tpo21.docx

1、tpo21智课网TOEFL备考资料tpo21阅读翻译+答案解析(word版下载) 摘要： 下面是小马过河整理的新托福tpo21阅读翻译+答案解析(word版下载)，同学们可在线免费下载托福阅读TPO全套试题，希望对大家备考托福阅读考试有所帮助。 tpo21阅读翻译+答案解析(word版下载)第2篇:The Origins of Agriculture tpo21阅读翻译+答案解析(word版下载)： 托福 阅读原文 【1】How did it come about that farming developed independently in a number of world centers

2、 (the Southeast Asian mainland, Southwest Asia, Central America, lowland and highland South America, and equatorial Africa) at more or less the same time? Agriculture developed slowly among populations that had an extensive knowledge of plants and animals. Changing from hunting and gathering to agri

3、culture had no immediate advantages. To start with, it forced the population to abandon the nomads life and become sedentary, to develop methods of storage and, often, systems of irrigation. While hunter-gatherers always had the option of moving elsewhere when the resources were exhausted, this beca

4、me more difficult with farming. Furthermore, as the archaeological record shows, the state of health of agriculturalists was worse than that of their contemporary hunter-gatherers. 【2】Traditionally, it was believed that the transition to agriculture was the result of a worldwide population crisis. I

5、t was argued that once hunter-gatherers had occupied the whole world, the population started to grow everywhere and food became scarce; agriculture would have been a solution to this problem. We know, however, that contemporary hunter-gatherer societies control their population in a variety of ways.

6、 The idea of a world population crisis is therefore unlikely, although population pressure might have arisen in some areas. 【3】Climatic changes at the end of the glacial period 13,000 years ago have been proposed to account for the emergence of farming. The temperature increased dramatically in a sh

7、ort period of time (years rather than centuries), allowing for a growth of the hunting-gathering population due to the abundance of resources. There were, however, fluctuations in the climatic conditions, with the consequences that wet conditions were followed by dry ones, so that the availability o

8、f plants and animals oscillated brusquely. 【4】It would appear that the instability of the climatic conditions led populations that had originally been nomadic to settle down and develop a sedentary style of life, which led in turn to population growth and to the need to increase the amount of food a

9、vailable. Farming originated in these conditions. Later on, it became very difficult to change because of the significant expansion of these populations. It could be argued, however, that these conditions are not sufficient to explain the origins of agriculture. Earth had experienced previous period

10、s of climatic change, and yet agriculture had not been developed. 【5】It is archaeologist Steven Mithens thesis, brilliantly developed in his book The Prehistory of the Mind (1996), that approximately 40,000 years ago the human mind developed cognitive fluidity, that is, the integration of the specia

11、lizations of the mind: technical, natural history (geared to understanding the behavior and distribution of natural resources), social intelligence, and the linguistic capacity. Cognitive fluidity explains the appearance of art, religion, and sophisticated speech. Once humans possessed such a mind,

12、they were able to find an imaginative solution to a situation of severe economic crisis such as the farming dilemma described earlier. Mithen proposes the existence of four mental elements to account for the emergence of farming: (1) the ability to develop tools that could be used intensively to har

13、vest and process plant resources; (2) the tendency to use plants and animals as the medium to acquire social prestige and power; (3) the tendency to develop social relationships with animals structurally similar to those developed with peoplespecifically, the ability to think of animals as people (a

14、nthropomorphism) and of people as animals (totemism); and (4) the tendency to manipulate plants and animals. 【6】The fact that some societies domesticated animals and plants, discovered the use of metal tools, became literate, and developed a state should not make us forget that others developed past

15、oralism or horticulture (vegetable gardening) but remained illiterate and at low levels of productivity; a few entered the modern period as hunting and gathering societies. It is anthropologically important to inquire into the conditions that made some societies adopt agriculture while others remain

16、ed hunter-gatherers or horticulturalists. However, it should be kept in mind that many societies that knew of agriculture more or less consciously avoided it. Whether Mithens explanation is satisfactory is open to contention, and some authors have recently emphasized the importance of other factors.

