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托福阅读真题100篇：婴幼儿健忘症
托福阅读真题题目：
Infantile Amnesia
What do you remember about your life before you were three? Few people can remember anything that happened to them in their early years. Adults' memories of the next few years also tend to be scanty. Most people remember only a few events—usually ones that were meaningful and distinctive, such as being hospitalized or a sibling’s birth.
How might this inability to recall early experiences be explained? The sheer passage of time does not account for it; adults have excellent recognition of pictures of people who attended high school with them 35 years earlier. Another seemingly plausible explanation—that infants do not form enduring memories at this point in development—also is incorrect. Children two and a half to three years old remember experiences that occurred in their first year, and eleven month olds remember some events a year later. Nor does the hypothesis that infantile amnesia reflects repression—or holding back—of sexually charged episodes explain the phenomenon. While such repression may occur, people cannot remember ordinary events from the infant and toddler periods either.
Three other explanations seem more promising. One involves physiological changes relevant to memory. Maturation of the frontal lobes of the brain continues throughout early childhood, and this part of the brain may be critical for remembering particular episodes in ways that can be retrieved later. Demonstrations of infants’ and toddlers' long-term memory have involved their repeating motor activities that they had seen or done earlier, such as reaching in the dark for objects, putting a bottle in a doll’s mouth, or pulling apart two pieces of a toy. The brain’s level of physiological maturation may support these types of memories, but not ones requiring explicit verbal descriptions.
A second explanation involves the influence of the social world on children’s language use. Hearing and telling stories about events may help children store information in ways that will endure into later childhood and adulthood. Through hearing stories with a clear beginning, middle, and ending children may learn to extract the gist of events in ways that they will be able to describe many years later. Consistent with this view, parents and children increasingly engage in discussions of past events when children are about three years old. However, hearing such stories is not sufficient for younger children to form enduring memories. Telling such stories to two year olds does not seem to produce long-lasting verbalizable memories.
A third likely explanation for infantile amnesia involves incompatibilities between the ways in which infants encode information and the ways in which older children and adults retrieve it. Whether people can remember an event depends critically on the fit between the way in which they earlier encoded the information and the way in which they later attempt to retrieve it. The better able the person is to reconstruct the perspective from which the material was encoded, the more likely that recall will be successful.
This view is supported by a variety of factors that can create mismatches between very young children's encoding and older children's and adults' retrieval efforts. The world looks very different to a person whose head is only two or three feet above the ground than to one whose head is five or six feet above it. Older children and adults often try to retrieve the names of things they saw, but infants would not have encoded the information verbally. General knowledge of categories of events such as a birthday party or a visit to the doctor's office helps older individuals encode their experiences, but again, infants and toddlers are unlikely to encode many experiences within such knowledge structures.
These three explanations of infantile amnesia are not mutually exclusive; indeed, they support each other. Physiological immaturity may be part of why infants and toddlers do not form extremely enduring memories, even when they hear stories that promote such remembering in preschoolers. Hearing the stories may lead preschoolers to encode aspects of events that allow them to form memories they can access as adults. Conversely, improved encoding of what they hear may help them better understand and remember stories and thus make the stories more useful for remembering future events. Thus, all three explanations—physiological maturation, hearing and producing stories about past events, and improved encoding of key aspects of events—seem likely to be involved in overcoming infantile amnesia.
Paragraph 2: How might this inability to recall early experiences be explained? The sheer passage of time does not account for it; adults have excellent recognition of pictures of people who attended high school with them 35 years earlier. Another seemingly plausible explanation—that infants do not form enduring memories at this point in development—also is incorrect. Children two and a half to three years old remember experiences that occurred in their first year, and eleven month olds remember some events a year later. Nor does the hypothesis that infantile amnesia reflects repression—or holding back—of sexually charged episodes explain the phenomenon. While such repression may occur, people cannot remember ordinary events from the infant and toddler periods either.
1. What purpose does paragraph 2 serve in the larger discussion of children’s inability to recall early experiences?
To argue that theories that are not substantiated by evidence should generally be considered unreliable
To argue that the hypotheses mentioned in paragraph 2 have been more thoroughly researched than have the theories mentioned later in the passage
To explain why some theories about infantile amnesia are wrong before presenting ones more likely to be true
To explain why infantile amnesia is of great interest to researchers
2. The word “plausible” in the passage is closest in meaning to
flexible
believable
debatable
predictable
3. The word “phenomenon” in the passage is closest in meaning to
exception
repetition
occurrence
idea
4. All of the following theories about the inability to recall early experiences are rejected in paragraph 2 EXCEPT:
The ability to recall an event decreases as the time after the event increases.
