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97年8月托福考试阅读理解全真试题

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Medal No.2

Medal No.12

踏雪无痕 2008-08-05 15:12 | 只看楼主 树型| 收藏| 小中大 1 ^#

97年8月托福考试阅读理解全真试题

Question 1-10
In the 1600 s when the Spanish moved into what later
was to become the southwestern United States, they encoun-
tered the ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo, Hopi, and Zuni
peoples. These ancestors, known variously as the Basket
Makers, the Anasazi, or the Ancient Ones, had lived in the
area for at least 2,000 years. They were an advanced agricultural
people who used irrigation to help grow their crops.

The Anasazi lived in houses constructed of adobe and
wood. Anasazi houses were originally built in pits and were
entered from the roof. But around the year 700 A.D., the
Anasazi began to build their homes above ground and join them
together into rambling multistoried complexes, which the
Spanish called pueblos or villages. Separate subterranean rooms
in these pueblos---known as kivas or chapels---were set aside
for religious ceremonials. Each kiva had a fire pit and a hole
that was believed to lead to the underworld. The largest pueblos
had five stories and more than 800 rooms.

The Anasazi family was matrilineal, that is, descent was
traced through the female. The sacred objects of the family
were under the control of the oldest female, but the actual
ceremonies were conducted by her brother or son. Women owned
the rooms in the pueblo and the crops, once they were harvested.
While still growing, crops belonged to the man who,
in contrast to most other Native American groups, planted
them. The women made baskets and pottery, the men wove
textile and crafted turquoise jewelry.

Each village had two chiefs. The village chief dealt with
land disputes and religious affairs. The war chief led the men
in fighting during occasional conflicts that broke out with
neighboring villages and directed the men in community building
projects. The cohesive political and social organization of
the Anasazi made it almost impossible for other groups to
conquer them.

1. The Anasazi people were considered "agriculturally advanced" because of the way they

(A) stored their crops
(B) fertilized their fields.
(C) watered their crops.
(D) planted their fields.

2.The Anasazi people were considered "agriculturally advanced" because of the way they

(A) stored their crops
(B) fertilized their fields
(C) watered their crops
(D) planted their fields

3.The word "pits" in line 9 is closest in meaning to

(A) stages
(B) scars
(C) seeds
(D) holes.

4.The word "stories" in line 17 is closest in meaning to

(A) articles
(B) tales
(C) levels
(D) rumors

5.Who would have been most likely to control the sacred objects of an Anasazi family?

(A) A twenty-year-old man
(B) A twenty-year-old woman
(C) A forty-year-old man
(D) A forty-year-old woman

6.The word "they" in line 22 refers to

(A) women
(B) crops
(C) rooms
(D) pueblos

7.The word "disputes" in line 28 is closest in meaning to

(A) discussions
(B) arguments
(C) developments
(D) purchases

8.Which of the following activities was NOT done by Anasazi men?

(A) Making baskets
(B) Planting crops
(C) Building homes
(D) Crafting jewelry.

9.According to the passage, what made it almost impossible for other groups to conquer the Anasazi?

(A) The political and social organization of the Anasazi
(B) The military tactics employed by the Anasazi
(C) The Anasazi s agricultural technology.
(D) The natural barriers surrounding Anasazi willages.

10.The passage supports which of the following generalizations?

(A) The presence of the Spanish threatened Anasazi society.
(B) The Anasazi benefited from trading relations with the Spanish.
(C) Anasazi society exhibited a well-defined division of labor.
(D) Conflicts between neighboring Anasazi villages were easily resolved.

Question 10-20

Barbed wire, first patented in the United States in 1867,
played an important part in the development of American
farming, as it enabled the settlers to make effective fencing to
enclose their land and keep cattle away from their crops. This
had a considerable effect on cattle ranching, since the herds no
longer had unrestricted use of the plans for grazing, and the
fencing led to conflict between the farmers and the cattle
ranchers.

Before barbed wire came into general use, fencing was often
made from serrated wire, which was unsatisfactory because
it broke easily when under strain, and could snap in cold
weather due to contraction. The first practical machine for
producing barbed wire was invented in 1874 by an Illinois
farmer, and between then and the end of the century about
400 types of barbed wire were devised, of which only about a
dozen were ever put to practical use.

