托福考试易错题（2019/10/31）

第1题：Geographers say that what defines a place are four properties: soil, climate, altitude,　　　 and aspect, or attitude to the Sun. Florida’’s ancient scrub demonstrates this principle. Its 　　　 soil is pure silica, so barren it supports only lichens as ground cover.(It does, however, 　　　 sustain a sand-swimming lizard that cannot live where there is moisture or plant matter (5)　 the soil.) Its climate, despite more than 50 inches of annual rainfall, is blistering desert 　　　 plant life it can sustain is only the xerophytic, the quintessentially dry. Its altitude is a 　　　 mere couple of hundred feet, but it is high ground on a peninsula elsewhere close to sea 　　　 level, and its drainage is so critical that a difference of inches in elevation can bring major 　　　 changes in its plant communities. Its aspect is flat, direct, brutal―and subtropical. (10)　 Florida’’s surrounding lushness cannot impinge on its ’’desert scrubbiness.　　　 This does not sound like an attractive place. It does not look much like one either; 　　　 Shrubby little oaks, clumps of scraggly bushes, prickly pear, thorns, and tangles. "It appear 　　　 Said one early naturalist," to desire to display the result of the misery through which it has 　　　 Passed and is passing."By our narrow standards, scrub is not beautiful; neither does it meet (15)our selfish utilitarian needs.Even the name is an epithet, a synonym for the stunted, the 　　　 scruffy, the insignificant, what is beautiful about such a place 　　　 The most important remaining patches of scrub lie along the Lake Wales Ridge, a chain 　　　 of paleoislands running for a hundred miles down the center of Florida, in most places less 　　　 than ten miles wide. R is relict seashore, tossed up millions of years ago when ocean levels (20)　 were higher and the rest of the peninsula was submergeD、That ancient emergence is 　　　 precisely what makes Lake Wales Ridge so precious: it has remained unsubmerged , its 　　　 ecosystems essentially undisturbed, since the Miocene er A、As a result, it has gathered to 　　　 itself one of the largest collections of rare organisms in the worlD、Only about 75 plant 　　　 species survive there, but at least 30 Of these are found nowhere else onEarth.The author suggests that human standards of beauty are A、tolerant B．idealistic C．defensible D．limited

【单选题】： A     B     C     D

第2题：Composers today use a wider variety of sounds than ever before, including many　　　 that were once considered undesirable noises.ComposerEdgard Varese (1883-1965)　　　 called thus the "liberation of soun D、..the right to make music with any and all sounds."　　　Electronic music, for example―made with the aid of computers, synthesizers, and(5)electronic instruments―may include sounds that in the past would not have been　　　 consdered musicalEnvironmental sounds, such as thunder, and electronically generated　　　 hisses and blips can be recorded, manipulated, and then incorporated into a musical　　　 composition.But composers also draw novel sounds from voices and nonelectronic　　　 instruments. Singers may be asked to scream, laugh, groan, sneeze, or to sing phonetic(10) sounds rather than words. Wind and string players may lap or scrape their instruments.　　　 A、brass or woodwind player may hum while playing, to produce two pitches at once; a 　　　 pianist may reach inside the piano to pluck a string and then run a metal blade along it. In　　　 the music of the Western world, the greatest expansion and experimentation have involved　　　 percussion instruments, which outnumber strings and winds in many recent compositions.(15) Traditional percussion instruments are struck with new types of beaters; and instruments　　　 that used to be couriered unconvennonal in Western music―tom-toms, bongos,　　　 slapsticks, maracas―are widelv use D、　　　 In the search for novel sounds, increased use has been made in Western music of　　　 Microtones. Non-Western music typically divides and interval between two pitches more(20) finely than Western music does, thereby producing a greter number of distinct tones,　　　 or micro tones, within the same interval.Composers such as Krzysztof Pmderecki create　　　 sound that borders on electronic noise through tone clusters―closely spaced tones played　　　 together and heard as a mass, block, or band of soun D、The directional aspect of sound has　　　 taken on new importance as well Loudspeakers or groups of instruments may be placed(25) at opposite ends of the stage, in the balcony, or at the back and sides of the auditorium.　　　Because standard music notation makes no provision for many of these innovations,　　　 recent music scores may contain graphlike diagrams, new note shapes and symbols, and　　　 novel ways of arranging notation on the page.What does the passage mainly discuss A、The use of nontraditional sounds in contemporary music B．How sounds are produced electronically C．How standard musical notation has beer, adapted for nontraditional sounds D、Several composers who have experimented with the electronic production of sound

【单选题】： A     B     C     D

第3题：

【分析题】：

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

第4题： READING SECTIONDIRECTIONS 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}}

【单选题】： A     B     C     D

第5题： A、( The woman already knew about the increase in fees B、The dorms will be cheaper than off-campus housing C、The woman thinks the man should move out of the dorm D、The woman is pleased she won’t have to pay the higher fees

【单选题】： A     B     C     D