Young children are not capable of forming memories that last for more than a short time.
People may hold back sexually meaningful memories.
Most events in childhood are too ordinary to be worth remembering.
Paragraph 3: Three other explanations seem more promising. One involves physiological changes relevant to memory. Maturation of the frontal lobes of the brain continues throughout early childhood, and this part of the brain may be critical for remembering particular episodes in ways that can be retrieved later. Demonstrations of infants’ and toddlers' long-term memory have involved their repeating motor activities that they had seen or done earlier, such as reaching in the dark for objects, putting a bottle in a doll’s mouth, or pulling apart two pieces of a toy. The brain’s level of physiological maturation may support these types of memories, but not ones requiring explicit verbal descriptions.
5. What does paragraph 3 suggest about long-term memory in children?
Maturation of the frontal lobes of the brain is important for the long-term memory of motor activities but not verbal descriptions.
Young children may form long-term memories of actions they see earlier than of things they hear or are told.
Young children have better long-term recall of short verbal exchanges than of long ones.
Children’s long-term recall of motor activities increases when such activities are accompanied by explicit verbal descriptions.
Paragraph 4: A second explanation involves the influence of the social world on children’s language use. Hearing and telling stories about events may help children store information in ways that will endure into later childhood and adulthood. Through hearing stories with a clear beginning, middle, and ending children may learn to extract the gist of events in ways that they will be able to describe many years later. Consistent with this view, parents and children increasingly engage in discussions of past events when children are about three years old. However, hearing such stories is not sufficient for younger children to form enduring memories. Telling such stories to two year olds does not seem to produce long-lasting verbalizable memories.
6.According to paragraph 4, what role may storytelling play in forming childhood memories?
It may encourage the physiological maturing of the brain.
It may help preschool children tell the difference between ordinary and unusual memories.
It may help preschool children retrieve memories quickly.
It may provide an ordered structure that facilitates memory retrieval.
Paragraph 5: A third likely explanation for infantile amnesia involves incompatibilities between the ways in which infants encode information and the ways in which older children and adults retrieve it. Whether people can remember an event depends critically on the fit between the way in which they earlier encoded the information and the way in which they later attempt to retrieve it. The better able the person is to reconstruct the perspective from which the material was encoded, the more likely that recall will be successful.
7. The word “critically” in the passage is closest in meaning to
fundamentally
partially
consistently
subsequently
8. The word “perspective” in the passage is closest in meaning to
system
theory
source
viewpoint
Paragraph 6: This view is supported by a variety of factors that can create mismatches between very young children's encoding and older children's and adults' retrieval efforts. The world looks very different to a person whose head is only two or three feet above the ground than to one whose head is five or six feet above it. Older children and adults often try to retrieve the names of things they saw, but infants would not have encoded the information verbally. General knowledge of categories of events such as a birthday party or a visit to the doctor's office helps older individuals encode their experiences, but again, infants and toddlers are unlikely to encode many experiences within such knowledge structures.
9. The phrase “This view” in the passage refers to the belief that the ability to retrieve a memory partly depends on the similarity between the encoding and retrieving process the process of encoding information is less complex for adults than it is for young adults and infants and older children are equally dependent on discussion of past events for the retrieval of information infants encode information in the same way older children and adults do
10. According to paragraphs 5 and 6, one disadvantage very young children face in processing information is that they cannot
process a lot of information at one time
organize experiences according to type
block out interruptions
interpret the tone of adult language
Paragraph 7: These three explanations of infantile amnesia are not mutually exclusive; indeed, they support each other. Physiological immaturity may be part of why infants and toddlers do not form extremely enduring memories, even when they hear stories that promote such remembering in preschoolers. Hearing the stories may lead preschoolers to encode aspects of events that allow them to form memories they can access as adults. Conversely, improved encoding of what they hear may help them better understand and remember stories and thus make the stories more useful for remembering future events. Thus, all three explanations—physiological maturation, hearing and producing stories about past events, and improved encoding of key aspects of events—seem likely to be involved in overcoming infantile amnesia.
11. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
Incomplete physiological development may partly explain why hearing stories does not improve long-term memory in infants and toddlers.
