托福TPO46综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文
托福TPO46口语Task6听力文本+题目+满分范文
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO46口语Task6听力文本+题目+满分范文，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO46口语Task6听力文本： Listen to part of a lecture in a psychology class. When we think about the past, when we try to remember the past, we remember somethings better than others. Why is that? Well, there are a few different explanations. One explanation is that we remember something better if we already have some previous knowledge about it, some previous understanding of it. For example, let's say you are going to go to a classical music concert. If you don't know anything about classical music before you go to the concert, you probably won't remember many details of the concert later on. For example, if somebody asks you about the concert a year later, you probably won't remember what pieces the orchestra played, what order they played them in and so on. On the other hand, if you already know a lot about classical music before you go to the concert, for example, if you've been studying and playing classical music for many years, it's probably going to be much easier for you to recall the details of the concert later on. Another explanation is that we remember better when there's something unusual ordifferent about what we are trying to remember. For example, let's say you are in aclass at a university, a big class with over a hundred students in it. A year later, which of those a hundred students are you mostly likely to remember? Probably the ones who were unusual or different in some way, maybe a man who was exceptionally tall, or a woman who was exceptionally intelligent. The fact that these students were somehow different from the other students will make them easier to remember. 托福TPO46口语Task6题目： Using points and examples from the lecture, give two explanations for why we may remember some things better than others. 托福TPO46口语Task6满分范文： In the lecture, the professor talks about a psychology phenomenon that when we think about or try to remember the past, we remember some things better than others and illustrates two explanations for this. One explanation is that we remember something better if we already have some previous knowledge about or understanding of it. For example, if you don’t know anything about classical music before going to the concert, you probably won’t remember many details of the concert later on. On the contrary, if you already know a lot or you’ve been studying and playing classicmusic for many years, it’s probably going to be easier to recall the details later on. Another explanation is that we remember better when there’s something unusual or different about what we are trying to remember. For example, you will probably only remember the ones who were unusual or different in a big class with over a hundred students a year later. 以上是给大家整理的托福TPO46口语Task6听力文本+题目+满分范文，希望对你有所帮助!。
托福TPO46阅读Passage1原文文本+题目+答案解析
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO46阅读Passage1原文文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
The Origins of Writing It was in Egypt and Mesopotamia(modern-day Iraq)that civilization arose,and it is there that we find the earliest examples of that key feature of civilization,writing.These examples,in the form of inscribed clay tablets that date to shortly before 3000 B.C.E.,have been discovered among the archaeological remains of the Sumerians,a gifted people settled in southern Mesopotamia. The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing,but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material.In ancient times the banks of the Nile were lined with papyrus plants,and from the papyrus reeds the Egyptians made a form of paper;it was excellent in quality but,like any paper,fragile.Mesopotamia’s rivers boasted no such useful reeds,but its land did provide good clay,and as a consequence the clay tablet became the standard material.Though clumsy and bulky it has a virtue dear to archaeologists:it is durable.Fire,for example,which is death to papyrus paper or other writing materials such as leather and wood,simply bakes it hard,thereby making it even more durable.So when a conqueror set a Mesopotamian palace ablaze,he helped ensure the survival of any clay tablets in it.Clay,moreover,is cheap,and forming it into tablets is easy,factors that helped the clay tablet become the preferred writing material not only throughout Mesopotamia but far outside it as well,in Syria,Asia Minor,Persia,and even for a while in Crete and Greece.Excavators have unearthed clay tablets in all these lands.In the Near East they remained in use for more than two and a half millennia,and in certain areas they lasted down to the beginning of the common era until finally yielding,once and for all,to more convenient alternatives. The Sumerians perfected a style of writing suited to clay.This script consists of simple shapes,basically just wedge shapes and lines that could easily be incised in soft clay with a reed or wooden stylus;scholars have dubbed it cuneiform from the wedge-shaped marks(cunei in Latin)that are its hallmark.Although the ingredients are merely wedges and lines,there are hundreds of combinations of these basic forms that stand for different sounds or words.Learning these complex signs required long training and much practice;inevitably,literacy was largely limited to a small professional class,the scribes. The Akkadians conquered the Sumerians around the middle of the third millennium B.C.E.,and they took over the various cuneiform signs used for writing Sumerian and gave them sound and word values that fit their own language.■A The Babylonians and Assyrians did the same,and so did peoples in Syria and Asia Minor.■B The literature of the Sumerians was treasured throughout the Near East,and long after Sumerian ceased to be spoken,the Babylonians and Assyrians and others kept it alive as a literarylanguage,the way Europeans kept Latin alive after the fall of Rome.■C For the scribes of these non-Sumerian languages,training was doubly demanding since they had to know the values of the various cuneiform signs for Sumerian as well as for their own language.■D The contents of the earliest clay tablets are simple notations of numbers of commodities—animals,jars,baskets,etc.Writing,it would appear,started as a primitive form of bookkeeping.Its use soon widened to document the multitudinous things and acts that are involved in daily life,from simple inventories of commodities to complicated governmental rules and regulations. Archaeologists frequently find clay tablets in batches.The batches,some of which contain thousands of tablets,consist for the most part of documents of the types just mentioned:bills,deliveries,receipts,inventories,loans,marriage contracts,divorce settlements,court judgments,and so on.These records of factual matters were kept in storage to be available for reference—they were,in effect,files,or,to use the term preferred by specialists in the ancient Near East,archives.Now and then these files include pieces of writing that are of a distinctly different order,writings that do not merely record some matter of fact but involve creative intellectual activity.They range from simple textbook material to literature and they make an appearance very early,even from the third millennium B.C.E. Paragraph 1 It was in Egypt and Mesopotamia(modern-day Iraq)that civilization arose,and it is there that we find the earliest examples of that key feature of civilization,writing.These examples,in the form of inscribed clay tablets that date to shortly before 3000 B.C.E.,have been discovered among the archaeological remains of the Sumerians,a gifted people settled in southern Mesopotamia. 1.The word“key”in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to A.frequent B.essential C.original D.familiar Paragraph 2 The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing,but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material.In。
托福听力tpo46 lecture1、2、3、4 原文+题目+答案+译文
托福听力tpo46lecture1、2、3、4原文+题目+答案+译文Lecture1 (2)原文 (2)题目 (4)答案 (6)译文 (6)Lecture2 (8)原文 (8)题目 (10)答案 (12)译文 (12)Lecture3 (14)原文 (14)题目 (16)答案 (18)译文 (18)Lecture4 (19)原文 (19)题目 (22)答案 (24)译文 (24)Lecture1原文NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.FEMALE PROFESSOR:I'd like to continue our discussion of animal behavior and start off today's class by focusing on a concept we haven't yet touched upon—swarm intelligence.Swarm intelligence is a collective behavior that emerges from a group of animals,like a colony of termites,a school of fish,or a flock of birds.Let's first consider the principles behind swarm intelligence,and we'll use the ant as our model.Now,an ant on its own is not that smart.When you have a group of ants,however, there you have efficiency in action.You see,there's no leader running an ant colony. Each individual,each individual ant operates by instinctively following a simple set of rules when foraging for food.Rule number1:Deposit a chemical marker…called a pheromone.And rule2:Follow the strongest pheromone path.The strongest pheromone path is advantageous to ants seeking food.So,for example,when ants leave the nest,they deposit a pheromone trail along the route they take.If they find food,they return to the nest on the same path and the pheromone trail gets stronger—it's doubled in strength.Because an ant that took a shorter path returns first,its pheromone trail is stronger,and other ants will follow it, according to rule2.And as more ants travel that path,the pheromone trail gets even stronger.So,what's happening here?Each ant follows two very basic rules,and each ant acts on information it finds in its immediate local environment.And it's important to note: Even though none of the individual ants is aware of the bigger plan,they collectively choose the shortest path between the nest and a food source because it's the most reinforced path.By the way,a-a few of you have asked me about the relevance of what we're studying to everyday life.And swarm intelligence offers several good examples of how concepts in biology can be applied to other fields.Well,businesses have been able to use this approach of following simple rules when designing complex systems,for instance,in telephone networks.When a call is placed from one city to another,it has to connect through a number of nodes along the way.At each point,a decision has to be made:Which direction does the call go from here?Well,a computer program was developed to answer this question based on rules that are similar to the ones that ants use to find food.Remember,individual ants deposit pheromones,and they follow the path that is most reinforced.Now,in the phone network,a computer monitors the connection speed of each path, and identifies the paths that are currently the fastest—the least crowded parts of the network.And this information,converted into a numeric code,is deposited at the network nodes.This reinforces the paths that are least crowded at the moment. The rule the telephone network follows is to always select the path that is most reinforced.So,similar to the ant's behavior,at each intermediate node,the call follows the path that is most reinforced.This leads to an outcome which is beneficial to the network as a whole,and calls get through faster.But getting back to animal behavior,another example of swarm intelligence is the way flocks of birds are able to fly together so cohesively.How do they coordinate their movements and know where they're supposed to be?Well,it basically boils down to three rules that each bird seems to follow.Rule1:Stay close to nearby birds.Rule2:Avoid collision with nearby birds.And rule3:Move in the average speed and direction of nearby birds.Oh,and by the way,if you're wondering how this approach can be of practical use for humans:The movie industry had been trying to create computer-generated flocks of birds in movie scenes.The question was how to do it easily on a large scale?A researcher used these threerules in a computer graphics program,and it worked!There have also been attempts to create computer-generated crowds of people using this bird flocking model of swarm intelligence.However,I'm not surprised that more research is needed.The three rules I mentioned might be great for bird simulations,but they don't take into account the complexity and unpredictability of human behavior.So,if you want to create crowds of people in a realistic way,that computer model might be too limited.题目1.What is the lecture mainly about?A.Various methods that ants use to locate foodB.A collective behavior common to humans and animalsC.A type of animal behavior and its application by humansD.Strategies that flocks of birds use to stay in formation2.According to the professor,what behavior plays an important role in the way ants obtain food?A.Ants usually take a different path when they return to their nest.B.Ants leave chemical trails when they are outside the nest.C.Small groups of ants search in different locations.D.Ants leave pieces of food along the path as markers.3.What are two principles of swarm intelligence based on the ant example?[Click on2answers.]A.Individuals are aware of the group goal.B.Individuals act on information in their local environment.C.Individuals follow a leader's guidance.D.Individuals instinctively follow a set of rules.4.According to the professor,what path is followed by both telephone calls on a network and ants seeking food?A.The path with the least amount of activityB.The most crowded pathC.The path that is most reinforcedD.The path that has intermediate stopping points5.Why does the professor mention movies?A.To identify movie scenes with computer-simulated flocks of birdsB.To identify a good source of information about swarm intelligenceC.To emphasize how difficult it still is to simulate bird flightD.To explain that some special effects in movies are based on swarm intelligence6.What is the professor's attitude about attempts to create computer-generated crowds of people?A.She believes that the rules of birds'flocking behavior do not apply to group behavior in humans.B.She thinks that crowd scenes could be improved by using the behavior of ant colonies as a model.C.She is surprised by how realistic the computer-generated crowds are.D.She is impressed that computer graphics can create such a wide range of emotions.答案C B BD C D A译文下面听一段生物学讲座的片段。
托福TPO46口语Task4阅读文本+听力文本+题目+满分范文
