托福TPO36听力文本+题目+答案+MP3音频下载
tpo36三篇托福阅读TOEFL原文译文题目答案译文背景知识
tpo36三篇托福阅读TOEFL原文译文题目答案译文背景知识阅读-1 (2)原文 (2)译文 (3)题目 (5)答案 (10)背景知识 (11)阅读-2 (12)原文 (12)译文 (14)题目 (15)答案 (20)背景知识 (20)阅读-3 (24)原文 (24)译文 (25)题目 (27)答案 (32)背景知识 (33)阅读-1原文Soil Formation①Living organisms play an essential role in soil formation. The numerous plants and animals living in the soil release minerals from the parent material from which soil is formed, supply organic matter, aid in the translocation (movement) and aeration of the soil, and help protect the soil from erosion. The types of organisms growing or living in the soil greatly influence the soil's physical and chemical characteristics. In fact, for mature soils in many parts of the world, the predominant type of natural vegetation is considered the most important direct influence on soil characteristics. For this reason, a soil scientist can tell a great deal about the attributes of the soil in any given area simply from knowing what kind of flora the soil supports. Thus prairies and tundra regions, which have characteristic vegetations, also have characteristic soils.②The quantity and total weight of soil flora generally exceed that of soil fauna. By far the most numerous and smallest of the plants living in soil are bacteria. Under favorable conditions, a million or more of these tiny, single-celled plants can inhabit each cubic centimeter of soil. It is the bacteria, more than any other organisms, that enable rock or other parent material to undergo the gradual transformation to soil. Some bacteria produce organic acids that directly attack parent material, breaking it down and releasing plant nutrients. Others decompose organic litter (debris) to form humus (nutrient-rich organic matter). A third group of bacteria inhabits the root systems of plants called legumes. These include many important agricultural crops, such as alfalfa, clover, soybeans, peas, and peanuts. The bacteria that legumes host within their root nodules (small swellings on the root) change nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into nitrogen compounds that plants are able to metabolize, a process, known as nitrogen fixation, that makes the soil more fertile. Other microscopic plants also are important in soil development. For example, in highly acidic soils where few bacteria can survive, fungi frequently become the chief decomposers of organic matter.③More complex forms of vegetation play several vital roles with respect to the soil. Trees, grass, and other large plants supply the bulk of the soil's humus. The minerals released as these plants decompose on the surface constitute an important nutrient source for succeeding generations of plants as well as for other soil organisms. In addition, trees can extend their roots deep within the soil and bring up nutrients from far below the surface. These nutrients eventually enrich the surface soil when the tree drops its leaves or when it dies and decomposes. Finally, trees perform the vital function of slowing water runoff and holding the soil in place with their root systems, thus combating erosion. The increased erosion that often accompanies agricultural use of sloping land is principally caused by the removal of its protective cover of natural vegetation.④Animals also influence soil composition. The faunal counterparts of bacteria are protozoa. These single-celled organisms are the most numerous representatives of the animal kingdom, and, like bacteria, a million or more can sometimes inhabit each cubic centimeter of soil. Protozoa feed on organic matter and hasten its decomposition. Among other soil-dwelling animals, the earthworm is probably the most important. Under exceptionally favorable conditions, up to a million earthworms (with a total body weight exceeding 450 kilograms) may inhabit an acre of soil. Earthworms ingest large quantities of soil, chemically alter it, and excrete it as organic matter called casts. The casts form a high-quality natural fertilizer. In addition, earthworms mix of soil both vertically and horizontally, improving aeration and drainage.⑤Insects such as ants and termites also can be exceedingly numerous under favorable climatic and soil conditions. In addition, mammals such as moles, field mice, gophers, and prairie dogs sometimes are present in sufficient numbers to have significant impact on the soil. These animals primarily work the soil mechanically. As a result, the soil is aerated broken up, fertilized, and brought to the surface, hastening soil development.译文土壤形成①活生物体在土壤形成中起着重要作用。
托福阅读tpo36R-3原文+译文+题目+答案+背景知识
托福阅读tpo36R-3原文+译文+题目+答案+背景知识原文Industrial Melanism:The Case of the Peppered Moth①The idea of natural selection is that organisms in a species that have characteristics favoring survival are most likely to survive and produce offspring with the same characteristics.Because the survival of organisms with particular characteristics is favored over the survival of other organisms in the same species that lack these characteristics,future generations of the species are likely to include more organisms with the favorable characteristics.②One of the most thoroughly analyzed examples of natural selection in operation is the change in color that has occurred in certain populations of the peppered moth,Biston betularia,in industrial regions of Europe during the past100years. Originally moths were uniformly pale gray or whitish in color;dark-colored (melanic)individuals were rare and made up less than2percent of the population. Over a period of decades,dark-colored forms became an increasingly large fraction of some populations and eventually came to dominate peppered moth populations in certain areas—especially those of extreme industrialization such as the Ruhr Valley of Germany and the Midlands of England.Coal from industry released large amounts of black soot into the environment,but the increase of the dark-colored forms was not due to genetic mutations caused by industrial pollution.For example,caterpillars that feed on soot-covered leaves did not give rise to dark-colored adults.Rather,pollution promoted the survival of dark forms on soot-covered trees.Melanics were normally quickly eliminated in nonindustrial areas by adverse selection;birds spotted them easily.This phenomenon,an increase in the frequency of dark-colored mutants in polluted areas,is known as industrial melanism.The North American equivalent of this story is another moth, the swettaria form of Biston cognataria,first noticed in industrialized areas such as Chicago and New York City in the early1900s.By1961it constituted over90 percent of the population in parts of Michigan.③The idea that natural selection was responsible for the changing ratio of dark-to light-colored peppered moths was developed in the1950s by H.B.D.Kettlewell of Oxford University.If natural selection was the explanation,then there should be different survival rates for dark-and light-colored moths.To determine whetherthis was true,Kettlewell released thousands of light and dark moths(each marked with a paint spot)into rural and industrialized areas.In the nonindustrial area of Dorset,he recaptured14.6percent of the pale forms but only4.7percent of the dark forms.In the industrial area of Birmingham,the situation was reversed:13 percent of pale forms but27.5percent of dark forms were recaptured.④Clearly some environmental factor was responsible for the greater survival rates of dark moths.Birds were predators of peppered moths.Kettlewell hypothesized that the normal pale forms are difficult to see when resting on lichen-covered trees, whereas dark forms are conspicuous.In industrialized areas,lichens are destroyed by pollution,tree barks become darker,and dark moths are the ones birds have difficulty detecting.As a test,Kettlewell set up hidden observation positions and watched birds voraciously eat moths placed|on tree trunks of a contrasting color. The action of natural selection in producing a small but highly significant step of evolution was seemingly demonstrated,with birds as the selecting force.⑤Not every researcher has been convinced that natural selection by birds is the only explanation of the observed frequencies of dark and light peppered moths. More recent data,however,provide additional support for Kettleweir's ideas about natural selection.The light-colored form of the peppered moth is making a strong comeback.In Britain,a Clean Air Act was passed in1965.Sir Cyril Clarke has been trapping moths at his home in Liverpool,Merseyside,since1959.Before about 1975,90percent of the moths were dark,but since then there has been a steep decline in melanic forms,and in1989only29.6percent of the moths caught were melanic.The mean concentration of sulphur dioxide pollution fell from about300 micrograms per cubic meter in1970to less than50micrograms per cubic meter in 1975and has remained fairly constant since then.If the spread of the light-colored form of the moth continues at the same speed as the melanic form spread.in the last century,soon the melanic form will again be only an occasional resident of the Liverpool area.译文工业性黑变：斑点蛾的例子①自然选择的概念是，在一个物种中，具有有利生存特征的有机体最有可能生存下来，并产生具有相同特征的后代。
托福TPO36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TPO36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TPO36口语Task3阅读文本： Allow Laptops in Class Though most of us own laptop computer, we are currently not allowed to use them during class. I think this policy should be changed. Since most of us type faster than we write by hand, taking notes on a computer would be quicker and easier, so we could pay more attention to professor's lectures. Also, since laptop computers have internet access, professors could direct students to view Web sites with useful information while lectures are going on. They could look up useful facts and background information on a topic or view different photographs or illustrations of something the professor is describing. This would help students gain a more complete understanding of lecture topics. Sincerely Jodie Smith 托福TPO36口语Task3听力文本： Now listen to two students discussing the letter. Woman: Did you see this letter in the paper? Man: Yeah but I don't think it's a good idea. Woman: Why not? Man: 'Cause I think students will pay even less attention to the professor, not more. I think it'd be too much distraction. Woman: How so? Man: Well maybe some students would actually use laptops to take notes. Woman: I would. Man: OK, you would. But a lot of people, most people would be too busy playing around instead. You know, surfing the internet, emailing friends, playing computer games, that kind of stuff. Woman: Huh, so you really think they pay less attention. Man: Yeah, I think that's what would happen. Woman: Alright, but what about her second point? Don't you think if students have them in class, the professor would be able to use the internet as a teaching tool? Man: Well the problem with that is that not everyone has a laptop computer, only some people have one. Woman: True. Man: So you see, not everyone would be able to follow along. It wouldn't be useful as a teaching tool if only some students could follow along but not others. Woman: I see what you mean. 托福TPO36口语Task3题目： The man expresses his opinion of the proposal the student makes in the letter. State his opinion and explain the reasons he gives for holding that opinion. 托福TPO36口语Task3满分范文： The letter supposes that students should be allowed to use laptops in class. One reason it gives is students can type faster than write by hand when they need to take notes, so they can put more attention on what professor is teaching. The second reason in the letter is students can look for multimedia information in class with a laptop and gain a more comprehensive understanding of their topic. But the man in the track disagree with this letter. He thinks that on the one hand, most students will use laptops to email friends, surf the Internet or play games instead of taking notes. Thus will lead to their distraction. On the other hand, he proposes that not everyone has a laptop, so if it becomes necessary for students to look at pictures on their computer, some students will not be able to do it. It is not fair to them. 以上是给大家整理的托福TPO36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!。
托福阅读tpo36R-2原文+译文+题目+答案+背景知识
托福阅读tpo36R-2原文+译文+题目+答案+背景知识原文Early Ideas About Deep-sea Biology①In1841Edward Forbes was offered the chance to serve as naturalist aboard HMS Beacon,an English Royal Navy ship assigned to survey the Aegean Sea.For a year and a half the Beacon crisscrossed the Aegean waters.During that time Forbes was able to drag this small,triangular dredge-a tool with a leather net for capturing creatures along the sea bottom-at a hundred locations,at depths ranging from6to1380feet.He collected hundreds of different species of animals, and he saw that they were distributed in eight different depth zones,each containing its own distinct assemblage of animal life,the way zones of elevation on the side of a mountain are populated by distinct sets of plants.②Forbes also thought he saw,as he later told the British Association,that"the number of species and individuals diminishes as we descend,pointing to a zero in the distribution of animal life as yet unvisited."This zero,Forbes casually speculated-he simply extended a line on his graph of animal number versus depth-probably began at a depth of1,800feet.Below that was the final zone in Forbes's scheme,zone nine,a zone that covered most of the ocean floor and thus most of the solid surface of Earth:Forbes called this the azoic zone,where no animal,to say nothing of plants,could survive.③Forbes's azoic zone was entirely plausible at the time,and it was certainly far from the strangest idea that was then entertained about the deep sea.In the first decade of the nineteenth century,a French naturalist named Francois Peron had sailed around the world measuring the temperature of the ocean.He found that the deeper the water,the colder it got,and he concluded that the seafloor was covered with a thick layer of ice.Peron ignored the fact that water expands when it freezes and that ice therefore floats.A more popular belief at the time was that water at great depth would be compressed to such a density that nothing could sink through it.This ignored the fact that water is all but incompressible.But even the more sensible naturalists of the day were guilty of a similar misconception.They imagined the deep sea as being filled with an unmoving and undisturbable pool of cold,dense water.In reality the deep is always being refreshed by cold water sinking from above.④The central implication of all these misconceptions was that nothing could live in the abyss(deep),just as Forbes's observations seemed to indicate.But Forbes erred in two ways.One was the particular study site he happened to use as a springboard for his sweeping postulate of a lifeless abyss.Although the Aegean had been the birthplace of marine biology,its depths are now known to be exceptionally lacking in animal diversity.Moreover,through no fault of his own, Forbes was not particularly successful at sampling such life as did exist at the bottom of the Aegean.It was his dredge that was inadequate.Its opening was so small and the holes in the net so large that the dredge inevitably missed animals. Many of those it did catch must have poured out of its open mouth when Forbes reeled it in.His azoic zone,then,was a plausible but wild extrapolation from pioneering but feeble data.⑤As it turned out,the existence of the azoic zone had been disproved even before Forbes suggested it,and the theory continued to be contradicted regularly throughout its long and influential life.Searching for the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific in1818,Sir John Ross had lowered his"deep-sea clam"—a sort of bivalved sediment scoop-into the water of Baffin Bay(an inlet between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans),which the determined to be more than a thousand fathoms deep in some places.Modern soundings indicate he overestimated his depths by several hundred fathoms,but in any case Ross's clam dove several times deeper than Forbes's dredge.It brought back mud laced with worms,and starfish that dad entangled themselves in the line at depths well below the supposed boundary of the azoic zone.译文深海生物学的早期观点①1841年，爱德华·福布斯有机会作为自然学家登船HMS Beacon号，这是一艘被派去考察爱琴海的英国皇室海军船。
