2013年8月17日托福阅读真题解析

1、精品值得阅读相信相信的力量阅读使人快乐，成长需要时间2013 年 8 月 17 日托福阅读真题解析第一篇：TOPIC欧洲艺术创新的兴起主要讲欧洲4万年前艺术创新的兴起，以及和周边国家包括非洲等的关系。解析：本文与考古学及艺术相关，是托福阅读中较少考察的话题。下文阐释为何在四万年前欧洲艺术兴起。Why and how art was sudde nly born 40,000 years ago in EuropeArt was born sudde nly, about 40,000 years ago, in the Ice Age of Europe. That artcould be s

2、o old was not in deed realised un til 1879, when the cave pain ti ngs of bis on at Altamira in North Spai n werefirst recog ni sed and authe nticated. The cavepaintingsof France and Spain can only be visited there, at the famous sites likeLascaux (in the Dordog ne) and Altamira. But the remarkable s

3、mall carvi ngs on boneor ivory which are found in such caves, oftenof animals or the celebrated“Venus”figurines of nude women, are more portable, and they have been foundmore widely . A won derful selecti on of these from the museums of Europe is nowon show at the British Museum, in the exhibitionIc

4、e Age Art: Arrival of the Moder n Mind”.It is now well established that our species, Homo sapie ns, emerged in Africa some200,000 years ago, and that the out-of-Africa expansion of humankindleadingeven tually to the populati on of the world, bega n in earn est some 60,000 years ago.And although ther

5、e are some remai ns of Ice Age art in Australia, and just a few in精品值得阅读相信相信的力量Africa, it was in Europe th at the“creative explosion took place, shortly after40,000 years ago, generatingthese vivid carvings and engravingson stone andbone, and the pain ted caves with their lively colourfuldepict ions

6、of horses andbis on, rein deer and lions. The carv ings are found in caves, rock shelters and ope n air sites from Spain and Fran ce,right across Cen tral and Easter n Europe as far as Siberia. From Moravia, in the Czech Republic, come the earliestknown sculptures of baked clay. For the first time i

7、n Brita in a won derfulselect ion of origi nal pieces,curated by Jill Cook of the British Museum, has bee n brought together from the major museums of France, Germa ny,Russia, the Czech Republic and bey ond. Theyare to be seen in the British Museums Special ExhibitionGaller y in the GreatCourt, just

8、 above the Reading Room. Why the“modern mind”first showed itshand in Europe at this early time, rather tha n in Africa where it origi nated, rema ins to be expla in ed. But the rich andin trigu ing evide nee is here to see.These are small objects, few larger tha n a foot in height, but here, perhaps

9、 for thefirst time in human history, are brought together so many of the greatest masterpieces of sculpture from those 300 centuries of the Old Stone Age, which en ded ten mille nnia ago with the on set of warmer climatic con diti ons. The veryfirst object on view, the Venus of Lespugue, a curvaceou

10、s nude statuette of mammoth ivory, just 6 in ches tall, with wonderfully convex echo ing forms of breasts, buttocks and abdome n was justly admired by Picasso. One sees at once, ashe did, that the stone age sculptor of 25,000 years ago was fasci nated by these repeated volumes as he shaped themfrom

11、a tusk of ivory.For the specialist this is a won derful opport unity to see so many of these treasures gathered together in one place,although it is odd that that Spain, where cave art was first recongised,is not represented at all in theexhibition.The display is精品值得阅读相信相信的力量suppleme nted by some Mo

12、der nist draw in gs, illustrati ng how the“modernmindof the Ice Age in spired them. One reproach, however: where one sple ndid piece, the Lion-Man of Hohle nstei n-Stadelin south Germa ny is represe nted by a replica,this circumsta nee is in dicatedon ly by a ti ny n ote in visible from the front of

13、 thedisplay case. At the exhibitionpreview I spent a happy 15minutes admiring theLion- Man in the companyof our countryforemostnaturalistand televisioncom muni cator. So I was ast oni shed to lear n a week later from a member of the museum staff that this was not theorigi nal piece but a high-grade