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO46口语Task4阅读文本+听力文本+题目+满分范文，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO46口语Task4阅读文本： Warning Coloration Many animals have defense mechanisms that help protect them from predators. In some cases, these animals have distinct coloring that signals predators of the presence of such defenses. This type of coloring is called warning coloration. If a predator does not recognize the meaning of this coloration and attacks, it may suffer significant discomfort or injury when its would-be prey employs its defense mechanism. As a result, the predator learns to associate the warning coloration with negative consequences, and will from that point forward avoid attacking animals that have that coloration. 托福TPO46口语Task4听力文本： Now listen to part of a lecture in a biology class. We have a good example of this with the skunk. As most of you know, the skunk is a furry little mammal that can be found throughout North America. Skunks have a very distinctive marking. Their body is mostly black, and they have a big white stripe that runs from the top of their head all the way down their back and along their big bushy tail. So they're very easy to see and very easy to recognize even from a distance. Skunks also have special glands under their tail that produce a terrible, smelling liquid. And when skunks are approached by a predator, they lift their tail and spray the predator with this liquid. For example, let's say a wolf is preparing to attack a skunk. As the wolf approaches, the skunk lifts its tail and sprays the wolf. That's very very unpleasant for the wolf because it's now covered with this repulsive, foul-smelling liquid. The wolf doesn't want to be sprayed again, so it backs off and leaves the skunk alone. And from then on, whenever that wolf sees a furry, little black body with a big white stripe running from its head to its tail, it'll recall that terrible smell and it'll be sure to stay far away. 托福TPO46口语Task4题目： Explain how the professor’s example from the lecture illustrates warning coloration. 托福TPO46口语Task4满分范文： Warning coloration refers to a type of coloring that animals have to signal predators of the presence of defenses. In the lecture, the professor uses skunk as an example to illustrate this term. Skunks have a big white stripe that runs from the top of the head down their back and along the big bushy tail. The special glands under their tail can produce a terrible, smelling liquid. When a wolf is preparing to attack a skunk, the skunk lifts its tail and sprays the wolf. So the wolf backs off and leaves the skunk alone. From then on, whenever the wolf sees the skunk, it will recall the terrible smell and stay far away from it. 以上是给大家整理的托福TPO46口语Task4阅读文本+听力文本+题目+满分范文，希望对你有所帮助!。
托福TPO46口语Task3阅读文本+听力文本+题目+满分范文
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO46口语Task3阅读文本+听力文本+题目+满分范文，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO46口语Task3阅读文本： No More Posters Outside the Student Center Traditionally, students have been permitted to put up posters advertising events, clubs, and activities on the concrete wall outside the main entrance to the student center. Beginning next semester, however, students will no longer be allowed to attach anything to the front of the building. According to a university official, the new policy is part of an effort to improve the campus’s appearance. “The posters on the wall make the building unattractive," he said, "so they have to come down." He added that posters can instead be displayed in the dining hall: "Students can use the bulletin board in the dining hall for posters, so the policy change should not be a problem. 托福TPO46口语Task3听力文本： Now listen to two students discussing the article Woman：It's really too bad about this new policy. Man：Why do you say that? Woman：Well, I mean, you don't notice it so much now, but if you take a good look at that building, it's pretty boring, just your basic square building with gray concrete walls and no kind of ornamentation or anything to make it interesting. Man：Yes. I guess that's true now that I think about it. Woman：Yeah. The stuff that goes up there now, a lot of it is artistic and colorful, it gives the building character and personality. Man：True. Woman：Plus, it's always changing and that's cool too. Man：Yeah. You are right. Woman：So what's gonna be left? A boring old concrete wall. Man：Yeah. I guess it will be kind of plain. Woman：Yeah. And the idea about the dining hall.not everybody eats there. A lot of students eat at the Snack Bar or off campus. Some students bring lunch from home and eat outside under the trees. Man：That's true. I never eat in the dining hall. Woman：Okay. See what I mean? So how are you going to see those announcements? Man：I won't. Woman：I rest my case. 托福TPO46口语Task3题目： The woman expresses her opinion about the new policy. Briefly describe the policy. Then state the woman’s opinion about the policy, and explain the reasons she gives for holding that opinion. 托福TPO46口语Task3满分范文： According to the university official, students will no longer be allowed to attach anything to the front of the building beginning next semester because the posters on the wall make the building unattractive and posters will be displayed in the dining hall. However, in the conversation, the girl thinks it is too bad about the new policy. Firstly, the posters there make the basic square building with gray concrete walls artistic and colorful. It also gives the building character and personality. Secondly, the stuff on the wall is always changing and it is cool. Besides, not everybody eats at the dining hall, so the posters in the dining hall is meaningless. 以上是给大家整理的托福TPO46口语Task3阅读文本+听力文本+题目+满分范文，希望对你有所帮助!。
TPO-46 阅读文本和对应题目文本 第2篇
2.The Commercial Revolution in Medieval EuropeBeginning in the 1160s, the opening of new silver mines in northern Europe led to the minting and circulation of vast quantities of silver coins. The widespread use of cash greatly increased the volume of international trade. Business procedures changed radically. The individual traveling merchant who alone handled virtually all aspects of exchange evolved into an operation invoh/ing three separate types of merchants: the sedentary merchant who ran the "home of fice," financing and organizing the firm’s entire export-import trade; the carriers who transported goods by land and sea; and the company agents resident in cities abroad who, on the advice of the home office, looked after sales and procurements.Commercial correspondence, unnecessary when one businessperson oversaw everything and made direct bargains with buyers and sellers, multiplied. Regular courier service among commercial cities began. Commercial accounting became more complex when firms had to deal with shareholders, manufacturers, customers, branch offices, employees, and competing firms. Tolls on roads became high enough to finance what has been called a road revolution, involving new surfaces and bridges, new passes through the Alps, and new inns and hospices for travelers. The growth of mutual trust among merchants facilitated the growth of sales on credit and led to new developments in finance, such as the bill of exchange, a device that made the long, slow, and very dangerous shipment of coins unnecessary.The ventures of the German Hanseatic League illustrate these advancements. The Hanseatic League was a mercantile association of European towns dating from 1159. The league grew by the end of the fourteenth century to include about 200 cities from Holland to Poland. Across regular, well- defined trade routes along the Baltic and North seas, the ships of league cities carried furs, wax, copper, fish, grain, timber, and wine. These goods were exchanged for finished products, mainly cloth and salt, from western cities. At cities such as Bruges and London, Hanseatic merchants secured special trading concessions, exempting them from all tolls and allowing them to trade at local fairs. Hanseatic merchants established foreign trading centers, the most famous of which was the London Steelyard, a walled community with warehouses, offices, a church, and residential quarters for company representatives. By the late thirteenth century, Hanseatic merchants had developed an important business technique, the business register. Merchants publicly recorded their debts and contracts and received a league guarantee for them. This device proved a decisive factor in the later development of credit and commerce in northern Europe.These developments added up to what one modern scholar has called "a commercial revolution." In the long run, the commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages (A D 1000-1300) brought about radical change in European society. One remarkable aspect of this change was that the commercial classes constituted a small part of the total population—never more than 10 percent. They exercised an influence far in excess of their numbers. The commercial revolution created a great deal of new wealth, which meant a higher standard of living. The existence of wealth did not escape the attention of kings and other rulers. Wealth could be taxed, and through taxation, kings could create strong and centralized states. In the years to come, alliances with themiddle classes were to enable kings to weaken aristocratic interests and build the states that came to be called modern.The commercial revolution also provided the opportunity for thousands of agricultural workers to improve their social position. The slow but steady transformation of European society from almost completely rural and isolated to relatively more urban constituted the greatest effect of the commercial revolution that began in the eleventh century. Even so, merchants and business people did not run medieval communities, except in central and northern Italy and in the county of Flanders. Most towns remained small. The nobility and churchmen determined the predominant social attitudes, values, and patterns of thought and behavior. The commercial changes of the eleventh through fourteenth centuries did however, lay the economic foundation for the development of urban life and culture.1. According to paragraph 1, one effect of the increased use of cash was thatO an individual merchant no longer performed all aspects of trading operationsO a company's home office declined in importanceO merchants no longer had to transport their goods to distant placesO the volume of trade declined in areas lacking silver mines2. The word “radically”，in the passage is closest in meaning toO fundamentallyO quicklyO unexpectedlyO gradually3. The word oversaw" in the passage is closest In meaning toO understoodO includedO deliveredO supervised4. According to paragraph 2, which of the following was NOT an effect of the change in business procedures?O An increase in credit salesO The use of courier services between citiesO The adoption of simpler accounting proceduresO The improvement of roads5. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.O Credit sales and bills of exchange were devices that merchants developed in order to increase their mutual trust.O Merchants developed ways to finance their sales without having to rely on slow and dangerous shipments of coins.O Greater trust among merchants led to an increase in credit sales and to the use of bills of exchange that made the shipping of coins unnecessary.O Merchants began to trust one another when it became too slow and dangerous for a single merchant to ship coins.6. According to paragraph 3, Hanseatic merchants benefited by all of the following EXCEPTO the use of trading centers in distant citiesO a new system of recording commercial transactionsO the opening of overland trade routes across northern EuropeO access to markets in about 200 cities7. The word "decisive" in the passage is closest in meaning toO probableO determiningO helpfulO limiting8. Why does the author provide the information in paragraph 4 that the commercial classes never exceeded 10 percent of the population?O To argue that the wealth created by the commercial revolution benefited only a small number of peopleO To challenge the view that the commercial classes made up a majority of the population of EuropeO To suggest a reason that the commercial revolution ended around A. D. 1300O To emphasize the point that the commercial revolution was brought about by a small part of the population9. According to paragraph 4, which of the following was associated with the rise of modem states?O Increased wealth for the ruling classesO The weakening of the aristocracyO The decline of the middle classO A reduction in taxes10. The word "alliances" in the passage is closest in meaning toO transactionsO communicationsO partnershipsO conflicts11. According to paragraph 5, the most important result of the commercial revolutionwas toO simplify the organization of European societyO provide employment to agricultural workersO encourage merchants to become community leadersO change Europe from a rural to a more urban society12. Paragraph 5 supports which of the following inferences about the commercial revolution between ad 1000 and 1300?O It had very little impact on social attitudes and values.O It brought about major political changes throughout Europe.O It lessened the influence of the church.O It increased the population of small towns.13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.While It originated in the German city of Liibeck, it began to expand in 1241 when Liibeck entered into a mutual protection treaty with the city of Hamburg.Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage.14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong To remove an answer choice, click on itTo review the passage, click VIEW TEXTDuring the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300), Europe underwent a commercial revolution.Answer ChoicesMerchants adopted new accounting and trading procedures to make long-distance trading more efficient.The faster transportation made possible by improved roads expanded the variety of goods that could be brought to European towns from far away.The increasing importance of commercial trade led to a decline in the influence of traditional sources of power, such as kings and church leaders.The mining of silver improved the security of commercial transactions by allowing coins to replace credit and bills of exchange as the means of exchange.The Hanseatic League was an association of European towns that obtained shipping, trading, and financial benefits for its members.European society became increasingly urban, with better living conditions and a stronger centralized government.。
TPO46听力文本讲解