托福TPO36听力文本+题目+答案+MP3音频
托福TPO36听力文本+题目+答案+MP3音频下载上海新航道整理! 由于托福TPO听力36文本已经很长了，此文档不包含托福听力TPO36题目+答案，托福TPO36MP3题目+答案+音频下载，请移步：/toefl/tpotingli/596362.html托福TPO听力1-48文本查看及下载，请移步：/toefl/tpotingli/更多托福TPO查看，请点击：托福TPO写作大全托福TPO口语大全托福TPO阅读大全Conversation 1Listen to a conversation between a student and an admission officer at City College.Student: Hi, can I ask you a few questions about starting classes during your summer session? Q1 Admission officer: Sure, ask away. It starts next week, you know.Student: Yeah, and I wanted to get some required courses out of the way, so I can, maybe I can graduate one term earlier and get out into the job market sooner. Q2Admission officer: That sounds like a good idea. Let me pull up the summer school database on my computer here.Student: Ok.Admission officer: OK, here it is. What’s your student ID number?Student: Oh, well, the thing is, I’m not actually admitted here. I will be starting school upstate at Hooper University in the fall, but I’m down here for the summer staying with my grandparents, ‘cause I have a summer job near here.Admission officer: Oh, I see. Well.Student: So I’m out of luck?Admission officer: Well, you would be if you were starting anywhere but Hooper, but City College has a sort of special relationship with Hooper, a full exchange agreement. So our students can take classes at Hooper, and vice versa.Q5 So if you can show me proof, eh, your admissions letter from Hooper, then I can get you into our system here and give you an ID number.Student: Oh, cool. So, um, I wanna take a math course and a science course, preferably biology, and I was also hoping to get my English Composition Course out of the way, too.Admission officer: Well, all three of those courses are offered in the summer, but you’ve got to understand that summer courses are condensed. You need longer hours and the assignments are doubled up because it’s the same amount of information presented and tested in a regular term, but it’s only six weeks long. Two courses are considered full time in summer term. Q3 Even if you weren’t working, I couldn’t let you register for more than that.Student: Yeah, I was half expecting that. What about the schedule? Are classes only offered during the day?Admission officer: Well, during the week, we have some classes in the daytime and some at night. And on the weekends, we have some classes all day Saturday or all day Sunday for the six weeks.Student: My job is pretty flexible, so one on the weekday and one on the weekend shouldn’t be any problem. Ok, so after I bring you my admissions letter, how do I sign up for the classes?Admission officer: Well, as soon as your student ID number is assigned and your information is in our admission system, you can register by phone almost immediately. Q4Student: Oh, what about financial aid? Is it possible to get it for the summer?Admission officer: Sorry, but that’s something you would have to work out long before now, but the good news is that the tuition for our courses is about half of what you’re gonna be paying at Hooper.Student: Oh, well, that helps. Thank you so much for answering all my questions. Ah, I’ll be back tomorrow with my letter.Admission officer: I won’t be here then, but do you see that lady sitting at that desk over there? That’s Ms Brinker. I’ll leave her a note about what we discussed and she’ll get you started. Q4 Student: Cool.Lecture 1 World History ClassListen to part of a lecture in a world history class.Professor: In any introductory course, I think it’s always a good idea to step back and ask ourselves: What are we studying in this class? And why are we studying it? So, for example, when you looked at the title of this course in the catalogue, Introduction to World History, what did you think you were getting into? What made you sign up for it, besides filling the social science requirement?Students: HahahahahProfessor: Anyone?Student: Well, just the history of everything, you know like starting at the beginning with, I guess the Greeks and Romans, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, you know, that kind of stuff, like what we did in high school.Professor: Ok, now what you are describing is one approach to world history. In fact, there are several approaches, basic models or conceptual frameworks of what we study when we do history. And what you studied in high school, what I call the western-heritage model, this used to be the most common approach in US high schools and colleges. In fact, it’s the model I learned with, when I was growing up back, oh, about a hundred years ago.Students: HahahahahhaProfessor: Ah, at Middle Town High School up in Maine, I guess it made sense to my teachers back then, since, well, the history of Western Europe was the cultural-heritage of everyone in my class, and this remained the dominant approach in most US schools till, oh, maybe 30, 40 years ago. But it doesn’t take more than a quick look around campus, even just this classroom today, to see that the student body in the US is much more diverse than my little class in Middle Town High. And this western-heritage model was eventually replaced by or sometimes combined with one or more of the newer approaches. And I want to take a minute to describe these to you today. So you can see where this course fits in. Ok, so up until the mid-20th century, the basic purpose of most world history courses was to learn about a set of values, institutions, ideas, which were considered the heritage of the people of Europe. Things like democracy, legal systems, types of social organization, artistic achievements. Now, as I said, this model gives us a rather limited view of history. So in the 1960s and 70s, it was combined with or replaced by what I call the different-cultures model. The 60s were a period in which people were demanding more relevance in the curriculum, and there was criticism of the European focus that you’re likely to find in all the academic disciplines. For the most part, the different-cultures model didn’t challenge the basic assumptions of the western-heritage model. What it did was insist on representing other civilizations and cultural categories, in addition to those of Western Europe. In other words, the heritage of all people, not just what goes back to the Greeks and Romans, but also the origins of African, Asian, Native American civilizations. Though more inclusive, it’s still basically a heritage model, which brings us to a third approach. What I call thepatterns-of-change model. Like the different-cultures model, this model presents a wide cultural perspective. But with this model, we’re no longer limited by notions of fixed cultural or geographical boundaries. So then, studying world history is not so much a question of how a particular nation or ethnic group developed, but rather it’s a look at common themes, conflicts, trends that cut across modern-day borders of nations or ethnic groups. In my opinion, this is the best way of studying history, to betterunderstand current-day trends and conflicts. For example, let’s take the study of the Islamic world. Well, when I first learned about Islamic Civilization, it was from the perspective of Europeans’. Now, with the patterns-of-change model, we’re looking at the past through a wider length. So we would be more interested, say, in how interactions with Islamic civilization, the religion, art, literature, affected cultures in Africa, India, Spain, and so on. Or let’s take another example, instead of looking at each cultural group as having a separate, linear development from some ancient origin, in this course, we’ll be looking for the common themes that go beyond cultural or regional distinctions, so instead of studying a particular succession of British Kings or a dynasty of Chinese emperors. In this course, we’ll be looking at the broader concepts of monarchy, imperialism and political transformation.Lecture 2 Environmental Science ClassListen to part of a lecture in an environmental science class.Professor: OK, now let’s talk about another environmental concern, soil erosion. It’s a major problem all around the world. Sometimes erosion damages soil so severely that the land can no longer be cultivated, and it’s just abandoned. That happened in a big way right here in the United States. Some of you have probably read the novel “the Grapes of Wrath”, and maybe you remember that the story took place in the 1930s during the time of what was called the Dust Bowl. Dust Bowl is a term we use to describe an ecological and human disaster that took place in the Southern Great Plains region. For nearly eight years, dust and sand blew across the area and covered everything. It was so bad, it even made breathing and eating difficult, and farmers could only look on helplessly if their crops were destroyed, and the land and their lives were ruined.Now, there’ve always been droughts and strong winds in that region, but that was ok because the native grasses had deep roots in the ground that were able to hold the soil in place. So the wind wasn’table to, you know, erode the soil too badly. This changed though between the 1900 and 1930. Agriculture was expanding rapidly then, and lots of farmers in the Southern Great Plains wanted to grow wheat and other crops they could sell for cash, uh, crops that would be profitable. So they ripped up much of the grassland to plant these crops like wheat which don’t hold the soil down nearly as well. At the same time, livestock, cattle, too many of them were feeding on grasses in the area, and damaging a lot of the grassland. So these animals caused even more erosion of the soil. It didn’t help that many of the actual owners of the land were not living anywhere near the area. A lot of the landowners lived way back east and rented out the land to local people who lived on the land and worked on it, but didn’t have much reason to take really good care of it. I mean, it wasn’t their land, right? The tenant farmers weren’t really interested in conserving someone else’s soil, not for the long term anyway. Also, some thought the land couldn’t be really damaged. You know that the soil was so rich and deep that it didn’t matter if the topsoil, the soil on the surface, blew away. They thought they could just plow more, but they were wrong. Good topsoil takes a long time to form. It can literally take thousands of years to create good topsoil that will grow vegetation, and a very short time to ruin it. So after only a few years of excessive plowing, the land pretty much couldn’t be farmed any more. And people moved on to other places, and let the old areas just sit there, and when they didn’t plant anything on that land, that made it vulnerable to even more erosion. So it was kind of vicious cycle you could say. Another problem, ironically, was that advances in technology were actually destroying the land, instead of improving it. A lot of farmers were using huge new tractors that dug deep into the ground, and tore up a lot of the soil. And then of course there was the weather. You know, when people look back on the Dust Bowl era, they tend to blame the drought, the lack of rain between 1934 and 1937. We can’t ignore the drought. I mean, it was the worst on record at the time, and did help bring on this disaster. But without the soil destruction, the drought alone wouldn’t have resulted in the devastation we call the Dust Bowl. It was poor farming techniques that made that happen. Since then, though, we’ve paidmore attention to trying to prevent a future Dust Bowl. One thing congress did was an act of massive government effort to improve soil conservation called the “Soil Erosion Act”. Under this law, large stretches of land in the Southern Great Plains were identified as being at risk for erosion, and we’re taking active production and turn it into permanent grassland. What that did, by protecting the land from excessive farming, was to stabilize the soil. Also the “Soil Erosion Act” helped educate farmers to practice better soil conservation techniques, like reducing how often they plowed and using better equipment that would, you know, minimize damage to the soil structure.Conversation 2Listen to a conversation between a student and his academic advisor.Student: Excuse me, Ms Chambers. Um, I don’t have an appointment, but I was kind of wondering if you had a minute to help me with something.Academic advisor: Oh, sure, have a seat. What’s on your mind?Student: Well, uh, I guess I really don’t know where to start. It’s not just one class. It’s….I’m not doing all that great. Like on my homework assignments, and in class, and I don’t know why. I mean I just don’t get it. I read the assignments and I do the homework, and I’m still not doing too well.Academic advisor: Um, which classes? You mean like Spanish or…You’re taking Spanish, right?Student: Oh, no, not Spanish. If it weren’t for Spanish, I’d be really in trouble. No, but it’s really all the others, psychology and sociology especially.Academic advisor: Is it the material? What you read in the textbooks? You don’t understand it?Student: No, that’s just it. I think I understand stuff when I read it.Academic advisor: You don’t read….Student: Remember, well, I remember names and definitions, but like in the class when the professor asks about the theories, what they’re all about, I never have the answer.Academic advisor: Sounds like you’re trying to learn by memorizing details instead of picking out the main points of reading. So tell me, how do you study?Student: Well, I, I, I mean I read the assigned chapters and I try to underline everything, like all of the words I don’t know and I always memorize the definitions but I don’t know. When I get back in class, it always seems like the other students have got a better handle on what’s in the reading. So maybe it’s just me.Academic advisor: Oh, it’s not. Believe me. Lots of students, you know, my first year as a college student, I really had a hard time. I spent hours reading in the library, but I was just wasting time, ‘cause I wasn’t really studying the right things. I did the same sort of thing that sounds like you’re doing. Not focusing on what’s really important in the reading, but on the smaller details.Student: Yeah, maybe. But I spent so much time studying. It seems like I should be doing better.Academic advisor: The first year of college can be a little overwhelming, I know. Point is, lots of students have trouble adjusting at first. You know, figuring out how to study, how to use their time, you know, to your best advantage. It’s good that you do the assigned readings, but you, well, I think you’re unnecessarily underlining and memorizing. That takes a lot of time. And, well, it’s not the best use of your time. Here’s something you can do. When you read, just read the assigned sections, and then and without looking back of the text, write a summary of the key points, the main ideas in the chapter. And after you do that, it’s good to go back and reread the text. And you look for any examples you can find to support those key points. Let me show you an example of what I mean.Lecture 3 Astronomy ClassListen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class.Professor: I’ll tell you a story about how one astronomy problem was solved. It happened many years ago, but you’ll see that it’s interesting and still relevant. Two, three hundred years ago, astronomers already had telescopes, but they were not as powerful as those we have now. Let’s say they were the level of telescopes amateur astronomers use today. Tell me. What do you see in the night sky when you use a telescope like that? Quick, tell me.Student: Planets.Professor: Right.Student: Even like the moons of Jupiter.Professor: Right.Student: Stars.Professor: OK, what else? You think that’s all? Ever heard of nebulae? I’ll bet you have. Well, let’s just, um, put it up anyway. Nebular are small fuzzy patches you see in the sky. They look like little clouds. Many of them have a spiral shape, and that’s why we call them spiral nebulae. So astronomers in the 18th century, 18th century, when they looked through the telescope, they could see planets. They knew those were planets. The moons of Jupiter? And they knew they were the moons of Jupiter. And then they saw spiral nebulae. And they didn’t have a clue. What could those be? So some of them thought these things are cloudy and fuzzy, so they’re