托福TPO26阅读Passage3原文文本+题目+答案解析
?????aá?°??ú′ó?ò??D§±???íD?￡￡??a′ó?ò′?à′íD?￡TPO26???áPassage3?-????±?+ìa??+′e°??a??￡??￡í???′ó?ò±???óD?ù°??ú?￡
????¨ íD?￡TPO26???áPassage3?-????±?￡o
????Sumer and the First Cities of the Ancient Near East
????The earliest of the city states of the ancient Near Eastappeared at the southern end of the Mesopotamianplain,the area between the Tigris and Euphratesrivers in what is now Iraq.It was here that thecivilization known as Sumer emerged in its earliestform in the fifth millennium.At first sight,the plaindid not appear to be a likely home for a civilization.There were few natural resources,no timber,stone,or metals.Rainfall was limited,and what water there was rushed across the plain in theannual flood of melted snow.As the plain fell only 20 meters in 500 kilometers,the beds ofthe rivers shifted constantly.It was this that made the organization of irrigation,particularlythe building of canals to channel and preserve the water,essential.Once this was done andthe silt carried down by the rivers was planted,the rewards were rich:four to five times whatrain-fed earth would produce.It was these conditions that allowed an elite to emerge,probably as an organizing class,and to sustain itself through the control of surplus crops.
????PARAGRAPH 2
????It is difficult to isolate the factors that led to the next development?athe emergence of urbansettlements.The earliest,that of Eridu,about 4500 B.C.E.,and Uruk,a thousand years later,center on impressive temple complexes built of mud brick.In some way,the elite hadassociated themselves with the power of the gods.Uruk,for instance,had two patron gods?aAnu,the god of the sky and sovereign of all other gods,and inanna,a goddess of love andwar?aand there were others,patrons of different cities.Human beings were at their mercy.Thebiblical story of the Flood may originate in Sumer.In the earliest version,the gods destroy thehuman race because its clamor had been so disturbing to them.
????PARAGRAPH 3
????It used to be believed that before 3000 B.C.E.the political and economic life of the cities wascentered on their temples,but it now seems probable that the cities had secular rulers fromearliest times.Within the city lived administrators,craftspeople,and merchants.(Trading wasimportant,as so many raw materials,the semiprecious stones for the decoration of thetemples,timbers for roofs,and all metals,had to be imported.)An increasingly sophisticatedsystem of administration led in about 3300 B.C.E.to the appearance of writing.The earliestscript was based on logograms,with a symbol being used to express a whole word.Thelogograms were incised on damp clay tablets with a stylus with a wedge shape at its end.(TheRomans
called the shape cuneus and this gives the script its name of cuneiform.)Twothousand logograms have been recorded from these early centuries of writing.A moreeconomical approach was to use a sign to express not a whole word but a single syllable.(Totake an example:the Sumerian word for"head"was"sag."Whenever a word including asyllable in which the sound"sag"was to be written,the sign for"sag"could be used to expressthat syllable with the remaining syllables of the word expressed by other signs.)By 2300B.C.E.the number of signs required had been reduced to 600,and the range of words thatcould be expressed had widened.Texts dealing with economic matters predominated,as theyalways had done;but at this point works of theology,g literature,history,and law alsoappeared.
????PARAGRAPH 4
????Other innovations of the late fourth millennium include the wheel,probably developed first asa more efficient way of making pottery and then transferred to transport.A tablet engravedabout 3000 B.C.E.provides the earliest known example from Sumer,a roofed boxlike sledgemounted on four solid wheels.A major development was the discovery,again about 3000B.C.E.,that if copper,which had been known in Mesopotamia since about 3500 B.C.E.,wasmixed with tin,a much harder metal,bronze,would result.Although copper and stone toolscontinued to be used,bronze was far more successful in creating sharp edges that could beused as anything from saws and scythes to weapons.The period from 3000 to 1000 B.C.E.,when the use of bronze became I widespread,is normally referred to as the Bronze Age.
????PARAGRAPH 1
????The earliest of the city states of the ancient Near East appeared at the southern end of theMesopotamian plain,the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq.Itwas here that the civilization known as Sumer emerged in its earliest form in the fifthmillennium.At first sight,the plain did not appear to be a likely home for a civilization.Therewere few natural resources,no timber,stone,or metals.Rainfall was limited,and what waterthere was rushed across the plain in the annual flood of melted snow.As the plain fell only 20meters in 500 kilometers,the beds of the rivers shifted constantly.It was this that made theorganization of irrigation,particularly the building of canals to channel and preserve thewater,essential.Once this was done and the silt carried down by the rivers was planted,therewards were rich:four to five times what rain-fed earth would produce.It was theseconditions that allowed an elite to emerge,probably as an organizing class,and to sustainitself through the control of surplus crops.
