托福阅读理解真题精选

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新托福阅读背景知识精选5篇

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托福阅读真题1

Molting is one of the most involved processes of a bird's annual life cycle. Notwithstanding preening and constant care, the marvelously intricate structure of a bird's feather inevitably wears out. All adult birds molt their feathers at least once a year, and upon close observation, one can recognize the frayed, ragged appearance of feathers that are nearing the end of their useful life. Two distinct processes are involved in molting. The first step is when the old, worn feather is dropped, or shed. The second is when a new feather grows in its place. When each feather has been shed and replaced, then the molt can be said to be complete. This, however, is an abstraction that often does not happen: incomplete, overlapping, and arrested molts are quite common.

Molt requires that a bird find and process enough protein to rebuild approximately one-third of its body weight. It is not surprising that a bird in heavy molt often seems listless and unwell. But far from being random, molt is controlled by strong evolutionary forces that have established an optimal time and duration. Generally, molt occurs at the time of least stress on the bird. Many songbirds, for instance, molt in late summer, when the hard work of breeding is done but the weather is still warm and food still plentiful. This is why the woods in late summer often seem so quiet, when compared with the exuberant choruses of spring.

Molt of the flight feathers is the most highly organized part of the process. Some species, for example, begin by dropping the outermost primary feathers on each side (to retain balance in the air) and wait until the replacement feathers are about one-third grown before shedding the next outermost, and so on. Others always start with the innermost primary feathers and work outward. Yet other species begin in the middle and work outward on both sides. Most ducks shed their wing feathers at once, and remain flightless for two or three weeks while the replacement feathers grow.

1. The passage mainly discusses how

(A) birds prepare for breeding

(B) bird feathers differ from species

(D) birds are affected by seasonal changes

2. The word Notwithstanding in line 2 is closest in meaning to

(A) despite

(B) because of

(D) regarding

3. The word intricate in line 2 is closest in meaning to

(A) regular

(B) complex

(D) important

4. The word random in line 12 is closest in meaning to

(A) unfortunate

(B) unusual

(D) unpredictable

5. The word optimal in line 13 is closest in meaning to

(A) slow

(B) frequent

(D) early

6. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a reason that songbirds molt in the late summer?

(A) Fewer predators are in the woods.

(B) The weathers are still warm.

(D) Food is still available.

7. Some birds that are molting maintain balance during flight by

(A) constantly preening and caring for their remaining feathers

(B) dropping flight feathers on both sides at the same time

(D) only losing one-third of their feathers

8. The word Others in line 21 refers to

(A) ducks

(B) sides

(D) flight feathers

9. The author discusses ducks in order to provide an example of birds that

(A) grow replacement feathers that are very long

(B) shed all their wing feathers at one time

(D) shed their outermost feathers first

10. It can be inferred from the discussion about ducks that the molting of their flight feathers

takes

(A) a year

(B) a season

(D) a few weeks

PASSAGE 62 CABDC ABCBD

托福阅读真题2

The most thoroughly studied cases of deception strategies employed by ground-nesting birds involve plovers, small birds that typically nest on beaches or in open fields, their nests merely scrapes in the sand or earth. Plovers also have an effective repertoire of tricks for distracting potential nest predators from their exposed and defenseless eggs or chicks.

The ever-watchful plover can detect a possible threat at a considerable distance. When she does, the nesting bird moves inconspicuously off the nest to a spot well away from eggs or chicks. At this point she may use one of several ploys. One technique involves first moving quietly toward an approaching animal and then setting off noisily through the grass or brush in a low, crouching run away from the nest, while emitting rodent like squeaks. The effect mimics a scurrying mouse or vole, and the behavior rivets the attention of the type of predators that would also be interested in eggs and chicks.

Another deception begins with quiet movement to an exposed and visible location well away from the nest. Once there, the bird pretends to incubate a brood. When the predator approaches, the parent flees, leaving the false nest to be searched. The direction in which the plover escapes is such that if the predator chooses to follow, it will be led still further away from the true nest.