One reason why preschoolers fail to comprehend the stories they hear is that they are physiologically immature.
Given the chance to hear stories, infants and toddlers may form enduring memories despite physiological immaturity.
Physiologically mature children seem to have no difficulty remembering stories they heard as preschoolers.
12. How does paragraph 7 relate to the earlier discussion of infantile amnesia?
It introduces a new theory about the causes of infantile amnesia.
It argues that particular theories discussed earlier in the passage require further research.
It explains how particular theories discussed earlier in the passage may work in combination.
It evaluates which of the theories discussed earlier is most likely to be true.
Paragraph 1: What do you remember about your life before you were three? █Few people can remember anything that happened to them in their early years. █Adults' memories of the next few years also tend to be scanty. █Most people remember only a few events—usually ones that were meaningful and distinctive, such as being hospitalized or a sibling’s birth. █
13.Look at the four squares [█] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage
Other important occasions are school graduations and weddings.
Where would the sentence best fit?
14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
There are several possible explanations why people cannot easily remember their early childhoods.
●
●
●
Answer Choices
Preschoolers typically do not recall events from their first year.
Frontal lobe function of the brain may need to develop before memory retrieval can occur.
Children recall physical activities more easily if they are verbalized.
The opportunity to hear chronologically narrated stories may help three-year-old children produce long-lasting memories.
The content of a memory determines the way in which it is encoded.
The contrasting ways in which young children and adults process information may determine their relative success in remembering.
托福阅读真题参考答案：
1. ○3
2. ○2
3. ○3
4. ○4
5. ○2
6. ○4
7. ○1
8. ○4
9. ○1
10. ○2
11. ○1
12. ○3
13. ○4
14. Frontal lobe function…
The opportunity to hear…
The contrasting ways in…
托福阅读真题参考译文：
婴幼儿健忘症
三岁前生活中发生事情你还记得多少?很少有人能记得婴幼儿时期曾经发生在他们身上的事情。成年人对三岁之后那几年的记忆也很稀疏。大部分人只记得那些很少的特殊的事情，比如住院或者弟弟妹妹的出生。
人们无法回忆起幼年事情的现象该如何解释呢?恐怕时间的流逝无法阐述清楚，成年人对35年前的高中同学照片仍可进行清楚地辨认。一种看似合理的解释认为，婴儿时期，孩子正在发展对发生的事情尚未形成永久性记忆，这种说法并不准确。两岁半到三岁的孩子能够记得他们一岁时候的事情，比他们大11个月的孩子也记得一年前的事情。那些假设婴幼儿健忘症反映了孩子们对充满性欲的插曲的压制和隐藏，同样也解释不通。这种压制发生的时候，人们连孩提时代最普通的事情都是无法回忆起来的。
除此之外的三种解释似乎更具说服力。一种观点认涉及记忆相关的生理变化。孩子们早期的童年时代中，脑前叶不断地成熟，它对记忆发生的特殊事件以及之后对这些事情的回想起着至关重要的作用。婴幼儿长期记忆的形成，还会涉及到他们之前早期看到的或者自身经历的活动的重复，比如：到黑暗的环境里取东西，把瓶子塞到了洋娃娃的嘴里，或者将玩具撕成两半等。除了那些需要清晰语言描述的事件之外，大脑生理成熟的程度足以帮助他们记得这些特殊事件。
第二种观点与社会环境对孩子运用语言的影响有关。听故事和讲故事将有助于储存信息，直到他们的童年和成年。听故事的时候有个清晰的开头、情节和结尾会帮助孩子们提取事件的要点，并且使他们在过了很多年以后仍然可以描述这些事情。越来越多的家长们会在孩子三岁左右的时候和他们讨论过去发生的事情，这也与该理论一致。然而，仅仅听这些故事还是不足以帮更年幼的孩子形成永久的记忆。给两岁的孩子讲故事，并不能使他们形成语言化的记忆。
第三种可能的解释认为婴幼儿健忘症与婴儿储存信息的方式和成年后进行回忆的方式不相容有关。人们是否能够回忆起一件事情的关键在于这两种方式的匹配程度。两种方式越匹配，越有助于人们成功回忆之前发生的事情。
事实上，很多因素会导致婴幼儿储存信息的方式和成年人进行回忆的方式不匹配。对于一个头离地面两三尺的孩子来说，这个世界与那些稍大点的孩子眼中的世界不尽相同。长大后的孩子和成人经常试图回忆那些他们曾经见过的事物的名字，但在他们的幼儿时期时尚未对此进行语言化的信息储存。人们对类似生日聚会或者拜访医生诊所类似事件的分类常识有助于人们记忆他们的经历，但是，婴幼儿时期的孩子们似乎缺乏这些知识结构来帮助他们储存信息。
以上三种关于幼儿期遗忘的解释实际上并非互斥，他们是相互支持的。学龄前孩子听到那些可以促进他们回忆的故事时，生理上的不成熟是导致他们无法形成长久记忆的原因之一。听那些故事将有助于学龄前孩子在脑中储存已经发生的事情，以便形成他们可以像成年人那样自由提取的记忆。相反，将他们听到的故事进行更进一步的编码将有助于他们更好地理解和记忆，因此，那些故事将对他们记住将来发生的事情更有帮助。综上所述，生理上的成熟、听故事和讲故事以及改进对事件关键信息的编码都有助于克服婴幼儿遗忘症。
○The data for the map were collected during Smith’s work on canals.
