托福习题练习
| 托福考试易错题（2019/7/29） |
| 第1题： Overcoming the LanguageBarrier The discovery that language can be a barrier to communication is quickly made by all who travel, study, govern or sell. Whether the activity is tourism, research, government, policing, business, or data dissemination, the lack of a common language can severely impede progress or can halt it altogether. "Common language" here usually means a foreign language, but the same point applies in principle to any encounter with unfamiliar dialects or styles within a single language. "They don’t talk the same language" has a major metaphorical meaning alongside its literal one. Although communication problems of this kind must happen thousands of times each day, very few become public knowledge. Publicity comes only when a failure to communicate has major consequences, such as strike, lost orders, legal problems, or fatal accidents--even, at times, war. One reported instance of communication failure took place in 1970, when severalAmericans ate a species of poisonous mushroom. No remedy was known, and two of the people died within days.A、radio report of the case was heard by a chemist who knew of a treatment that had been successfully used in 1959 and published in 1963. Why had theAmerican doctors not heard of it seven years later Presumably because the report of the treatment had been published only in journals written inEuropean languages other thanEnglish.  But isolated examples do not give an impression of the size of the problem--something that can come only from studies of the use or avoidance of foreign-language materials and contacts in different communicative situations. The language barrier presents itself in stark form to firms who wish to market their products in other countries.British industry, in particular, has in recent decades often been criticized for its linguistic insularity--for its assumption that foreign buyers will be happy to communicate inEnglish, and that awareness of other languages is not therefore a priority. In the 1960s, over two-thirds ofBritish firms dealing with non-English-speaking customers were usingEnglish for outgoing correspondence; many had their sales literature only inEnglish; and as many as 70 per cent of employees cannot communicate in the customers’ languages.A、similar problem was identified in otherEnglish-speaking countries, notably the USA,Australia and New ZealanD、And non-English-speaking countries were by no means exempt-- although the widespread use ofEnglish as an alternative language made them less open to the charge of insularity. The criticism and publicity given to this problem since the 1960s seems to have greatly improved the situation. Industrial training schemes have promoted an increase in linguistic and cultural awareness. Many firms now have their own translation services; to take just one example inBritain, Rowntree Mackintosh now publish their documents in six languagesEnglish, French, German,Dutch, Italian and Xhosa). Some firms run part-time language courses in the languages of the countries with which they are most involved; some produce their own technical glossaries, to ensure consistency |
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| 第2题： The Reading section measures your ability to read and understand passages inEnglish. You will read five passages and answer questions about them.Answer all questions based on what is stated or implied in the passages. Most questions are worth one point. The last question in each set is worth more than one point. For this question, the directions will indicate how many points you can receive. Some passages have one or more words in bold type. For these bolded words, you will see a definition in a glossary at the end of the passage. Allow 20 minutes to read each passage and answer the questions about it. You may now begin the first passage. {{B}}Set 1{{/B}} NORTHAMERICAN GRASSLANDS 1In NorthAmerica, native grasslands occur primarily in the Great Plains in the middle of the continent. The NorthAmerican prairie biome is one of the most extensive grasslands in the world, extending from the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the west to the deciduous forest in the east, and from northern Mexico in the south toCanada in the north.Average annual rainfall ranges from about 40 cm (16 inches) in the west to 80 cm (31 inches) in the east.Average annual temperatures range between 10 degrees and 20 degreesCelsius (50 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit). In the moist regions of the NorthAmerican grasslands, especially in the northern Great Plains, rainfall is distinctly seasonal, and temperatures can vary widely from very hot in summer to bitter cold in winter. 2One hundred years ago, the Great Plains grasslands were one vast, unbroken prairie. Much of the prairie is now farmland, the most productive agricultural region in the world, dominated by {{B}}monocultures{{/B}} of cereal grains. Wheat, barley, soybeans, corn, and sunflowers occupy the land that was once prairie. In areas given over to grazing lands for cattle and sheep, virtually all the major native grasses have been replaced by {{U}}alien{{/U}} species. 3 An important feature of the northern Great Plains grasslands is the presence of millions of glacial depressions that are now small ponds known as prairie potholes. They were formed during the most recent IceAge, when streams flowed in tunnels beneath glacially formed sandy ridges. When the IceAge ended around 12,000 years ago, the retreating glaciers created about 25 million depressions across a 300,000-square-mile landscape—about 83 potholes per square mile.As the ice blocks melted, much of the water was left behind, forming wetlands ranging in size from a tenth of an acre to several acres. The wetlands were soon surrounded by fluttering waves of grasses: shortgrass, mixed grass, and tallgrass. 4{{U}}Today these small wetlands still cover the prairies, although much of the landscape— including both native grasses and potholes—has been transformed to cropland and grassland for grazing.{{/U}} What does remain of the wetlands, however, still serves as an important breeding area for more than 300 bird species, including large numbers of migrating shorebirds and waterfowl. The potholes fill up with water during spring rains and usually dry out by late summer.Every spring, birds arrive in great numbers—northern pintails, mallards, coots, and pied-billed grebes—4 to 6 million strong, to mate in the seasonal wetlands that dot portions of Minnesota, Iowa, North and SouthDakota, Montana,Alberta, Saskatchewan, and ManitobA、Prairie pothole country produces half of NorthAmerica’s 35 to 40 million ducks and is renowned worldwide as a "{{U}}duck factory{{/U}}." 5Recently biologists have discovered that the prairie pothole region is potentially a vast carbon sink: a natural sponge that absorbs carbon dioxide 【单选题】： | |
