1997年10月托福考试阅读理解全真试题

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Question 1-7

Hotels were among the earliest facilities that bound the
United States together. They were both creatures and creators
of communities, as well as symptoms of the frenetic quest for
community. Even in the first part of the nineteenth century,
Americans were already forming the habit of gathering from all
corners of the nation for both public and private, business and
pleasure purposes. Conventions were the new occasions, and
hotels were distinctively American facilities making conven-
tions possible. The first national convention of a major party to
choose a candidate for President (that of the National Republican
party, which met on December 12, 1831, and nominated
Henry Clay for President) was held in Baltimore, at a hotel
that was then reputed to be the best in the country. The
presence in Baltimore of Barnum s City Hotel, a six-story building
with two hundred apartments helps explain why many other
early national political conventions were held there.

In the longer run, too. American hotels made other national
conventions not only possible but pleasant and convivial.
The growing custom of regularly assembling from afar the
representatives of all kinds of groups - not only for political conventions,
but also for commercial, professional, learned, and
avocational ones - in turn supported the multiplying hotels. By
mid-twentieth century, conventions accounted for over a third
of the yearly room occupancy of all hotels in the nation, about
eighteen thousand different conventions were held annually
with a total attendance of about ten million persons.

Nineteenth-century American hotelkeepers, who were no
longer the genial, deferential "hosts" of the eighteenth-century
European inn, became leading citizens. Holding a large
stake in the community, they exercised power to make it
prosper. As owners or managers of the local "palace of the
public", they were makers and shapers of a principal community
attraction. Travelers from abroad were mildly shocked by this
high social position.

1. The word "bound" in line 1 is closest in meaning to

(A) led
(B) protected
(C) tied
(D) strengthened

2. The National Republican party is mentioned in line 10 as an example of a group

(A) from Baltimore
(B) of learned people
(C) owning a hotel
(D) holding a convention

3. The word "assembling" in line 19 is closest in meaning to

(A) announcing
(B) motivating
(C) gathering
(D) contracting

4. The word "ones" in line 22 refers to

(A) hotels
(B) conventions
(C) kinds
(D) representatives

5. The word "it" in line 30 refers to
(A) European inn
(B) host
(C) community
(D) public

6. It can be inferred from the passage that early hotelkeepers in the United States were

(A) active politicians
(B) European immigrants
(C) Professional builders
(D) Influential citizens

7. Which of the following statements about early American hotels is NOT mentioned in the
passage?

(A) Travelers from abroad did not enjoy staying in them.
(B) Conventions were held in them
(C) People used them for both business and pleasure.
(D) They were important to the community.

Question 8-17

Beads were probably the first durable ornaments humans
possessed, and the intimate relationship they had with their
owners is reflected in the fact that beads are among the most
common items found in ancient archaeological sites. In the
past, as today, men, women, and children adorned them-
selves with beads. In some cultures still, certain beads are
often worn from birth until death, and then are buried with
their owners for the afterlife. Abrasion due to daily wear alters
the surface features of beads, and if they are buried for long,

the effects of corrosion can further change their appearance.
Thus, interest is imparted to the bead both by use and the
effects of time.

Besides their wear ability, either as jewelry or incorporated
into articles of attire, beads possess the desirable characteristics
of every collectible, they are durable, portable, available
in infinite variety, and often valuable in their original cultural
context as well as in today s market. Pleasing to look at and
touch, beads come in shapes, colors, and materials that almost
compel one to handle them and to sort them.

Beads are miniature bundles of secrets waiting to be
revealed: their history, manufacture, cultural context, economic
role, and ornamental use are all points of information one
hopes to unravel. Even the most mundane beads may have
traveled great distances and been exposed to many human
experiences. The bead researcher must gather information from
many diverse fields. In addition to having to be a generalist
while specializing in what may seem to be a narrow field, the
researcher is faced with the problem of primary materials that
have little or no documentation. Many ancient beads that are
of ethnographic interest have often been separated from their
original cultural context.