????PARAGRAPH 1
????The earliest of the city states of the ancient Near East appeared at the southern end of theMesopotamian plain,the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what
【威学教育】王鑫托福阅读TPO5-2阅读文本
【王鑫托福阅读】托福TPO5-2阅读文本 TPO5 TPO5-2 The Origin of the Pacific Island People 1. According to paragraph 1, all of the following are true statements about Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia EXCEPT: A. Collectively, these regions are traditionally known as Oceania. B. These islands of Micronesia are small and spread out. C. Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand mark the boundaries of Polynesia. D. Melanesia is situated to the north of Micronesia. The greater Pacific region, traditionally called Oceania, consists of three cultural areas: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Melanesia, in the southwest Pacific, contains the large islands of New Guinea, the Solomons, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. Micronesia, the area north of Melanesia, consists primarily of small scattered islands. Polynesia is the central Pacific area in the great triangle defined by Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. Before the arrival of Europeans, the islands in the two largest cultural areas, Polynesia and Micronesia, together contained a population estimated at 700,000. 2. By stating that the the ories are "mutually exclusive” the author means that A.if one of the theories is true, then all the others must be false B. the differences between the theories are unimportant C. taken together, the theories cover all possibilities D. the theories support each other
【威学教育】王鑫托福阅读TPO23-3阅读文本
【王鑫托福阅读】托福TPO全集之TPO23-3 TPO23 TPO23-3 Rock Art of the Australia Aborigines 1. The word "infrequent”in the passage is closest in meaning to A. puzzling B. uncommon C. questionable D. undocumented 2. According to paragraph 1, the twentieth-century approach to studying Australian rock art was different from earlier approaches because the twentieth-century approach A. recognized that many different groups of Aborigines created Australian rock art B. concentrated on a limited range of Aboriginal rock art C. examined Aboriginal art from an Aboriginal rather than from a European perspective D. focused more intensely on understanding and documenting rock art 3. The word "rela tively”in the passage is closest in meaning to A. completely B. comparatively
【威学教育】王鑫托福阅读TPO15-2阅读文本
【王鑫托福阅读】托福TPO 15-2阅读文本 TPO 15 TPO15-2 Mass Extinctions D Fossil records disappeared. of many marine species have 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 similar to the speed of past extinctions. B The number of species that have died out since the last extinction event is extremely large. C Mass extinctions occur with regularity and it is time fo「a门othe「one. Cases in which many species become extinct within a geologically short 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,
托福TPO35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TPO35阅读Passage1原文文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。 Memphis:United Egypt's First Capital [1]The city of Memphis,located on the Nile near the modern city of Cairo,was founded around 3100 B.C.as the first capital of a recently united Egypt.The choice of Memphis by Egypt's first kings reflects the site's strategic importance.■First,and most obvious,the apex of the Nile River delta was a politically opportune location for the state's administrative center,standing between the united lands of Upper and Lower Egypt and offering ready access to both parts of the country.The older predynastic(pre-3100BC)centers of power,This and Hierakonpolis,were too remote from the vast expanse of the delta,which had been incorporated into the united state.■Only a city within easy reach of both the Nile valley to the south and the more spread out,difficult terrain to the north could provide the necessary political control that the rulers of early dynastic Egypt(roughly 3000-2600 B.C.)required.■ [2]The region of Memphis must have also served as an important node for transport and communications,even before the unification of Egypt.The region probably acted as a conduit for much,if not all,of the river-based trade between northern and southern Egypt.■Moreover,commodities(such as wine,precious oils,and metals)imported from the Near East by the royal courts of predynastic Upper Egypt would have been channeled through the Memphis region on their way south.In short,therefore,the site of Memphis offered the rulers of the Early Dynastic Period an ideal location for controlling internal trade within their realm,an essential requirement for a state-directed economy that depended on the movement of goods. [3]Equally important for the national administration was the ability to control communications within Egypt.The Nile provided the easiest and quickest artery of communication,and the national capital was,again,ideally located in this respect.Recent geological surveys of the Memphis region have revealed much about its topography in ancient times.It appears that the location of Memphis may have been even more advantageous for controlling trade,transport,and communications than was previously appreciated.Surveys and drill cores have shown that the level of the Nile floodplain has steadily risen over the last five millenniums.When the floodplain was much lower,as it would have been in predynastic and early dynastic times,the outwash fans(fan-shaped deposits of sediments)of various wadis(stream-beds or channels that carry water only during rainy periods)would have been much more prominent features on the east bank.The fan associated with the Wadi Hof extended a significant way into the Nile floodplain,forming a constriction in the vicinity of Memphis.The valley may have narrowed at this point to a mere three kilometers,making it the ideal place for controlling river traffic. [4]Furthermore,the Memphis region seems to have been favorably located for the