TPO 46听力文本C onversation 1Listen to a conversation between a student and a n employee in the student housing office.-Hi, I’m a first year student here, I live in the dorms, and I… well I like where I’m living now, it’s convenient and quiet but I’m starting to think about where I want to live next year.-Good idea. As a second year, you will have more freedom to choose a place that suits your needs.-Yeah, and I want to make sure that. Well…that I apply in time to get what I want. And a friend was telling me about these common interest houses on campus.-Yes! We have a language house, a life science house, a music house.-Yeah, the music house. That’s the one I’m interested in. But umm...I’m not a music major, I do play an instrument but I’m a history major.-Oh, that’s not an issue. You see that house isn't just for music major, it’s for anyone who is in-terested in music.-But… is not that everyone?-Ha-ha, well maybe, but the house has a performance area and practice rooms, so people who choose to live there need to be open to the possibility that there is always gonna be someone playing something, an instrument, the radio, even at odd times. You’re pretty much always gonna hear music there. That might bother some people.-Doesn’t bother me. And I’d love to have a place to practice my saxophone without worrying about disturbing people.-Well, it does sound like it might be a good fit for you. And the house also functions as a social club.-I know they do activities but I don’t know much beyond that.-Well, for example, every month, I think it is, there is an informal concert, any house resident can perform, and remember that big jazz festival at university park last month?-Of course! It was amazing! The music was great! umm... I didn’t’t connect to the music house -Not many people do, anyway, they put on a whole range of activities as well, someone in the house could give you more information about those.-So how do I…umm what’s the process for getting a room there?-You need to fill out an application form and send it to the house director. The form is on the housing department website. But don’t get your hopes up too high. They can only accept about 30% of students who apply.-OH, wow…I have no idea.-So for your application, it needs to include a personal statement. You know why you are inter-ested in living in the house, how you might contribute to the group. There are guidelines on the form. That statement is really important because it’s basically how they decide who to accept into the house.Conversation 2Listen to a conversation between a student and her history professor.-So I definitely want to write my term paper on American journalism in the 18th century. That old copy of the New York Daily Gazette you showed us, the one printed from the library's mi-crofilm. Just seeing a newspaper that was published1789 that was really cool.-Yes, reading old newspapers can be a powerful experience, especially to umm budding a story like yourself. As a resource for scholars and researchers, I don’t think any form of publication really captures the day to day life of a community better than a local newspaper.-Yeah! I mean I knew that the number of newspapers exploded in the 18th century. But I figured they all deteriorated before the technology was invented to preserve them or you know, make copies.-Well, actually before the mid-1800, newspapers were printed on fairly sturdy paper, made from cotton fibers, those that’s survived are in surprisingly good shape.-Are there many more copies of the gazette on microfilm?-Yeah! We’ve got a great microfilm library on campus. You will find it invaluable I’m sure as you research your paper. But also talk to the librarians because they are creating an online ar-chive of their microfilm collection. I’m not sure if the project status but if it’s done, it will proba-bly save you time. So 18th century journalism, you must realize that that topic is too broad for this assignment.-I do. So one idea I had was like looking at an important world event, like maybe the French Revolution of 1789, since we just finished a unit on it. The readings you had given us were in-credibly vivid. I loved them, but they were translations of French writers, historians, so I thought it would be interesting to pick the Gazette in one other American newspaper to see how each covered the revolution. How the journalists reported it from American’s perspective?-Umm, interesting approach. But remember I will be grading your paper based on the details you include and in some point in your paper, you wanna focus on a particular event of the revolution, like maybe the storming of the Bastille prison.-How about the formation of the French National Constituent Assembly?-Sure that would work.-And since I’m gonna look at newspapers from two cities. I could read the editorials, the opinion pieces, to find out what each communities thought about the national assembly.-Ok, but you know I want to attend a history conference where a professor presents a paper on the American press on the French revolution. She was discussing the development of democratic ideals here and in France at the time. But she also pointed out that using old newspapers as pri-mary sources to beware that they reflected the values of only a segment of society, and should not be used to draw conclusions about all Americans. I don’t think I hold on to her paper, but it was subsequently published, so you will have no trouble tracking it down on the Internet, let me give you her name.Lecture 1Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.I’d like to continue our discussion of animal behavior and start off today’s class by focusing on a concept we haven’t yet touched upon, swarm intelligence. swarm intelligence is a collective be-havior, that emerges from a group of animals like a colony of termites, a school of fish or a flock of birds. Let’s first consider the principles behind swarm intelligence, and we will use the ant as our model. Now an ant on its own is not that smart, when you have a group of ants however, there you have efficiency and action. You see there is no leader running an ant colony, each indi-vidual, each individual ant operates by instinctively following a simple set of rules when forging for food. Rule no.1, deposit a chemical marker called a pheromone. And rule 2, follow the strongest pheromone path.The strongest pheromone path is advantageous to ants seeking food. So for example, when ants leave the nest, they deposit a pheromone trail along the route they take, if they find food, they return to the nest on the same path and the pheromone trail gets stronger. It’s doubled in strength, because an ant that took a shorter path returns first, its pheromone trail is stronger, and other ants will follow it according to rule 2, and as more ant’s travel that path the pheromone trail gets even stronger. So what’s happening here. Each ant follows two very basic rules, and each ant acts on information it finds in its mediate local environment.And it’s important to note even though none of the individual ants is aware of the bigger plan, they collectively choose the shortest path between the nest and the food source, because it’s the most reinforced path. By the way, a few of you have asked me about the relevance of what we are studying to everyday life, and swarm intelligence offers several good examples of how con-cepts in biology can be apply to other fields. Well, businesses have been able to use this ap-proach a following simple rules when designing complex systems, for instance, in telephone net-works. When a call is placed from one city to another, it has to connect through a number of nodes along the way. At each point, a decision has to be made. Which direction does the call from here? Well, a computer program was developed to answer this question based on rules that are similar to the ones that ants used to find food.Remember individual ants deposit pheromones, and they follow the path that is most reinforced. Now in the phone network, a computer monitors the connection speed of each path and identifies the paths that are currently the fastest, the least crowded part to the network and this information converted into a numeric code is deposited at the network nodes. This reinforces the paths that are least crowded at the moment. The rule that telephone network follows is to always select the path that is most reinforced. So, similar to the ants’ behavior, at each intermedia node, the callfollows the path that is most reinforced, this leads to an outcome which is beneficial to the net-work as a whole, and calls get through faster.But getting back to animal behavior, another example of swarm intelligence is the way flocks of birds are able to fly together so cohesively, how do they coordinate their movements and know where they are supposed to be? Well it basically boils down to three rules that each bird seems to follow. Rule one, stay close to nearby birds. Rule two, avoid collision with nearby birds. And rule three, move in the average speed and direction of nearby birds. Oh and by the way if you are wondering how this approach can be of practical use of humans, the movie industry has been try-ing to create computer generated flocks of birds in movie scenes, the question was how do they do it easily on a large scale?A researcher used these three rules in a computer graphics program and it worked. There have also been attempts to create computer generated crowds of people using this bird flocking model of swarm intelligence. However, I’m not surprised that more research is needed the three rules I mentioned might be great for birds simulations, but that don’t take into account the complexity and unpredictability of human behavior. So if you wanna create crowds of people in a realistic way, that computer model might be too limited.Lecture 2Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.As you know portrait artists often position their subjects so that their head is turned a little to one side, thereby presenting the artists with a semi-side view, a semi-profile view. And for some rea-son, western European artists have historically tended to show the left side of the subject’s face more than the right. A while back some researchers examined about 1500 portraits painted from the 16th to the 20th century in western Europe. And in the majority of them it’s the left side of the face that’s most prominently displayed.Why is that? And interestingly enough, this tendency to show the left side diminished over time, especially in the 20th century, in fact, the left right ratio is now about 1to 1, 50 percent left, 50 percent right. Why is that? We do know that for many artists, the choice of left side right side was very important. There is an image by the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh called The Potato Eaters, that shows the profiles of a group of farmers, it’s a lithograph which is a print made from images drawn on a stone. When you print something that way, what you get is a mirror image of the original picture, the exact same image except that left and right are reversed, and Van Gogh was so dissatisfied with the print that he wrote to his brother, quote “The figures I’m sorry to say are now turned the wrong way” end quote.Anyway why do you think so many painters in the past chose to pick the left side of their sub-ject ’s face. Nancy! ‘Could it have to do with whether the artists were left handed or right handed like maybe most of them were right handed and maybe for some reason they felt more comforta-ble painting the left side? Ok, many right handed artists do find it easier to paint left profiles and many art historians think that’s the reason for the directional bias, but if that hypothesis, let’s call it the right handed hypothesis was correct, you’d expect that left handed artists would find it eas-ier to paint right profiles.But the research suggests that left handed artists find it just as easy to paint left profiles as right. So any other ideas? Well another theory is what’s known as parental imprinting hypothesis, which proposes that people are more used to seeing left profiles because supposedly right handed parents are more likely to hold their babies in their left arm. ‘Well my sister just had a baby and she keeps talking about how her left arm is getting so much stronger than the right’. OK, there’s some anecdotal evidence.So then when the baby looks up at their parent, what they see is left profile. Right! And so the theory goes the left side of the face becomes imprinted in our memories. But the parental im-printing hypothesis doesn’t explain why left profiles have decreased over time. I mean parents are still carrying their babies in their left arm, right? Exactly! Alright, what about the way the art-ist’s studio is organized? Specifically, the light source.Remember that the light source determines where the shadows are, so if you are a right handed artist, you want the light coming from your left, because you don’t want your painting hand to catch the shadow across your canvas right? And of the lights coming from your left, you’d want your subject to turn to their right, into the light, and if they do that, what do you see? The left side of their face. Exactly!And while into the 20th century many in artists’ primary light source would be the sun they set up their studio to take maximum advantage of it, but then what happens as other high quality portable artificial light sources become available. Well you can position your subject in a lot more different ways and still have good lighting on your subject and on your canvas. So? You’d expect to see a more balanced ratio of left and right side portraits.Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.Ok, so when we were discussing Gainsborough’s painting The Blue Boy, which he painted in 1770, I mentioned a story that the painting might have been an experiment, the result of a chal-lenge, it was believed that the blue couldn’t be an important color in the painting, because well it tends to recede into the background, not good for your main subject right? So to show other-wise, Gainsborough created The Blue Boy, with the boy featured large his famous blue clothes and well I guess he proved his point, but there was another challenge to blue it was very very ex-pensive back then, now of course because of modern chemistry any color is available in tubes at any art supply store. But in the 18th century and before, it wasn’t so easy, and blue, well the color ultramarine, the most desired shade of blue was made of precious stone lapis lazuli, which had to be imported all the way from Afghanistan. And the second most favorite shade of blue, after ultramarine made from lapis lazuli was a shade of blue that came from another precious stone azurite. But azurite was, well, harder to work with. There is evidence that artists would try to get around these difficulties, for example, use pigment from lapis lazuli or azurite very spar-ingly. And also use something cheaper like smalt which was made of ground glass. The thing is smalt became discolored overtime, so many artists probably just avoided blue altogether rather than use something cheap and impermanent. So blue, especially ultramarine pigment was a lux-ury, a status symbol, worth even more than gold at times and you even had the wealthy ordering paintings with ultramarine to show others that they could afford something made from this pre-cious pigment much in the same way they’d order gold leaf. Actually, the ancient Egyptians did manage to make an artificial blue, the first synthetic pigment in fact if you can believe that. They passed the formula onto the Greeks and Romans but then it was lost. Anyway, not only wasthe lapis lazuli hard to get, it was also hard to process. The recipe was difficult, the stone has to be ground finely, not easy to do with a rock, then mixed with melted wax, resins andoils, wrapped in a cloth and kneaded like bread dough, the fine particles of ultramarine were then separated from the rest. The process was time consuming, which also contributed to the high cost of producing ultramarine, and it didn’t’t even eagled very much useable pigment. As a result, the French government sponsored a competition in the 1824, to find a cheaper way to make ultramarine pigment. And soon after, a process was demonstrated where a combination of coal, Sulphur and other cheap carbon plate substances were heated creating a suitable syn-thetic substitute for lapis lazuli. So there is no doubt that 19th century artists after good synthetic versions were available used more ultramarine. Think of the impressionist for example, they had a lot more choices, or at least less expensive choices than painters not that long before them.Listen to part of a lecture in a material science class.So what’s the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about the uses for copper? Tammy? The penny, it’s made of copper. Ok, good one. But what’s a one cent coin worth these days. You might get back change like if you go to the store and give the cashier 5 dollars for something that costs 4.98 cents, you will get 2 cents back, but 2 cents don’t buy much, the value of the pennyin terms of what it will buy has gotten so low that there is actually a move a foot to eliminate the coin from U.S. currency. But there is more to it, as Tammy implied, the penny looks like it’s solid copper, it’s reddish orange, with bright metallic luster when it’s new, but that’s just the copper plating, the penny is not solid copper, in actuality it’s almost 98%zinc. But giving the ris-ing value of both these metals, each penny now costs about 1.7cents to produce, so it generates what called negative seigniorage.Negative seigniorage is when the cost of minting a coin is more than the coin’s face value. Even though the penny generates quite a bit of negative seigniorage there is concern that if it’s elimi-nated we will need more nickels. Because more merchants might start setting prices in fivecent increments. 