Modern barbed wire is made from mild steel high-tensile
steel, or aluminum. Mild steel and aluminum barbed wire
have two strands twisted together to form a cable which is
stronger than single-strand wire and less affected by temperature
changes. Single-strand wire, round or oval, is made from
high-tensile steel with the barbs crimped or welded on . The
steel wires used are galvanized - coated with zinc to make
them rustproof. The two wires that make up the line wire or
cable are fed separately into a machine at one end. They leave
it at the other end twisted-together and barbed. The wire to
make the barbs is fed into the machine from the sides and cut
to length by knives that cut diagonally through the wire to
produce a sharp point. This process continues automatically,
and the finished barbed wire is wound onto reels, usually made
of wire in length of 400 meters or in weights of up to 50
kilograms.

A variation of barbed wire is also used for military
purposes. It is formed into long coils or entanglements called
concertina wire.

11.What is the main topic of the passage?

(A) Cattle ranching in the United States.
(B) A type of fencing
(C) Industrial uses of wire
(D) A controversy over land use.

12.The word "unrestricted" in line 5 is closest in meaning to

(A) unsatisfactory
(B) difficult
(C) considerable
(D) unlimited

13.The word "snap" in line 10 could best be replaced by which of the following?

(A) freeze
(B) click
(C) loosen
(D) break

14.What is the benefit of using two-stranded barbed wire?

(A) Improved rust-resistance
(B) Increased strength
(C) More rapid attachment of barbs
(D) Easier installation.

15.According to the author, the steel wires used to make barbed wire are specially processed to
(A) protect them against rust
(B) make them more flexible
(C) prevent contraction in cold weather
(D) straighten them.

16.The word "fed" in line 24 is closest in meaning to

(A) put
(B) eaten
(C) bitten
(D) nourished

17.The knives referred to in line 27 are used to

(A) separate double-stranded wire
(B) prevent the reel from advancing too rapidly
(C) twist the wire
(D) cut the wire that becomes barbs

18.What is the author s purpose in the third paragraph?

(A) To explain the importance of the wire.
(B) To outline the difficulty of making the wire
(C) To describe how the wire is made
(D) To suggest several different uses of the wire.

19.According to the passage, concertina wire is used for

(A) livestock management
(B) international communications
(C) prison enclosures
(D) military purposes.

20.Which of the following most closely resembles the fencing described in the passage?

(A) （图）
(B) （图）
(C) （图）
(D) （图）

Question 21-29

Under certain circumstance the human body must cope
with gases at greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure. For
example, gas pressures increase rapidly during a dive made
with scuba gear because the breathing equipment allows divers
to stay underwater longer and dive deeper. The pressure
exerted on the human body increases by 1 atmosphere for every
10 meters of depth in seawater, so that at 30 meters in seawater
a diver is exposed to a pressure of about 4 atmospheres.
The pressure of the gases being breathed must equal the
external pressure applied to the body; otherwise breathing is very
difficult. Therefore all of the gases in the air breathed by a
scuba diver at 40 meters are present at five times their usual
pressure. Nitrogen which composes 80 percent of the air we
breathe usually causes a balmy feeling of well-being at this
pressure. At a depth of 5 atmospheres nitrogen causes symp-
toms resembling alcohol intoxication known as nitrogen narcosis.
Nitrogen narcosis apparently results from a direct effect
on the brain of the large amounts of nitrogen dissolved in the
blood. Deep dives are less dangerous if helium is substituted
for nitrogen, because under these pressures helium does not
exert a similar narcotic effect.

As a scuba diver descends, the pressure of nitrogen in the
lungs increases. Nitrogen then diffuses from the lungs to the
blood and from the blood to body tissues. The reverse occurs
when the diver surfaces; the nitrogen pressure in the lungs
falls and the nitrogen diffuses from the tissues into the blood
and from the blood into the lungs. If the return to the surface
is too rapid, nitrogen in the tissues and blood cannot diffuse
out rapidly enough and nitrogen bubbles are formed . They can
cause severe pains, particularly around the joints.