The special attractions of beads contribute to the uniqueness
of bead research. While often regarded as the "small
change of civilizations", beads are a part of every culture, and
they can often be used to date archaeological sites and to
designate the degree of mercantile, technological, and cultural
sophistication.

8. What is the main subject of the passage?

(A) Materials used in making beads.
(B) How beads are made
(C) The reasons for studying beads
(D) Different types of beads

9. The word "adorned" in line 5 is closest in meaning to

(A) protected
(B) decorated
(C) purchased
(D) enjoyed

10.The word "attire" in line 14 is closest in meaning to

(A) ritual
(B) importance
(C) clothing
(D) history

11.All of the following are given as characteristics of collectible objects EXCEPT

(A) durability
(B) portability
(C) value
(D) scarcity.

12.According to the passage, all of the following are factors that make people want to touch beads EXCEPT the

(A) shape
(B) color
(C) material
(D) odor

13.The word "unravel" in line 23 is closest in meaning to

(A) communicate
(B) transport
(C) improve
(D) discover

14.The word "mundane" in line 16 is closest in meaning to

(A) carved
(B) beautiful
(C) ordinary
(D) heavy

15.It is difficult to trace the history of certain ancient beads because they

(A) are small in size
(B) have been buried underground
(C) have been moved from their original locations
(D) are frequently lost

16.Knowledge of the history of some beads may be useful in the studies done by which of the following?

(A) Anthropologists
(B) Agricultural experts
(C) Medical researchers
(D) Economists

17.Where in the passage does the author describe why the appearance of beads may change?

(A) Lines 3-4
(B) Lines 6-8
(C) Lines 12-13
(D) Lines 20-22.

Question 18-31

In the world of birds, bill design is a prime example of
evolutionary fine-tuning. Shorebirds such as oystercatchers use
their bills to pry open the tightly sealed shells of their prey,
hummingbirds have stiletto-like bills to probe the deepest
nectar-bearing flowers, and kiwis smell out earthworms thanks to
nostrils located at the tip of their beaks. But few birds are
more intimately tied to their source of sustenance than are
crossbills. Two species of these finches, named for the way
the upper and lower parts of their bills cross, rather than meet
in the middle, reside in the evergreen forests of North America
and feed on the seeds held within the cones of coniferous trees.

The efficiency of the bill is evident when a crossbill locates
a cone. Using a lateral motion of its lower mandible, the
bird separates two overlapping scales on the cone and exposes
the seed. The crossed mandibles enable the bird to exert a
powerful biting force at the bill tips, which is critical for
maneuvering them between the scales and spreading the scales
apart. Next, the crossbill snakes its long tongue into the gap
and draws out the seed. Using the combined action of the bill
and tongue, the bird cracks open and discards the woody seed
covering action and swallows the nutritious inner kernel. This whole
process takes but a few seconds and is repeated hundreds of
times a day.

The bills of different crossbill species and subspecies vary -
some are stout and deep, others more slander and shallow. As
a rule, large-billed crossbills are better at securing seeds from
large cones, while small-billed crossbills are more deft at
removing the seeds from small, thin-scaled cones. Moreover,
the degree to which cones are naturally slightly open or tightly
closed helps determine which bill design is the best.

One anomaly is the subspecies of red crossbill known as
the Newfoundland crossbill. This bird has a large, robust bill,
yet most of Newfoundland s conifers have small cones, the
same kind of cones that the slender-billed white-wings rely on.

18.What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The importance of conifers in evergreen forests
(B) The efficiency of the bill of the crossbill
(C) The variety of food available in a forest
(D) The different techniques birds use to obtain food

19.Which of the following statements best represents the type of "evolutionary fine - turning" mentioned in line1?

(A) Different shapes of bills have evolved depending on the available food supply
(B) White - wing crossbills have evolved from red crossbills
(C) Newfoundland s conifers have evolved small cones
(D) Several subspecies of crossbills have evolved from two species

20.Why does the author mention oystercatchers, hummingbirds, and kiwis in lines 2-5?