4 dollars and 95 cents and so on. So we need a trusty five cent piece that can be minted economically. But the n ickels’ negative seignior age is even worse than the pennies. Each nickel costs the U.S mint ten cents to produce. Also, some of us are pretty attached to pen-nies for whatever reason. Nostalgia and there is collectors. And people if they see a penny on the sidewalk, they will pick it up and think it’s my lucky day. Another scenario is that without pennies merchants instead of charging 4.98 might round up the price to even 5 dollars. So con-sumer goods would become slightly more expensive. But on the other hand, some cash transac-tions would be more convenient for consumers. And as I said, the government would save money if pennies were eliminated.But would’t the copper industry suffers financially if the U.S. government stopped buying cop-per to make pennies? But how much copper do pennies actually contain? How much? ohm, got it. Right. So what else comes in mind when you think about copper? what else is copper used for? I know that copper cane shaped to all sorts of things. Sheets, tubing, my cousin’s house has a copper roof. Yes, like gold and silver, copper is extremely malleable. But it’s not a precious metal. It’s far less expensive than gold or silver, it’s also a superb conductor of electricity, so you can stretch it into wires which go into appliances and even car molders.Copper also has superior alloying properties; you know when it’s combined with other metals. For instance, how many of you play a brass instrument? Like a trumpet or trombone. Well brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. If your trombone is made of pure copper or pure zinc it wouldn’t sound nearly as beautiful as a brass trombone. Another alloy, a combination of copper andnickel resists corrosion. It doesn’t rust even with long exposure to water. But what aboutthe statue of liberty in New York harbor, it’s made of pure copper but it turned green. Isn’t that a sign of corrosion? Indirectly, if copper exposed to damp air, its color changes from reddish or-ange to reddish brown.But in time, green film called patina forms. And the patina actually serves a halt for further cor-rosion. It’s one reason that ship holds are made of copper nickel alloys. This alloys are also hard for barnacles to stick to. If these little shellfish adhere to the haul of a ship, it producesdrag, solving the vessel down. Copper is also a key material used in solar heating units and wa-ter desalination plants which are playing increasingly important roles in society. Bottom line, if you are a copper miner, you won’t lose any sleep should the penny get if you excuse the expres-sion pinched out of existence.。
托福tpo46综合写作burning mirror
托福tpo46综合写作burning mirrorThe burning mirror, also known as a solar concentrator, is a remarkable invention that has been used for centuries. It consists of a concave mirror that focuses sunlight onto a specific point, creating intense heat. This heat can be used for various purposes, such as starting fires, cooking food, or even generating electricity.The concept of the burning mirror dates back to ancient times when civilizations like the Greeks and Romans used it as a powerful tool. Archimedes, a famous Greek mathematician and inventor, reportedly used a burning mirror to set enemy ships on fire during the Siege of Syracuse.Today, the burning mirror technology has advanced significantly, with modern solar concentrators being used in solar power plants to generate clean and renewable energy. This sustainable technology harnesses the power of sunlight to create heat and electricity, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and helping to combat climate change.In conclusion, the burning mirror is a testamentto the ingenuity of human innovation and the power of harnessing natural resources for the greater good.中文翻译：烧镜，也称为太阳聚焦器，是一种令人瞩目的发明，已经被使用了数个世纪。
TPO46听力C2原文
S: So I definitely wanna write my term paper on American Journalism in the 18th century. That old copy of the New York delicate that you showed us, the one printed from the library’s microfilm, just seeing a newspaper that was published in 1789. That was really cool.T: Yes, reading old newspapers can be a powerful experience, especially to a ..like yourself. As a resource for scholars and researchers, I don’t think any form of publication really capture the day to day life of a community better than a local newspaper.S: Yeah, I knew that the numbers of newspapers exploded in the 18th century, but I figured they all deteriorated before the technology was invented to preserve them or you know, make copies.T: Well, actually before the mid-1800s, newspapers were printed on fairly sturdy paper made from cotton fibers, those that survived are in surprisingly good shape.S: Are there many more copies of the gusset on microfilm?T: Yeah, we’ve got a great microfilm library on campus. You’ll find invaluable ensures on your research paper. But also talk to the librarian because they are creating an online archive of their micro film collection. I’m not sure the project status, but if it’s done, it will probably save your time. So 18th century journalism, you mustrealize that that topic is to board for this assignment.S: I do. So one idea I have was like looking at an important world event like maybe the French Revolution at 1789 since we just finished the unit on it. The readings you have given us was incredibly vivid, I loved them. But they were translations of French writers, historians. So I thought it would be interesting to pick the gusset in one other American newspaper to see how each covered the revolution. How the journalist reported it from American’s perspective.T: UM, interesting approach. But remember, I’ll be grading your paper based on the details you include, and on some points in your paper. You wanna focus on a particular event of the revolution. Like maybe the storming of the Bastille prison.S: how about the formation of the French national constituent assembly?T: Sure. That would work.S: and I’m gonna looking for newspapers from two studies, I could read the editorials, the opinion pieces to find out what each community thought about the national assembly.T: Ok, but you know, I went to attend a history conference where professor present a paper on the American press in the French revolution. She was discussing the development of democraticideals here and in France at the time. But she also pointed out that using old newspapers is primary sources to be where that they reflected the values of only a segment of the society, and should not be used to draw conclusion sabout all Americans. I don’t think I hold on to her paper but it was subsequently published. So you have no trouble tracking it down on the internet. Let me give you her name.。
TPO46综合写作听力文本宋克明
TPO46综合写作听力文本宋克明The benefits claimed for electronic medical records are actually every uncertain.First, the costs savings are unlikely be as significant as the reading suggests. For example, there probably won't be any savings related to record storage. You see, doctors who adopt electronic records usually don't throw out or discontinue the paper records. They keep the paper records as an emergency backup or because the paper originals with signatures are needed for legal reasons. So as a result, most doctors who adopt electronic record keeping still have to pay storage costs associated with paper-based record keeping.Second, electronic medical records cannot eliminate the possibility of errors caused by poor handwriting or by mistakes in the transcription of data. That's because most doctors, including those who've adopted electronic medical record keeping, still use pen and paper while examining patients. They take notes and write prescriptions by hand. It's usually the office staff of a doctor who entered this information at a later time from the handwritten documents into electronic systems. So poor handwriting can still lead to errors in the records since the staff members have to interpret what the doctor has written.Third, medical research would not necessarily benefit from electronic record keeping. Researchers will still find it difficult to access and use medical information. That's because access to all medical information is subject to strict privacy laws in the United States. Privacy laws exist to allow patients to keep their medical information private if they wish to. As a consequence, researchers who want to collect data from electronic medical records have to follow strict and complicated procedures and obtain many permissions along the way, including permissions from the patients. And often, such permissions are not granted. For example, patients can block the use of their medical records for any purpose other than their own medical treatment.。
托福TPO46阅读Passage3原文文本+题目+答案解析
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO46阅读Passage3原文文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
Ecosystem Diversity and Stability Conservation biologists have long been concerned that species extinction could have significant consequences for the stability of entire ecosystems—groups of interacting organisms and the physical environment that they inhabit.An ecosystem could survive the loss of some species,but if enough species were lost,the ecosystem would be severely degraded.In fact,it is possible that the loss of a single important species could start a cascade of extinctions that might dramatically change an entire ecosystem.A good illustration of this occurred after sea otters were eliminated from some Pacific kelp(seaweed)bed ecosystems:the kelp beds were practically obliterated too because in the absence of sea otter predation,sea urchin populations exploded and consumed most of the kelp and other macro-algae. It is usually claimed that species-rich ecosystems tend to be more stable than species-poor ecosystems.Three mechanisms by which higher diversity increases ecosystem stability have been proposed.First,if there are more species in an ecosystem,then its food web will be more complex,with greater redundancy among species in terms of their nutritional roles.In other words,in a rich system if a species is lost,there is a good chance that other species will take over its function as prey,predator,producer,decomposer,or whatever role it played.Second,diverse ecosystems may be less likely to be invaded by new species,notably exotics(foreign species living outside their native range),that would disrupt the ecosystem’s structure and function.Third,in a species-rich ecosystem,diseases may spread more slowly because most species will be relatively less abundant,thus increasing the average distance between individuals of the same species and hampering disease transmission among individuals. Scientific evidence to illuminate these ideas has been slow in coming,and many shadows remain.■A One of the first studies to provide data supporting a relationship between diversity and stability examined how grassland plants responded to a drought.■B Researchers D.Tilman and J A.Downing used the ratio of above-ground biomass in 1988(after two years of drought)to that in 1986(predrought)in 207 plots in a grassland field in the Cedar Creek Natural History Area in Minnesota as an index of ecosystem response to disruption by drought.■C In an experiment that began in 1982,they compared these values with the number of plant species in each plot and discovered that the plots with a greater number of plant species experienced a less dramatic reduction in biomass.■D Plots with more than ten species had about half as much biomass in 1988 as in 1986,whereas those with fewer than five species only produced roughly one-eighth as much biomass after the two-year drought.Apparently,species-rich plots were likely to contain some drought-resistant plant species that grew better in drought years,compensating for the poor growth of less-tolerant species. To put this result in more general terms,a species-rich ecosystem may be more stable because it is more likely to have species with a wide array of responses to variable conditions such as droughts.Furthermore,a species-rich ecosystem is more likely to have species with similar ecological functions,so that if a species is lost from an ecosystem,another species,probably a competitor,is likely to flourish and occupy its functional role.Both of these,variability in responses and functional redundancy,could be thought of as insurance against disturbances. The Minnesota grassland research has been widely accepted as strong evidence for the diversity-stability theory;however,its findings have been questioned,and similar studies on other ecosystems have not always found a positive relationship between diversity and stability.Clearly,this is a complex issue that requires further field research with a broad spectrum of ecosystems and species:grassland plants and computer models will only take us so far.In the end,despite insightful attempts to detect some general patterns,we may find it very difficult to reduce this topic to a simple,universal truth. Paragraph 1 Conservation biologists have long been concerned that species extinction could have significant consequences for the stability of entire ecosystems—groups of interacting organisms and the physical environment that they inhabit.An ecosystem could survive the loss of some species,but if enough species were lost,the ecosystem would be severely degraded.In fact,it is possible that the loss of a single important species could start a cascade of extinctions that might dramatically change an entire ecosystem.A good illustration of this occurred after sea otters were eliminated from some Pacific kelp(seaweed)bed ecosystems:the kelp beds were practically obliterated too because in the absence of sea otter predation,sea urchin populations exploded and consumed most of the kelp and other macro-algae. 1.The word“"significant”"in paragraph 1the passage is closest in meaning to A.direct B.important C.long-term D.surprising 2.According to paragraph 1,why has the extinction of species been a concern for conservation biologists?。