probably small clouds of cosmic dust and they don’t have to be very far away from us. But there were others who thought, ok, the things look small and fuzzy, but maybe they’re actually distant galaxies of stars, but we can’t see the stars because they’re so far away, and they seem so tiny. They look like dust and even the whole galaxy looks like a tiny little cloud. Which of the two theories do you think was more surprising?Student: The galaxy one.Professor: And why?Student: Well, I mean that they assumed that the nebulae are not what look like at first sight. The first theory assumed that, right?Professor: Ok, now tell me this. Which one would have seemed more likely at the time?Student: Uh, They couldn’t tell.Professor: Right. Two morals here. First, there can be different explanations for the same observation. And second, obvious doesn’t necessarily mean right. What happened next was for a long time, nothing. More than 150 years. No one could decide. Both hypotheses seemed plausible, and a lot was at stake because if the galaxy theory was right, it would be proof that the universe is enormous. And if the dust theory was right, maybe not so enormous. So the size of the universe was at stake. And finally in the 1920s, we came up with a telescope that was strong enough to tell us something new here. When we used it to look at the spiral nebulae, we saw, well, we are not absolutely sure, but it really looked like there were stars in those nebulae. So not dust after all, but stars. But how far away were they really? And how would you measure that? Any ideas? Laura?Student: Well, how about measuring how strong those stars shine, because if the stars are far away, then its light would be weak, right?Professor: Yes, but there’s a problem here. You need to know how bright the star is in the first place, because some stars are naturally much brighter than others. So if you see a star that’s weak, it can mean one of two things.Student: Oh, it’s either far away or it’s just a weak star.Professor: And you can’t really always tell which, but you’re on the right track. There’s a kind of star where you can calculate its natural brightness, and you guess it. We found some in the nebulae. It’s called a variable star, or a variable for sure, because its brightness varies in regular intervals. I won’t go into detailhere, but, basically, the longer the interval, the brighter the star. So from the length of those intervals, we are able to calculate their natural brightness. This told us how distant they were and many turned out to be very, very far away. So we can be sure that the spiral nebulae really are very distant galaxies, which is what some 18th century astronomers guessed, but didn’t have the instruments to prove. Now one reason I told you this story is that today there are still plenty of situations when we see something out there, but we really aren’t sure what it is. Examples of one such mysterious observation would be gamma-ray bursters. We’ve known about these gamma-ray bursters for a long time now, but we can’t all agree on what they are.Lecture 4 Art History ClassListen to part of a lecture in an art history class.Professor: Today we’re going to talk about how to look at a piece of art. How to read it. What you should look for. What aspects of it you should evaluate. A lot of people think that if you stand in front of a work of art and gaze at it for a couple of minutes, you are evaluating it. But truly reading a piece of art, evaluating it properly, is a complex process, a process that takes time. When we’re confronted with a piece of art, there’re several things we have to keep in mind. For example, its beauty. That’s where aesthetics comes in. Aesthetics is the philosophy that deals with the definition of beauty, which goes all the way back to ancient Greece. They, um, the early Greek philosophers said that beauty and art are based on imitation. Their feeling about art was that it’s beautiful when it imitates life. They thought that the truthfulness of an image, how truthful it is to life determines its value as art. Today we have a broader definition of aesthetics. Now don’t identify aesthetics as personal taste. Taste is bound by time. Taste is tied to a society, a given set of moral values usually. You may not like a piece of art from a different culture, it may not be your taste, but you appreciate its beauty, ‘cause you recognize certain aesthetic principles. Art generally adheres tocertain aesthetic principles like balance, balance proportions, contrast, movement or rhythm. We’ll discuss aesthetics more in detail when we look at some pieces of art together. Another thing to keep in mind in evaluating art is that art has a purpose, generally determined by the artist. You may not know what it is. And you don’t need to know what it is to appreciate a piece of art, but it helps. For example, if you know what the artist’s purpose is, if you know that a piece of art expresses the artist’s feeling about a political or social situation, you’ll probably look at it differently. Now, besides beauty and purpose, what are the other aspects of a piece of art that needs to be evaluated? Very simple, you examine a piece of art following these four formal steps.The first step is description. Describe physical characteristics of the piece, like this painting is large. It’s oil on canvas. Describe the object. It’s a person. It’s a landscape or predominant colors like, um, earth colors. That’s the description, ok? So you describe the piece. The next step is analysis. You’re looking at the piece for any universal symbols, characters or themes that might contain. Certain symbols are universal, and the artist counts on your understanding of symbols. Even colors have symbolic significance as you may know. And also objects depicted in a piece of art are often used to represent an abstract idea, like wheels or spheres. They look like circles, right? So wheels and spheres represent wholeness and continuity. I have a handout of a list of these symbols and images and their interpretations that I’ll give you later. But for now, the point is that after you describe the piece of art, you analyze its content. You determine whether it contains elements that the artist is using to try to convey a certain meaning. If it does, the next step is interpretation. Interpretation follows analysis very closely. You try to interpret the meaning of the symbols you identify in the piece. Almost all art has obvious and implied meaning. The implied meaning is hidden in the symbolic system expressed in the piece of art. What was he depicted is one scene, but there can be several levels of meaning. Your interpretation of these symbols makes clear what the artist is trying to tell us. The last step is judgment or opinion. What do you think of the piece? Is itpowerful or boring? But I give that hardly any weight. If the four steps were to be divided up into a chart, then description, analysis, and interpretation would take up 99 percent. Your opinion is not important in understanding a piece of art. It’s nice to say “I like it. I wouldn’t mind hanging it over my couch’. But to evaluate a piece of art, it’s not critical, ok? Now you know what I mean by reading a piece of art and what it entails. Try to keep all that in mind. Next time you go to an art museum, I can tell you right now that you probably won’t be able to look at more than 12 pieces of art during that visit. Ok. Now let’s look at a slide of a piece of art and try to read it together.。
托福TPO36听力Conversation2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TPO36听力Conversation2文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO36听力Conversation2文本 Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and the program manager of the university radio station. Student: Hi I'm Jim, the guy who’s trying to get a new show. Manager: Right. Jim. Student: My application got turned down and...um...l am not sure why. So I wonder if you could explain... Manager: I’m glad you came in, Jim. I was actually quite impressed with your application. Student: Okay. Manager: But the thing is, we run a music station here, not a talk station. We've been a music station since the beginning, since the station's inception. Student: This is where I get confused because of the article in last month's campus newspaper about the poll... Manager: Yes. The survey... Student: I mean, a majority of students said they felt the station was stale, that it needed a breath of fresh air. Well, um, how are we supposed to get fresh air if you keep all the windows closed? I was just trying to open some windows for people. Manager: I can tell you have a lot of passion for this, but I’m really not convinced it’s a good idea. Okay. The first thing is, again, this is a music station. If we just have that one calling show, it just doesn't fit in with what we are doing. And studies have showed that mixed format stations just aren't as successful as...Look. We do want to innovate, but within the format. And with a live calling show, for one thing, you have no idea what the caller is going to say, no idea what you could end up broadcasting. Student: I understand, but that seems like a small risk to take in exchange for giving students a chance to talk publicly, interactively about issues they care about.I really think they'd like to have a place where they can air their views about currentevents, about the university. Manager: But the university already has that. There's a monthly meeting open to all students to discuss issues like the ones you mentioned in your application. And there are several student clubs on campus that discuss current events. But either way we have no plans to change the format. Now, if you had an innovative idea for a new music program... Student: Well...how about a music program that includes taking calls from listeners? Manager: You really are determined to have a calling show, huh? Student: Well, I'm a communications major, and I'm hoping to get an internship at a professional talk radio show in the city next year. I thought a little experience with the college station might help. Manager: Tell you what, there's still some time before the application deadline. Why don't you submit a new application with the music show idea that you just proposed? Then we will see if we can work something out. Student: Okay. Thanks! 托福TPO36听力Conversation2题目 1.What are the speakers mainly discussing? A. Results of a survey about the university radio station. B. Opportunities for internships at the university radio station. C. Problems associated with the student's proposal for a radio show. D. Changes the student wants to make to his proposal for a radio show. 2.What are the woman's objections to a call-in radio show? Click on 2 answers A. She does not like to call-in shows. B. The radio stations broadcasts only music shows. C. The radio station does not have the necessary equipment to broadcast a call-in show.。
托福TPO36综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO36综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO36综合写作阅读原文文本： Hail—pieces of ice that form and fall from clouds instead of snow or rain—has always been a problem for farmers in some areas of the United States. Hail pellets can fall with great force and destroy crops in the field. Over the last few decades, a method of reducing hail, called "cloud seeding," has been tried. In cloud seeding, the chemical silver iodide is sprayed on storm clouds from an airplane. This makes the clouds produce harmless rain or snow instead of hail. Several pieces of evidence suggest that cloud seeding has been effective in protecting crops from hail. Laboratory experiments Experiments in the laboratory support the idea that cloud seeding is effective. Hail usually forms water vapor that is close to the freezing point However, when experimenters added silver iodide to cold water vapor in the laboratory, they often observed light snow forming instead of hail pellets. Evidence from Asia There is evidence about the effectiveness of cloud seeding from several countries around the world. In some Asian countries, for example, cloud seeding has been successfully used to control precipitation in urban areas. These positive results suggest that cloud seeding should also be effective in protecting fields and farms in the United States. Local studies A few local studies also support the value of cloud seeding. One study conducted in a farming region in the central United States, for example, directly monitored crop damage due to hail. The study found that in an area where cloud seeding was used there was reduced hail damage compared to previous years. 托福TPO36综合写作听力原文文本： It’s not clear that cloud seeding is all that effective and there are reasons to question each of the arguments you just read. First, it may be true that under laboratory conditions silver iodide creates snow instead of hail. However, in real life, silver iodide can actually prevent any precipitation at all from forming in the cloud, snow, rain or hail. This is a bad thing. Because if you seed all the clouds in areas where it doesn’t rain very often, you ran the risk of causing a drought. In this case the crops simply get damaged for a different reason: lack of water.Second, it's not clear that positive result of cloud seeding in Asia can be repeated in the United States. The reason is that cloud seeding in Asia was tried in urban areas, in cities. And cities tend to have a high level of air pollution, from car, factory, etc. Surprisingly, pollution particles can create favorable conditions for cloud seeding because they interact with clouds and seeding chemicals. Such favorable conditions for cloud seeding may not occur in an unpolluted area. This means that the cloud seeding method that works in polluted cities may not work in unpolluted farming regions in the United States.Third, the local study mentioned in the passage isn’t very convincing either. That’s because the study found that hail damagedecreased not just in the area where the cloud seeding actually took place, but also in many of the neighboring areas to the east, south and north of the area. So the fact that the whole region was experiencing a reduce number of hail storms that particular year makes it more likely that this was a result of natural variation in local weather, and has nothing to do with cloud seeding. 托福TPO36综合写作满分范文： The author discussed that although hail makes crops suffer a lot, there has always been a method called cloud seeding which can protect crops from this disaster. He listed three facts supporting this approach. However, the speaker holds a contradictory view that all these three ways are not reliable. First, the writer proposes that laboratory experiments has already proved that cloud seeding is effective in eliminating hail. But the professor points out that although the hail can be turned into rain and snow in experimental movement, but it is also possible that hail, snow and rain can be all prevented by cloud seeding. Consequently, it will cause drought. Crops will still be damaged as a result of lack of water. The writer’s first argument is refuted. Second, the passage indicates that cloud seeding has an Asia evidence. To render this disproof, the lecturer reveals that this successful application in Asia probably will not get a similar outcome in America. High air pollution offers favorable conditions for cloud seeding process because those polluted air can interact with cloud and seeding chemicals. So this method which can be used in cities area may not be effective in unpolluted farming area. The second idea in the passage is also retorted. Third, the essay says that local studies in central United States also attain a satisfying result. Nevertheless, the speaker rebuts this idea. He thinks it unconvincing because hail damage in whole America not only decreases just in central of America, but also in the east, south and north part of country. So it is hard to say cloud seeding is the exact factor causes all those good things. Natural variation and local weather can also contribute to the elimination of hail disaster. This overturns the writer’s concept. (294 words) 以上是给大家整理的托福TPO36综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文，希望对你有所帮助!。
托福口语tpo36独立口语
