2017年11月18日托福阅读机经预测

　　Title：Extinctions at the End of the Cretaceous

　　It has long been recognized that the dinosaurs disappeared from the fossil record at the end of the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago), and as more knowledge has been gained, we have learned that many other organisms disappeared at about the same time. Themicroscopic plankton (free-floating plants and animals) with calcareous shells suffered massively.The foundation of the major marine food chain that led from the minute plankton to shelled animals to large marine reptiles had collapsed.

　　On land it was not only the large animals that became extinct. The mammals, most ofwhich were small, lost some 35 percent of their species worldwide. Plants were also affected. For example, in North America 79 percent did not survive, and it has been noted that the survivors were often deciduousthey could lose their leaves and shut downwhile others could survive as seeds. As in the sea, it seems that on the land one key food chain collapsed: the one with leaves as its basic raw material. These leaves were the food of some of the mammals and of the herbivorous dinosaurs, which in turn were fed on by the carnivorous dinosaurs. Furthermore, it is most likely that these large dinosaurs had slow rates of reproduction, which always increases the risk of extinction. Crocodiles, tortoises, birds, and insects seem to have been little affected. The two first named are known to be able to survive for long periods without food, and both can be scavengers (feed on dead material). Indeed, with the deaths of so many other animals and with much dead plant material, the food chain based on detritus would have been well-supplied. Many insects feed on dead material; furthermore, most have at least one resting stage in

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　　类别：天文类 真题 150412CN-P2

　　Title：Origin of the Solar System

　　The orderly nature of our solar system leads most astronomers to conclude that the planets formed at essentially the same time and from the same primordial (original) material as the Sun. This material formed a vast cloud of dust and gases called a nebula. The nebular hypothesis suggests that all bodes of the solar system formed from an enormous nebular cloud consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium as well as a small percent of all the other heavier elements known to exist. The heavier substances in this frigid cloud of dust and gases consisted mostly of such elements as silicon, aluminum, iron, and calcium—the substances of today’s common rocky materials. Also prevalent were other familiar elements, including oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen

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　　类别：文化艺术类 TPO1-P2

　　Title：The Origins of Theater

　　In seeking to describe the origins of theater, one must rely primarily on speculation, since there is little concrete evidence on which to draw. The most widely accepted theory, championed by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, envisions theater as emerging out of myth and ritual. The process perceived by these anthropologists may be summarized briefly. During the early stages of its development, a society becomes aware of forces that appear to influence or control its food supply and well-being. Having little understanding of natural causes, it attributes both desirable and undesirable occurrences to supernatural or magical forces, and it searches for means to win the favor of these forces. Perceiving an apparent connection between certain actions performed by the group and the result it desires, the group repeats, refines and formalizes those actions into fixed ceremonies, or rituals.

　　Stories (myths) may then grow up around a ritual. Frequently the myths include representatives of those supernatural forces that the rites celebrate or hope to influence. Performers may wear costumes and masks to represent the mythical characters or supernatural forces in the rituals or in accompanying celebrations. As a person becomes more sophisticated, its conceptions of supernatural forces and causal relationships may change. As a result, it may abandon or modify some rites. But the myths that have grown up around the rites may continue as part of the group’s oral tradition and may even come to be acted out under conditions divorced from these rites. When this occurs, the first step has been taken toward theater as an autonomous activity, and thereafter entertainment and aesthetic values may gradually replace the former mystical and socially efficacious concerns.

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