1996年5月托福阅读全真试题

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来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

Question 1-12

Orchids are unique in having the most highly developed
of all blossoms, in which the usual male and female reproductive
organs are fused in a single structure called the column.
The column is designed so that a single pollination will fertilize
hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of seeds,
so microscopic and light they are easily carried by the breeze.
Surrounding the column are three sepals and three petals,
sometimes easily recognizable as such, often distorted into gorgeous,
weird, but always functional shapes. The most noticeable
of the petals is called the labellum, or lip. It is often dramatically
marked as an unmistakable landing strip to attract
the specific insect the orchid has chosen as its pollinator.

To lure their pollinators from afar, orchids use appropriately
intriguing shapes, colors, and scents. At least 50 different
aromatic compounds have been analyzed in the orchid family,
each blended to attract one, or at most a few, species of
insects or birds. Some orchids even change their scents to interest
different insects at different times.

Once the right insect has been attracted, some orchids
present all sorts of one-way obstacle courses to make sure it
does not leave until pollen has been accurately placed or removed.
By such ingenious adaptations to specific pollinators,
orchids have avoided the hazards of rampant crossbreeding in
the wild, assuring the survival of species as discrete identities.
At the same time they have made themselves irresistible to collectors.

1.What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) Birds
(B) Insects
(C) Flowers
(D) Perfume

2.The orchid is unique because of

(A) the habitat in which it lives
(B) the structure of its blossom
(C) the variety of products than can be made from it
(D) the length of its life

3.The word "fused" in line 3 is closet in meaning to

(A) combined
(B) hidden
(C) fertilized
(D) produced

4.How many orchid seeds are typically pollinated at one time?

(A) 200
(B) 2,000
(C) 20,000
(D) 200,000

5.Which of the following is a kind of petal?

(A) The column
(B) The sepal
(C) The stem
(D) The labellum

6.The labellum(line10) is most comparable to

(A) a microscope
(B) an obstacle course
(C) an airport runway
(D) a racetrack

7.The word "lure" in line 13 is closet in meaning to

(A) attract
(B) recognize
(C) follow
(D) help

8.Which of following is NOT mentioned as a means by which an orchid attracts insects?

(A) Size
(B) Shape
(C) Color
(D) Perfume

9.The word "their" in line 17 refers to

(A) orchids
(B) birds
(C) insects
(D) species

10.Which of the following statements about orchids scents does the passage support?

(A) They are effective only when an insect is near the blossom.
(B) Harmful insects are repelled by them.
(C) They are difficult to tell apart.
(D) They may change at different times.

11.The word "placed" in line 21 is closet in meaning to

(A) estimated
(B) measured
(C) deposited
(D) identified

12.The word "discrete" in line 24 is closet in meaning to

(A) complicated
(B) separate
(C) inoffensive
(D) functional


Question 13-22

One of the most important social developments that
helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the role of
public education was the effect of the baby boom of the 1950s
and 1960s on the schools. In the 1920s, but especially in
the Depression conditions of the 1930s, the United States
experienced a declining birth rate -every thousand women aged
fifteen to forty-four gave birth to about 118 live children in
1920, 89.2 in 1930, 75.8 in 1936, and 80 in 1940. With the
growing prosperity brought on by the Second World War and
the economic boom that followed it, young people married and
established households earlier and began to raise larger families
than had their predecessors during the Depression. Birth rates
rose to 102 per thousand in 1946, 106.2 in 1950, and 118 in
1955. Although economics was probably the most important
determinant, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom.
The increased value placed on the idea of the family also helps
to explain this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began
streaming into the first grade by the mid-1940s and became a
flood by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself
overtaxed. While the number of schoolchildren rose because of
wartime and postwar conditions, these same conditions made
the schools even less prepared to cope with the flood. The
wartime economy meant that few new schools were built between
1940 and 1945. Moreover, during the war and in the boom
times that followed, large numbers of teachers left their
profession for better-paying jobs elsewhere in the economy.