托福口语tpo36独立口语英文回答：In my opinion, learning a foreign language isdefinitely beneficial. Firstly, it opens up a whole new world of opportunities. When you can communicate in another language, you can travel to different countries and immerse yourself in different cultures. This allows you to have a deeper and more meaningful experience when exploring new places.Secondly, learning a foreign language can greatly enhance your career prospects. In today's globalized world, many companies are looking for employees who can speak multiple languages. Being bilingual or multilingual can give you a competitive edge in the job market. It shows employers that you have the ability to adapt and communicate effectively with people from different backgrounds.Furthermore, learning a foreign language can also improve your cognitive abilities. Studies have shown that bilingual individuals have better problem-solving skills and are more creative. Learning a new language requires you to think in different ways and helps to keep your brain active and sharp.Moreover, learning a foreign language can also help you to better understand your own language and culture. When you learn a new language, you start to notice the nuances and intricacies of your native language that you may have never paid attention to before. This can lead to a deeper appreciation and understanding of your own culture.中文回答：在我看来，学习一门外语绝对是有益的。
托福TPO36综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文
为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO36综合写作阅读原文综合写作阅读原文++听力原文听力原文++满分范文，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO36综合写作阅读原文文本：Hail—pieces of ice that form and fall from clouds instead of snow or rain—has Hail—pieces of ice that form and fall from clouds instead of snow or rain—has always been a problem for farmers in some areas of the United States. Hail pellets can fall with great force and destroy crops in the field. Over the last few decades,a method of reducing hail, called "cloud seeding," has been tried. In cloud seeding,the chemical silver iodide is sprayed on storm clouds from an airplane. This makes the clouds produce harmless rain or snow instead of hail. Several pieces of evidencesuggest that cloud seeding has been effective in protecting crops from hail.Laboratory experiments Experiments in the laboratory support the idea that cloud seeding is effective. Hail usually forms water vapor that is close to the freezing point However, when experimenters added silver iodide to cold water vapor in the laboratory, they often observed light snow forming instead of hail pellets. Evidencefrom Asia There is evidence about the effectiveness of cloud seeding from several countries around the world. In some Asian countries, for example, cloud seeding hasbeen successfully used to control precipitation in urban areas. These positive results suggest that cloud seeding should also be effective in protecting fields andfarms in the United States. Local studies A few local studies also support the valueof cloud seeding. One study conducted in a farming region in the central United States,for example, directly monitored crop damage due to hail. The study found that in an area where cloud seeding was used there was reduced hail damage compared to previousyears.托福TPO36综合写作听力原文文本：It’s not clear that cloud seeding is all that effective and there are reasons It’s not clear that cloud seeding is all that effective and there are reasons to question each of the arguments you just read. First, it may be true that under laboratory conditions silver iodide creates snow instead of hail. However, in real life, silver iodide can actually prevent any precipitation at all from forming in the cloud, snow, rain or hail. This is a bad thing. Because if you seed all the cloudsin areas where it doesn’t rain very often, you ran the risk of causing a drought. In this case the crops simply get damaged for a different reason: lack of water.Second,it's not clear that positive result of cloud seeding in Asia can be repeated in the United States. The reason is that cloud seeding in Asia was tried in urban areas, in cities. And cities tend to have a high level of air pollution, from car, factory,etc. Surprisingly, pollution particles can create favorable conditions for cloud seeding because they interact with clouds and seeding chemicals. Such favorable conditions for cloud seeding may not occur in an unpolluted area. This means that the cloud seeding method that works in polluted cities may not work in unpolluted farming regions in the United States.Third, the local study mentioned in the passageisn’t very convincing either. That’s because the study found that hail damagedecreased not just in the area where the cloud seeding actually took place, but also in many of the neighboring areas to the east, south and north of the area. So the fact that the whole region was experiencing a reduce number of hail storms that particular year makes it more likely that this was a result of natural variation in local weather, and has nothing to do with cloud seeding.托福TPO36综合写作满分范文：The Theauthor discussed that although hail makes crops suffer a lot, there has always been a method called cloud seeding which can protect crops from this disaster. He listed three facts supporting this approach. However, the speaker holds acontradictory view that all these three ways are not reliable. First, the writer proposes that laboratory experiments has already proved that cloud seeding iseffective in eliminating hail. But the professor points out that although the hail can be turned into rain and snow in experimental movement, but it is also possible that hail, snow and rain can be all prevented by cloud seeding. Consequently, it willcause drought. Crops will still be damaged as a result of lack of water. The writer’sfirst argument is refuted. Second, the passage indicates that cloud seeding has an Asia evidence. To render this disproof, the lecturer reveals that this successful application in Asia probably will not get a similar outcome in America. High air pollution offers favorable conditions for cloud seeding process because thosepolluted air can interact with cloud and seeding chemicals. So this method which canbe used in cities area may not be effective in unpolluted farming area. The second idea in the passage is also retorted. Third, the essay says that local studies in central United States also attain a satisfying result. Nevertheless, the speaker rebuts this idea. He thinks it unconvincing because hail damage in whole America notonly decreases just in central of America, but also in the east, south and north partof country. So it is hard to say cloud seeding is the exact factor causes all those good things. Natural variation and local weather can also contribute to theelimination of hail disaster. This overturns the writer’s concept. (294 words) 以上是给大家整理的托福TPO36综合写作阅读原文综合写作阅读原文++听力原文听力原文++满分范文，希望对你有所帮助帮助!!。
托福听力 TPO听力题目与答案1-37全套汇总(附译文)
托福听力: TPO听力题目与答案1-37全套汇总(附译文)目前托福TPO内容已经更新到37套，很多同学在使用TPO听力内容时不是缺少音频资料就是内容不全，针对大家使用TPO听力内容的诸多不方便，小编特给出一份托福TPO 听力题目与答案1-37全套汇总(附译文)资料，同学们可以拿去好好练习一下，进而也可对比一下与之前内容的不同，所增加的套题与之前的区别。
托福TPO听力题目与答案1-37全套汇总(附译文)内容如下：1.Why does the student go to see the librarian?To sign up for a seminar on using electronic sources for researchTo report that a journal is missing from the reference areaTo find out the procedure for checking out journal articlesTo ask about how to look for resources for a class paper2.What does the librarian say about the availability of journals and articles in the library?They are not easy to find if a professor put them on reserveMost of them are accessible in an electronic formatMost of them can be checked out for three weeksPrinted versions from the past three years are located in the reference section3.What does the librarian suggest the student should do to save time?Choose an easier research topicConcentrate on five journalsRead the summaries of the articles firstInstall a new program on her home computer4.What can be inferred about why the woman decides to use the computer in the library?She thinks she might need additional help from the manShe does not have a computer at homeShe has to hand in her assignment by the end of the dayShe will be meeting a friend in the library later on5.Why does the woman say thisShe had forgotten about the informationShe is surprised she was not aware of the informationShe is annoyed that the information was published only recentlyShe is concerned that the librarian gave her incorrect informationStudentHi, um…, I really hope you can help me.LibrarianThat’s why I’m here. What can I do for you?StudentI’m supposed to do a literature review for my psychology course, but I’m… having a hard time finding articles. I don’t even know where to start looking.LibrarianYou said this is for your psychology course, right? So your focus is on …StudentDream Interpretation.LibrarianWell, you have a focus, so that’s already a good start. Hmmm… well, there’re a few things… oh wait… have you checked to see if your professor put any material for you to look at on reserve?StudentAha, that’s one thing I did know to do. I just copied an article, but I still need three more on my topic from three different journals.LibrarianLet’s get you going on looking for those then. We have printed versions of twenty or so psychology journals in the Reference Section. These are ones published within the last year. Now that I think about it… there’s a journal named Sleep and Dreams.StudentOh, yeah, the article I just copied is from that journal, so I’ve got to look in other sources.正确答案，D。
托福TPO口语35题目+参考答案+MP3音频下载
托福TPO口语35题目+参考答案+MP3音频下载托福TPO口语35题目+参考答案+MP3音频下载更多下载：托福TPO口语大全（1-35文本+题目+参考答案+MP3音频下载，目前只更新到35！）TPO听力下载：请点击：托福TPO听力大全(1-48下载，含听力MP3音频文件，听力文本、题目及答案)TPO阅读下载，请点击：托福TPO阅读大全(1-48,含阅读题目、阅读文本和阅读参考答案)TPO写作下载，请点击：托福TPO写作大全(1-48，综合写作和独立写作都更新到48)托福TPO口语35题目Which technology has made the greatest impact on people's life in your country: airplane, computer or television?参考答案While airplane and television are surely very important inventions, I believe computer is probably more helpful in people's life. For one thing, computer helps people so much in their studies since it allows people to write research papers and create PowerPoint presentations. You know, in the past, students had to rewrite their paper which costs them bunches of time. But now they only need to do some minor edit on the computer. For another, computer can be used as a convenient and efficient tool to communicate with others. People now have been accustomed to chat through online communication tools such as Skype, QQ and so forth. Furthermore, computer can meet all our needs of entertainment, including music, movies and video games.Some people believe that it is better for children to grow up in big cities. Others believe that it is better for children to grow up in small towns or rural areas. What is your opinion?参考答案Personally speaking, children will definitely benefit more from living in big cities, especially metropolis. First of all, big cities provide children with high-quality education resources and facilities, which are not available in rural areas. You know, most of the prestigious schools are located in big cities which are of advanced facilities like projectors, computers and so on. On the other hand, children can receive better medical insurance since medical and healthcare technology is better in big cities. Rural areas usually lack doctors with formal license, not even mention some checking machines. The myriad life of metropolis is indispensable to the all-round and harmonious development of children's character.The woman expresses her opinion about the university?s plan. Briefly summarize the plan. Then state her opinion about the plan and explain the reasons she gives for holding that opinion.参考答案The student proposes that the university should build a parking lot, as it’s hard to find a parking plac e on campus and there’s a wood area suitable for the need. The speaker disagrees with the statement. There are two reasons. Firstly, there are some places for parking near the dining hall and the library, several blocks away. And she doesn't think there should always be a parking spot outside the building they are visiting. Moreover, the green area is the only place on campus where there is plenty of trees and students enjoy studying and reading there. School should leave the area alone instead of eliminating it for something they don't need.Using the example from the lecture, explain the use of imageadvertising to sell products.参考答案In order to advertise a product, companies tend to link a positive image with their product and the image should be easy to remember. The professor talks about an example of a cookie company. The company uses a big bear as the image on the box of their cookies and the character is also shown on TV commercials. The image of big bear is easy to remember and when it dances and says something funny on TV, the children like it very much. Therefore, year by year, the company sells more cookies than any of its competitors.Briefly summarize the problem the speakers are discussing. Then state which of the two solutions from the conversation you would recommend. Explain the reasons for your recommendation.参考答案The speaker volunteers in an elementary school and she is supposed to take the kids for picnic in the weekends. But it’s going to rain the whole day that day. There are two so lutions for her. Firstly, she can reschedule the picnic next week and call every family tonight, but someone may miss out. Secondly, she can arrange the activi ty in a restaurant, but it’ll be less fun and cannot be called a picnic. Compared with the soluti ons, I prefer the second, and at least children will not be disappointed with the activity cancellation and they can rearrange the picnic next time.Using the example of baboons from the lecture, explain two ways in which display behavior can help animals maintain group unity.参考答案Group life provides animals with protection from predators and social companies. There are two kinds of display behaviors animal use to avoid conflicts and resolve conflicts within a group. The first is threatening. The behavior doesn't aim to harm, but send a signal of warning. Take a kind of monkey for example. When two monkeys see food at the same time, one may threaten the other and after receiving the warning message, the other may leave without fighting. The second is to hug each other after punching. If two monkeys does fight with each other over the food they found, they may hug after the physical attack, and the conflict is resolved.。
托福TPO36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TPO36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TPO36口语Task6听力文本： Listen to part of a lecture in a Biology class So, we know animals in many climates have to develop strategies; ways to protect themselves when the weather becomes especially hot and dry in the summers. Lets start talking about how one small creature, a snail, can do this. Now, as you know, a snail is a very small creature with a soft, moist body, most of which is protected by a hard shell. A snail is a good example of an animal that has developed certain strategies for coping with high temperatures and draught, or lack of water. First, to avoid the heat when the sun comes out, snails move into the shelter of vegetation ... you know, plants or leaves, to get out of the sun and into the shade. Now, of course the ground can become very hot in the sun. It absorbs and radiates heat, so snails will move up off of the ground to places where it is cooler. They may attach themselves to a wall or a tree where it is cooler than on the ground. Now, it's not just heat that snails need to worry about. They also need to avoid drying out due to lack of water, so during a really warm, dry day or during the summer months , snails secrete a sticky, slimy substance made up of calcium and it covers the opening of their shell; covers and closes it up . This keeps the moisture inside the shell and prevents the snail from drying out. Snails can stay inside their shells closed up like this for a long time, even several months if it's a really dry summer. Their bodies, well everything slows down and so they don't need food. They can survive on what food they've stored up, but when it rains and water is available again, the snail opens up its shell to get some. 托福TPO36口语Task6题目： Using the examples from the professor's lecture, explain how snails survive in hot and dry climate. 托福TPO36口语Task6满分范文： In the lecture, the female professor talks about how can a snail survive in hot and dry climate. The snail has developed two main strategies. The aim of the first strategy is to avoid the heat. Snails will move up to a shelter which covered by vegetation. Thus will make them get away from the sun and prevent the heat. Because the ground is hotter exposed to sunlight, snails will attach to a wall or a tree to get colder. The second strategy is about to keep themselves moisture. When it becomes dry, snails will begin to produce a kind of substance to seal its shell. This can keep it moisture inside its shell. They live on the food stored in its shell. After several month when there are more water, snails will come out of the shell again. 以上是给大家整理的托福TPO36口语Task6听力文本+题目+满分范文，希望对你有所帮助!。
