TOEFL阅读理解真题整合

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托福阅读真题1

Glaciers are large masses of ice on land that show evidence of past or present movement. They grow by the gradual transformation of snow into glacier ice.

A fresh snowfall is a fluffy mass of loosely packed snowflakes, small delicate ice crystals grown in the atmosphere. As the snow ages on the ground for weeks or months, the crystals shrink and become more compact, and the whole mass becomes squeezed together into a more dense form, granular snow. As new snow falls and buries the older snow, the layers of granular snow further compact to form firm, a much denser kind of snow, usually a year or more old, which has little pore space. Further burial and slow cementation — a process by which crystals become bound together in a mosaic of intergrown ice crystals — finally produce solid glacial ice. In this process of recrystallization, the growth of new crystals at the expense of old ones, the percentage of air is reduced from about 90 percent for snowflakes to less than 20 percent for glacier ice. The whole process may take as little as a few years, but more likely ten or twenty years or longer. The snow is usually many meters deep by the time the lower layers are converted into ice.

In cold glaciers those formed in the coldest regions of the Earth, the entire mass of ice is at temperatures below the melting point and no free water exists. In temperate glaciers, the ice is at the melting point at every pressure level within the glacier, and free water is present as small drops or as larger accumulations in tunnels within or beneath the ice.

Formation of a glacier is complete when ice has accumulated to a thickness (and thus weight) sufficient to make it move slowly under pressure, in much the same way that solid rock deep within the Earth can change shape without breaking. Once that point is reached, the ice flows downhill, either as a tongue of ice filling a valley or as thick ice cap that flows out in directions from the highest central area where the most snow accumulates. The trip down leads to the eventual melting of ice.

1. Which of the following does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The effect of glaciers on climate

(B) Damage from glaciers

(C) Glacier formation

(D) The location of glaciers

2. Which of the following will cause density within the glacier to increase?

(A) Increased water and air content

(B) Pressure from the weight of new snow

(C) Long periods of darkness and temperature variations

(D) Movement of the glacier

3. The word bound in line 9 is closest in meaning to

(A) covered

(B) chosen

(C) planned

(D) held

4. Which of the following will be lost is a glacier forms?

(A) Air

(B) Pressure

(C) Weight

(D) Rocks

5. According to the passage , which of the following is the LEAST amount of time necessary for

glacial ice to form?

(A) several months

(B) several years

(C) at least fifty years

(D) a century

6. The word converted in line 15 is closest in meaning to

(A) changed

(B) delayed

(C) promoted

(D) dissolved

7. What is the purpose of the material in paragraph three?

(A) To define two types of glaciers

(B) To contrast glacier ice with non-glacier ice

(C) To present theories of glacier formation

(D) To discuss the similarities between glacial types

8. In temperate glaciers, where is water found?

(A) Only near the surface

(B) In pools of various depths

(C) In a thin layer below the firm

(D) In tunnels

9. The word it in line 21 refers to

(A) formation

(B) ice

(C) thickness

(D) weight

10. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that a glacier

(A) can revert to a fluffy mass

(B) maintains the same shape throughout the glacial process

(C) is too cold to be thoroughly studied

(D) can contribute water to lakes, rivers, or oceans

PASSAGE 74 CBDAB AADBD

托福阅读真题2

Many prehistoric people subsisted as hunters and gatherers. Undoubtedly, game animals, including some very large species, provided major components of human diets. An important controversy centering on the question of human effects on prehistoric wildlife concerns the sudden disappearance of so many species of large animals at or near the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Most paleontologists suspect that abrupt changes in climate led to the mass extinctions. Others, however, have concluded that prehistoric people drove many of those species to extinction through overhunting. In their Pleistocene overkill hypothesis, they cite what seems to be a remarkable coincidence between the arrival of prehistoric peoples in North and South America and the time during which mammoths, giant ground sloths, the giant bison, and numerous other large mammals became extinct.

Perhaps the human species was driving others to extinction long before the dawn of history. Hunter-gatherers may have contributed to Pleistocene extinctions in more indirect ways. Besides overhunting, at least three other kinds of effects have been suggested: direct competition, imbalances between competing species of game animals, and early agricultural practices. Direct competition may have brought about the demise of large carnivores such as the saber-toothed cats. These animals simply may have been unable to compete with the increasingly sophisticated hunting skills of Pleistocene people.

Human hunters could have caused imbalances among game animals, leading to the extinctions of species less able to compete. When other predators such as the gray wolf prey upon large mammals, they generally take high proportions of each year's crop of young. Some human hunters, in contrast, tend to take the various age-groups of large animals in proportion to their actual occurrence. If such hunters first competed with the larger predators and then replaced them, they may have allowed more young to survive each year, gradually increasing the populations of favored species. As these populations expanded, they in turn may have competed with other game species for the same environmental niche, forcing the less hunted species into extinction. This theory, suggests that human hunters played an indirect role in Pleistocene extinctions by hunting one species more than another.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The effects of human activities on prehistoric wildlife

(B) The origins of the hunter-gatherer way of life

(C) The diets of large animals of the Pleistocene epoch

(D) The change in climate at the end of the Pleistocene epoch

2. The word Undoubtedly in line 1 is closest in meaning to

(A) occasionally

(B) unexpectedly

(C) previously

(D) certainly

3. The word components in line 2 is closest in meaning to

(A) parts

(B) problems

(C) changes

(D) varieties

4. Which of the following is mentioned as supporting the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis?

(A) Many of the animals that became extinct were quite large.