14、replica. On a sec ond visit I scrut ini sed all available labels and the n lear nt that theorigi nal was still in the museum in Ulm (where two recen tly recog ni sed fragme nts are being added).This should have beenmade clear at the outset. But that was a minordisappointmentin the presenee of the co

15、ncentrated assemblage of ancientmasterpieces exhibited here, whose immediacy and fresh ness of visio n bridges the cen turies with con summateease.第二篇：TOPIC原生演替和次生演替讲primary succession原生演替和secondary succession次生演替。植物改变环境分为若干阶段。第一个阶段原生演替，在恶劣环境下，只有适应性很强的植物可以生存。这些低等植物如lichen等孢子植物慢慢改善土壤情况，死后腐烂给土地营养。第二个阶

16、段次生演替，大型的植物如树等到来，靠自己的叶子给土地提供保护，而且其他生物也多了起来。解析：本文属生物学，尤其与生态学相关。所涉及到的succession的描述可以在TPO中精品值得阅读相信相信的力量找至U两篇文章对应：Long-termStability of Eco-systems禾口Succession. Climax andEcosystem.Ecological successi onThe structure of com mun ities is con sta ntly cha nging. All com mun ities are subjectto periodic di

17、sturba nces, ranging from events that have only localized effects, suchas the loss of a tree that creates a gap in the can opy of a forest, to those that havecatastrophiccon seque nces, which in clude wildfires that sweep across vastIandscapes or storms that pound immense stretches of shoreline. Eac

18、h new disturba nee withi n a Ian dscape createsan opport unity for a new species to colonizethat region. New species also alter the character of the community, creating an environment that is suitable to evennewer species. By this process, known as ecological successi on, the structure of the com mu

19、nity evolves over time.Types of successi onTwo differe nt types of successi on, primary and sec on dary, have bee n disti nguished.Primary successi on occurs in esse ntially lifeless areas incapable of susta ining life as a result of such factors as lava flows,n ewly formed sand dun es, or rocks lef

20、t from a retreati ng glacier. Secon dary successi on occurs in areas where a community that previously existed has bee n removed; it is typified bysmaller-scaledisturbancesthat do not eliminateall life and nutrientsfrom the en viro nment.Events such as a fire that sweeps across a grassla nd or a sto

21、rm thatuproots trees with in a forest create patches of habitat that are coloni zed by early successional species. Dependingon the extent of the disturbanee, some speciesmay survive, other species may be recolonizedfrom nearby habitats, and othersmay actually be released from a dorma nt con diti on

22、by the disturba nee. For example, many plant species in fire-proneenvironments have seeds that remain dormant with in the soil un til the heat of a fire stimulates them to germ in ate.regi ons in which the soil is精品值得阅读相信相信的力量The process of successi onPrimary and sec on darysuccessi onboth create a

23、continu allycha nging mix ofspecies withincommunities as disturbances of differentintensities,sizes, andfrequencies alter the Iandscape.The sequential progression of species duringsuccessi on, however, is not ran dom. At every stage certa in species have evolved life histories to exploit the particu

24、larcon diti ons of the com muni ty. This situati on imposes a partially predictable seque nee of cha nge in the speciescompositi on of communitiesduringsuccession.Initiallyonly a small number of species fromsurro unding habitats are capable of thrivi ng in a disturbed habitat. As new pla nt species

25、take hold, they modify thehabitat by alteri ng such things as the amount of shade on the ground or the min eral compositi on of the soil. These changes allow other species that are better suited to this modified habitat to succeed the old species. These newer speciesare superseded, in turn, by still newer species. A similarsuccessi on of ani mal speciesoccurs, and in teract ionsbetwee npla nts,ani mals, and environment in flue nee the patter n and rate of successi onal cha nge.In ecology, the final stage of biotic suc