托福TPO36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TPO36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TPO36口语Task4阅读文本： The Suspension of Disbelief As members of an audience, we can best enjoy the the performance of a play if we become emotionally involved with the events and characters on stage. But to do this, we need to forget that what we see on stage is only imaginary, and pretend instead—temporarily—that it is real. This ability to temporarily put aside, or suspend, our doubt and believe that the action of a play is real is called the suspension of disbelief. Suspending disbelief enables viewers to become more and more absorbed in the play as they watch the story develop, and to respond emotionally to the events and characters as if they were real. 托福TPO36口语Task4听力文本： Listen to part of a lecture on this topic in a theatre studies class. So for example, back when I was in college, one of my roommates, Richard, was in a play I went to see. And when he first went on stage, I have to admit I was a little distracted. Richard was dressed up like an old man. I could tell that his hair was colored grey and he was pretending, you know, to be older. So he walked more slowly, the way in older person would. But at first, I only saw him as my roommate dressed up to look like an older man. But then as the play went on, I began to think of him less as the guy I live with, and more as this older man who was a father, one who had to work very hard for his family, the family in the play. And in the play, the father gets sick and so he's out of work. Would you know, caused me to become a little sad. And because of the father's lung illness, the family was worried that they wouldn't have enough money to pay the bills. And this made me feel worried too. Well, in the end, what happened was, the family all came together and everyone found job and started working. They all pinch in and help in the time of crisis. So the family gets by and pays the bills. And soon after the father recovered from his illness, And this made me feel relieved. And even rather happy. 托福TPO36口语Task4题目： Explain how the example from the lecture illustrates the suspension of disbelief. 托福TPO36口语Task4满分范文： This passage talks about a concept named suspension of disbelief. That means the process in which the audience gradually forgets that the stage performance isimaginary but believes it to be real. Thus will help one person to absorb in the plot and give emotional response. In the lecture, the professor gives an example about himself in a performance of his roommate Richard. At the beginning of the play, the professor was distracted and he still recognized Richard as his roommate instead of the old man he was playing. However, the play went on and the professor gradually regarded Richard as the old man rather than his roommate. When Richard started to perform as a sick man and got out of work, the professor felt worried. But at the end of play, the families of this old man found job and paid the bills. Also the old man recovered from his illness. This made the professor felt relieved and happy. 以上是给大家整理的托福TPO36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!。
TPO36托福阅读文本及答案解析
1.The word "attributes" in the passage is closest in meaning toA.propertiesB.surroundingC.sourcesD.nutrientsParagraph 1 is marked with ►答案：A选项正确解析：本题考查的词汇定位到原文这一句：For this reason, a soil scientist can tell a great deal about the attributes of the soil in any given area simply form knowing what kind of flora the soil supports. 因为这个原因，一个研究土壤的科学家可以说出关于任意地区的土壤成分的很多知识，单纯凭借它上面的植被种类。
此处attribute意思是组成成分，内容物，选项A意为性质，财产;选项B意为环境，周边;选项C意为资源;选项D意为营养物质。
选项A最符合。
2.According to paragraph 1, which of the following factors is the most important in determining the characteristics ofa mature soil?A.The kinds of minerals in the parent material.B.The extent of erosion in the surrounding area.C.The amount of air that circulates through the soil.D.The kind of vegetation associated with the soil.Paragraph 1 is marked with ►答案：D选项正确解析：本题的关键词在于：most important 和in determining the characteristics of a mature soil，根据这个短语定位回原文这一句：In fact, for mature soils in many parts of the world, the predominant type of natural vegetation is considered the most important direct influence on soil characteristics. 本句大意为：实际上，对于很多地方的成熟土壤，自然植被里的优势物种被认为会给土壤特征施加最重要的直接影响。
托福TPO36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TPO36听力Conversation1文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO36听力Conversation1文本 Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and her academic advisor. Student: Hi. Professor Jones. Thanks for seeing me. Professor: No problem, Laura. How was your summer break? Student: It was great! But the fact is it's made me reconsider my academic plans. Professor: Oh, really? Nothing too dramatic, I hope. Student: No, no. At least I hope not. Professor: What do you mean exactly? Student: Well, I just spent the summer working on a Native American reservation, a Navajo reservation in Arizona. And I was fascinated, so now I want to study the Navajo language, uh, their history, religion. I want to go back next summer too. And maybe even spend a semester there, some kind of internship or independent study? Professor: Wow! Sounds like you are really enthusiastic, but you were majoring in sociology, and I seem to recall that for your senior project, you were doing something with education? Student: Right. I have done some research on the public schools in the northeastern states, how they've been affected by changes in population, uh, immigration trends, during the past fifty years. But now I really want to study the culture of the Navajo people. Professor: Well, there are a couple of options depending on your priorities. Say, how did you end up on a reservation in Arizona anyway? Student: Well, a friend of mine took a job there, in a summer school program. And they had another opening. Someone cancelled at the last minute. I thought it would be just a big adventure, but it turned out to be much more than that. Professor: I see. Well, anyway...as I am saying, your options depend on what your priorities are and on exactly what you want to study. Student: Uh, like I said...Navajo culture? Professor: Well, let's see if we can be more specific. If you want to study the Navajo language, learn about their religion, their history, that's part of cultural anthropology. Student: No. I really don't want to change majors at this point. I love sociology and I really want to graduate in four years. Professor: Okay. Now I see what your priorities are. So from a sociological perspective, since you are interested in education, you can stay with that, change your research topic to the Native American experience with public education, the effect it had. And you could take sociology courses on religion or the role of minorities in society, again, focusing your research on the Navajo. Student: Um...l hadn't thought about that angle. Sounds intriguing. And all the courses I have already taken would still count toward my degree? Professor: I have to check. And remind me to plan carefully to make sure all your degree requirements are met, but I don't see any problems. Student: Great! And then I can pick up the language and culture courses as electives. 托福TPO36听力Conversation1题目 1.Why does the woman visit her academic advisor? A. To compare requirements in the sociology and anthropology departments. B. To get advice about changing her major. C. To find out how to incorporate a new interest into her academic program. D. To discuss the possibility of doing research on a Navajo reservation. 2.What does the woman say about her summer experience? A. She spent a semester preparing for it. B. She did not expect it to be very important to her. C. It was her first job as a teacher. D. It required her to use her knowledge of the Navajo language and culture.。
托福TPO36听力Conversation1文本+题目+答案解析
托福TPO36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TPO36听力Conversation1文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。
托福TPO36听力Conversation1文本Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and her academic advisor.Student: Hi. Professor Jones. Thanks for seeing me.Professor: No problem, Laura. How was your summer break?Student: It was great! But the fact is it's made me reconsider my academic plans.Professor: Oh, really? Nothing too dramatic, I hope.Student: No, no. At least I hope not.Professor: What do you mean exactly?Student: Well, I just spent the summer working on a Native American reservation, a Navajo reservation in Arizona. And I was fascinated, so now I want to study the Navajo language, uh, their history, religion. I want to go back next summer too. And maybe even spend a semester there, some kind of internship or independent study?Professor: Wow! Sounds like you are really enthusiastic, but you were majoring in sociology, and I seem to recall that for your senior project, you were doing something with education?Student: Right. I have done some research on the public schools in the northeastern states, how they've been affected by changes in population, uh, immigration trends, during the past fifty years. But now I really want to study the culture of the Navajo people.Professor: Well, there are a couple of options depending on your priorities. Say, how did you end up on a reservation inArizona anyway?Student: Well, a friend of mine took a job there, in a summer school program. And they had another opening. Someone cancelled at the last minute. I thought it would be just a big adventure, but it turned out to be much more than that.Professor: I see. Well, anyway...as I am saying, your options depend on what your priorities are and on exactly what you want to study.Student: Uh, like I said...Navajo culture?Professor: Well, let's see if we can be more specific. If you want to study the Navajo language, learn about their religion, their history, that's part of cultural anthropology.Student: No. I really don't want to change majors at this point.I love sociology and I really want to graduate in four years.Professor: Okay. Now I see what your priorities are. So from a sociological perspective, since you are interested in education, you can stay with that, change your research topic to the Native American experience with public education, the effect it had. And you could take sociology courses on religion or the role of minorities in society, again, focusing your research on the Navajo.Student: Um...l hadn't thought about that angle. Sounds intriguing. And all the courses I have already taken would still count toward my degree?Professor: I have to check. And remind me to plan carefully to make sure all your degree requirements are met, but I don't see any problems.Student: Great! And then I can pick up the language and culture courses as electives.托福TPO36听力Conversation1题目1.Why does the woman visit her academic advisor?A. To compare requirements in the sociology and anthropology departments.B. To get advice about changing her major.C. To find out how to incorporate a new interest into her academic program.D. To discuss the possibility of doing research on a Navajo reservation.2.What does the woman say about her summer experience?A. She spent a semester preparing for it.B. She did not expect it to be very important to her.C. It was her first job as a teacher.D. It required her to use her knowledge of the Navajo language and culture.。
托福TPO36听力文本+题目+答案+MP3音频
托福TPO36听力文本+题目+答案+MP3音频托福TPO36听力文本+题目+答案+MP3音频下载上海新航道整理! 由于托福TPO听力36文本已经很长了，此文档不包含托福听力TPO36题目+答案，托福TPO36MP3题目+答案+音频下载，请移步：/doc/bd13270054.html,/toefl/tpotingli/596362. html托福TPO听力1-48文本查看及下载，请移步：/doc/bd13270054.html,/toefl/tpotingli/ 更多托福TPO查看，请点击：托福TPO写作大全托福TPO口语大全托福TPO阅读大全Conversation 1Listen to a conversation between a student and an admission officer at City College.Student: Hi, can I ask you a few questions about starting classes during your summer session? Q1Admission officer: Sure, ask away. It starts next week, you know.Student: Yeah, and I wanted to get some required courses out of the way, so I can, maybe I can graduate one term earlier and get out into the job market sooner. Q2Admission officer: That sounds like a good idea. Let me pull up the summer school database on my computer here.Student: Ok.Admission officer: OK, here it i s. What’s your student ID number?Student: Oh, well, the thing is, I’m no t actually admitted here. I will be starting school upstate at Hooper University in the fall, but I’m down here for the summer staying with mygrandparents, ‘cause I have a summer jo b near here.Admission officer: Oh, I see. Well.Student: So I’m out of lu ck?Admission officer: Well, you would be if you were starting anywhere but Hooper, but City College has a sort of special relationship with Hooper, a full exchange agreement. So our students can take classes at Hooper, and vice versa.Q5 So if you can show me proof, eh, your admissions letter from Hooper, then I can get you into our system here and give you an ID number.Student: Oh, cool. So, um, I wanna take a math course and a science course, preferably biology, and I was also hoping to get my English Composition Course out of the way, too.Admission officer: Well, all three of those courses are offered in the summer, b ut you’ve got to understand that summer courses are condensed. You need longer hours and the assignments are doubled up because it’s the s ame amount of information presented and tested in a regular term, but it’s only six weeks long. Two courses are considered full time in summer term. Q3 Even if you weren’t working, I couldn’t let you register for more than that.Student: Yeah, I was half expecting that. What about the schedule? Are classes only offered during the day?Admission officer: Well, during the week, we have some classes in the daytime and some at night. And on the weekends, we have some classes all day Saturday or all day Sunday for the six weeks.Student: My job is pretty flexible, so one on the weekday and one on the weekend shouldn’t be any p roblem. Ok, so after I bring you my admissions letter, how do I sign up for the classes?Admission officer: Well, as soon as your student ID numberis assigned and your information is in our admission system, you can register by phone almost immediately. Q4Student: Oh, what about financial aid? Is it possible to get it for the summer?Admission officer: Sorry, but that’s something you would have to work out long before now, but the good news is that the tuition for our courses is about half of what you’re gonna be paying at Hooper.Student: Oh, well, that helps. Thank you so much for answering all my questions. Ah, I’ll be back tomorrow with my letter.Admission officer: I won’t be here then, but do you see that lady sitting at that desk over there? That’s Ms Brinker. I’ll leave her a note about what we discussed and she’ll get you started. Q4Student: Cool.Lecture 1 World History ClassListen to part of a lecture in a world history class.Professor: In any introductory course, I think it’s always a good idea to step back and ask ourselves: What are we studying in this class? And why are we studying it? So, for example, when you looked at the title of this course in the catalogue, Introduction to World History, what did you think you were getting into? What made you sign up for it, besides filling the social science requirement?Students: HahahahahProfessor: Anyone?Student: Well, just the history of everything, you know like starting at the beginning with, I guess the Greeks and Romans, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, you know, that kind of stuff,like what we did