(B) Humans migrated into certain regions around the time that major extinctions occurred.

(C) There is evidence that new species were arriving in areas inhabited by humans.

(D) Humans began to keep and care for certain animals.

5. The word Besides in line 14 is closest in meaning to

(A) caused by

(B) whereas

(C) in addition to

(D) in favor of

6. The author mentions saber-toothed cats in line 17 as an example of a carnivore that

(A) became extinct before the Pleistocene epoch

(B) was unusually large for its time

(C) was not able to compete with humans

(D) caused the extinction of several species

7. The word they in line 22 refers to

(A) human hunters

(B) game animals

(C) other predators

(D) large mammals

8. According to the passage , what is one difference between the hunting done by some humans

and the hunting done by gray wolves?

(A) Some humans hunt more frequently than gray wolves.

(B) Gray wolves hunt in larger groups than some humans.

(C) Some humans can hunt larger animals than gray wolves can hunt.

(D) Some humans prey on animals of all ages, but gray wolves concentrate their efforts on young

animals.

9. The word favored in line 26 is closest in meaning to

(A) large

(B) escaping

(C) preferred

(D) local

10. According to the passage , the imbalances discussed in paragraph 3 may have resulted from

(A) the effect of climate changes on large game animals

(B) large animals moving into a new environment

(C) humans hunting some species more than others

(D) older animals not being able to compete with younger animals

PASSAGE 75 ADABC CCDCC

托福阅读真题3

Under the Earth's topsoil, at various levels, sometimes under a layer of rock, there are deposits of clay. Look at cuts where highways have been built to see exposed clay beds; or look at a construction site, where pockets of clay may be exposed. Rivers also reveal clay along their banks, and erosion on a hillside may make clay easily accessible. What is clay made of? The Earth's surface is basically rock, and it is this rock that gradually decomposes into clay. Rain, streams, alternating freezing and thawing, roots of trees and plants forcing their way into cracks, earthquakes, volcanic action, and glaciers — all of these forces slowly break down the Earth's exposed rocky crust into smaller and smaller pieces that eventually become clay.

Rocks are composed of elements and compounds of elements. Feldspar, which is the most abundant mineral on the Earth's surface, is basically made up of the oxides silica and alumina combined with alkalis like potassium and some so-called impurities such as iron. Feldspar is an essential component of granite rocks, and as such it is the basis of clay. When it is wet, clay can be easily shaped to make a variety of useful objects, which can then be fired to varying degrees of hardness and covered with impermeable decorative coatings of glasslike material called glaze. Just as volcanic action, with its intense heat, fuses the elements in certain rocks into a glasslike rock called obsidian, so can we apply heat to earthen materials and change them into a hard, dense material. Different clays need different heat levels to fuse, and some, the low-fire clays, never become nonporous and watertight like highly fired stoneware. Each clay can stand only a certain amount of heat without losing its shape through sagging or melting. Variations of clay composition and the temperatures at which they are fired account for the differences in texture and appearance between a china teacup and an earthenware flowerpot.

1. The author's main point in paragraph 1 is that clay deposits

(A) conceal layers of rock

(B) can be found in various places

(C) are usually small

(D) must be removed from construction sites

2. It can be inferred from the passage that clay is LEAST likely to be plentiful in which of the following areas?

(A) in desert sand dunes

(B) in forests

(C) on hillsides

(D) near rivers

3. The word accessible in line 4 is closest in meaning to

(A) buried

(B) improved

(C) available

(D) workable

4. According to the passage , rock breaks down into clay under all of the following conditions

EXCEPT when

(A) it is exposed to freezing and thawing

(B) roots of trees force their way into cracks

(C) it is combined with alkalis

(D) natural forces wear away the Earth's crust

5. Why does the author mention feldspar in line 10?

(A) It is often used as a substitute for clay.

(B) It is damaged by the oxides in clay.

(C) Its presence indicates inferior clay.

(D) It is a major component of clay.

6. The word it in line 13 refers to

(A) iron

(B) feldspar

(C) granite

(D) clay

7. Based on the information in the passage , it can be inferred that low-fire clays are MOST

appropriate for making objects that

(A) must be strong

(B) can be porous

(C) have a smooth texture

(D) are highly decorated

8. The phrase account for in line 22 is closest in meaning to

(A) reduce

(B) explain

(C) combine with

(D) list all of

9. The passage supports which of the following conclusions?

(A) Clay deposits are only found deep in the Earth.

(B) If clay contains too much iron it will melt when fired.

(C) Only certain types of clay are appropriate for making china teacups.

(D) If sufficient heat is applied, all clay will become nonporous.

PASSAGE 76 BACCD BBBC

TOEFL阅读理解真题整合

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