托福阅读真题题目：
Powering the Industrial Revolution
In Britain one of the most dramatic changes of the Industrial Revolution was the harnessing of power. Until the reign of George Ⅲ(1760-1820), available sources of power for work and travel had not increased since the Middle Ages. There were three sources of power: animal or human muscles; the wind, operating on sail or windmill; and running water. Only the last of these was suited at all to the continuous operating of machines, and although waterpower abounded in Lancashire and Scotland and ran grain mills as well as textile mills, it had one great disadvantage: streams flowed where nature intended them to, and water-driven factories had to be located on their banks whether or not the location was desirable for other reasons. Furthermore, even the most reliable waterpower varied with the seasons and disappeared in a drought. The new age of machinery, in short, could not have been born without a new source of both movable and constant power.
The source had long been known but not exploited. Early in the eighteenth century, a pump had come into use in which expanding steam raised a piston in a cylinder, and atmospheric pressure brought it down again when the steam condensed inside the cylinder to form a vacuum. This “atmospheric engine,” invented by Thomas Savery and vastly improved by his partner, Thomas Newcomen, embodied revolutionary principles, but it was so slow and wasteful of fuel that it could not be employed outside the coal mines for which it had been designed. In the 1760s, James Watt perfected a separate condenser for the steam, so that the cylinder did not have to be cooled at every stroke; then he devised a way to make the piston turn a wheel and thus convert reciprocating (back and forth) motion into rotary motion. He thereby transformed an inefficient pump of limited use into a steam engine of a thousand uses. The final step came when steam was introduced into the cylinder to drive the piston backward as well as forward, thereby increasing the speed of the engine and cutting its fuel consumption.
Watt's steam engine soon showed what it could do. It liberated industry from dependence on running water. The engine eliminated water in the mines by driving efficient pumps, which made possible deeper and deeper mining. The ready availability of coal inspired William Murdoch during the 1790s to develop the first new form of nighttime illumination to be discovered in a millennium and a half. Coal gas rivaled smoky oil lamps and flickering candles, and early in the new century, well-to-do Londoners grew accustomed to gaslit houses and even streets. Iron manufacturers, which had starved for fuel while depending on charcoal, also benefited from ever-increasing supplies of coal: blast furnaces with steam-powered bellows turned out more iron and steel for the new machinery. Steam became the motive force of the Industrial Revolution as coal and iron ore were the raw materials.
By 1800 more than a thousand steam engines were in use in the British Isles, and Britain retained a virtual monopoly on steam engine production until the 1830s. Steam power did not merely spin cotton and roll iron; early in the new century, it also multiplied ten times over the amount of paper that a single worker could produce in a day. At the same time, operators of the first printing presses run by steam rather than by hand found it possible to produce a thousand pages in an hour rather than thirty. Steam also promised to eliminate a transportation problem not fully solved by either canal boats or turnpikes. Boats could carry heavy weights, but canals could not cross hilly terrain; turnpikes could cross the hills, but the roadbeds could not stand up under great weights. These problems needed still another solution, and the ingredients for it lay close at hand. In some industrial regions, heavily laden wagons, with flanged wheels, were being hauled by horses along metal rails; and the stationary steam engine was puffing in the factory and mine. Another generation passed before inventors succeeded in combining these ingredients, by putting the engine on wheels and the wheels on the rails, so as to provide a machine to take the place of the horse. Thus the railroad age sprang from what had already happened in the eighteenth century.