Another complication may result if the breath is held dur-
ing ascent. During ascent from a depth of 10 meters, the
volume of air in the lungs will double because the air pressure at
the surface is only half of what it was at 10 meters. This
change in volume may cause the lungs to distend and even rup-
ture. This condition is called air embolism. To avoid this
event, a diver must ascent slowly, never at a rate exceeding
the rise of the exhaled air bubbles, and must exhale during
ascent.

21.What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The equipment divers use
(B) The effects of pressure on gases in the human body
(C) How to prepare for a deep dive
(D) The symptoms of nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream.

22.The word "exposed to" in line 8 are closest in meaning to

(A) leaving behind
(B) prepared for
(C) propelled by
(D) subjected to

23.The word "exert" in line 21 is closest in meaning to

(A) cause
(B) permit
(C) need
(D) change

24.The word "diffuses" in line 23 is closest in meaning to

(A) yields
(B) starts
(C) surfaces
(D) travels

25.What happens to nitrogen in body tissues if a diver ascends too quickly.

(A) It forms bubbles
(B) It goes directly to the brain
(C) It is reabsorbed by the lungs.
(D) It has a narcotic effect.

26.The word "They" in line 29 refers to

(A) joints
(B) pains
(C) bubbles
(D) tissues.

27.The word "rupture" in line 36 is closest in meaning to

(A) hurt
(B) shrink
(C) burst
(D) stop

28.It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following presents the greatest danger to a diver?

(A) Pressurized helium
(B) Nitrogen diffusion
(C) Nitrogen bubbles
(D) An air embolism

29.What should a diver do when ascending?

(A) Rise slowly
(B) Breathe faster
(C) Relax completely
(D) Breathe helium.

Question 29-38

Each advance in microscopic technique has provided
scientists with new perspectives on the function of living
organisms and the nature of matter itself. The invention of the
visible-light microscope late in the sixteenth century introduced a
previously unknown realm of single-celled plants and animals.
In the twentieth century, electron microscopes have provided
direct views of viruses and minuscule surface structures. Now
another type of microscope, one that utilize x-rays rather than
light or electrons, offers a different way of examining tiny
details, it should extend human perception still farther into the
natural world.

The dream of building an x-ray microscope dates to
1895, its development, however, was virtually halted in the
1940 s because the development of the electron microscope
was progressing rapidly. During the 1940 s electron micro-
scopes routinely achieved resolution better than that possible
with a visible-light microscope, while the performance of x-ray
microscopes resisted improvement. In recent years, however,
interest in x-ray microscopes has revived, largely because of
advances such as the development of new sources of x-ray
illumination. As a result, the brightness available today is
millions of times that of x-ray tubes, which, for most of the
century, were the only available sources of soft x-rays.

The new x-ray microscopes considerably improve on the
resolution provided by optical microscopes. They can also be
used to map the distribution of certain chemical elements.
Some can form pictures in extremely short times, others hold
the promise of special capabilities such as three dimensional
imaging. Unlike conventional electron microscopy, x-ray
microscopy enables specimens to be kept in air and in water,
which means that biological samples can be studied under
conditions similar to their natural state. The illumination used,
so-called soft x-rays in the wavelength range of twenty to forty
angstroms (an angstrom is one ten-billionth of a meter), is
also sufficiently penetrating to image intact biological cells in
many cases. Because of the wavelength of the x-rays used,
soft x-ray microscopes will never match the highest resolution
possible with electron microscopes. Rather, their special pro-
perties will make possible investigations that will complement
those performed with light- and electron-based instruments.

30.What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The detail seen through a microscope
(B) Sources of illumination for microscopes
(C) A new kind of microscope
(D) Outdated microscopic technique

31.According to the passage, the invention of the visible-light microscope allowed scientists to

(A) see viruses directly
(B) develop the electron microscope later on
(C) understand more about the distribution of the chemical elements
(D) discover single celled plants and animals they had never seen before.

32.The word "minuscule" in line 7 is closest in meaning to

(A) circular
(B) dangerous
(C) complex
(D) tiny

33.The word "it" in line 10 refers to

(A) a type of microscope
(B) human perception
(C) the natural world
(D) light

34.Why does the another mention me visible light microscope in the first paragraph?

(A) To begin a discussion of sixteenth century discoveries.
(B) To put the x-ray microscope in historical perspective
(C) To show how limited its uses are
(D) To explain how it functioned

35.Why did it take so long to develop the x-ray microscope?