in high school.Professor: Ok, now what you are describing is one approach to world history. In fact, there are several approaches, basic models or conceptual frameworks of what we study when we do history. And what you studied in high school, what I call the western-heritage model, this used to be the most common approach in US high schools and colleges. In fact, it’s the model I learned with, when I was growing up back, oh, about a hundred years ago.Students: HahahahahhaProfessor: Ah, at Middle Town High School up in Maine, I guess it made sense to my teachers back then, since, well, the history of Western Europe was the cultural-heritage of everyone in my class, and this remained the dominant approach in most US schools till, oh, maybe 30, 40 years ago. But it doesn’t take more than a quick look around campus, even just this classroom today, to see that the student body in the US is much more diverse than my little classin Middle Town High. And this western-heritage model was eventually replaced by or sometimes combined with one or more of the newer approaches. And I want to take a minute to describe these to you today. So you can see where this course fits in. Ok, so up until the mid-20th century, the basic purpose of most world history courses was to learn about a set of values, institutions, ideas, which were considered the heritage of the people of Europe. Things like democracy, legal systems, types of social organization, artistic achievements. Now, as I said, this model gives us a rather limited view of history. So in the 1960s and 70s, it was combined with or replaced by what I call the different-cultures model. The 60s were a period in which people weredemanding more relevance in the curriculum, and there was criticism of the European focus that you’re likely to find in all the academic disciplines. For the most part, the different-cultures model didn’t challenge the basic assumptions of the western-heritage model. What it did was insist on representing other civilizations and cultural categories, in addition to those of Western Europe. In other words, the heritage of all people, not just what goes back to the Greeks and Romans, but also the origins of African, Asian, Native American civilizations. Though more inclusive, it’s still basically a heritage model, which brings us to a third approach. What I call the patterns-of-change model. Like the different-cultures model, this model presents a wide cultural perspective. But with this model, we’re no longer limited by notions of fixed cultural or geographical boundaries. So then, studying world history is not so much a questio n of how a particular nation or ethnic group developed, but rather it’s a look at common themes, conflicts, trends that cut across modern-day borders of nations or ethnic groups. In my opinion, this is the best way of studying history, to better understand current-day trends and conflicts. For example, let’s take the study of the Islamic world. Well, when I first learned about Islamic Civilization, it was from the perspective of Europeans’. Now, with the patterns-of-change model, we’re looking at the past t hrough a wider length. So we would be more interested, say, in how interactions with Islamic civilization, the religion, art, literature, affected cultures in Africa, India, Spain, and so on. Or let’s take another example, instead of looking at each cultur al group as having a separate, linear development from some ancient origin, in this course, we’ll be looking for the common themes that go beyond cultural or regional distinctions, soinstead of studying a particular succession of British Kings or a dynasty of Chinese emperors. In this course, we’ll be looking at the broader concepts of monarchy, imperialism and political transformation.Lecture 2 Environmental Science ClassListen to part of a lecture in an environmental science class.Professor: OK, now let’s talk about another environmental concern, soil erosion. It’s a major problem all around the world. Sometimes erosion damages soil so severely that the land can no longer be cultivated, and it’s just abandoned. That happened in a big way right here i n the United States. Some of you have probably read the novel “the Grapes of Wrath”, and maybe you remember that the story took place in the 1930s during the time of what was called the Dust Bowl. Dust Bowl is a term we use to describe an ecological and human disaster that took place in the Southern Great Plains region. For nearly eight years, dust and sand blew across the area and covered everything. It was so bad, iteven made breathing and eating difficult, and farmers could only look on helplessly if their crops were destroyed, and the land and their lives were ruined.Now, there’ve always been droughts and strong win ds in that region, but that was ok because the native grasses had deep roots in the ground that were able to hold the soil in place. So the wind wasn’t able to, you know, erode the soil too badly. This changed though between the 1900 and 1930. Agriculture was expanding rapidly then, and lots of farmers in the Southern Great Plains wanted to grow wheat and other crops they could sell for cash, uh, crops that would be profitable. So they ripped up much of the grassland to plant these crops like wheat which do n’thold the soil down nearly as well. At the same time, livestock, cattle, too many of them were feeding on grasses in the area, and damag ing a lot of the grassland. So these animals caused even more erosion of the soil. It didn’t help that many of the a ctual owners of the land were not living anywhere near the area. A lot of the landowners lived way back east and rented out the land to loca l people who lived on the land and worked on it, but didn’t have much reason to take really good care of it. I mean, it wasn’t their land, right? The tenant farmers weren’t really interested in conserving someone else’s soil, not for the long term anyway. Also, some thought the land couldn’t be really damaged. You know that the soil was so rich and deep that it didn’t matter if the topsoil, the soil on the surface, blew away. They thought they could just plow more, but they were wrong. Good topsoil takes a long time to form. It can literally take thousands of years to create good topsoil that will grow vegetation, and a very short time to ruin it. So after only a few years of excessive plowing, the land pretty much couldn’t be farmed any more. And people mov ed on to other places, and let the old areas just sit there, and when they didn’t plant anything on that land, tha t made it vulnerable to even more erosion. So it was kind of vicious cycle you could say. Another problem, ironically, was that advances in technology were actually destroying the land, instead of improving it. A lot of farmers were using huge new tractors that dug deep into the ground, and tore up a lot of the soil. And then of course there was the weather. You know, when people look back on th e Dust Bowl era, they tend to blame the drought, the lack of rain between 1934 and 1937. We can’t ignore the drou ght.I mean, it was the worst on record at the time, and did help bring on this disaster. But without the soil destruction, thedrought alone w ouldn’t have resulted in the devastation we call the Dust Bowl. It was poor farming techniques that made that ha ppen. Since then, though, we’ve paid more attention to trying to prevent a future Dust Bowl. One thing congress did was an act of massive govern ment effort to improve soil conservation called the “Soil Erosion Act”. Under this law, large stretches of land in the Southern Great Plains were identified as being at risk for erosion, and we’re taking active production and turn it into permanent grassla nd. What that did, by protecting the land from excessive farming, was to stabilize the soil. Also the “Soil Erosion Act” helped educate farmers to practice better soil conservation techniques, like reducing how often they plowed and using better equipment that would, you know, minimize damage to the soil structure.Conversation 2Listen to a conversation between a student and his academic advisor.Student: Excuse me, Ms Chambers. Um, I don’t have an appointment, but I was kind of wondering if you had a minute to help me with something.Academic advisor: Oh, sure, have a seat. What’s on your mind?Student: Well, uh, I guess I really don’t know where to start. It’s not just one class. It’s….I’m not doing all that great. Like on my homework assignments, and i n class, and I don’t know why. I mean I just don’t get it. I read the assignments and I do the homework, and I’m still not doing too well.Academic advisor: Um, which classes? You mean like Spanish or…You’re taking Spanish, right?Student: Oh, no, not Span ish. If it weren’t for Spanish, I’dbe really in trouble. No, but it’s really all the others, psychology and sociology especially.Academic advisor: Is it the material? What you read in the textbooks? You don’t understand it?Student: No, that’s just it. I think I understand stuff when I read it.Academic advisor: You don’t read….Student: Remember, well, I remember names and definitions, but like in the class when the professor asks about the theories, what they’re all about, I never have the answer.Acade mic advisor: Sounds like you’re trying to learn by memorizing details instead of picking out the main points of reading. So tell me, how do you study?Student: Well, I, I, I mean I read the assigned chapters and I try to underline everything, like all of the words I don’t know and I always memorize the definitions but I don’t know. When I get back in class, it always seems like the other students have got a better handle on what’s in the reading. So maybe it’s just me.Academic advisor: Oh, it’s not. Believ e me. Lots of students, you know, my first year as a college student, I really had a hard time. I spent hours reading in the library, but I was just wasting time, ‘cause I wasn’t really studying the right things. I did the same sort of thing that sounds li ke you’re doing. Not focusing on what’s really important in the reading, but on the smaller details.Student: Yeah, maybe. But I spent so much time studying. It seems like I should be doing better.Academic advisor: The first year of college can be a little overwhelming, I know. Point is, lots of students have troubleadjusting at first. You know, figuring out how to study, how to use their time, you know, to your best advantage. It’s good that you do the assigned readings, but you, well, I think you’re unn ecessarily underlining and memorizing. That takes a lot of time. And, well, it’s not the best use of your time. Here’s something you can do. When you read, just read the assigned sections, and then and without looking back of the text, write a summary of the key points, the main ideas in the chapter. And after you do that, it’s good to go back and reread the t ext. And you look for any examples you can find to support those key points. Let me show you an example of what I mean.Lecture 3 Astronomy ClassListen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class.Professor: I’ll tell you a story about how one astronomy pr oblem was solved. It happened many years ago, but you’ll see that it’s interesting and still relevant. Two, three hundred years ago, astronomers alr eady had telescopes, but they were not as powerful as those we have now. Let’s say they were the level of telescopes amateur astronomers use today. Tell me. What do you see in the night sky when you use a telescope like that? Quick, tell me.Student: Planets.Professor: Right.Student: Even like the moons of Jupiter.Professor: Right.Student: Stars.Professor: OK, what else? You think that’s all? Ever heard of nebulae? I’ll bet you have. Well, let’s just, um, put it up anyway. Nebular are small fuzzy patches you see in the sky. They look like little clouds. Many of them have a spiral shape, and that’s whywe call them spiral nebulae. So astronomers in the 18th century, 18th century, when they looked through the telescope, they could see planets. They knew those were planets. The moons of Jupiter? And they knew they were the moons of Jupiter. And then they saw sp iral nebulae. And they didn’t have a clue. What could those be? So some of them thought these things are cloudy and fuzzy, so they’re probably small clouds of cosmic dust and they don’t have to be very far away from us. But there were others who thought, ok, the things look small and fuzzy, but maybe they’re actually distant galaxies of stars, but we can’t see the stars because they’re so far away, and they seem so tiny. They look like dust and even the whole galaxy looks like a tiny little cloud. Which of the two theories do you think was more surprising?Student: The galaxy one.Professor: And why?Student: Well, I mean that they assumed that the nebulae are not what look like at first sight. The first theory assumed that, right?Professor: Ok, now tell me this. Which one would have seemed more likely at the time?Student: Uh, They couldn’t tell.Professor: Right. Two morals here. First, there can be different explanations for the same observation. And second, obvious doesn’t necessarily mean right. What ha ppened next was for a long time, nothing. More than 150 years. No one could decide. Both hypotheses seemed plausible, and a lot was at stake because if the galaxy theory was right, it would be proof that the universe is enormous. And if the dust theory was right, maybe not so enormous. So the size of the universe was at stake. Andfinally in the 1920s, we came up with a telescope that was strong enough to tell us something new here. When we used it to look at the spiral nebulae, we saw, well, we are not absolutely sure, but it really looked like there were stars in those nebulae. So not dust after all, but stars. But how far away were they really? And how would you measure that? Any ideas? Laura?Student: Well, how about measuring how strong those stars shine, because if the stars are far away, then its light would be weak, right?Professor: Yes, but there’s a problem here. You need to know how bright th e star is in the first place, because some stars are naturally much brighter than others. So if you see a star that’s weak, it can mean one of two things.Student: Oh, it’s either far away or it’s just a weak star.Professor: And you can’t really always tell which, but you’re on the right track. There’s a kind of star where you can calculate its natural brightness, and you guess it. We found some in the nebulae. It’s called a variable star, or a variable for sure, because its brightness varies in regular in tervals. I won’t go into detail here, but, basically, the longer the interval, the brighter the star. So from the length of those intervals, we are able to calculate their natural brightness. This told us how distant they were and many turned out to be very, very far away. So we can be sure that the spiral nebulae really are very distant galaxies, which is what some 18th century astronomers guessed, but didn’t have the instruments to prove. Now one reason I told you this story is that today there are still plenty of situations when we see something out there, but we really aren’t sure what it is. Examples of o ne such mysterious observation would be gamma-ray bursters. We’ve known about these gamma-ray bursters for a long timenow, but we can’t all agree on w hat they are.Lecture 4 Art History ClassListen to part of a lecture in an art history class.Professor: Today we’re going to talk about how to look at a piece of art. How to read it. What you should look for. What aspects of it you should evaluate. A lot of people think that if you stand in front of a work of art and gaze at it for a couple of minutes, you are evaluating it. But truly reading a piece of art, evaluating it properly, is a complex process, a process that takes time. When we’re confronted with a piece of art, there’re several things we have to keep in mind. For example, its beauty. That’s where aesthetics comes in. Aesthetics is the philosophy that deals with the definition of beauty, which goes all the way back to ancient Greece. They, um, the early Greek philosophers said that beauty and art are based on imitation. Their feeling about art was that it’s beautiful when it imitates life. They thought that the truthfulness of an image, how truthful it is to life determines its value as art. Today we have a broader definition