(A) They are examples of birds that live in the forest
(B) Their beaks are similar to the beak of the crossbill
(C) They illustrate the relationship between bill design and food supply
(D) They are closely related to the crossbill

21.Crossbills are a type of

(A) shorebird
(B) hummingbird
(C) kiwi
(D) finch

22.Which of the following most closely resembles the bird described in lines 8-11?

(A) （图）
(B) （图）
(C) （图）
(D) （图）

23.The word "which" in line 16 refers to

(A) seed
(B) bird
(C) force
(D) bill

24.The word "gap" in line 18 is closest in meaning to

(A) opening
(B) flower
(C) mouth
(D) tree

25.The word "discards" in line 20 is closest in meaning to

(A) eats
(B) breaks
(C) finds out
(D) gets rid of

26.The word "others" in line 25 refers to

(A) bills
(B) species
(C) seeds
(D) cones

27.The word "deft" in line 27 is closest in meaning to

(A) hungry
(B) skilled
(C) tired
(D) pleasant

28.The word "robust" in line 32 is closest in meaning to

(A) strong
(B) colorful
(C) unusual
(D) sharp

29.In what way is the Newfoundland crossbill an anomaly?

(A) It is larger than the other crossbill species
(B) It uses a different technique to obtain food
(C) The size of its bill does not fit the size of its food source
(D) It does not live in evergreen forests.

30.The final paragraph of the passage will probably continue with a discussion of

(A) other species of forest birds
(B) the fragile ecosystem of Newfoundland
(C) what mammals live in the forests of North America
(D) how the Newfoundland crossbill survives with a large bill

31.Where in the passage does the author describe how a crossbill removes a seed from its cone?

(A) The first paragraph
(B) The second paragraph
(C) The third paragraph
(D) The forth paragraph

Question 32-38

If you look closely at some of the early copies of the De-
laration of Independence, beyond the flourished signature of
John Hancock and the other 55 men who signed it, you will
also find the name of one woman, Mary Katherine Goddard.
It was she, a Baltimore printer, who published the first official
copies of the Declaration, the first copies that included the
names of its signers and therefore heralded the support of all
thirteen colonies.

Mary Goddard first got into printing at the age of twenty-
four when her brother opened a printing shop in Providence,
Rhode Island, in 1762. When he proceeded to get into trouble
with his partners and creditors, it was Mary Goddard and her
mother who were left to run the shop. In 1765 they began
publishing the Providence Gazette, a weekly newspaper.
Similar problems seemed to follow her brother as he opened
businesses in Philadelphia and again in Baltimore. Each time Ms.
Goddard was brought in to run the newspapers. After starting
Baltimore s first newspaper, The Maryland Journal, in
1773, her brother went broke trying to organize a colonial
postal service. While he was in debtor s prison. Mary Katherine
Goddard s name appeared on the newspaper s masthead
for the first time.

When the Continental Congress fled there from Philadelphia
in 1776, it commissioned Ms. Goddard to print the first
official version of the Declaration of Independence in January
1777. After printing the documents, she herself paid the post
riders to deliver the Declaration throughout the colonies.

During the American Revolution, Mary Goddard continued
to publish Baltimore s only newspaper, which one historian
claimed was "second to none among the colonies". She was
also the city s postmaster from 1775 to 1789 - appointed by
Benjamin Franklin - and is considered to be the first woman
to hold a federal position.

32.With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?
(A) The accomplishments of a female publisher
(B) The weakness of the newspaper industry
(C) The rights of a female publisher
(D) The publishing system in colonial America

33.Mary Goddard s name appears on the Declaration of Independence because

(A) she helped write the original document
(B) she published the document
(C) she paid to have the document printed
(D) her brother was in prison

34.The word "heralded" in line 7 is closest in meaning to
(A) influenced
(B) announced
(C) rejected
(D) ignored

35.According to the passage, Mary Goddard first became involved in publishing when she

(A) was appointed by Benjamin Franklin
(B) signed the Declaration of Independence.
(C) took over her brother s printing shop
(D) moved to Baltimore

36.The word "there" in line 23 refers to

(A) the colonies
(B) the print shop
(C) Baltimore
(D) Providence

37.It can be inferred from the passage that Mary Goddard was

(A) an accomplished businesswoman
(B) extremely wealthy
(C) a member of the Continental Congress
(D) a famous writer



38.The word "position" in line 33 is closest in meaning to

(A) job
(B) election
(C) document
(D) location

Question 39-50

Galaxies are the major building blocks of the universe. A
galaxy is giant family of many millions of stars, and it is held
together by its own gravitational field. Most of the material
universe is organized into galaxies of stars together with
gas and dust.