托福TPO46阅读文本题附答案
托福TPO46阅读文本+题目+答案1. The Origins of WritingIt was in Egypt and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) that civilization arose, and it is there that we find the earliest examples of that key feature of civilization, writing. These examples, in the form of inscribed clay tablets that date to shortly before 3000 B.C.E., have been discovered among the archaeological remains of the Sumerians, a gifted people settled in southern Mesopotamia.The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing, but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material. In ancient times the banks of the Nile were lined with papyrus plants, and from the papyrus reeds the Egyptians made a form of paper; it was excellent in quality but, like any paper, fragile. Mesopotamia’s rivers boasted no such useful reeds, but its land did provide good clay, and as a consequence the clay tablet became the standard material. Though clumsy and bulky it has a virtue dear to archaeologists: it is durable. Fire, for example, which is death to papyrus paper or other writing materials such as leather and wood, simply bakes it hard, thereby making it even more durable. So when a conqueror set a Mesopotamian palace ablaze, he helped ensure the survival of any clay tablets in it. Clay, moreover, is cheap, and forming it into tablets is easy, factors that helped the clay tablet become the preferred writing material not only throughout Mesopotamia but far outside it as well, in Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and even for a while in Crete and Greece. Excavators have unearthed clay tablets in all these lands. In the Near East they remained in use for more than two and a half millennia, and in certain areas they lasted down to the beginning of the common era until finally yielding, once and for all, to more convenient alternatives.The Sumerians perfected a style of writing suited to clay. This script consists of simple shapes, basically just wedge shapes and lines that could easily be inc ised in soft clay with a reed or wooden stylus; scholars have dubbed it cuneiform from the wedge-shaped marks (cunei in Latin) that are its hallmark Although the ingredients are merely wedges and lines, there are hundreds of combinations of these basic forms that stand for different sounds or words. Learning these complex signs required long training and much practice; inevitably, literacy was largely limited to a small professional class, the scribes.The Akkadians conquered the Sumerians around the middle of the third millennium B.C.E., and they took over the various cuneiform signs used for writing Sumerian and gave them sound and word values that fit their own language. ■ The Babylonians and Assyrians did the same, and so di d peoples in Syria and Asia Minor. ■ The literature of the Sumerians was treasured throughout the Near East, and long after Sumerian ceased to be spoken, the Babylonians and Assyrians and others kept it alive as a literary language, the way Europeans kept Latin alive after the fall of Rome. ■ For the scribes of these non-Sumerian languages, training was doubly demanding since they had to know the values of the various cuneiform signs for Sumerian as well as for their own language. ■The contents of the earliest clay tablets are simple notations of numbers of commodities—animals, jars, baskets, etc. Writing, it would appear, started as a primitive form of bookkeeping. Its use soon widened to document the multitudinousthings and acts that are involved in daily life, from simple inventories of commodities to complicated governmental rules and regulations.Archaeologists frequently find clay tablets in batches. The batches, some of which contain thousands of tablets, consist for the most part of documents of the types just mentioned: bills, deliveries, receipts, inventories, loans, marriage contracts, divorce settlements, court judgments, and so on. These records of factual matters were kept in storage to be available for reference-they were, in effect, files, or, to use the term preferred by specialists in the ancient Near East, archives. Now and then these files include pieces of writing that are of a distinctly different order, writings that do not merely record some matter of fact but involve creative intellectual activity. They range from simple textbook material to literature-and they make an appearance very early, even from the third millennium B C E.1. The word “key” in the passage is closest in meaning toO frequentO essentialO originalO familiar2. Th e word “virtue” in the passage is closest in meaning toO priceO designO desirable qualityO physical characteristic3. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information In the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.O In part because of its low cost and ease of use, clay became the preferred writing material throughout Mesopotamia and well beyond itO Clay was cheap throughout Mesopotamia, so clay tablets from Mesopotamia became the preferred writing material as far as the Mediterranean.O For a while, the day tablet was the preferred writing material in Crete and Greece.O Moreover, because day was used as the writing material of choice in Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and the Mediterranean, it was cheap and popular.4. What can be inferred from paragraph 2 about clay as a writing material?O It had to be baked before it could be written onO Its good points outweighed its bad points.O Its durability was its most important feature for its users.O It was not available in Egypt.5. In paragraph 2, why does the author discuss the Egyptian use of papyrus as a writing material^O To describe the superiofity of papyrus over leattier and wood as a writing materialO To explain why writing in Egypt did not develop as quickly as it did MesopotamiaO To explain why archaeologists' knowledge of the early history of writing relies mainly on Sumerian cuneiform O To explain why the Sumerians preferred clay tablets for writing over papyrus6. According to paragraph 3, all of the following are true of cuneiform writing EXCEPT:O It was composed of very simple shapesO It was perfected by the ancient Sumerians.O It influenced the choice of material on which it was written.O It was understood by very few Sumerians.7. According to paragraph 4, how did the Akkadians use the Sumerian language?O They used Sumerian for speaking but used their own national language for writing.O They used the complex cuneiform signs developed by the Babylonians and Assyrians rather than the Sumerian signs.O They developed their own cuneiform shapes on clay tablets to replace those used by the Sumerians.O They assigned new sound and word values to the signs of Sumerian cuneiform.8. Paragraph 4 answers all the following questions about Sumerian writing in the period after the Sumerians were conquered EXCEPT:O Did Sumerian literature continue to be read?O Did Sumerian continue to be spoken?O Did scribes compose new texts in Sumerian?O Did Sumerian have the same fate as Latin had after the fall of Rome?9. The word "document" in the passage is closest in meaning toO includeO influenceO organizeO record10. According to paragraph 5, writing was first used forO simple bookkeepingO descriptions of daily eventsO counting the contents of clay tabletsO government reports11. The phrase “Now and then” in the passage is closest in meaning toO alwaysO occasionallyO sooner or laterO first and last12. According to paragraph 6, large batches of clay writing tablets were stored because the tabletsO were being produced quickly and in large quantitiesO did not serve any practical purpose for most MesopotamiansO contained information that needed to be available for future referenceO could not be used again once they had been written on13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.However, the Sumerian language did not entirely disappear.Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong To remove an answer choice, click on it.To review the passage, click VIEW TEXTThe earliest examples of writing have been found in Mesopotamia and date to shortly before 3000 B.C.E.Answer ChoicesWriting was invented in the same areas in which civilization began by the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean.The development of cuneiform is known because it was written on a long-lasting material and because it was long and widely used throughout the ancient Near East.Cuneiform tablets generally dealt with business and factual matters, but other topics, including literature, were also recorded and valued.Writing was developed first by the Sumerians using wedge shaped marks (cuneiform) on clay tablets and then by the Egyptians using papyrus paper.Scribes using cuneiform in Assyria, Babylon, Syria and Asia Minor had to learn allthe languages that used the cuneiform script.Batches of clay tablets, sometimes with as many as a thousand tablets each, are often found by archaeologists.2.The Commercial Revolution in Medieval EuropeBeginning in the 1160s, the opening of new silver mines in northern Europe led to the minting and circulation of vast quantities of silver coins. The widespread use of cash greatly increased the volume of international trade. Business procedures changed radically. The individual traveling merchant who alone handled virtually all aspects of exchangeevolved into an operation invoh/ing three separate types of merchants: the sedentary merchant who ran the "home office," financing and organizing the firm’s entire export-import trade; the carriers who transported goods by land and sea; and the company agents resident in cities abroad who, on the advice of the home office, looked after sales and procurements.Commercial correspondence, unnecessary when one businessperson oversaw everything and made direct bargains with buyers and sellers, multiplied. Regular courier service among commercial cities began. Commercial accounting became more complex when firms had to deal with shareholders, manufacturers, customers, branch offices, employees, and competing firms. Tolls on roads became high enough to finance what has been called a road revolution, involving new surfaces and bridges, new passes through the Alps, and new inns and hospices for travelers. The growth of mutual trust among merchants facilitated the growth of sales on credit and led to new developments in finance, such as the bill of exchange, a device that made the long, slow, and very dangerous shipment of coins unnecessary.The ventures of the German Hanseatic League illustrate these advancements. The Hanseatic League was a mercantile association of European towns dating from 1159. The league grew by the end of the fourteenth century to include about 200 cities from Holland to Poland. Across regular, well- defined trade routes along the Baltic and North seas, the ships of league cities carried furs, wax, copper, fish, grain, timber, and wine. These goods were exchanged for finished products, mainly cloth and salt, from western cities. At cities such as Bruges and London, Hanseatic merchants secured special trading concessions, exempting them from all tolls and allowing them to trade at local fairs. Hanseatic merchants established foreign trading centers, the most famous of which was the London Steelyard, a walled community with warehouses, offices, a church, and residential quarters for company representatives. By the late thirteenth century, Hanseatic merchants had developed an important business technique, the business register. Merchants publicly recorded their debts and contracts and received a league guarantee for them. This device proved a decisive factor in the later development of credit and commerce in northern Europe.These developments added up to what one modern scholar has called "a commercial revolution." In the long run, the commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages (A D 1000-1300) brought about radical change in European society. One remarkable aspect of this change was that the commercial classes constituted a small part of the total population—never more than 10 percent. They exercised an influence far in excess of their numbers. The commercial revolution created a great deal of new wealth, which meant a higher standard of living. The existence of wealth did not escape the attention of kings and other rulers. Wealth could be taxed, and through taxation, kings could create strong and centralized states. In the years to come, alliances with themiddle classes were to enable kings to weaken aristocratic interests and build the states that came to be called modern.The commercial revolution also provided the opportunity for thousands of agricultural workers to improve their social position. The slow but steady transformation of European society from almost completely rural and isolated to relatively more urban constituted the greatest effect of the commercial revolution that began in the eleventh century.Even so, merchants and business people did not run medieval communities, except in central and northern Italy and in the county of Flanders. Most towns remained small. The nobility and churchmen determined the predominant social attitudes, values, and patterns of thought and behavior. The commercial changes of the eleventh through fourteenth centuries did however, lay the economic foundation for the development of urban life and culture.1. According to paragraph 1, one effect of the increased use of cash was thatO an individual merchant no longer performed all aspects of trading operationsO a company's home office declined in importanceO merchants no longer had to transport their goods to distant placesO the volume of trade declined in areas lacking silver mines2. The word “radically”，in the passage is closest in meaning toO fundamentallyO quicklyO unexpectedlyO gradually3. The word oversaw" in the passage is closest In meaning toO understoodO includedO deliveredO supervised4. According to paragraph 2, which of the following was NOT an effect of the change in business procedures?O An increase in credit salesO The use of courier services between citiesO The adoption of simpler accounting proceduresO The improvement of roads5. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.O Credit sales and bills of exchange were devices that merchants developed in order to increase their mutual trust.O Merchants developed ways to finance their sales without having to rely on slow and dangerous shipments of coins.O Greater trust among merchants led to an increase in credit sales and to the use of bills of exchange that made the shipping of coins unnecessary.O Merchants began to trust one another when it became too slow and dangerous for a single merchant to ship coins.6. According to paragraph 3, Hanseatic merchants benefited by all of the following EXCEPTO the use of trading centers in distant citiesO a new system of recording commercial transactionsO the opening of overland trade routes across northern EuropeO access to markets in about 200 cities7. The word "decisive" in the passage is closest in meaning toO probableO determiningO helpfulO limiting8. Why does the author provide the information in paragraph 4 that the commercial classes never exceeded 10 percent of the population?O To argue that the wealth created by the commercial revolution benefited only a small number of people O To challenge the view that the commercial classes made up a majority of the population of EuropeO To suggest a reason that the commercial revolution ended around A. D. 1300O To emphasize the point that the commercial revolution was brought about by a small part of the population9. According to paragraph 4, which of the following was associated with the rise of modem states?O Increased wealth for the ruling classesO The weakening of the aristocracyO The decline of the middle classO A reduction in taxes10. The word "alliances" in the passage is closest in meaning toO transactionsO communicationsO partnershipsO conflicts11. According to paragraph 5, the most important result of the commercial revolutionwas toO simplify the organization of European societyO provide employment to agricultural workersO encourage merchants to become community leadersO change Europe from a rural to a more urban society12. Paragraph 5 supports which of the following inferences about the commercial revolution between ad 1000 and 1300?O It had very little impact on social attitudes and values.O It brought about major political changes throughout Europe.O It lessened the influence of the church.O It increased the population of small towns.13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.While It originated in the German city of Liibeck, it began to expand in 1241 when Liibeck entered into a mutual protection treaty with the city of Hamburg.Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage.14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong To remove an answer choice, click on itTo review the passage, click VIEW TEXTDuring the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300), Europe underwent a commercial revolution.Answer ChoicesMerchants adopted new accounting and trading procedures to make long-distance trading more efficient.The faster transportation made possible by improved roads expanded the variety of goods that could be brought to European towns from far away.The increasing importance of commercial trade led to a decline in the influence of traditional sources of power, such as kings and church leaders.The mining of silver improved the security of commercial transactions by allowing coins to replace credit and bills of exchange as the means of exchange.The Hanseatic League was an association of European towns that obtained shipping, trading, and financial benefits for its members.European society became increasingly urban, with better living conditions and a stronger centralized government.3. Ecosystem Diversity and StabilityConservation biologists have long been concerned that species extinction could have significant consequences for the stability of entire ecosystems—groups of interacting organisms and the physical environment that they inhabit. An ecosystem could survive the loss of some species, but if enough species were lost, the ecosystem would be severely degraded. In fact, it is possible that the loss of a single important species could start a cascade of extinctions that might dramatically change an entire ecosystem. A good illustration of this occurred after sea otters were eliminated from some Pacific kelp (seaweed) bed ecosystems: the kelp beds were practically obliterated too because in the absence of sea otter predation, sea urchin populations exploded and consumed most of the kelp and other macroalgae.It is usually claimed that species-rich ecosystems tend to be more stable than species-poor ecosystems. Three mechanisms by which higher diversity increases ecosystem stability have been proposed. First, if there are more species in an ecosystem, then its food web will be more complex, with greater redundancy among species in terms of their nutritional roles. In other words, in a rich system if a species is lost, there is a good chance that other species will take over its function as prey, predator, producer, decomposer, or whatever role it played. Second, diverse ecosystems may be less likely to be invaded by new species, notably exotics (foreign species living outside their native range), that would disrupt the ecosystem’s structure and function. Third, in a spe cies-rich ecosystem, diseases may spread more slowly because most species will be relatively less abundant, thus increasing the average distance between individuals of the same species and hampering disease transmission among individuals.Scientific eviden ce to illuminate these ideas has been slow in coming, and many shadows remain. ■ One of the first studies to provide data supporting a relationship between diversity and stability examined how grassland plants responded to a drought. ■ Researchers D. Tilma n and J A. Downing used the ratio of above-ground biomass in 1988 (after two years of drought) to that in 1986 (predrought) in 207 plots in a grassland field in the Cedar Creek Natural History Area in Minnesota as an index of ecosystem response to disrupti on by drought. ■ In an experiment that began in 1982, they compared these values with the number of plant species in each plot and discovered that the plots with a greater number of plant species experienced a less dramatic reduction in biomass. ■ Plots wi th more than ten species had about half as much biomass in 1988 as in 1986, whereas those with fewer than five species only produced roughly one-eighth as much biomass after the two-year drought. Apparently, species-rich plots were likely to contain some drought-resistant plant species that grew better in drought years, compensating for the poor growth of less-tolerant species.To put this result in more general terms, a species-rich ecosystem may be more stable because it is more likely to have species with a wide array of responses to variable conditions such as droughts. Furthermore, a species-rich ecosystem is more likely to have species with similar ecological functions, so that if a species is lost from an ecosystem, another species, probably a competitor, is likely to flourish and occupy its functional role. Both of these, variability in responses and functional redundancy, could be thought of as insurance against disturbances.The Minnesota grassland research has been widely accepted as strong evidence for the diversity- stability theory; however, its findings have been questioned, and similar studies on other ecosystems have not always found a positive relationship between diversity and stability. Clearly, this is a complex issue that requires further field research with a broad spectrum of ecosystems and species: grassland plants and computer models will only take us so far. In the end, despite insightful attempts to detect some general patterns, we may find it very difficult to reduce this topic to a simple, universal truth.1. The word "significant" in the passage is closest in meaning toO directO importantO long-termO surprising2. According to paragraph 1, why has the extinction of species been a concern for conservation biologists?O When ecosystems lose just one species, they undergo permanent change.O The extinction of a particular predator species could cause an overpopulation of certain prey species.O The loss of one or more species could cause the decline of a whole ecosystem.O The extinction of a single species is evidence that plant-food sources are in danger of disappearing.3. According to paragraph 1, what was the result of the removal of Pacific sea otters?O The kelp and sea urchins were destroyed by new predators.O The uncontrolled population of sea urchins ate most of the kelp plants.O Without sea otters, the kelp beds soon became overgrown.O Macroalgae remained as the primary population in the ecosystem.4. The word “redundancy” in the passage is closest in meaning toO duplicationO varietyO requirementsO flexibility5. What is the function of paragraph 2 in the passage?O To present a hypothesis about ecosystem diversity and some reasons why it might be trueO To give examples of types of ecosystems that have the greatest diversityO To contradict a previous belief about the stability of species-rich ecosystemsO To contrast species-rich and species-poor ecosystems6. According to paragraph 2, which of the following increases the stability of anecosystem?O Species in which producers outnumber predatorsO New or exotic species that increase ecosystem diversityO Heavily populated species that are free of diseaseO Species that are diverse but have similar nutritional roles7. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.O In any ecosystem, as the number of individuals in the same species increases, the rate of disease transmission slows down.O Ecosystems that have a small number of different species tend to be disease-free, because the species’ habitats are at a safe distance from each other.O In ecosystems with many species, diseases spread more slowly because there are fewer individuals in a species and, as a result, the individuals are more widely scattered.O The average distance between individuals in a species-rich ecosystem increases, so diseases are prevented from being communicated between species.8. The phrase ”compensating for" in the passage Is closest in meaning toO working againstO leaving outO making up forO spreading over9. What Is the main importance of the study discussed in paragraph 3?O It examines the response of certain grassland plants to a drought.O It contains an index of plants that survived well in times of drought.O It provides scientific evidence that diversity helps to make ecosystems stable.O It shows that ecosystems contain both resistant species and less tolerant ones.10. Select the TWO answer choices that, according to paragraph 4, are conclusions that can be drawn from the study by Tilman and Downing. To receive credit you must select TWO answer choices.□ A diverse ecosystem will have species that respond differently to a variety of conditions.□ Species within a species-rich ecosystem are more likely to have competitors.□ An ecosystem is more likely to develop diverse and stable species when it is exposed to extreme conditions.□ Species with similar ecological function s will perform the function of a lost species.11. The word “detect” in the passage is closest in meaning toO repeatO alterO findO emphasize12. According to paragraph 5, which of the following is true about Tilman and Downing’s findings?O General patterns of diversity and stability have been established as a result of the findings.O Questions about the findings have been refuted by computer models.O The findings have been tested in a broad spectrum of ecosystems with similar results.O The findings are not sufficient to prove a definite link between diversity and stability in ecosystems.13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.It seems clear that there is room for a great deal more research, although some work has been done.Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage.。
综合写作 TPO 46 解析
TPO 46 Reading PassageIn the United States, medical information about patients traditionally has been recorded and stored on paper forms. However, there are efforts to persuade doctors to adopt electronic medical record systems in which information about patients is stored in electronic databases rather than on paper. It is argued that storing patients' medical records in electronic databases has several advantages over traditional paper-based record keeping. Reducing CostsFirst, the use of electronic records can help reduce costs by saving money on storing and transferring medical records. While paper records require a significant amount of storage space, electronic medical records take up virtually no space. Moreover, by having patients' records computerized in databases, doctors can easily access the records from almost anywhere and can easily duplicate and transfer them when necessary. This costs much less than copying, faxing, or transporting paper records from one location to another.Preventing ErrorsSecond, electronic medical records are crucial to reducing the chances of medical errors. Illegible handwriting, improper transcription of data, and nonstandard organization of paper records have caused errors that in some cases have had serious consequences for the patients' health. In contrast, electronic records are associated with standardization of forms and legible computer fonts and thus minimize the possibility of human error.Aiding ResearchThird, electronic medical records can greatly aid medical research by making it possible to gather large amounts of data from patient records. It is often impractical, impossible, or prohibitively expensive to manually go through thousands of patients’paper records housed in doctors' offices. However, with the existence of electronic medical records, it would be simple to draw out the needed information from the medical databases because the databases are already formatted for data collection. Once in the electronic system, the records could be accessed from any research location.TPO 46 LectureThe benefits claimed for electronic medical records are actually every uncertain.First, the costs savings are unlikely be as significant as the reading suggests. For example, there probably won't be any savings related to record storage. You see, doctors who adopt electronic records usually don't throw out or discontinue the paper records. They keep the paper records as an emergency backup or because the paper originals with signatures are needed for legal reasons. So as a result, most doctors who adopt electronic record keeping still have to pay storage costs associated with paper-based record keeping.Second, electronic medical records cannot eliminate the possibility of errors caused by poor handwriting or by mistakes in the transcription of data. That's because most doctors, including those who've adopted electronic medical record keeping, still use pen and paper while examining patients. They take notes and write prescriptions by hand. It's usually the office staff of a doctor who entered this information at a later time from the handwritten documents into electronic systems. So poor handwriting can still lead to errors in the records since the staff members have to interpret what the doctor has written. Third, medical research would not necessarily benefit from electronic record keeping. Researchers will still find it difficult to access and use medical information. That's because access to all medical information is subject to strict privacy laws in the United States. Privacy laws exist to allow patients to keep their medical information private if they wish to. As a consequence, researchers who want to collect data from electronic medical records have to follow strict and complicated procedures and obtain many permissions along the way, including permissions from the patients. And often, such permissions are not granted. For example, patients can block the use of their medical records for any purpose other than their own medical treatment.。
