2013年3月3日托福阅读考题解析

篇

　　一个讲coevolution 植物除了正常外观（比如刺，滑腻腻的叶子）之外还会分泌有毒的东西（second compound）防止虫子，虫子也会进化，进化的虫子就有东西吃，而且没人跟他抢吃的。有的还会将植物分泌的有毒物用来预防鸟，鸟中毒以后会吐，下次就会记得不吃这种虫子了。也有的鸟吃了不会吐。

　　第二篇

　　二是讨论要不要清理海上残留的oil，马上清理或者让自然natural flushing来清理。讲了三种油的分类，词汇考了resilient这个印象深刻因为不懂什么意思，stimulate。难度是三篇中的

　　第二篇我补充一下细节，文章主要是讲海上漏油漏到沼泽地然后要不要清理，对生态环境的影响主要取决于油的种类，湿地的种类和季节。说有些沼泽很多植物都因为油发芽也不能开花，开花也不能结果，结果也不能发芽...另一些沼泽有比较小强的植物比如Spartina米草属，只要油不渗到地底下，他们扎得很深的根不受影响，他们就继续顽强地活着。这里Spartina有两类，前者比后者更敏感一些。然后讲油的种类，说油蒸馏以后有很多可用成分，分蒸馏过还是没蒸馏过的油。蒸馏的原理是沸点不同，低沸点的有毒易挥发，高沸点毒性弱不易挥发，中沸点又有毒又不易挥发，危害。然后讲了到底该不该人工移除油，措施是把那些油油的湿地的植物都铲平，科学家观察了一个湿地发现非常的resiliet，油基本没起啥作用，结论是只要油不会呆那太长时间就按兵不动"NO ACTION",因为人工移除反而危害更大。大概就酱。

　　Oil spill

　　leakage of petroleum onto the surface of a large body of water. Oceanic oil spills became a major environmental problem in the 1960s, chiefly as a result of intensified petroleum exploration and production on continental shelves and the use of supertankers capable of transporting more than 500,000 tons of oil. Spectacular oil spills from wrecked or damaged supertankers are now rare, because of stringent shipping and environmental regulations. Nevertheless, thousands of minor and several major oil spills related to well discharges and tanker operations are reported each year, with the total quantity of oil released annually into the world's oceans exceeding 1 million tons. The unintentional or negligent release of used gasoline solvents and crankcase lubricants by industries and individuals greatly aggravates the overall environmental problem. Combined with natural seepage from the ocean floor, these sources add oil to the world's waterways at the rate of 3.5 to 6 million tons a year.

　　第三篇

　　城市规划。开篇拉拉叨叨一大堆说什么巴黎原来很拥挤，街道什么的都很slum，城市规划没做好，死亡率也很高。城市特别小，比纽约的Central Park 两倍大不了多少...(会出题）城市基本都靠走，交通工具很少。所以就有俩人，好像是工程师（说了好像他俩总是让旁人惊艳之类的）重新规划了一下，把旧的很多建筑物推倒，建了新的街道，办公室，theater，park，BLABLA，中间出现了一个B打头的很重要的词，没看懂，好像也是街道类似的意思。然后交通就很畅通了，这种举措让尤其是中产阶级建的房子都更漂亮了。然后说了很多欧洲其他国家，看到巴黎变化这么大纷纷效仿，还颁布了一个Z开头的法律，说是给城市划定的特定范围里的人，多数人可以不顾少数人的意见征税来建造更多东西。然后就提到交通的变化，首先是马拉的车，当时很流行大家都不走了，后来出现了电子驱动的车，用的人是原来马车的四倍，这里会出题说这一段回答了下列哪个问题。还出了一个题，问这两种车哪里一样，这两种车都是美国发明的。于是各种人女人小孩男人工人都开始坐车。

　　Urbanization

　　the process by which large numbers of people become permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities.

　　The definition of what constitutes a city changes from time to time and place to place, but it is most usual to explain the term as a matter of demographics. The United Nations has recommended that countries regard all places with more than 20,000 inhabitants living close together as urban; but, in fact, nations compile their statistics on the basis of many different standards. The United States, for instance, uses "urban place" to mean any locality where more than 2,500 people live.