of aesthetics. Now don’t identify aesthetics as personal taste. Taste is bound by time. Taste is tied to a society, a given set of moral values usually. You may not like a piece of art from a different culture, it may not be your taste, but you appreciate its beauty, ‘cause you recognize certain aesthetic principles. Art general ly adheres to certain aesthetic principles like balance, balance proportions, contrast, movement or rhythm. We’ll discuss aesthetics more in detail when we look at some pieces of art together. Another thing to keep in mind in evaluating art is that art has a purpose, generally determined by the artist. You may not know what it is. And you don’t need to know what it is to appreciate a piece of art, but i t helps. For example, if you knowwhat the artist’s purpose is, if you know that a piece of art expresses the artist’s feeling about a political or social situation, you’ll probably look at it differently. Now, besides beauty and purpose, what are the other aspects of a piece of art that needs to be evaluated? Very simple, you examine a piece of art following these four formal steps.The first step is description. Describe physical characteristics of the piece, like this painting is large. It’s oil on canva s. Describe the object. It’s a person. It’s a landscape or predominant colors like, um, earth colors. Th at’s the description, ok? So you describe the piece. The next step is analysis. You’re looking at the piece for any universal symbols, characters or themes that might contain. Certain symbols are universal, and the artist counts on your understanding of symbols. Even colors have symbolic significance as you may know. And also objects depicted in a piece of art are often used to represent an abstract idea, like wheels or spheres. They look like circles, right? So wheels and spheres represent wholeness and continuity. I have a handout of a list of these symbols and images and their interpretations that I’ll give you later. But for now, the point is that afte r you describe the piece of art, you analyze its content. You determine whether it contains elements that the artist is using to try to convey a certain meaning. If it does, the next step is interpretation. Interpretation follows analysis very closely. You try to interpret the meaning of the symbols you identify in the piece. Almost all art has obvious and implied meaning. The implied meaning is hidden in the symbolic system expressed in the piece of art. What was he depicted is one scene, but there can be several levels of meaning. Your interpretation of these symbols makes clear what the artist is trying to tell us. The laststep is judgment or opinion. What do you think of the piece? Is it powerful or boring? But I give that hardly any weight. If the four steps were to be divided up into a chart, then description, analysis, and interpretation would take up 99 percent. Your opinion is not important in understanding a piece of art. It’s nice to say “I like it. I wouldn’t mind hanging it over my couch’. But t o evaluate a piece of art, it’s not critical, ok? Now you know what I mean by reading a piece of art and what it entails. Try to keep all that in mind. Next time you go to an art museum, I can tell you right now that you probably won’t be able to look at more than 12 pieces of art during that visit. Ok. Now let’s look at a slide of a piece of art and try t o read it together.。
托福TPO36阅读Passage1原文文本+题目+答案解析
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The First EyePutting a date on the first appearance of eyes depends on what one means by eye.If the term refers to a multicellular organ,even if it has just a few cells,then by definition,eyes could not form before there were multicellular animals.But many protists(animal-like,plantlike,or fungus-like unicellular organisms that require a water-based environment)can detect light by using aggregations of pigment molecules,and they use this information to modify their metabolic activity or motility(the ability to move spontaneously and independently).One of the familiar living examples,probably known to anyone who has taken a biology class,is the aquatic protozoan Euglena,which has an eyespot near its motile fIagellum(hairlike structure).Some living protists are very like their ancestral forms embedded in ancient sedimentary rocks,and this similarity suggests that the ability to detect light and modify behavior in response to light has been around for a very long time.Animals arose from one of such unicellular creatures,perhaps from one already specialized for a primitive kind of vision.An eye is a collection of cells that are specialized for light detection through the presence of photosensitive pigment as well as a means of restricting the direction of incoming light that will strike the photosensitive cells.This definition says nothing about image formation,lenses,eye movements,or any of the other features we associate with our own eyes,but it does recognize the simplest form of functional and anatomicalspecialisation namely,detection of light.Everything else can be built up from this simple beginning,and some animals appear to have had eyes almost from the beginning of the animal kingdom.Animals were scarce 600 million years ago in the geological era called the Precambrian.There are very few fossil remains from that time(though more keep turning up),and most evidence of the presence of animals is indirect,such as small tunnels in rock that could be ancient worm burrowings.But just 50 million years or so later,fossilized bits and pieces of animals abound,suggesting that a great burst of evolutionary creativity occurred in the 50-million-year interval.This surge of new life,marked by an abundance of animals,is called the Cambrian explosion.The first direct evidence for the early origin of eyes comes from fossils that are about 530 million years old,a time shortly after the Cambrian explosion;they were found on a mountainside in British Columbia in a deposit known as the Burgess Shale.The Burgess Shale fossils are extraordinarily important because among them are remains of soft-bodied creatures,many of them lacking shells and other hard parts that fossilize easily.Consequently,their preservation is little short of miraculous(as are the delicate methods used to reconstruct three-dimensional structure from theseflattened fossils),and they are one of the few known repositories of early soft-bodied animals.Not all of the Burgess animals had eyes.However,some did.(Gross features location,size,and hemispheric shape are responsible for the designation of some structures as eyes).The reconstructed eyes of these Burgess animals look superficially like eyes of some living crustaceans,particularly those of shrimpand crabs whose eyes are mounted on stalks that improve the range of vision by raising the eyes above the surface of the head.The eyes of some Burgess organisms sat on stalks;those of others were on or a part of the body surface.One animal,Opabinia,had five eyes:two lateral pairs and a single medial eye;at least one of the lateral pairs had stalks that could have been movable.And some trilobite-like animals in the Burgess Shale had faceted eyes much like those of later fossil trilobites.Although the presence of eyes on some of the Burgess animals indicates that eyes have been around for a very long time,it is unlikely that these were the first eyes;they seem much too large and(potentially)well developed to be brand new inventions.The best we can do is put the origin of eyes somewhere between the beginning of the Cambrian explo sion,about 600 million years ago,and the death of the Burgess animals,some 530 million years ago.Paragraph 1:Putting a date on the first appearance of eyes depends on what one means by eye.If the term refers to a multicellular organ,even if it has just a few cells,then by definition,eyes could not form before there were multicellular animals.But many protists(animal-like,plantlike,or fungus-like unicellular organisms that require a water-based environment)can detect light by using aggregations of pigment molecules,and they use this information to modify their metabolic activity or motility(the ability to move spontaneously and independently).One of the familiar living examples,probably known to anyone who has taken a biology class,is the aquatic protozoan Euglena,which has an eyespot near its motile fIagellum(hairlike structure).Some living protists are very liketheir ancestral forms embedded in ancient sedimentary rocks,and this similarity suggests that the ability to detect light and modify behavior in response to light has been around for a very long time.Animals arose from one of such unicellular creatures,perhaps from one already specialized for a primitive kind of vision.1.The word"attributes"in the passage is closest in meaning toA.propertiesB.surroundingC.sources。
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托福TPO36听力文本+题目+答案+MP3音频下载上海新航道整理! 由于托福TPO听力36文本已经很长了，此文档不包含托福听力TPO36题目+答案，托福TPO36MP3题目+答案+音频下载，请移步：/toefl/tpotingli/596362.html托福TPO听力1-48文本查看及下载，请移步：/toefl/tpotingli/更多托福TPO查看，请点击：托福TPO写作大全托福TPO口语大全托福TPO阅读大全Conversation 1Listen to a conversation between a student and an admission officer at City College.Student: Hi, can I ask you a few questions about starting classes during your summer session? Q1Admission officer: Sure, ask away. It starts next week, you know.Student: Yeah, and I wanted to get some required courses out of the way, so I can, maybe I can graduate one term earlier and get out into the job market sooner. Q2Admission officer: That sounds like a good idea. Let me pull up the summer school database on my computer here.Student: Ok.Admission officer: OK, here it is. What’s your student ID number?Student: Oh, well, the thing is, I’m no t actually admitted here. I will be starting school upstate at Hooper University in the fall, but I’m down here for the summer staying with my grandparents, ‘cause I have a summer job near here.Admission officer: Oh, I see. Well.Student: So I’m out of lu ck?Admission officer: Well, you would be if you were starting anywhere but Hooper, but City College has a sort of special relationship with Hooper, a full exchange agreement. So our students can take classes at Hooper, and vice versa.Q5 So if you can show me proof, eh, your admissions letter from Hooper, then I can get you into our system here and give you an ID number.Student: Oh, cool. So, um, I wanna take a math course and a science course, preferably biology, and I was also hoping to get my English Composition Course out of the way, too.Admission officer: Well, all three of those courses are offered in the summer, but you’ve got to understand that summer courses are condensed. You need longer hours and the assignments are doubled up because it’s the s ameamount of information presented and tested in a regular term, but it’s only six weeks long. Two courses are considered full time in summer term. Q3 Even if you weren’t working, I couldn’t let you register for more than that.Student: Yeah, I was half expecting that. What about the schedule? Are classes only offered during the day?Admission officer: Well, during the week, we have some classes in the daytime and some at night. And on the weekends, we have some classes all day Saturday or all day Sunday for the six weeks.Student: My job is pretty flexible, so one on the weekday and one on the weekend shouldn’t be any problem. Ok, so after I bring you my admissions letter, how do I sign up for the classes?Admission officer: Well, as soon as your student ID number is assigned and your information is in our admission system, you can register by phone almost immediately. Q4Student: Oh, what about financial aid? Is it possible to get it for the summer?Admission officer: Sorry, but that’s something you would have to work out long before now, but the good news is that the tuition for our courses is about half of what you’re gonna be paying at Hooper.Student: Oh, well, that helps. Thank you so much for answering all my questions. Ah, I’ll be back tomorrow with my letter.Admission officer: I won’t be here then, but do you see that lady sitting at that desk over there? That’s Ms Brinker. I’ll leave her a note about what we discussed and she’ll get you started. Q4Student: Cool.Lecture 1 World History ClassListen to part of a lecture in a world history class.Professor: In any introductory course, I think it’s always a good idea to step back and ask ourselves: What are we studying in this class? And why are we studying it? So, for example, when you looked at the title of this course in the catalogue, Introduction to World History, what did you think you were getting into? What made you sign up for it, besides filling the social science requirement?Students: HahahahahProfessor: Anyone?Student: Well, just the history of everything, you know like starting at the beginning with, I guess the Greeks and Romans, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, you know, that kind of stuff, like what we did in high school.Professor: Ok, now what you are describing is one approach to world history. In fact, there are several approaches, basic models or conceptual frameworks of what we study when we do history. And what you studied in high school,what I call the western-heritage model, this used to be the most common approach in US high schools and colleges. In fact, it’s the model I learned with, when I was growing up back, oh, about a hundred years ago.Students: HahahahahhaProfessor: Ah, at Middle Town High School up in Maine, I guess it made sense to my teachers back then, since, well, the history of Western Europe was the cultural-heritage of everyone in my class, and this remained the dominant approach in most US schools till, oh, maybe 30, 40 years ago. But it doesn’t take more than a quick look around campus, even just this classroom today, to see that the student body in the US is much more diverse than my little class in Middle Town High. And this western-heritage model was eventually replaced by or sometimes combined with one or more of the newer approaches. And I want to take a minute to describe these to you today. So you can see where this course fits in. Ok, so up until the mid-20th century, the basic purpose of most world history courses was to learn about a set of values, institutions, ideas, which were considered the heritage of the people of Europe. Things like democracy, legal systems, types of social organization, artistic achievements. Now, as I said, this model gives us a rather limited view of history. So in the 1960s and 70s, it was combined with or replaced by what I call the different-cultures model. The 60s were a period in which people were demanding more relevance in the curriculum, and there was criticism of the European focus that you’re likely to find in all the academic disciplines. For the most part, the different-cultures model didn’t challenge the basic assumptions of the western-heritage model. What it did was insist on representing other civilizations and cultural categories, in addition to those of Western Europe. In other words, the heritage of all people, not just what goes back to the Greeks and Romans, but also the origins of African, Asian, Native American civilizations. Though more inclusive, it’s still basically a heritage model, which brings us to a third approach. What I call the patterns-of-change model. Like the different-cultures model, this model presents a wide cultural perspective. But with this model, we’re no longer limited by notions of fixed cultural or geographical boundaries. So then, studying world history is not so much a questio n of how a particular nation or ethnic group developed, but rather it’s a look at common themes, conflicts, trends that cut across modern-day borders of nations or ethnic groups. In my opinion, this is the best way of studying history, to better understand current-day trends and conflicts. For example, let’s take the study of the Islamic world. Well, when I first learned about Islamic Civilization, it was from the perspective of Europeans’. Now, with the patterns-of-change model, we’re looking at the past t hrough a wider length. So we would be more interested, say, in how interactions with Islamic civilization, the religion, art, literature, affected cultures in Africa, India, Spain, and so on. Or let’s take another example, instead of looking at each cultur al group as