Paragraph 1: In Britain one of the most dramatic changes of the Industrial Revolution was the harnessing of power. Until the reign of George Ⅲ(1760-1820), available sources of power for work and travel had not increased since the Middle Ages. There were three sources of power: animal or human muscles; the wind, operating on sail or windmill; and running water. Only the last of these was suited at all to the continuous operating of machines, and although waterpower abounded in Lancashire and Scotland and ran grain mills as well as textile mills, it had one great disadvantage: streams flowed where nature intended them to, and water-driven factories had to be located on their banks whether or not the location was desirable for other reasons. Furthermore, even the most reliable waterpower varied with the seasons and disappeared in a drought. The new age of machinery, in short, could not have been born without a new source of both movable and constant power.
Paragraph 2: The source had long been known but not exploited. Early in the eighteenth century, a pump had come into use in which expanding steam raised a piston in a cylinder, and atmospheric pressure brought it down again when the steam condensed inside the cylinder to form a vacuum. This “atmospheric engine,” invented by Thomas Savery and vastly improved by his partner, Thomas Newcomen, embodied revolutionary principles, but it was so slow and wasteful of fuel that it could not be employed outside the coal mines for which it had been designed. In the 1760s, James Watt perfected a separate condenser for the steam, so that the cylinder did not have to be cooled at every stroke; then he devised a way to make the piston turn a wheel and thus convert reciprocating (back and forth) motion into rotary motion. He thereby transformed an inefficient pump of limited use into a steam engine of a thousand uses. The final step came when steam was introduced into the cylinder to drive the piston backward as well as forward, thereby increasing the speed of the engine and cutting its fuel consumption.
1. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
○ Running water was the best power source for factories since it could keep machines operating continuously, but since it was abundant only in Lancashire and Scotland, most mills and factories that were located elsewhere could not be water driven.
○ The disadvantage of using waterpower is that streams do not necessarily flow in places that are the most suitable for factories, which explains why so many water-powered grain and textile mills were located in undesirable places.
○ Since machines could be operated continuously only where running water was abundant, grain and textile mills, as well as other factories, tended to be located only in Lancashire and Scotland.
○ Running water was the only source of power that was suitable for the continuous operation of machines, but to make use of it, factories had to be located where the water was, regardless of whether such locations made sense otherwise.
2. Which of the following best describes the relation of paragraph 2 to paragraph 1?
○Paragraph 2 shows how the problem discussed in paragraph 1 arose.
○Paragraph 2 explains how the problem presented in paragraph 1 came to be solved.
○Paragraph 2 provides a more technical discussion of the problem introduced in paragraph 1.
○Paragraph 2 shows why the problem discussed in paragraph 1 was especially important to solve.
3. The word “exploited” in the passage is closest in meaning to
○utilized
○recognized
○examined
○fully understood
4. The word “vastly” in the passage is closet in meaning to
○quickly
○ultimately
○greatly
○initially
5. According to paragraph 2, the “atmospheric engine” was slow because
○it had been designed to be used in coal mines
○the cylinder had to cool between each stroke
○it made use of expanding steam to raise the piston in its cylinder
○it could be operated only when a large supply of fuel was available
Paragraph 2: The source had long been known but not exploited. Early in the eighteenth century, a pump had come into use in which expanding steam raised a piston in a cylinder, and atmospheric pressure brought it down again when the steam condensed inside the cylinder to form a vacuum. This “atmospheric engine,” invented by Thomas Savery and vastly improved by his partner, Thomas Newcomen, embodied revolutionary principles, but it was so slow and wasteful of fuel that it could not be employed outside the coal mines for which it had been designed. In the 1760s, James Watt perfected a separate condenser for the steam, so that the cylinder did not have to be cooled at every stroke; then he devised a way to make the piston turn a wheel and thus convert reciprocating (back and forth) motion into rotary motion. He thereby transformed an inefficient pump of limited use into a steam engine of a thousand uses. The final step came when steam was introduced into the cylinder to drive the piston backward as well as forward, thereby increasing the speed of the engine and cutting its fuel consumption.
6. According to paragraph 2, Watt's steam engine differed from earlier steam engines in each of the following ways EXCEPT:
○ It used steam to move a piston in a cylinder.
○ It worked with greater speed.