Therefore, in the 1950s and 1960s, The baby boom
hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently,
the "custodial rhetoric" of the 1930s and early 1940s no
longer made sense. that is, keeping youths aged sixteen and
older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could
no longer be a high priority for an institution unable to find
space and staff to teach younger children aged five to sixteen.
With the baby boom, the focus of educators and of laymen
interested in education inevitably turned toward the lower grades
and back to basic academic skills and discipline. The system no
longer had much interest in offering nontraditional, new, and
extra services to older youths.

13.What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The teaching profession during the baby boom
(B) Birth rates in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s
(C) The impact of the baby boom on public education
(D) The role of the family in the 1950s and 1960s

14.The word "it" in line 15 refers to

(A) 1955
(B) economics
(C) the baby boom
(D) value

15.The word "overtaxed" in line 20 is closest in meaning to

(A) well prepared
(B) plentifully supplied
(C) heavily burdened
(D) charged too much

16.The public schools of the 1950s and 1960 faced all of the following problems EXCEPT

(A) a declining number of students
(B) old-fashioned facilities
(C) a shortage of teachers
(D) an inadequate number of school buildings

17.According to the passage, why did teachers leave the teaching profession after the outbreak of the war?

(A) The needed to be retained
(B) They were dissatisfied with the curriculum
(C) Other jobs provided higher salaries
(D) Teaching positions were scarce

18.The word "inadequate" in line 28 is closest in meaning to

(A) deficient
(B) expanded
(C) innovative
(D) specialized

19.The "custodial rhetoric" mentioned in line 29 refers to

(A) raising a family
(B) keeping older individuals in school
(C) running an orderly house hold
(D) maintaining discipline in the classroom

20.The word "inevitably" in line 35 is closest in meaning to

(A) unwillingly
(B) impartially
(C) irrationally
(D) unavoidably

21.Where in the passage does the author refer to the attitude of Americans toward raising a family in the 1950s and 1960s?

(A) Lines 1-4
(B) Lines 16-17
(C) Lines 27-28
(D) Lines 34-36

22.Which of the following best characterizes the organization of the passage?

(A) The second paragraph presents the effect of circumstances described in the first paragraph.
(B) The second paragraph provides a fictional account to illustrate a problem presented in the first paragraph.
(C) The second paragraph argues against a point made in the first paragraph.
(D) The second paragraph introduces a problem not mentioned in the first paragraph.

Questions 23-32

Nineteenth-century writers in the United States,
whether they wrote novels, short stories, poems, or plays,
were powerfully drawn to the railroad in its golden year. In
fact, writes responded to the railroads as soon as the first
were built in the 1830s. By the 1850s, the railroad was a
major presence in the life of the nation. Writers such as Ralph
Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau saw the railroad
both as a boon to democracy and as an object of suspicion. The
railroad could be and was a despoiler of nature. furthermore,
in its manifestation of speed and noise, it might be a despoiler
of human nature as well. By the 1850s and 1860s, there
was a great distrust among writer and intellectuals of the rapid
industrialization of which the railroad was a leading force.
Deeply philosophical historians such as Henry Adams lamented
the role that the new frenzy for business was playing in eroding
traditional values. A distrust of industry and business continued
among writers throughout the rest of the nineteenth century
and into the twentieth.

For the most part, the literature in which the railroad
plays an important role belong to popular culture rather than to
the realm of serious art. One thinks of melodramas, boys
books, thrillers, romances, and the like rather than novels of
the first rank. In the railroads prime years, between 1890
and 1920, there were a few individuals in the United States,
most of them with solid railroading experience behind them,
who made a profession of writing about railroading-works
offering the ambience of stations, yards, and locomotive cabs.
These writers, who can genuinely be said to have created a
genre, the "railroad novel." are now mostly forgotten, their
names having faded from memory. But anyone who takes the
time to consult their fertile writings will still find a treasure
trove of information about the place of the railroad in the lift
of the United States.

23.With which of the following topics is the passage mainly concerned?

(A) The role of the railroad in the economy of the United States.
(B) Major nineteenth-century writers.
(C) The conflict between expanding industry and preserving nature.
(D) The railroad as a subject for literature.