having a separate, linear development from some ancient origin, in this course, we’ll be looking for the common themes that go beyond cultural or regional distinctions, so instead of studying a particular succession of British Kings or a dynasty of Chineseemperors. In this course, we’ll be looking at the broader concepts of monarchy, imperialism and political transformation.Lecture 2 Environmental Science ClassListen to part of a lecture in an environmental science class.Professor: OK, now let’s talk about another environmental concern, soil erosion. It’s a major problem all around the world. Sometimes erosion damages soil so severely that the land can no longer be cultivated, and it’s just abandoned. That happened in a big way right here i n the United States. Some of you have probably read the novel “the Grapes of Wrath”, and maybe you remember that the story took place in the 1930s during the time of what was called the Dust Bowl. Dust Bowl is a term we use to describe an ecological and human disaster that took place in the Southern Great Plains region. For nearly eight years, dust and sand blew across the area and covered everything. It was so bad, it even made breathing and eating difficult, and farmers could only look on helplessly if their crops were destroyed, and the land and their lives were ruined.Now, there’ve always been droughts and strong winds in that region, but that was ok because the native grasses had deep roots in the ground that were able to hold the soil in place. So the wind wasn’t able to, you know, erode the soil too badly. This changed though between the 1900 and 1930. Agriculture was expanding rapidly then, and lots of farmers in the Southern Great Plains wanted to grow wheat and other crops they could sell for cash, uh, crops that would be profitable. So they ripped up much of the grassland to plant these crops like wheat which don’t hold the soil down nearly as well. At the same time, livestock, cattle, too many of them were feeding on grasses in the area, and damag ing a lot of the grassland. So these animals caused even more erosion of the soil. It didn’t help that many of the actual owners of the land were not living anywhere near the area. A lot of the landowners lived way back east and rented out the land to loca l people who lived on the land and worked on it, but didn’t have much reason to take really good care of it. I mean, it wasn’t their land, right? The tenant farmers weren’t really interested in conserving someone else’s soil, not for the long term anyway. Also, some thought the land couldn’t be really damaged. You know that the soil was so rich and deep that it didn’t matter if the topsoil, the soil on the surface, blew away. They thought they could just plow more, but they were wrong. Good topsoil takes a long time to form. It can literally take thousands of years to create good topsoil that will grow vegetation, and a very short time to ruin it. So after only a few years of excessive plowing, the land pretty much couldn’t be farmed any more. And people mov ed on to other places, and let the old areas just sit there, and when they didn’t plant anything on that land, that made it vulnerable to even more erosion. So it was kind of vicious cycle you could say. Another problem, ironically, was that advances in technology were actually destroying the land, instead of improving it. A lot of farmers were using huge new tractors that dug deep into theground, and tore up a lot of the soil. And then of course there was the weather. You know, when people look back on th e Dust Bowl era, they tend to blame the drought, the lack of rain between 1934 and 1937. We can’t ignore the drought.I mean, it was the worst on record at the time, and did help bring on this disaster. But without the soil destruction, the drought alone w ouldn’t have resulted in the devastation we call the Dust Bowl. It was poor farming techniques that made that happen. Since then, though, we’ve paid more attention to trying to prevent a future Dust Bowl. One thing congress did was an act of massive govern ment effort to improve soil conservation called the “Soil Erosion Act”. Under this law, large stretches of land in the Southern Great Plains were identified as being at risk for erosion, and we’re taking active production and turn it into permanent grassla nd. What that did, by protecting the land from excessive farming, was to stabilize the soil. Also the “Soil Erosion Act” helped educate farmers to practice better soil conservation techniques, like reducing how often they plowed and using better equipment that would, you know, minimize damage to the soil structure.Conversation 2Listen to a conversation between a student and his academic advisor.Student: Excuse me, Ms Chambers. Um, I don’t have an appointment, but I was kind of wondering if you had a minute to help me with something.Academic advisor: Oh, sure, have a seat. What’s on your mind?Student: Well, uh, I guess I really don’t know where to start. It’s not just one class. It’s….I’m not doing all that great. Like on my homework assignments, and i n class, and I don’t know why. I mean I just don’t get it. I read the assignments and I do the homework, and I’m still not doing too well.Academic advisor: Um, which classes? You mean like Spanish or…You’re taking Spanish, right?Student: Oh, no, not Span ish. If it weren’t for Spanish, I’d be really in trouble. No, but it’s really all the others, psychology and sociology especially.Academic advisor: Is it the material? What you read in the textbooks? You don’t understand it?Student: No, that’s just it. I think I understand stuff when I read it.Academic advisor: You don’t read….Student: Remember, well, I remember names and definitions, but like in the class when the professor asks about the theories, what they’re all about, I never have the answer.Acade mic advisor: Sounds like you’re trying to learn by memorizing details instead of picking out the main points of reading. So tell me, how do you study?Student: Well, I, I, I mean I read the assigned chapters and I try to underline everything, like all of the words I don’t know and I always memorize the definitions but I don’t know. When I get back in class, it always seems like the other students have got a better handle on what’s in the reading. So maybe it’s just me.Academic advisor: Oh, it’s not. Believ e me. Lots of students, you know, my first year as a college student, I really had a hard time. I spent hours reading in the library, but I was just wasting time, ‘cause I wasn’t really studying the right things. I did the same sort of thing that sounds li ke you’re doing. Not focusing on what’s really important in the reading, but on the smaller details.Student: Yeah, maybe. But I spent so much time studying. It seems like I should be doing better.Academic advisor: The first year of college can be a little overwhelming, I know. Point is, lots of students have trouble adjusting at first. You know, figuring out how to study, how to use their time, you know, to your best advantage. It’s good that you do the assigned readings, but you, well, I think you’re unn ecessarily underlining and memorizing. That takes a lot of time. And, well, it’s not the best use of your time. Here’s something you can do. When you read, just read the assigned sections, and then and without looking back of the text, write a summary of the key points, the main ideas in the chapter. And after you do that, it’s good to go back and reread the text. And you look for any examples you can find to support those key points. Let me show you an example of what I mean.Lecture 3 Astronomy ClassListen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class.Professor: I’ll tell you a story about how one astronomy problem was solved. It happened many years ago, but you’ll see that it’s interesting and still relevant. Two, three hundred years ago, astronomers alr eady had telescopes, but they were not as powerful as those we have now. Let’s say they were the level of telescopes amateur astronomers use today. Tell me. What do you see in the night sky when you use a telescope like that? Quick, tell me.Student: Planets.Professor: Right.Student: Even like the moons of Jupiter.Professor: Right.Student: Stars.Professor: OK, what else? You think that’s all? Ever heard of nebulae? I’ll bet you have. Well, let’s just, um, put it up anyway. Nebular are small fuzzy patches you see in the sky. They look like little clouds. Many of them have a spiral shape, and that’s why we call them spiral nebulae. So astronomers in the 18th century, 18th century, when they looked through the telescope, they could see planets. They knew those were planets. The moons of Jupiter? And theyknew they were the moons of Jupiter. And then they saw spiral nebulae. And they didn’t have a clue. What could those be? So some of them thought these things are cloudy and fuzzy, so they’re probably small clouds of cosmic dust and they don’t have to be very far away from us. But there were others who thought, ok, the things look small and fuzzy, but maybe they’re actually distant galaxies of stars, but we can’t see the stars because they’re so far away, and they seem so tiny. They look like dust and even the whole galaxy looks like a tiny little cloud. Which of the two theories do you think was more surprising?Student: The galaxy one.Professor: And why?Student: Well, I mean that they assumed that the nebulae are not what look like at first sight. The first theory assumed that, right?Professor: Ok, now tell me this. Which one would have seemed more likely at the time?Student: Uh, They couldn’t tell.Professor: Right. Two morals here. First, there can be different explanations for the same observation. And second, obvious doesn’t necessarily mean right. What happened next was for a long time, nothing. More than 150 years. No one could decide. Both hypotheses seemed plausible, and a lot was at stake because if the galaxy theory was right, it would be proof that the universe is enormous. And if the dust theory was right, maybe not so enormous. So the size of the universe was at stake. And finally in the 1920s, we came up with a telescope that was strong enough to tell us something new here. When we used it to look at the spiral nebulae, we saw, well, we are not absolutely sure, but it really looked like there were stars in those nebulae. So not dust after all, but stars. But how far away were they really? And how would you measure that? Any ideas? Laura?Student: Well, how about measuring how strong those stars shine, because if the stars are far away, then its light would be weak, right?Professor: Yes, but there’s a problem here. You need to know how bright th e star is in the first place, because some stars are naturally much brighter than others. So if you see a star that’s weak, it can mean one of two things.Student: Oh, it’s either far away or it’s just a weak star.Professor: And you can’t really always tell which, but you’re on the right track. There’s a kind of star where you can calculate its natural brightness, and you guess it. We found some in the nebulae. It’s called a variable star, or a variable for sure, because its brightness varies in regular in tervals. I won’t go into detail here, but, basically, the longer the interval, the brighter the star. So from the length of those intervals, we are able to calculate their natural brightness. This told us how distant they were and many turned out to be very, very far away. So we can be sure that the spiral nebulae really are very distant galaxies, which is what some 18th century astronomers guessed, but didn’t have theinstruments to prove. Now one reason I told you this story is that today there are still plenty of situations when we see something out there, but we really aren’t sure what it is. Examples of one such mysterious observation would be gamma-ray bursters. We’ve known about these gamma-ray bursters for a long time now, but we can’t all agree on w hat they are.Lecture 4 Art History ClassListen to part of a lecture in an art history class.Professor: Today we’re going to talk about how to look at a piece of art. How to read it. What you should look for. What aspects of it you should evaluate. A lot of people think that if you stand in front of a work of art and gaze at it for a couple of minutes, you are evaluating it. But truly reading a piece of art, evaluating it properly, is a complex process, a process that takes time. When we’re confronted with a piece of art, there’re several things we have to keep in mind. For example, its beauty. That’s where aesthetics comes in. Aesthetics is the philosophy that deals with the definition of beauty, which goes all the way back to ancient Greece. They, um, the early Greek philosophers said that beauty and art are based on imitation. Their feeling about art was that it’s beautiful when it imitates life. They thought that the truthfulness of an image, how truthful it is to life determines its value as art. Today we have a broader definition of aesthetics. Now don’t identify aesthetics as personal taste. Taste is bound by time. Taste is tied to a society, a given set of moral values usually. You may not like a piece of art from a different culture, it may not be your taste, but you appreciate its beauty, ‘cause you recognize certain aesthetic principles. Art generally adheres to certain aesthetic principles like balance, balance proportions, contrast, movement or rhythm. We’ll discuss aesthetics more in detail when we look at some pieces of art together. Another thing to keep in mind in evaluating art is that art has a purpose, generally determined by the artist. You may not know what it is. And you don’t need to know what it is to appreciate a piece of art, but i t helps. For example, if you know what the artist’s purpose is, if you know that a piece of art expresses the artist’s feeling about a political or social situation, you’ll probably look at it differently. Now, besides beauty and purpose, what are the other aspects of a piece of art that needs to be evaluated? Very simple, you examine a piece of art following these four formal steps.The first step is description. Describe physical characteristics of the piece, like this painting is large. It’s oil on canva s. Describe the object. It’s a person. It’s a landscape or predominant colors like, um, earth colors. That’s the description, ok? So you describe the piece. The next step is analysis. You’re looking at the piece for any universal symbols, characters or themes that might contain. Certain symbols are universal, and the artist counts on your understanding of symbols. Even colors have symbolic significance as you may know. And also objects depicted in a piece of art are often used to represent an abstract idea, like wheels or spheres. They look like circles, right? So wheelsand spheres represent wholeness and continuity. I have a handout of a list of these symbols and images and their interpretations that I’ll give you later. But for now, the point is that afte r you describe the piece of art, you analyze its content. You determine whether it contains elements that the artist is using to try to convey a certain meaning. If it does, the next step is interpretation. Interpretation follows analysis very closely. You try to interpret the meaning of the symbols you identify in the piece. Almost all art has obvious and implied meaning. The implied meaning is hidden in the symbolic system expressed in the piece of art. What was he depicted is one scene, but there can be several levels of meaning. Your interpretation of these symbols makes clear what the artist is trying to tell us. The last step is judgment or opinion. What do you think of the piece? Is it powerful or boring? But I give that hardly any weight. If the four steps were to be divided up into a chart, then description, analysis, and interpretation would take up 99 percent. Your opinion is not important in understanding a piece of art. It’s nice to say “I like it. I wouldn’t mind hanging it over my couch’. But t o evaluate a piece of art, it’s not critical, ok? Now you know what I mean by reading a piece of art and what it entails. Try to keep all that in mind. Next time you go to an art museum, I can tell you right now that you probably won’t be able to look at more than 12 pieces of art during that visit. Ok. Now let’s look at a slide of a piece of art and try to read it together.。