　　Whatever the numerical definition, it is clear that the course of human history has been marked by a process of accelerated urbanization. It was not until the Neolithic period, roughly 10,000 years ago, that humans were able to form permanent settlements. Even 5,000 years ago the only such settlements on the globe were small, semipermanent villages of peasant farmers, towns whose size was limited by the fact that they had to move whenever the soil nearby was exhausted. It was not until the time of classical antiquity that cities of more than 100,000 existed, and even these did not become common until the sustained population explosion of the last three centuries. In 1800 less than 3 percent of the world's population was living in cities of 20,000 or more; this had increased to about one-quarter of the population by the mid-1960s. By the end of the 20th century nearly half of the world's population resided in cities of 20,000 or more.

　　The little towns of ancient civilizations, both in the Old World and the New, were only possible because of improvements in agriculture and transportation. As farming became more productive, it produced a surplus of food. The development of means of transportation, dating from the invention of the wheel in about 3500 BC, made it possible for the surplus from the countryside to feed urban populations, a system that continues to the present day.

　　Despite the small size of these villages, the people in early towns lived quite close together. Distances could be no greater than an easy walk, and nobody could live out of the range of the water supply. In addition, because cities were constantly subject to attack, they were quite often walled, and it was difficult to extend barricades over a large area. Archaeological excavations have suggested that the population density in the cities of 2000 BC may have been as much as 128,000 per square mile (49,400 per square km); by contrast, the present cities of Calcutta and Shanghai, with densities of more than 70,000 per square mile, are regarded as extremes of overcrowding.

　　With few exceptions, the elite-the aristocrats, government officials, clergy, and the wealthy-lived in the centre of ancient cities, which was usually located near the most important temple. Farther out were the poor, who were sometimes displaced beyond the city walls altogether.

　　The greatest city of antiquity was Rome, which at its height in the 3rd century AD covered almost 4 square miles (10 square km) and had at least 800,000 inhabitants. To provide for this enormous population, the empire constructed a system of aqueducts that channeled drinking water from hills as far away as 44 miles (70 km). Inside the city itself, the water was pumped to individual homes through a remarkable network of conduits and lead pipes, the equal of which was not seen until the 20th century. As in most early cities, Roman housing was initially built from dried clay molded about wooden frameworks. As the city grew, it began to include structures made from mud, brick, concrete, and, eventually, finely carved marble.

　　This general model of city structure continued until the advent of the Industrial Revolution, although medieval towns were rarely as large as Rome. In the course of time, commerce became an increasingly important part of city life and one of the magnets that drew people from the countryside. With the invention of the mechanical clock, the windmill and water mill, and the printing press, the interconnection of city inhabitants continued apace. Cities became places where all classes and types of humanity mingled, creating a heterogeneity that became one of the most celebrated features of urban life. In 1777 Samuel Johnson cheered this aspect of cities in his famous apothegm, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." At the time, it should be recalled, London had fewer than 100,000 citizens, and most of its streets were narrow, muddy paths.

　　The technological explosion that was the Industrial Revolution led to a momentous increase in the process of urbanization. Larger populations in small areas meant that the new factories could draw on a big pool of workers and that the larger labour force could be ever more specialized. By the 19th century there were thousands of industrial workers in Europe, many of them living in the most miserable conditions. Attracted by the promise of paid work, immigrants from rural areas flooded into cities, only to find that they were forced to live in crowded, polluted slums awash with refuse, disease, and rodents. Designed for commerce, the streets of the newer cities were often arranged in grid patterns that took little account of human needs, such as privacy and recreation, but did allow these cities to expand indefinitely.

　　One result of continued economic development and population growth could be the creation, in the next 100 years, of megalopolises-concentrations of urban centres that may extend for scores of miles. Evidence of this phenomenon has appeared on the east coast of the United States, where there may eventually be a single urban agglomeration stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C. Other emerging megalopolises include the Tokyo-?saka-Kyōto complex in Japan, the region between London and the Midland cities in Great Britain, and the Netherlands-central Belgium area. See also urban planning.

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