There are three main types of galaxy: spiral, elliptical,
and irregular. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, a flattish disc
of stars with two spiral arms emerging from its central nucleus.
About one-quarter of all galaxies have this shape. Spiral
galaxies are well supplied with the interstellar gas in which
new stars form: as the rotating spiral pattern sweeps around
the galaxy it compresses gas and dust, triggering the formation
of bright young stars and in its arms. The elliptical galaxies have a
symmetrical elliptical or spheroidal shape with no obvious
structure. Most of their member stars are very old and since
ellipticals are devoid of interstellar gas, no new stars are forming
in them. The biggest and brightest galaxies in the universe
are ellipticals with masses of about 1013 times that of the Sun,
these giants may frequently be sources of strong radio
emission, in which case they are called radio galaxies. About two-
thirds of all galaxies are elliptical. Irregular galaxies comprise
about one-tenth of all galaxies and they come in many
subclasses.

Measurement in space is quite different from measure-
ment on Earth. Some terrestrial distances can be expressed as
intervals of time, the time to fly from one continent to another
or the time it takes to drive to work, for example. By comparison
with these familiar yardsticks, the distances to the
galaxies are incomprehensibly large, but they too are made
more manageable by using a time calibration, in this case the
distance that light travels in one year. On such a scale the
nearest giant spiral galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, is two
million light years away. The most distant luminous objects seen
by telescopes are probably ten thousand million light years
away. Their light was already halfway here before the Earth
even formed. The light from the nearby Virgo galaxy set out
when reptiles still dominated the animal world.

39.The word "major" in line 1 is closest in meaning to

(A) intense
(B) principal
(C) huge
(D) unique

40.What does the second paragraph mainly discuss?

(A) The Milky Way
(B) Major categories of galaxies
(C) How elliptical galaxies are formed
(D) Differences between irregular and spiral galaxies

41.The word "which" in line 10 refers to

(A) dust
(B) gas
(C) pattern
(D) galaxy

42.According to the passage, new stars are formed in spiral galaxies due to

(A) an explosion of gas
(B) the compression of gas and dust
(C) the combining of old stars
(D) strong radio emissions

43.The word "symmetrical" in line 14 is closest in meaning to

(A) proportionally balanced
(B) commonly seen
(C) typically large
(D) steadily growing

44.The word "obvious" in line 14 is closest in meaning to

(A) discovered
(B) apparent
(C) understood
(D) simplistic

45.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true of elliptical galaxies?

(A) They are the largest galaxies.
(B) They mostly contain old stars.
(C) They contain a high amount of interstellar gas.
(D) They have a spherical shape.

46.Which of the following characteristics of radio galaxies is mentioned in the passage?

(A) They are a type of elliptical galaxy.
(B) They are usually too small to be seen with a telescope.
(C) They are closely related to irregular galaxies.
(D) They are not as bright as spiral galaxies.

47.What percentage of galaxies are irregular?

(A) 10%
(B) 25%
(C) 50%
(D) 75%

48.The word "they" in line 29 refers to

(A) intervals
(B) yardsticks
(C) distances
(D) galaxies

49.Why does the author mention the Virgo galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy in the third paragraph?

(A) To describe the effect that distance has no visibility.
(B) To compare the ages of two relatively young galaxies.
(C) To emphasize the vast distances of the galaxies from Earth.
(D) To explain why certain galaxies cannot be seen by a telescope.

50.The word "dominated" in line 37 is closest in meaning to

(A) threatened
(B) replaced
(C) were developing in
(D) were prevalent in