托福TPO阅读46文本+题目+答案
小编发布托福TPO46阅读本文+答案，希望帮助考生对照文本更好的研究真题，充分备考，争取理想成绩，实现留学梦想。 1. The Origins of Writing It was in Egypt and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) that civilization arose, and it is there that we find the earliest examples of that key feature of civilization, writing. These examples, in the form of inscribed clay tablets that date to shortly before 3000 B.C.E., have been discovered among the archaeological remains of the Sumerians, a gifted people settled in southern Mesopotamia. The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing, but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material. In ancient times the banks of the Nile were lined with papyrus plants, and from the papyrus reeds the Egyptians made a form of paper; it was excellent in quality but, like any paper, fragile. Mesopotamia’s rivers boasted no such useful reeds, but its land did provide good clay, and as a consequence the clay tablet became the standard material. Though clumsy and bulky it has a virtue dear to archaeologists: it is durable. Fire, for example, which is death to papyrus paper or other writing materials such as leather and wood, simply bakes it hard, thereby making it even more durable. So when a conqueror set a Mesopotamian palace ablaze, he helped ensure the survival of any clay tablets in it. Clay, moreover, is cheap, and forming it into tablets is easy, factors that helped the clay tablet become the preferred writing material not only throughout Mesopotamia but far outside it as well, in Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and even for a while in Crete and Greece. Excavators have unearthed clay tablets in all
托福TPO46阅读文本题附答案
托福TPO46阅读文本+题目+答案 1. The Origins of Writing It was in Egypt and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) that civilization arose, and it is there that we find the earliest examples of that key feature of civilization, writing. These examples, in the form of inscribed clay tablets that date to shortly before 3000 B.C.E., have been discovered among the archaeological remains of the Sumerians, a gifted people settled in southern Mesopotamia. The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing, but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material. In ancient times the banks of the Nile were lined with papyrus plants, and from the papyrus reeds the Egyptians made a form of paper; it was excellent in quality but, like any paper, fragile. Mesopotamia’s rivers boasted no such useful reeds, but its land did provide good clay, and as a consequence the clay tablet became the standard material. Though clumsy and bulky it has a virtue dear to archaeologists: it is durable. Fire, for example, which is death to papyrus paper or other writing materials such as leather and wood, simply bakes it hard, thereby making it even more durable. So when a conqueror set a Mesopotamian palace ablaze, he helped ensure the survival of any clay tablets in it. Clay, moreover, is cheap, and forming it into tablets is easy, factors that helped the clay tablet become the preferred writing material not only throughout Mesopotamia but far outside it as well, in Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and even for a while in Crete and Greece. Excavators have unearthed clay tablets in all these lands. In the Near East they remained in use for more than two and a half millennia, and in certain areas they lasted down to the beginning of the common era until finally yielding, once and for all, to more convenient alternatives. The Sumerians perfected a style of writing suited to clay. This script consists of simple shapes, basically just wedge shapes and lines that could easily be incised in soft clay with a reed or wooden stylus; scholars have dubbed it cuneiform from the wedge-shaped marks (cunei in Latin) that are its hallmark Although the ingredients are merely wedges and lines, there are hundreds of combinations of these basic forms that stand for different sounds or words. Learning these complex signs required long training and much practice; inevitably, literacy was largely limited to a small professional class, the scribes. The Akkadians conquered the Sumerians around the middle of the third millennium B.C.E., and they took over the various cuneiform signs used for writing Sumerian and gave them sound and word values that fit their own language. The Babylonians and Assyrians did the same, and so di d peoples in Syria and Asia Minor. ■ The literature of the Sumerians was treasured throughout the Near East, and long after Sumerian ceased to be spoken, the Babylonians and Assyrians and others kept it alive as a literary language, the way Europeans kept Latin alive after the fall of Rome. ■For the scribes of these non-Sumerian languages, training was doubly demanding since they had to know the values of the various cuneiform signs for Sumerian as well as for their own language. ■The contents of the earliest clay tablets are simple notations of numbers of commodities—animals, jars, baskets, etc. Writing, it would appear, started as a primitive form of bookkeeping. Its use soon widened to document the multitudinous
【威学教育】王鑫托福阅读TPO5-4阅读文本