The plover's most famous stratagem is the broken-wing display, actually a continuum of injury-mimicking behaviors spanning the range from slight disability to near-complete helplessness. One or both wings are held in an abnormal position, suggesting injury. The bird appears to be attempting escape along an irregular route that indicates panic. In the most extreme version of the display, the bird flaps one wing in an apparent attempt to take to the air, flops over helplessly, struggles back to its feet, runs away a short distance, seemingly attempts once more to take off, flops over again as the useless wing fails to provide any lift, and so on. Few predators fail to pursue such obviously vulnerable prey. Needless to say, each short run between flight attempts is directed away from the nest.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The nest-building techniques of plovers

(B) How predators search for plovers

(D) Why plovers are vulnerable to predators

2. The word merely in fine 3 is closest in meaning to

(A) often

(B) only

(D) at first

3. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage about plovers?

(A) Their eggs and chicks are difficult to find.

(B) They are generally defenseless when away from their nests.

(D) Their nests are on the surface of the ground.

4. The word emitting in line 10 is closest in meaning to

(A) bringing

(B) attracting

(D) minimizing

5. In the deception technique described in paragraph 2, the plover tries to

(A) stay close to her nest

(B) attract the predator's attention

(D) frighten the approaching predator

6. The word spanning in line 19 is closest in meaning to

(A) covering

(B) selecting

(D) explaining

7. According to paragraph 4, which of the following aspects of the plover's behavior gives the

appearance that it is frightened?

(A) Abnormal body position

(B) Irregular escape route

(D) Unusual amount of time away from the nest

8. The word pursue in line 25 is closest in meaning to

(A) catch

(B) notice

(D) chase

9. According to the passage , a female plover utilizes all of the following deception techniques

EXCEPT

(A) appearing to be injured

(B) sounding like another animal

(D) pretending to sit on her eggs

10. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage ?

(A) A description of the sequence of steps involved in plovers nest building

(B) A generalization about plover behavior followed by specific examples

(D) A cause-and-effect analysis of the relationship between a prey and a predator

PASSAGE 63 CBDCB ABDCB

托福阅读真题3

PASSAGE 64

What unusual or unique biological trait led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for ever 50 million years? The answer appears to be that they were the first group of predatory eusocial insects that both lived and foraged primarily in the soil and in rotting vegetation on the ground. Eusocial refers to a form of insect society characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young; it is rare among insects. Richly organized colonies of the land made possible by eusociality enjoy several key advantages over solitary individuals.

Under most circumstances groups of workers are better able to forage for food and defend the nest, because they can switch from individual to group response and back again swiftly and according to need. When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals. Equally important is the fact that the execution of multiple-step tasks is accomplished in a series-parallel sequence. That is, individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be fed) to another (a second larva to be fed). They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish — for example, to check the larva first, then collect the food, then feed the larva. Hence, if each link in the chain has many workers in attendance, a series directed at any particular object is less likely to fail. Moreover, ants specializing in particular labor categories typically constitute a caste specialized by age or body form or both. There has been some documentation of the superiority in performance and net energetic yield of various castes for their modal tasks, although careful experimental studies are still relatively few.

What makes ants unusual in the company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators (predators are animals that capture and feed on other animals) occupying the soil and ground litter. The eusocial termites live in the same places as ants and also have wingless workers, but they feed almost exclusively on dead vegetation.

1. Which of the following questions does the passage primarily answer?

(A) How do individual ants adapt to specialized tasks?

(B) What are the differences between social and solitary insects?

(D) Why have ants been able to thrive for such a long time?

2. The word unique in line 1 is closest in meaning to

(A) inherited

(B) habitual

(D) natural

3. The word rotting in line 4 is closest in meaning to

(A) decaying

(B) collected

(D) cultivated

4. The word key in line 7 is closest in meaning to

(A) uncommon

(B) important

(D) temporary

5. According to the passage , one thing eusocial insects can do is rapidly switch from

(A) one type of food consumption to another

(B) one environment to another

(D) a defensive to an offensive stance

6. The task of feeding larvae is mentioned in the passage to demonstrate

(A) the advantages of specialization

(B) the type of food that larvae are fed

(D) the different stages of ant development

7. The author uses the word Hence in line 16 to indicate

(A) a logical conclusion

(B) the next step in a senes of steps

(D) the relationship among ants

8. All of the following terms art defined in the passage EXCEPT

(A) eusocial (line 3)

(B) series-parallel sequence (line 13)

(D) predators (line 23)

9. The word they in line 25 refers to

(A) termites

(B) ants

(D) predators

10. It can be inferred from the passage that one main difference between termites and ants is

that termites

(A) live above ground

(B) are eusocial

(D) eat almost no animal substances

PASSAGE 64 DCABC AACAD

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