展的原因

文章内容回顾：

城市人口多了，需要买更多的东西，于是人们的income增加。然后政府也在主动促进某些产业发展。然后因为有migrant，很多资金和商品开始流动。很多只在本地销售的商品在别处也出现了，商品销量提高。

运输的成本也降低了，因为运输货物比之前更安全。最后因为技术进步，产品成本降低，比如挖矿的时候可以原本没用的矿。

难度分析：

本篇文章的题材比较综合，涉及经济学的历史、产品销售等内容，难度稍大。

相关背景内容：

The Commercial Revolution was a period of European economic expansion, colonialism, and mercantilism which lasted from approximately the 13th century until the early 18th century. It was succeeded in the mid-18th century by the Industrial Revolution. Beginning with the Crusades, Europeans rediscovered spices, silks, and other commodities rare in Europe. This development created a new desire for trade, and trade expanded in the second half of the Middle Ages. European nations, through voyages of discovery, were looking for new trade routes in the 15th and 16th centuries, which allowed the European powers to build vast, new international trade networks. Nations also sought new sources of wealth. To deal with this new-found wealth, new economic theories and practices were created. Because of competing national interest, nations had the desire for increased world power through their colonial empires. The Commercial Revolution is marked by an increase in general commerce, and in the growth of financial services such as banking, insurance, and investing.

A combination of factors drove the Age of Discovery. Among these were geopolitical, monetary, and technological factors. The Europeans involved in the Age of Discovery were mainly from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. During this period (1450-17th century), the European economic center shifted from the Islamic Mediterranean to Western Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and to some extent England). This shift was caused by the successful circumnavigation of Africa opening up sea-trade with the east: after Portugal's Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and landed in Calicut, India in May 1498, a new path of eastern trade was possible ending the monopoly of the Ottoman Turks and their European allies, the Italian city-states.[6] The wealth of the Indies was now open for the Europeans to explore; the Portuguese Empire was one of the early European empires to grow from spice trade.[6] Following this, Portugal became the controlling state for trade between east and west, followed later by the Dutch city of Antwerp. Direct maritime trade between Europe and China started in the 16th century, after the Portuguese established the settlement of Goa, India in December 1510, and thereafter that of Macau in southern China in 1557. Since the English came late to the transatlantic trade,[7] their commercial revolution was later as well.

Reading Passage 3

Title:

Anasazi人灭绝的原因是过度开发自然资源

文章内容回顾：

本篇文章机经暂缺

难度分析：

相关背景内容：

Anasazi

Ancient Pueblo peoples or ancesral pueblo peoples were an ancient Native Amrican culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the US, comprising southern Utah, northeastern Arizona, norhtern New Mexico, and southwetern Colorado. They lived in a range of structures, including pit houses, pueblos, and cliff dwellings designed so that they could lift entry ladders during enemy attacks, which provided security. Archaeologists referred to one of these cultural groups as the Anasazi, although the term is not preferred by contemporary Pueblo peoples.

2014年03月23日托福综合写作分析

阅读部分

听力部分

野牛bison数量的下降

听力持反对意见，理由如下：

1. 人将它作为了source of food。

1.人是从prairie东部迁徙过去的，但是bison decline是从西边开始的，东部也吃野牛，但数量就没有下降。

2. 动物之间为草料竞争competition of grassland，例如cattl与horse

2.bison可以在寒冷的天气下生存，很tough，有很厚的fur，还可以吃雪下面的草，而cattle和horse在冷的环境下无法存活。

3. 新科技的发展，如枪支

3. 过去枪支也能打得很快很有效，所以不是科技的事儿。

2014年03月23日独立综合写作分析

题目

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: students should take at least one year to work or travel before they go to university.

简析

本题是185话题中的一道原题

参考思路

1工作积累经验，travel见世面，可以更好的体验生活，从而知道大学里应该学什么专业

2. 工作和旅行中会认识很多志同道合的朋友

3. 让步段

考试日期：2014年03月23日

Task 1

Title:

Talk about an activity you would like to participate in the near future.

解题思路：

解析：

可以转换为经典口语题：Describe an activity that you participated.

Community voluntary service

1 learn to be responsibl and patient

2 be more active; communicative skills.

以下是考生模板

参考答案

An activity I would like to participate in is volunteer teaching. My friend tony did it last week and he told me how great it was. They went to a small, under-developed village that’s far from the city. Tony was assigned to teach them english. He taught them some basic greeting skills which they thought was fun. During class breaks, they gathered outside to play sports. Some kicked around a soccer ball, some played badminton and some played pingpong. Everyone had a good time. Before they left, we made some donations to the school。 People donated money, books and school supplies. I would like to join them next time.

Task 2

Title:

While doing group projects, some students prefer to lead, others prefer to support. Which do you think is better and why?  

解题思路：

参考答案

I prefer to lead when doing a group project for the following reasons. First, I can develop leadership skills that’ll be useful for my future career. Through planning what to do and communicating with other group members, I learned how to be efficient. I can bring such experience up during my future job interviews, so I’ll leave a better impression on the interviewer. Second, not everyone likes to be a leader, because it comes with responsibility and pressure. On the other hand, I’ m pretty comfortable coming up with an agenda and email it to everyone, and making sure when we meet, how to fucus on our goal.

Task 3

Reading

Listening

Notice: the universtiy requires first year students to take a study skill course

Reason 1: to help students prepare for school life

Reason 2: the clas will be limited to 20 students.

The man disagrees

Reason 1: students do need different skills now that they’re in university, things are different from when they were in high school, like the man didn’t have a clue when he wrote his first research paper.

Reason 2: small class is better because students get to interact with the professors, they can ask questions and share ideas, when he took big classes, all he could do was sitting there and listening.

Task 4

Reading

Listening

Definition: composite signaling means that animals usually combine 2 or more signals to convey a meaning that is different from individual signals.

Eg 1: when the professor walkd his dog in a busy street, his dog reacted aggressively when a truck passed by and made noise, it raised its ears and wanted to chase down the truck, it eventually calmed down after the truck was gone.

Eg 2: when the professor’s neighbor walked her dog, it raised its ears and wagged its tail when she was coming over, these two combined signals showed that the dog wanted to play instead of fighting.

Task 5

问题：

The woman signed up for a camping trip, but she doesn’t have a tent

解决措施：

Solution 1: to borrow one from her friend

(it’s kind of old and has small holes on it, she might have to live in a wet tent if it rains.)

Solution 2: to buy a new one

(she’ll have to pay, also if she doesn’t like camping, it will be a waste of money)

Task 6

Title

Two benefits of weeds.

例子：

Eg 1：farmers allow weeds to grow when they plant coffee on steep slopes, because weeds help hold fertile soil and prevent the plants from being washed away by rain

Eg 2: weeds also help control insects, certain insects love to eat coffee plants but they like eating weeds more, so farmers allow weeds to grow among coffee plants to prevent the coffee plants from being eaten by insects.