20140517托福考试阅读考题回顾

新托福阅读考题回顾
朗阁海外考试研究中心刘翠云考试日期2014.05.17
Passage 1
Title: Animal Migration 动物迁徙
大致内容讲动物orientation的方式，迁徙根据cognitive map, 举了几个例子，一种灰鲸，用从左边走coastline, 回来从右边走的方法，鸟可
以用sun和star导航，还需要一种inner mechanism, 因为它们需
要适应movement of celestial, 但是内在机制人们并不了解，而且
还提到至少有一个物种不需要这种inner, 还有一种monarch butterfly, 在夏季的迁徙地产卵和死去，后代直接飞回来，还有的是
靠太阳和月亮，还讲了鸽子靠地磁。

相关阅读：What is Migration?
Most people think of migration as the seasonal movement of a flock of birds between their breeding and non-breeding sites. In fact, bird migration is probably the biological phenomenon that has attracted the most interest among non-scientists, and has one of the longest traditions of scientific investigation in biology (Berthold 2001). However, there are many other forms of animal migration, including journeys between east and west, complex round-trips involving land and ocean, altitudinal journeys up and down mountains, and vertical movements through the water column of oceans and lakes (Hoare 2009). What sets migration apart from other forms of movements is that migration typically involves travelling from one type of habitat to another (Aidley 1981).
Perhaps the best-known insect migrant is the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) (Figure 3a). At the end of every summer, more than 100 million individuals sweep across North America to overwinter up to 4,750 km further south in California and Mexico. The complete migration requires an intergenerational relay. No single individual makes the entire round trip, as the duration of these journeys exceeds their lifespan. Instead, the females lay eggs during the migration, from which the next generation of migrants emerges. Monarchs specialize on milkweeds (Asclepiadaceae), which contain substances that are poisonous to vertebrates and thus protect the monarch from many potential
enemies (Dingle 1996).
The common name of the southern right whale (Eubalaena
australis) (Figure 3b) refers to the fact that they were considered
the ‘right’ whale to hunt. They are slow-moving and have large
amounts of blubber, which meant that they floated after being
killed. Many tens of thousands were slaughtered until the
international whaling ban in 1935. Southern right whales migrate
from their Antarctic feeding areas to temperate breeding areas
along the costs of Chile and Argentina, southern Africa, and
Australia and New Zealand, covering 2,500 km each way. Their
migration is fuelled entirely by fat accumulated during their
four-month stay in the icy Southern Ocean around Antarctica,
where they skim the surface waters for zooplankton. Amazingly,
they will not feed until their return a year later (Hoare 2009) Passage 2
Title: Camera Obscura 针孔摄像机
大致内容讲摄影暗盒技术obscura, 一个人叫hockney的英国当代画家，研究了400个画家，来佐证中世纪的人用暗盒来辅助绘画，以维米尔做例子，讲了他的画the painting room如何被认为是使用了该技术。

因为没人造访，也没有学生，很有可能他在偷偷使用这种技术。

analyzing的过程中，并没有看到画层中有canvas使用的痕迹，但是有sketch outline, 这种技术lead to realistic and detailed painting, 后面提到了一些画家均使用过，还总结了一幅画中使用该技术的特征，最后说了这个技术并不能抹杀画家本身的实力。

Passage 3
Title: Habitat Selection 栖息地选择
大致内容讲栖息地的选择，一个叫sale的科学家，总结出了栖息地的寻找和选择，是因为多重cue综合而来的一种应激反应，他驳斥了是固有模式的说法，举了一种鱼实验的例子，然后还提到了这种说法无法解释，一种鸟会根据所受日照时间来选择栖息地，最后说这种模式目前还有待研究。

相关阅读：
Habitat selection refers to a hierarchical process of behavioral responses that may result in the disproportionate use of habitats to influence survival and fitness of individuals (Jones 2001). There are many factors that are involved with an organism choice of habitat. In Zoology 507 we have learned a great deal about these factors and how they apply to conservation research.
Two major questions about habitat selection -- what determines
the range of habitats in which a species occurs, and how does
each individual determine when it's in an appropriate habitat?
The first question is evolutionary: how has natural selection
shaped habitat choices? The second is behavioral: what cues
does a bird use in "choosing" its home? We put choosing in
quotes to emphasize the presumed absence of conscious choice.
Indeed, some ecologists employ the term "habitat use rather than
"habitat selection" to avoid the connotation of birds making
deliberate decisions among habitat alternatives.
Some groups of birds are much more habitat-specific than others.
Our wood warblers (tribe Parulini) are generally much more tied
to certain habitats, and tend to restrict the height at which they
forage much more closely than do many Old World warblers
(family Sylviidae). In most cases the latter do not show the sort of
specialization that restricts the Pine Warbler largely to pine and
cedar groves, and separates and Ovenbird and Black-and-white
Warbler (which occur in a wide variety of vegetation types) by
foraging preference. The former searches the ground and the
latter gleans tree trunks and limbs. The behavioral differences
between the superficially similar New World and Old World
warblers indicate that evolution has, to a degree, genetically
programmed habitat choice.
But the habitat preferences that evolution has programmed into a
species are not cast in concrete. Local populations may respond
either genetically or behaviorally to special conditions by
changing the habitats they occupy. For instance, in a classic
study ornithologist Kenneth Crowell compared the ecology of
Northern Cardinals, Gray Catbirds, and White-eyed Vireos in
eastern North America and on the island of Bermuda. On the
mainland all three species prefer forest edge sites, and the
catbird and vireo tend to select habitats near water. On Bermuda,
which is largely dry and devoid of forest, dense populations of all
three species are found in areas of scrub.
点评：
词汇题：pertinent, intricate, crude, apparent等。

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