(A) Funds for research were insufficient.
(B) The source of illumination was not bright enough until recently.
(C) Materials used to manufacture x-ray tubes were difficult to obtain
(D) X-ray microscopes were too complicated to operate.

36.The word "enables" in line 30 is closest in meaning to

(A) constitutes
(B) specifies
(C) expands
(D) allows

37.The word "Rather" in line 38 is closest in meaning to

(A) significantly
(B) preferably
(C) somewhat
(D) instead

38.The word "those" in line 40 refers to

(A) properties
(B) investigations
(C) microscopes
(D) x-rays

39.Based on the information in the passage, what can be inferred about x-ray microscopes in the future?

(A) They will probably replace electron microscopes altogether.
(B) They will eventually be much cheaper to produce than they are now.
(C) They will provide information not available from other kinds of microscopes.
(D) They will eventually change the illumination range that they now use.

Question 40-50

Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its
freshness, its originality of perspective. Satire rarely offers
original ideas. Instead it presents the familiar in a new form.
Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies. What they
do is look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes
these conditions seem foolish, harmful or affected. Satire jars
us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that
many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false. Don
Quixote makes chivalry seem absurd, Brave New World
ridicules the pretensions of science, A Modest proposal
dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas
is original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists
objected to the claims of pure science before Aldous Huxley
and people were aware of famine before Swift.

It was not the
originality of the idea that made these satires popular. It was
the manner of expression the satiric method that made them
interesting and entertaining. Satires are read because they are
aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are
morally wholesome or ethically instructive. They are stimulat-ing and refreshing because with commonsense briskness they
brush away illusions and secondhand opinions. With spontaneous
irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles
familiar objects into incongruous juxtaposition and speaks in a
personal idiom instead of abstract platitude.

Satire exists because there is need for it. It has lived
because readers appreciate a refreshing stimulus, an irreverent
reminder that they lived in a world of platitudinous thinking,
cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod
people into an awareness of truth though rarely to any action
on behalf of truth. Satire tends to remind people that much of
what they see, hear, and read in popular media is sanctimonious,
sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles in
only a slight degree the popular image of it. Soldiers rarely
hold the ideals that movies attribute to them, nor do ordinary
citizens devote their lives to unselfish service of humanity.
Intelligent people know these things but tend to forget them
when they do not hear them expressed.

40.What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) Difficulties of writing satiric literature.
(B) Popular topics of satire
(C) New philosophies emerging from satiric literature
(D) Reasons for the popularity of satire.

41.The word "realization" in line 7 is closest in meaning to

(A) certainly
(B) awareness
(C) surprise
(D) confusion

42.Why does the author mention Don Quirote, Brave New World and A Modest Proposal in lines 8-10?

(A) They are famous examples of satiric literature
(B) They present commonsense solutions to problems.
(C) They are appropriate for readers of all ages.
(D) They are books with similar stories.

43.The word "aesthetically" in line 18 is closest in meaning to

(A) artistically
(B) exceptionally
(C) realistically
(D) dependably

44.Which of the following can be found in satire literature?

(A) Newly emerging philosophies
(B) Odd combinations of objects and ideas
(C) Abstract discussion of moral and ethnics
(D) Wholesome characters who are unselfish.

45.According to the passage, there is a need for satire because people need to be

(A) informed about new scientific developments
(B) exposed to original philosophies when they are formulated
(C) reminded that popular ideas are often inaccurate
(D) told how they can be of service to their communities.

46.The word "refreshing" in line 26 is closest in meaning to

(A) popular
(B) ridiculous
(C) meaningful
(D) unusual

47.The word "they" in line 31 refers to

(A) people
(B) media
(C) ideals
(D) movies

48.The word "devote" in line 35 is closest in meaning to

(A) distinguish
(B) feel affection
(C) prefer
(D) dedicate

49.As a result of reading satiric literature, readers will be most likely to

(A) teach themselves to write fiction
(B) accept conventional points of view
(C) become better informed about current affairs
(D) reexamine their opinions and values

50.The various purposes of satire include all of the following EXCEPT

(A) introducing readers to unfamiliar situations
(B) brushing away illusions
(C) reminding readers of the truth
(D) exposing false values.

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