tpo-46 综合写作独立写作题目文本
1. (Reading)In the United States, medical information about patients traditionally has been recorded and stored on paper forms. However, there are efforts to persuade doctors to adopt electronic medical record systems in which information about patients is stored in electronic databases rather than on paper. It is argued that storing patients' medical records in electronic databases has several advantages over traditional paper-based record keeping.Reducing CostsFirst, the use of electronic records can help reduce costs by saving money on storing and transferring medical records. While paper records require a significant amount of storage space, electronic medical records take up virtually no space. Moreover, by having patients' records computerized in databases, doctors can easily access the records from almost anywhere and can easily duplicate and transfer them when necessary. This costs much less than copying, faxing, or transporting paper records from one location to another.Preventing ErrorsSecond, electronic medical records are crucial to reducing the chances of medical errors. Illegible handwriting, improper transcription of data, and nonstandard organization of paper records have caused errors that in some cases have had serious consequences for the patients* health. In contrast, electronic records are associated with standardization of forms and legible computer fonts and thus minimize the possibility of human errorAiding ResearchThird, electronic medical records can greatly aid medical research by making it possible to gather large amounts of data from patient records. It is often impractical, impossible, or prohibitively expensive to manually go through thousands of patients’paper records housed in doctors' offices. However, with the existence of electronic medical records, it would be simple to draw out the needed information from the medical databases because the databases are already formatted for data collection. Once in the electronic system, the records could be accessed from any research location.Directions: You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.Question: Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they cast doubt on the specific points made in the reading passage.2. Directions: Read the question below. You have 30 minutes to plan, write, and revise your essay. Typically, an effective response will contain a minimum of 300 words.Question: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?The opinions of celebrities, such as famous entertainers and athletes, are more important to younger people than they are to older people.Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.。
tpo46三篇托福阅读TOEFL原文译文题目答案背景知识
tpo46三篇托福阅读TOEFL原文译文题目答案译文背景知识阅读-1 (2)原文 (2)译文 (5)题目 (8)答案 (15)背景知识 (16)阅读-2 (17)原文 (17)译文 (21)题目 (23)答案 (30)背景知识 (31)阅读-3 (34)原文 (34)译文 (38)题目 (40)答案 (48)背景知识 (49)阅读-1原文The Origins of Writing①It was in Egypt and Mesopotamia(modern-day Iraq)that civilization arose,and it is there that we find the earliest examples of that key feature of civilization,writing.These examples,in the form of inscribed clay tablets that date to shortly before3000B.C.E.,have been discovered among the archaeological remains of the Sumerians,a gifted people settled in southern Mesopotamia.②The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing, but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material.In ancient times the banks of the Nile were lined with papyrus plants, and from the papyrus reeds the Egyptians made a form of paper;it was excellent in quality but,like any paper,fragile. Mesopotamia’s rivers boasted no such useful reeds,but its land did provide good clay,and as a consequence the clay tablet became the standard material.Though clumsy and bulky it has a virtue dear to archaeologists:it is durable.Fire, for example,which is death to papyrus paper or otherwriting materials such as leather and wood,simply bakes it hard,thereby making it even more durable.So when a conqueror set a Mesopotamian palace ablaze,he helped ensure the survival of any clay tablets in it.Clay,moreover, is cheap,and forming it into tablets is easy,factors that helped the clay tablet become the preferred writing material not only throughout Mesopotamia but far outside it as well,in Syria,Asia Minor,Persia,and even for a while in Crete and Greece.Excavators have unearthed clay tablets in all these lands.In the Near East they remained in use for more than two and a half millennia,and in certain areas they lasted down to the beginning of the common era until finally yielding,once and for all,to more convenient alternatives.③The Sumerians perfected a style of writing suited to clay. This script consists of simple shapes,basically just wedge shapes and lines that could easily be incised in soft clay with a reed or wooden stylus;scholars have dubbed it cuneiform from the wedge-shaped marks(cunei in Latin)that are its hallmark.Although the ingredients are merely wedges and lines,there are hundreds of combinations of these basic forms that stand for different sounds or words.Learningthese complex signs required long training and much practice;inevitably,literacy was largely limited to a small professional class,the scribes.④The Akkadians conquered the Sumerians around the middle of the third millennium B.C.E.,and they took over the various cuneiform signs used for writing Sumerian and gave them sound and word values that fit their own language.The Babylonians and Assyrians did the same,and so did peoples in Syria and Asia Minor.The literature of the Sumerians was treasured throughout the Near East,and long after Sumerian ceased to be spoken,the Babylonians and Assyrians and others kept it alive as a literary language, the way Europeans kept Latin alive after the fall of Rome. For the scribes of these non-Sumerian languages,training was doubly demanding since they had to know the values of the various cuneiform signs for Sumerian as well as for their own language.⑤The contents of the earliest clay tablets are simple notations of numbers of commodities—animals,jars, baskets,etc.Writing,it would appear,started as a primitive form of bookkeeping.Its use soon widened to document the multitudinous things and acts that are involved in daily life,from simple inventories of commodities to complicated governmental rules and regulations.⑥Archaeologists frequently find clay tablets in batches.The batches,some of which contain thousands of tablets, consist for the most part of documents of the types just mentioned:bills,deliveries,receipts,inventories,loans, marriage contracts,divorce settlements,court judgments, and so on.These records of factual matters were kept in storage to be available for reference-they were,in effect, files,or,to use the term preferred by specialists in the ancient Near East,archives.Now and then these files include pieces of writing that are of a distinctly different order,writings that do not merely record some matter of fact but involve creative intellectual activity.They range from simple textbook material to literature-and they make an appearance very early,even from the third millennium B C E.译文文字的起源①文明就是在埃及和美索不达米亚（今天的伊拉克）兴起的，在那里我们找到了文明的关键特征——书写的最早例子。
托福TPO46听力Conversation1文本+题目+答案解析
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO46听力Conversation1文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO46听力Conversation1文本 Listen to a conversation between a student and an employee in the student housing office. Student:Hi. I'm a first-year student here. I, I live in the dorms, and I, well, I like where I'm living now. It's convenient and quiet, but I'm starting to think about where I wanna live next year. Employee:Good idea. As a second-year, you have more freedom to choose a place that suits your needs. Student:Yeah! And I want to make sure that, well, that I apply in time to get what I want. And, um, a friend was telling me about these common-interest houses on campus. Employee:Yes. We have a language house, a life science house, a music house... Student:Yeah, the music house. That's the one I'm interested in, but, um, I'm not a music major. I do play an instrument, but I'm a history major. Employee:Oh, that's not an issue. You see, that house isn't just for music majors. It's for anyone who's interested in music. Student:But isn't that everyone? Employee:Well, maybe. But the house has a performance area and practice rooms. So people who choose to live there need to be open to the possibility that there's always gonna be someone playing something, an instrument, the radio, even at odd times. You're pretty much always gonna hear music there. That might bother some people. Student:Doesn't bother me. And I'd love to have a place to practice my saxophone without worrying about disturbing people. Employee:Well, it does sound like it might be a good fit for you. And the house also functions as a social club. Student:I know they do activities, but I don't know much beyond that. Employee:Well, for example, every month, I think it is, there's an informalconcert. Any house resident can perform. And remember that big jazz festival at University Park last month? Student:Of course. It was amazing. The music was great. Um, I, I didn't connect it to the music house. Employee:Not many people do. Anyway, they put on a whole range of other activities as well. Someone at the house could give you more information about those. Student:So, how do I...UITI, what's the process for getting a room there? Employee:You need to fill out an application form and send it to the house director. The form's on the housing department's website. But, don't get your hopes up too high. They can only accept about 30% of students who apply. Student:Oh, wow, I had no idea. Employee:So, for your application, it needs to include a personal statement, you know, why you're interested in living in the house, how you might contribute to the group. There are guidelines on the form. That statement's really important, because it's basically how they decide who to accept into the house. 托福TPO46听力Conversation1题目 1.Why does the student go to see the woman? A. To ask about events that the music house sponsors B. To find out which of the common interest houses have rooms available C. To find out if it would be possible for him to live in the music house D. To check on the status of his application to move into the music house 2.According to the woman, why might some people not want to live in the music house? A. It is rarely quiet. B. It is not conveniently located. C. All of the residents are required to participate in house activities. D. All of the residents must be enrolled in a music class.。
TPO-46阅读文本和对应题目文本第2篇
TPO-46阅读⽂本和对应题⽬⽂本第2篇2.The Commercial Revolution in Medieval EuropeBeginning in the 1160s, the opening of new silver mines in northern Europe led to the minting and circulation of vast quantities of silver coins. The widespread use of cash greatly increased the volume of international trade. Business procedures changed radically. The individual traveling merchant who alone handled virtually all aspects of exchange evolved into an operation invoh/ing three separate types of merchants: the sedentary merchant who ran the "home of fice," financing and organizing the firm’s entire export-import trade; the carriers who transported goods by land and sea; and the company agents resident in cities abroad who, on the advice of the home office, looked after sales and procurements. Commercial correspondence, unnecessary when one businessperson oversaw everything and made direct bargains with buyers and sellers, multiplied. Regular courier service among commercial cities began. Commercial accounting became more complex when firms had to deal with shareholders, manufacturers, customers, branch offices, employees, and competing firms. Tolls on roads became high enough to finance what has been called a road revolution, involving new surfaces and bridges, new passes through the Alps, and new inns and hospices for travelers. The growth of mutual trust among merchants facilitated the growth of sales on credit and led to new developments in finance, such as the bill of exchange, a device that made the long, slow, and very dangerous shipment of coins unnecessary.The ventures of the German Hanseatic League illustrate these advancements. The Hanseatic League was a mercantile association of European towns dating from 1159. The league grew by the end of the fourteenth century to include about 200 cities from Holland to Poland. Across regular, well- defined trade routes along the Baltic and North seas, the ships of league cities carried furs, wax, copper, fish, grain, timber, and wine. These goods were exchanged for finished products, mainly cloth and salt, from western cities. At cities such as Bruges and London, Hanseatic merchants secured special trading concessions, exempting them from all tolls and allowing them to trade at local fairs. Hanseatic merchants established foreign trading centers, the most famous of which was the London Steelyard, a walled community with warehouses, offices, a church, and residential quarters for company representatives. By the late thirteenth century, Hanseatic merchants had developed an important business technique, the business register. Merchants publicly recorded their debts and contracts and received a league guarantee for them. This device proved a decisive factor in the later development of credit and commerce in northern Europe.These developments added up to what one modern scholar has called "a commercial revolution." In the long run, the commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages (A D 1000-1300) brought about radical change in European society. One remarkable aspect of this change was that the commercial classes constituted a small part of the total population—never more than 10 percent. They exercised an influence far in excess of their numbers. The commercial revolution created a great deal of new wealth, which meant a higher standard of living. The existence of wealth did not escape the attention of kings and other rulers. Wealth could be taxed, and through taxation, kings could create strong and centralized states. In the years to come, alliances with themiddle classes were to enable kings to weaken aristocratic interests and build the states that came to be called modern. The commercial revolution also provided the opportunity for thousands of agricultural workers to improve their social position. The slow but steady transformation of European society from almost completely rural and isolated to relatively more urban constituted the greatest effect of the commercial revolution that began in the eleventh century. Even so, merchants and business people did not run medieval communities, except in central and northern Italy and in the county of Flanders. Most towns remained small. The nobility and churchmen determined the predominant social attitudes, values, and patterns of thought and behavior. The commercial changes of the eleventh through fourteenth centuries did however, lay the economic foundation for the development of urban life and culture.1. According to paragraph 1, one effect of the increased use of cash was thatO an individual merchant no longer performed all aspects of trading operationsO a company's home office declined in importanceO merchants no longer had to transport their goods to distant placesO the volume of trade declined in areas lacking silver mines2. The word “radically”，in the passage is closest in meaning toO fundamentallyO quicklyO unexpectedlyO gradually3. The word oversaw" in the passage is closest In meaning toO understoodO includedO deliveredO supervised4. According to paragraph 2, which of the following was NOT an effect of the change in business procedures?O An increase in credit salesO The use of courier services between citiesO The adoption of simpler accounting proceduresO The improvement of roads5. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.O Credit sales and bills of exchange were devices that merchants developed in order to increase their mutual trust.O Merchants developed ways to finance their sales without having to rely on slow and dangerous shipments of coins.O Greater trust among merchants led to an increase in credit sales and to the use of bills of exchange that made the shipping of coins unnecessary.O Merchants began to trust one another when it became too slow and dangerous for a single merchant to ship coins.6. According to paragraph 3, Hanseatic merchants benefited by all of the following EXCEPTO the use of trading centers in distant citiesO a new system of recording commercial transactionsO the opening of overland trade routes across northern EuropeO access to markets in about 200 cities7. The word "decisive" in the passage is closest in meaning toO probableO determiningO helpfulO limiting8. Why does the author provide the information in paragraph 4 that the commercial classes never exceeded 10 percent of the population?O To argue that the wealth created by the commercial revolution benefited only a small number of peopleO To challenge the view that the commercial classes made up a majority of the population of EuropeO To suggest a reason that the commercial revolution ended around A. D. 1300O To emphasize the point that the commercial revolution was brought about by a small part of the population9. According to paragraph 4, which of the following was associated with the rise of modem states?O Increased wealth for the ruling classesO The weakening of the aristocracyO The decline of the middle classO A reduction in taxes10. The word "alliances" in the passage is closest in meaning toO transactionsO communicationsO partnershipsO conflicts11. According to paragraph 5, the most important result of the commercial revolutionwas toO simplify the organization of European societyO provide employment to agricultural workersO encourage merchants to become community leadersO change Europe from a rural to a more urban society12. Paragraph 5 supports which of the following inferences about the commercial revolution between ad 1000 and 1300?O It had very little impact on social attitudes and values.O It brought about major political changes throughout Europe.O It lessened the influence of the church.O It increased the population of small towns.13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.While It originated in the German city of Liibeck, it began to expand in 1241 when Liibeck entered into a mutual protection treaty with the city of Hamburg.Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage.14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong To remove an answer choice, click on itTo review the passage, click VIEW TEXTDuring the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300), Europe underwent a commercial revolution.Answer ChoicesMerchants adopted new accounting and trading procedures to make long-distance trading more efficient.The faster transportation made possible by improved roads expanded the variety of goods that could be brought to European towns from far away.The increasing importance of commercial trade led to a decline in the influence of traditional sources of power, such as kings and church leaders.The mining of silver improved the security of commercial transactions by allowing coins to replace credit and bills ofexchange as the means of exchange.The Hanseatic League was an association of European towns that obtained shipping, trading, and financial benefits for its members.European society became increasingly urban, with better living conditions and a stronger centralized government.。
托福tpo综合写作 46
The reading passage and the professor are both talking about whether medical information should be recored by electrical edition instead of the hard copies. The author mentions three benefits of using electronic medical record, yet the professor states that the metrits of the adoption of electronic record system are not certain.The author cites that electronic records can help us save a lot of money and space. We do not have to use paper to record the medical information, which means we can simply duplicate and transfer it instead of copy and fax it. However, the professor mentions that the use of electronic record will not cut the cost, because we still need to use the emergency backup and the signature, that is to say, the cost still exists.The author also cites that by using electronic records, people could prevent a lot of handwriting errors, which might cause serious bad impact on the patient. But, the professor says that even thouth we use the electronic records, those errors still exists, because we could not prevent the man-made mistakes and some of the errors might caused by some staff instead of the doctors. Maybe the electronic records are just typed into the system by the staff long after the doctor finished writing them down, so in the process the staff will probably misinterpret the meaning on the hard copied.The author asserts that the electronic records can help medical research by using its huge database, so the information could be easily accessed from any place, yet the professor points out that people will still hard to access the data they are searching for because in the USA, there are very strict privacy laws to protect the patients' private information. So, if they want to get into that system, they need to get a mountain of permissions. And the doctor can block the files for any purpose, so the records are not accessed for granted.总结：1.我不知道为什么我这篇综合打了330words 但我觉得我还是在这上面浪费了一些时间，所以我在检查typo的时候没那么认真2.R2这里有个细节是医生需要用pen and paper while examining the patient 我没写进去。
TPO46独立写作
Nowadays, the issue of the influence of celebrities' opinions has never failed to arouse the public concern. Some people are strong believers of the opinions that the viewpoints of famous entertainers and athletes are more crucial to older people than they are to younger people. However, I hold a totally opposite point of view.First and foremost, younger people prefer to take their famous stars' opinions into consideration when they are making decisions. There is no denying the fact that the distinguished entertainers are symbol of today's fashion. Large numbers of younger people want to be fashionable. Thus, the best way for them to reach this goal is to follow the celebrities' preferences. Just take my friend, Jenny, as an example. She is crazy about her favorite singer, Mariah Carey. Every time when she sees the clothes recommended by Carey in the advertisements on TV, she will busy this kind of clothes on the Internet right away. Moreover, many celebrities also have undeniable social influence on their fans. For another example of Jenny, when Carey launched a charity activity which was aimed at helping poor children in need last year, Jenny donated 100 dollars to support Carey's activity without any hesitation. Obviously, the opinions of celebrities exert a strong effect on their fans, especially the younger people.Besides, most of the older people are not passionate about celebrities, so the opinions of celebrities are less important to them. To be more specific, the older citizens have their own lifestyles. They are conservative about the clothes and food, and are unwilling to change their minds. Thus, what famous entertainers like has little influence on these older people. For instance, my 78-year-old grandmotherknows few entertainers and seldom watches TV. She would like to wear the clothes which were bought 10years ago. When I advised her to buy the new and fashionable clothes which my favorite actress had shown on the television, she had no interest in it even if the clothes were very suitable to her figure and matched her perfectly. Thereby, the opinions of celebrities are less important to older people.In conclusion, what choices celebrities make are of essential importance to younger people than they are to older people.。
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¡¡¡¡ÎªÁË°ïÖú´ó¼Ò¸ßЧ±¸¿¼Íи££¬Îª´ó¼Ò´øÀ´Íи£TPO46×ÛºÏд×÷ÔĶÁÔ-ÎÄ+ÌýÁ¦Ô-ÎÄ+Âú·Ö·¶ÎÄ£¬Ï£Íû¶Ô´ó¼Ò±¸¿¼ÓÐËù°ïÖú¡£¡¡¡¡Íи£TPO46×ÛºÏд×÷ÔĶÁÔ-ÎÄÎı¾£º¡¡¡¡In the United States, medical information about patients traditionally has been recorded and stored on paper forms. However, there are efforts to persuade doctors to adopt electronic medical record systems in which information about patients is stored in electronic databases rather than on paper. It is argued that storing patients' medical records in electronic databases has several advantages over traditional paper-based record keeping. Reducing Costs First, the use of electronic records can help reduce costs by saving money on storing and transferring medical records. While paper records require a significant amount of storage space, electronic medical records take up virtually no space. Moreover, by having patients' records computerized in databases, doctors can easily access the records from almost anywhere and can easily duplicate and transfer them when necessary. This costs much less than copying, faxing, or transporting paper records from one location to another. Preventing Errors Second, electronic medical records are crucial to reducing the chances of medical errors. Illegible handwriting, improper transcription of data, and nonstandard organization of paper records have caused errors that in some cases have had serious consequences for the patients' health. In contrast, electronic records are associated with standardization of forms and legible computer fonts and thus minimize the possibility of human error. Aiding Research Third, electronic medical records can greatly aid medical research by making it possible to gather large amounts of data from patient records. It is often impractical, impossible, or prohibitively expensive to manually go through thousands of patients¡¯ paper records housed in doctors' offices. However, with the existence of electronic medical records, it would be simple to draw out the needed information from the medical databases because the databases are already formatted for data collection. Once in the electronic system, the records could be accessed from any research location.¡¡¡¡Íи£TPO46×ÛºÏд×÷ÌýÁ¦Ô-ÎÄÎı¾£º¡¡¡¡The benefits claimed for electronic medical records are actually every uncertain.¡¡¡¡First, the costs savings are unlikely be as significant as the reading suggests. For example, there probably won't be any savings related to record storage. You see, doctors who adopt electronic records usually don't throw out or discontinue the paper records. They keep the paper records as an emergency backup or because the paper originals with signatures are needed for legal reasons. So as a result, most doctors who adopt electronic record keeping still have to pay storage costs associated with paper-based record keeping.¡¡¡¡Second, electronic medical records cannot eliminate the possibility of errorscaused by poor handwriting or by mistakes in the transcription of data. That's because most doctors, including those who've adopted electronic medical record keeping, still use pen and paper while examining patients. They take notes and write prescriptions by hand. It's usually the office staff of a doctor who entered this information at a later time from the handwritten documents into electronic systems. So poor handwriting can still lead to errors in the records since the staff members have to interpret what the doctor has written.¡¡¡¡Third, medical research would not necessarily benefit from electronic record keeping. Researchers will still find it difficult to access and use medical information. That's because access to all medical information is subject to strict privacy laws in the United States. Privacy laws exist to allow patients to keep their medical information private if they wish to. As a consequence, researchers who want to collect data from electronic medical records have to follow strict and complicated procedures and obtain many permissions along the way, including permissions from the patients. And often, such permissions are not granted. For example, patients can block the use of their medical records for any purpose other than their own medical treatment.¡¡¡¡Íи£TPO46×ÛºÏд×÷Âú·Ö·¶ÎÄ£º¡¡¡¡In the lecture, the professor casts doubt on the reading passage¡¯s idea that storing patients¡¯ medical records in electronic databases has several advantages over traditional paper-based record keeping. The professor asserts that the benefits are actually uncertain. To begin with, according to the reading passage, electronic medical records will reduce costs of storing and transferring. The professor argues that the cost savings are unlikely as the reading suggests. He says that the doctors just keep the paper records as an emergency backup and most doctors who adopt electronic record keeping still have to pay storage costs associated with paper-based record keeping. On top of that, the reading passage claims that the use of electronic medical records will help reduce the chances of medical errors. On the contrary, the professor rebuts that the electronic records cannot eliminate the possibility of errors. She says that doctors still use pen and paper while examining patients. It is usually the office staff of a doctor who will enter the information at a later time from the handwritten documents into electronic systems. So poor handwriting can still lead to errors. Lastly, the professor rebuts the reading¡¯s point that electronic medical records will be beneficial to medical research through obtaining a great amount of data from patient records by stating that medical research would not necessarily benefit from electronic record keeping. The professor points out that access to all medical information is subject to strict privacy laws in the United States. Researchers who want to collect data from electronic medical records have to follow strict and complicated procedures and obtain many permissions including patient permissions along the way. Often such permissions are not granted.¡¡¡¡ÒÔÉÏÊǸø´ó¼ÒÕûÀíµÄÍи£TPO46×ÛºÏд×÷ÔĶÁÔ-ÎÄ+ÌýÁ¦Ô-ÎÄ+Âú·Ö·¶ÎÄ£¬Ï£Íû¶ÔÄãÓÐËù°。