| 第3题：Questions 23-33The mineral particles found in soil range in size from microscopic clay particlesto large boulders. The most abundant particles—sand, silt, and clay—are the focusof examination in studies of soil texture. Texture is the term used to describe theline composite sizes of particles in a soil sample, typically several representative handfuls. To measure soil texture, the sand, silt, and clay particles are sorted out by size andweight. The weights of each size are then expressed as a percentage of the sampleweight.In the field, soil texture can be estimated by extracting a handful of sod andsqueezing the damp soil into three basic shapes; (1) cast, a lump formed by squeezing a sample in a clenched fist; (2) thread, a pencil shape formed by rolling soil betweenthe palms; and (3) ribbon, a flatfish shape formed by squeezing a small sample betweenthe thumb and index finger. The behavioral characteristics of the soil when molded intoeach of these shapes, if they can be formed at all, provides the basis for a generaltextural classification. The behavior of the soil in the hand test is determined by the amount of clay in the sample.Clay particles are highly cohesive, and when dampened,behave as a plastiC、Therefore the higher the clay content in a sample, the more refinedand durable the shapes into which it can be molde D、Another method of determining soil texture involves the use of devices calledsediment sieves, screens built with a specified mesh size. When the soil is filteredthrough a group of sieves, each with a different mesh size, the particles becomegrouped in corresponding size categories.Each category can be weighed to make atextural determination.Although sieves work well for silt, sand, and larger particles,they are not appropriate for clay particles.Clay is far too small to sieve accurately;therefore, in soils with a high proportion of clay, the fine particles are measured on thebasis of their settling velocity when suspended in water .Since clays settle so slowly,they are easily segregated from sand and silt. The water can be drawn off andevaporated, leaving a residue of clay, which can be weighe D、 It can be inferred from the passage that thesediment sieve has an advantage over the handtest in determining soil texture because A、using the sieve takes less time B．the sieve can measure clay C．less training is required to use the sieve D、the sieve allows for a more exactmeasure |
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| 第4题： MACHIAVELLI 1Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian statesman and political philosopher of the early sixteenth century, is considered the founder of modem political thinking. Machiavelli was a product of Renaissance Florence, a city-state that was struggling for expansion and survival among a competing group of similar states.As a public servant and diplomat, Machiavelli came to understand power politics by observing the spectacle around him without any illusions. In 1512, he was briefly imprisoned and then forced to leave public life. He retired to his country estate, where he recorded his reflections on politics. Two of his books would become classics in political theory:Discourses on the First TenBooks ofLivy, a set of essays on ancient and modem politics, and The Prince, a potent little book that would shock readers for centuries. 2Machiavelli saw politics as an affair separate from religion and ethics, an activity to be practiced and studied for its own sake. Politics was simply the battle of men in search of power, and since all men were brutal, selfish, and cowardly, politics must follow certain rules. In his most famous work, The Prince (1532), Machiavelli described the means by which a leader may gain and maintain power. The ideal prince was the man who had studied his fellow men, both by reading history and by observing the present, and was willing to exploit their weaknesses. Machiavelli thought that his own time was too corrupt to permit any alternative to the Renaissance despots that he saw all around him. 3Machiavelli’s philosophy arose more from a deeply pessimistic view of human nature than from a lack of moral sense, which many readers criticized in him. He was, and still is, misunderstood to have promoted atheism over religion and criminality over other means of governing.Despite the ruthless connotation of the term "Machiavellian," many of his works, such as the History of Florence (1532), express republican principles. Machiavelli’s supporters saw him not as a cynic who gloried in evil but as a scientist of politics who saw the world more clearly than others and reported what he saw with lucidity and honesty. 4The cultural impact of Machiavelli’s philosophy was far-reaching, and negative interpretations have persisteD、The dramatic literature of the late sixteenth century, notably the plays of Shakespeare, often featured a villainous but humorous character type known as the Machiavel. The Machiavel character loved evil for its own sake, and this delight in evil made all other motivation unnecessary. The Machiavel had a habit of using humorous monologues to comment on his own wickedness and contempt for goodness. Shakespeare’s principal Machiavel characters are the treacherous Iago in Othello, the ruthlessly ambitiousEdmund in King Lear, and the murderous title character in Richard III. The word potent in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning toA．influential B．dishonest C．poetic D．humorous |
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| 第5题：The Guggenheim Museum in New YorkCity is one of the major (center) for (the collection) and display of (works) of (abstract art) in the United State. A、center B．the collection C．works D．abstract art |
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