○ It was more efficient in its use of fuel.
○ It could be used in many different ways.
Paragraph 3: Watt's steam engine soon showed what it could do. It liberated industry from dependence on running water. The engine eliminated water in the mines by driving efficient pumps, which made possible deeper and deeper mining. The ready availability of coal inspired William Murdoch during the 1790s to develop the first new form of nighttime illumination to be discovered in a millennium and a half. Coal gas rivaled smoky oil lamps and flickering candles, and early in the new century, well-to-do Londoners grew accustomed to gaslit houses and even streets. Iron manufacturers, which had starved for fuel while depending on charcoal, also benefited from ever-increasing supplies of coal: blast furnaces with steam-powered bellows turned out more iron and steel for the new machinery. Steam became the motive force of the Industrial Revolution as coal and iron ore were the raw materials.
7. In paragraph 3, the author mentions William Murdoch’s invention of a new form of nighttime illumination in order to
○indicate one of the important developments made possible by the introduction of Watt's steam engine
○make the point that Watt's steam engine was not the only invention of importance to the Industrial Revolution
○illustrate how important coal was as a raw material for the Industrial Revolution
○provide an example of another eighteenth-century invention that used steam as a power source
8. The phrase “grew accustomed to” in the passage is closest in meaning to
○began to prefer
○wanted to have
○became used to
○insisted on
Paragraph 4: By 1800 more than a thousand steam engines were in use in the British Isles, and Britain retained a virtual monopoly on steam engine production until the 1830s. Steam power did not merely spin cotton and roll iron; early in the new century, it also multiplied ten times over the amount of paper that a single worker could produce in a day. At the same time, operators of the first printing presses run by steam rather than by hand found it possible to produce a thousand pages in an hour rather than thirty. Steam also promised to eliminate a transportation problem not fully solved by either canal boats or turnpikes. Boats could carry heavy weights, but canals could not cross hilly terrain; turnpikes could cross the hills, but the roadbeds could not stand up under great weights. These problems needed still another solution, and the ingredients for it lay close at hand. In some industrial regions, heavily laden wagons, with flanged wheels, were being hauled by horses along metal rails; and the stationary steam engine was puffing in the factory and mine. Another generation passed before inventors succeeded in combining these ingredients, by putting the engine on wheels and the wheels on the rails, so as to provide a machine to take the place of the horse. Thus the railroad age sprang from what had already happened in the eighteenth century.
9. The word “retained” in the passage is closest in meaning to
○gained
○established
○profited from
○maintained
10. According to paragraph 4, which of the following statements about steam engines is true?
○They were used for the production of paper but not for printing.
○By 1800, significant numbers of them were produced outside of Britain.
○They were used in factories before they were used to power trains.
○They were used in the construction of canals and turnpikes.
11. According to paragraph 4, providing a machine to take the place of the horse involved combining which two previously separate ingredients?
○Turnpikes and canals
○Stationary steam engines and wagons with flanged wheels
○Metal rails in roadbeds and wagons capable of carrying heavy loads
○Canal boats and heavily laden wagons
Paragraph 3: █Watt's steam engine soon showed what it could do. █It liberated industry from dependence on running water. █The engine eliminated water in the mines by driving efficient pumps, which made possible deeper and deeper mining. █The ready availability of coal inspired William Murdoch during the 1790s to develop the first new form of nighttime illumination to be discovered in a millennium and a half. Coal gas rivaled smoky oil lamps and flickering candles, and early in the new century, well-to-do Londoners grew accustomed to gaslit houses and even streets. Iron manufacturers, which had starved for fuel while depending on charcoal, also benefited from ever-increasing supplies of coal: blast furnaces with steam-powered bellows turned out more iron and steel for the new machinery. Steam became the motive force of the Industrial Revolution as coal and iron ore were the raw materials.
12.Look at the four squares [█] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
The factories did not have to go to the streams when power could come to the factories.
Where would the sentence best fit?
13. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
The Industrial Revolution would not have been possible without a new source of power that was efficient, movable, and continuously available.
●
●
●
Answer Choices
○In the early eighteenth century, Savery and Newcomen discovered that expanding steam could be used to raise a piston in a cylinder.
○Watt’s steam engine played a leading role in greatly increasing industrial production of all kinds.
○Until the 1830s, Britain was the world’s major producer of steam engines.
○In the mid-1700s James Watt transformed an inefficient steam pump into a fast, flexible, fuel-efficient engine.