24.The word "it" in line 10 refers to

(A) railroad
(B) manifestation
(C) speed
(D) nature

25.In the first paragraph, the author implies that writers reactions to the development of railroads were

(A) highly enthusiastic
(B) both positive and negative
(C) unchanging
(D) disinterested

26.The word "lamented" in line 14 is closest in meaning to

(A) complained about
(B) analyzed
(C) explained
(D) reflected on

27.According to the passage, the railroad played a significant role in literature in all of the following kinds of books EXCEPT

(A) thrillers
(B) boys books
(C) important novels
(D) romances

28.The phrase "first rank" in line 23 is closest in meaning to

(A) largest category
(B) highest quality
(C) earliest writers
(D) most difficult language

29.The word "them" in line 25 refers to

(A) novels
(B) years
(C) individuals
(D) works

30.The author mentions all of the following as being true about the literature of railroad EXCEPT that

(A) many of its writers had experience working on railroads.
(B) many of the books were set in railroad stations and yards
(C) the books were well known during the railroads prime years.
(D) quite a few of the books are still popular today.

31.The words "faded form" in line 30 are closest in meaning to

(A) grew in
(B) disappeared from
(C) remained in
(D) developed from

32.What is the authors attitude toward the "railroad novels" and other books about railroads written between 1890 and 1920?

(A) They have as much literary importance as the books written by Emerson, Thoreau, and Adams.
(B) They are good examples of the effects industry and business had on the literature of the United States.
(C) They contributed to the weakening of traditional values.
(D) They are worth reading as sources of knowledge about the impact of railroad on life in the United States.


Questions 33-44

By the 1820s in the United States, when steamboats
were common on western waters, these boats were mostly
powered by engines built in the West (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati,
or Louisville), and of a distinctive western design specially
suited to western needs. The first steam engines in practical
use in England and the United States were of low pressure
design. This was the type first developed by James Watt, then
manufactured by the firm of Boulton and Watt, and long the
standard industrial engine. Steam was accumulated in a large,
double-acting vertical cylinder, but the steam reached only a
few pounds of pressure per square inch. It was low-pressure
engines of this type that were first introduced into the United
States by Robert Fulton. He imported such a Boulton and
Watt engine from England to run the Clermont. But this type
of engine was expensive and complicated, requiring many
precision-fitted moving parts.

The engine that became standard on western steamboats
was of a different and novel design. It was the work primarily
of an unsung hero of American industrial progress, Oliver
Evans(1755-1819). The self-educated son of a Delaware
farmer. Evans early became obsessed by the possibilities of
mechanized production and steam power. As early as 1802 he
was using a stationary steam engine of high-pressure design in
his mill. Engines of this type were not unknown, but before
Evans they were generally considered impractical and
dangerous.
Within a decade the high-pressure engine, the new type,
had become standard on western waters. Critics ignorant of
western conditions often attacked it as wasteful and dangerous.
But people who really knew the Ohio, the Missouri, and
the Mississippi insisted, with good reasons, that it was the only
engine for them. In shallow western rivers the weight of
vessel and engine was important. a heavy engine added to the
problem of navigation. The high-pressure engine was far
lighter in proportion to horsepower, and, with less than half
as many moving parts, was much easier and cheaper to repair.
The main advantages of low-pressure engines were safe operation
and economy of fuel consumption, neither of which meant
much in the West.

33.What is the passage mainly about?

(A) Streamboat engines in the western United States
(B) River travel in the western United States
(C) A famous United States inventor
(D) The worlds first practical streamboat

34.What was the Clermont (line14)?

(A) A river
(B) A factory
(C) A boat
(D) an engine

35.Who developed the kind of stream engine used on western streamboats?

(A) Watt
(B) Boulton
(C) Fulton
(D) Evans

36.The word "novel" in line 18 is closest in meaning to

(A) fictional
(B) intricate
(C) innovative
(D) powerful

37.What option of Evans is suggested by the use of the term "unsung hero" in line 18?