17、 tpo21阅读翻译+答案解析(word版下载)： 托福阅读 试题 1.The word option in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to A.choice. B.benefit. C.idea. D.experience. 2.According to paragraph 1, all of the following are advantages of hunting and gathering over agriculture EXCEPT: A.It is a healthier lifestyle. B.It requires less k

18、nowledge of plants and animals. C.It does not need storage capabilities. D.It is not tied to any specific location. 3.The word therefore in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to A.in theory. B.obviously. C.frequently. D.as a result. 4.Which of the following best describes the way paragraph 2 is organ

19、ized? A.A possible explanation for a phenomenon is presented and then criticized. B.Two similar ways of accounting for a puzzling fact are considered. C.Early societies response to a problem is contrasted with contemporary societies response. D.A prehistoric development is first explained in traditi

20、onal terms and then in contemporary terms. 5.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in paragraph 3? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A.The resources needed by the growing hunting and

21、gathering population increased rapidly once temperatures rose. B.Dramatic temperature increases and the simultaneous growth of the hunting and gathering population led to the need for more resources. C.Higher temperatures led to the existence of increased resources, thus enabling the hunting and gat

22、hering population to grow. D.The dramatic temperature increase occurred during the few years when abundant resources allowed the hunting and gathering population to grow. 6.According to paragraph 3, the abundance of resources fluctuated sharply after the end of the glacial period because A.locally a

23、bundant resources were quickly exhausted by hunter-gatherers. B.the temperature became much higher in some areas over others. C.different types of plants and animals became available as the climate changed. D.the amount of rainfall varied radically from one period to the next. 7.It can be inferred f

24、rom paragraph 4 that it was difficult for people to change from farming back to hunting and gathering because A.people had become more used to different types of food. B.climatic conditions were no longer favorable for hunting and gathering. C.populations had become too large to be supported by hunt

25、ing and gathering. D.the farmers sedentary life was easier than the hunter-gatherers nomadic life. 8.Why does the author state that Earth had experienced previous periods of climatic change, and yet agriculture had not been developed? (in paragraph 4) A.To suggest that climate change had occurred lo

26、ng before the development of agriculture. B.To argue that climate change does not properly explain why agriculture developed. C.To challenge the assumption that agriculture developed only in some parts of the world. D.To question the claim that climate change occurred at the time when agriculture de

27、veloped. 9.The word imaginative in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to A.complex. B.creative. C.immediate. D.reliable. 10.According to paragraph 5, Steven Mithen believes that all of the following contributed to the emergence of farming EXCEPT A.the development of a mind flexible enough to come up

28、with solutions to complex problems. B.the tendency to use plants and animals to acquire power. C.the tendency to emphasize the differences between animals and people. D.the ability to make tools that could be used for the large-scale harvesting of plants. 11.The word contention in paragraph 6 is clo

29、sest in meaning to A.investigation. B.improvement. C.debate. D.interpretation. 12.According to paragraph 6, which of the following is a weakness of Mithens explanation? A.It does not clearly distinguish agriculture from pastoralism and horticulture. B.It fails to explain why some societies adopted a

30、griculture while others did not. C.It explains the domestication of plants and animals but not the development of metal tools. D.It overlooks the fact that illiteracy and low productivity remain problems even today 13. Look at the four squares that indicate where the following sentence could be adde

31、d to the passage. Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square to add the sentence to the passage. Because humans had built up this knowledge as hunter-gatherers, it is logical to conclude that over time they would have become extremely efficient. Paragraph 7: How did it come about that farm

32、ing developed independently in a number of world centers (the Southeast Asian mainland, Southwest Asia, Central America, lowland and highland South America, and equatorial Africa) at more or less the same time? Agriculture developed slowly among populations that had an extensive knowledge of plants and animals.【A】Changing from hunting and gathering to agriculture had no immediate advantages.【B】To start with, it forced the population to abandon the nomads life and became sedentary, to develop methods of storage and, oft