【王鑫托福阅读】托福TPO6-1阅读文本 TPO6 TPO6-1 Powering the Industrial Revolution 1. 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. A. 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. B. 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. C. 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. D. 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. In Britain one of the most dramatic changes of the Industrial Revolution was the harnessing of power. Until the reign of George 111(1760-1820), available sources of powe r for work and travel had not increased since the Middle Ages. There were three sources of power: animal or human muscles; the wind, operating on sail or windmill; and running water. Only the last of these was suited at all to the continuous operating of machines, and although
托福TPO13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TPO13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TPO13阅读Passage1原文文本： Types of Social Groups Life places us in a complex web of relationships with other people. Our humanness arises out of these relationships in the course of social interaction. Moreover, our humanness must be sustained through social interaction—and fairly constantly so. When an association continues long enough for two people to become linked together by a relatively stable set of expectations, it is called a relationship. People are bound within relationships by two types of bonds: expressive ties and instrumental ties. Expressive ties are social links formed when we emotionally invest ourselves in and commit ourselves to other people. Through association with people who are meaningful to us, we achieve a sense of security, love, acceptance, companionship, and personal worth. Instrumental ties are social links formed when we cooperate with other people to achieve some goal. Occasionally, this may mean working with instead of against competitors. More often, we simply cooperate with others to reach some end without endowing the relationship with any larger significance. Sociologists have built on the distinction between expressive and instrumental ties to distinguish between two types of groups: primary and secondary. A primary group involves two or more people who enjoy a direct, intimate, cohesive relationship with one another. Expressive ties predominate in primary groups; we view the people as ends in themselves and valuable in their own right. A secondary group entails two or more people who are involved in an impersonal relationship and have come together for a specific, practical purpose. Instrumental ties predominate in secondary groups; we perceive people as means to ends rather than as ends in their own right. Sometimes primary group relationships evolve out of secondary group relationships. This happens in many work settings. People on the job often develop close relationships with coworkers as they come to share gripes, jokes, gossip, and satisfactions. A number of conditions enhance the likelihood that primary groups will arise. First, group size is important. We find it difficult to get to know people personally when they are milling about and dispersed in large groups. In small groups we have a better chance to initiate contact and establish rapport with them. Second, face-to-face contact allows us to size up others. Seeing and talking with one another in close physical proximity makes possible a subtle exchange of ideas and feelings. And third, the probability that we will develop primary group bonds increases as we have frequent and continuous contact. Our ties with people often deepen as we interact with them across time and gradually evolve interlocking habits and interests.
【威学教育】王鑫托福阅读TPO21-1阅读文本
【王鑫托福阅读】托福TPO全集之TPO21-1 TPO21 TPO21-1 Geothermal Energy 'practical" in the passage is 1. According to the processes described in paragraph 1, what is the relationship between radioactivity and the steam produced by geothermal heat? A. Geothermally heated steam is produced when water is exposed to radioactivity deep underground. B. When water is introduced into holes drilled thousands of feet in the ground, it becomes radioactive and turns to steam. C. Radioactivity heats Earth's interior rock, which in turn can heat water to the point it becomes steam. D. When a reservoir of steam in subsurface rock is produced by radioactivity, it is said to be geothermally heated. 2. The word meaning to A. usable B. plentiful C. economical D. familiar Paragraph1: Earth's internal heat, fueled by radioactivity, provides the energy for plate tectonics and continental drift, mountain building, and
托福阅读模考软件TPO19文本解析(精)
智课网TOEFL备考资料 托福阅读模考软件TPO19文本+解析 摘要:小马托福资料下载栏目为大家提供最完整的TPO资料和TPO模考软件,其中本次分享的托福阅读模考软件TPO19文本+解析是TPO阅读中的一套,包含三篇文章每篇文章14道题目,形式与真实考试一样,考生们在练习的时候一定要将原文内容完全掌握然后再去作答。 阅读是托福考试最容易复习的一项了,但是大家还是不能轻易的放松,今天小编为大家带来的资料是托福阅读模考软件TPO19文本+解析,大家一起来看看本资料的精彩内容吧。 Succession, Climax, and Ecosystems In the late nineteenth century, ecology began to grow into an independent science from its roots in natural history and plant geography. The emphasis of this new "community ecology" was on the composition and structure of communities consisting of different species. In the early twentieth century, the American ecologist Frederic Clements pointed out that a succession of plant communities would develop after a disturbance such as a volcanic eruption, heavy flood, or forest fire. An abandoned field, for instance, will be invaded successively by herbaceous plants (plants with little or no woody tissue, shrubs, and trees, eventually becoming a forest. Light-loving species are always among the first invaders, while shade-tolerant species appear later in the succession. Clements and other early ecologists saw almost lawlike regularity in the order of succession, but that has not been substantiated. A general trend can be recognized, but the details are usually unpredictable. Succession is influenced by many factors: the nature of the soil, exposure to sun and wind, regularity of precipitation, chance colonizations, and many other random processes.