(A) More people should recognize the importance of his work.
(B) More of his inventions should be used today.
(C) He should be credited with inventing the stream engine.
(D) More should be learned about his early life.

38.What does the author imply about Evans?
(A) He went to England to learn about stream power.
(B) He worked for Fulton.
(C) He traveled extensively in the West.
(D) He taught himself about stream engines.

39.The word "stationary" in line 23 is closest in meaning to

(A) single
(B) fixed
(C) locomotoiv
(D) modified

40.The word "they" in line 25 refers to

(A) engines
(B) mechanized production and steam power
(C) possibilities
(D) steamboats

41.What does the author imply about the western rivers?

(A) It was difficult to find fuel near them.
(B) They flooded frequently.
(C) They were difficult to navigate.
(D) They were rarely used for transportation.

42.The word "it" in line 31 refers to

(A) decade
(B) high-pressure engine
(C) weight
(D) problem

43.The word "vessel" in line 33 is closest in meaning to

(A) fuel
(B) crew
(C) cargo
(D) craft

44.Which of the following points was made by the critics of high-pressure engines?

(A) They are expensive to import.
(B) They are not powerful enough for western waters.
(C) They are dangerous.
(D) They weigh too much.

Questions 45-50

Volcanic fire and glacial ice are natural enemies. Eruptions
at glaciated volcanoes typically destroy ice fields, as they
did in 1980 when 70 percent of Mount Saint Helens ice cover
was demolished. During long dormant intervals, glaciers gain
the upper hand cutting deeply into volcanic cones and eventually
reducing them to rubble. Only rarely do these competing
forces of heat and cold operate in perfect balance to create a
phenomenon such as the steam caves at Mount Rainier
National Park.

Located inside Rainiers two ice-filled summit craters,
these caves form a labyrinth of tunnels and vaulted chambers
about one and one-half miles in total length. Their creation
depends on an unusual combination of factors that nature
almost never brings together in one place. The cave-making
recipe calls for a steady emission of volcanic gas and heat, a
heavy annual snowfall at an elevation high enough to keep it
from melting during the summer, and a bowl-shaped crater to
hold the snow.

Snow accumulating yearly in Rainiers summit craters is
compacted and compressed into a dense form of ice called firn,
a substance midway between ordinary ice and the denser crystalline
ice that makes up glaciers. Heat rising from numerous
openings (called fumaroles) along the inner crater walls melts
out chambers between the rocky walls and the overlying ice
pack. Circulating currents of warm air then melt additional
opening in the firn ice, eventually connecting the individual
chambers and, in the larger of Rainiers two craters, forming
a continuous passageway that extends two- thirds of the way
around the craters interior.

To maintain the cave system, the elements of fire under
ice must remain in equilibrium. Enough snow must fill the
crater each year to replace that melted from below. If too
much volcanic heat is discharged, the craters ice pack will
melt away entirely and the caves will vanish along with the
snow of yesteryear. If too little heat is produced, the ice,
replenished annually by winter snowstorms, will expand, pushing
against the enclosing crater walls and smothering the present
caverns in solid firn ice.

45.With what topic is the passage primarily concerned?

(A) The importance of snowfall for Mount Rainier.
(B) The steam caves of Mount Rainier.
(C) how ice covers are destroyed.
(D) The eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980.

46.The word "they" in line 2 refers to

(A) fields
(B) intervals
(C) eruptions
(D) enemies

47.According to the passage long periods of volcanic inactivity can lead to a volcanic cones

(A) strongest eruption
(B) sudden growth
(C) destruction
(D) unpredictability

48.The second paragraph mentions all of the following as necessary elements in the creation of steam caves EXCEPT

(A) a glacier
(B) a crater
(C) heat
(D) snow

49.According to the passage, heat from Mount Rainiers summit craters rises from

(A) crystalline ice
(B) firns
(C) chambers
(D) fumaroles

50.In line 37 "smothering" the caverns means that they would be

(A) eliminated
(B) enlarged
(C) prevented
(D) hollowed