○In the 1790s William Murdoch developed a new way of lighting houses and streets using coal gas.
○The availability of steam engines was a major factor in the development of railroads, which solved a major transportation problem.
托福阅读真题参考答案：
1. ○4
2. ○2
3. ○1
4. ○3
5. ○2
6. ○1
7. ○1.
8. ○3
9. ○4
10. ○3
11. ○2
12. ○3
13. Watt’s steam engine played …
In the mid-1700s James Watt…
The availability of steam…
托福阅读真题参考译文：
驱动工业革命
在英国，工业革命带来的最大的变化之一就是动力的运用。从中世纪到乔治三世统治时期，用于劳作及行驶的动力一直没有得到发展。当时的驱动力仅限于三种：动物或人力;风力，用于航行或者风车;流水产生的动力。其中只有水力可以用于支持持续运转的机器，尽管在当时的兰开夏和苏格兰地区水力资源极其丰富，被用于谷物作坊和纺织厂，但这种动力存在一个极大的缺陷：水的流向是由自然因素决定的，因此，不论适不适合工厂选址，利用水利生产的工厂都必须建造在能够提供水资源动力的岸边。再者，即便是最可靠的水资源也会受到季节变化和干旱的影响。总之，没有可持续提供动力并且可移动的能源就没有新机械化时代的产生。
一直以来，人们很早就了解这种能源，不过没能成功开发。在十八世纪早期，泵曾被用于在气缸中使蒸汽推动活塞，气缸内部的蒸汽被压缩形成真空环境，大气压又使得活塞下降，这一由托马斯赛佛瑞发明并由他的同伴托马斯纽科门对其进行改良的“大气引擎”，被赋予了革命性的工作原理。但其效率低下且浪费燃料，无法在煤矿以外的地区使用，这与最初的设计期望背道而驰。十八世纪六十年代，詹姆士瓦特完善了分离的蒸汽冷凝器，因此不必每次活塞运动后都要冷却气缸;随后，他又发明了一种新的方法，使得活塞可以旋转运动，即从原来的往复运动演变成为循环运动，原本效率低下运用范围有限的活塞式结构从此演变成为得到广泛运用的蒸汽模式。最终，蒸汽被运用于汽缸中将活塞推回，从而加快了机器的运转速度并降低了能源消耗。
瓦特发明的蒸汽机很快就展现出了它的作用，把依赖水源的工业解放了出来。通过泵将矿井中的水排出，矿井能挖掘得更深。十八世纪末，由威廉默多克引领的煤炭利用，促成了一千五百年以来首例夜间照明设备的诞生。新世纪伊始，煤气在与冒烟的油灯和忽闪的蜡烛的比较中占净优势，经济富裕的伦敦人也开始习惯了煤气家用照明甚至街道照明。依赖于木炭供应的铁匠们亟需燃料，他们也受益于越来越多的煤炭供应。配备有蒸汽动力的鼓风炉使得越来越多的钢铁供应成为可能。蒸汽成为了工业革命中的主要动力，当时的煤矿和铁矿成为了是工业的主要原材料。
十九世纪时，英国已经拥有上千台蒸汽发动机，直到19世纪30年代以前，英国在蒸汽机的生产方面一直处于实质性垄断地位。蒸汽机不仅可以用于织布、炼铁，19世纪早期，蒸汽机的使用同样大大提高了造纸的效率，蒸汽动力生产的产量是一个工人一天产量的10倍。那时，第一台利用蒸汽发动的印刷机1小时就能完成手动印刷机30小时完成的工作量。蒸汽动力还实现了运河及收费公路无法完全解决的运输问题。货船的确可以负荷重物，但人们无法利用运河在多山的区域实现运输，虽然利用公路可以穿实现在多山区域的运输，但路面的承载能力有限。这些问题都需要其他解决方法，解决问题所需要的条件其实唾手可得。在一些工业地区，四轮马车用于承载重物，它们配备有带凸的缘轮，通过马力拉车在铁轨上行驶;静止的蒸汽发动机广泛运用于工厂和矿井之中。直到过了一代，另一批发明家们才将这些条件成功组合在一起，给车轮配备上蒸汽动力，让轮子在铁路上运转，利用机器替代了原有的马。这就是铁路时代从十八世纪既有条件发展起来的过程。
○ Why does the fossil record lack evidence of animal evolution during that time?
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