8月17日托福阅读真题解析.doc

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 suddenly born 40,000 years ago in EuropeArt was born suddenly, about 40,000 years ago, in the Ice Age of Europe. That art could be so old was not indeed realised until 1879, when the cave paintings of bison at Altamira in North Spain were first recognised and authenticated. The cave paintings of France and Spain can only be visited there, at the famous sites like Lascaux (in the Dordogne) and Altamira. But the remarkable small carvings on bone or ivory which are found in such caves, often of animals or the celebrated “Venus” figurines of nude women, are more portable, and they have been found more widely . A wonderful selection of these from the museums of Europe is now on show at the British Museum, in the exhibition “Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind”.It is now well established that our species, Homo sapiens, emerged in Africa some 200,000 years ago, and that the out-of-Africa expansion of humankind leading eventually to the population of the world, began in earnest some 60,000 years ago. And although there are some remains of Ice Age art in Australia, and just a few in Africa, it was in Europe that the “creative explosion” took place, shortly after 40,000 years ago, generating these vivid carvings and engravings on stone and bone, and the painted caves with their lively colourful depictions of horses and bison, reindeer and lions. The carvings are found in caves, rock shelters and open air sites from Spain and France, right across Central and Eastern Europe as far as Siberia. From Moravia, in the Czech Republic, come the earliest known sculptures of baked clay. For the first time in Britain a wonderful selection of original pieces, curated by Jill Cook of the British Museum, has been brought together from the major museums of France, Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic and beyond. They are to be seen in the British Museums Special Exhibition Gallery in the Great Court, just above the Reading Room. Why the “modern mind” first showed its hand in Europe at this early time, rather than in Africa where it originated, remains to be explained. But the rich and intriguing evidence is here to see.These are small objects, few larger than a foot in height, but here, perhaps for the first 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 ended ten millennia ago with the onset of warmer climatic conditions. The very first object on view, the Venus of Lespugue, a curvaceous nude statuette of mammoth ivory, just 6 inches tall, with wonderfully convex echoing forms of breasts, buttocks and abdomen was justly admired by Picasso. One sees at once, as he did, that the stone age sculptor of 25,000 years ago was fascinated by these repeated volumes as he shaped them from a tusk of ivory.For the specialist this is a wonderful opportunity 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 the exhibition. The display is supplemented by some Modernist drawings, illustrating how the “modern mind” of the Ice Age inspired them. One reproach, however: where one splendid piece, the Lion-Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel in south Germany is represented by a replica, this circumstance is indicated only by a tiny note invisible from the front of the display case. At the exhibition preview I spent a happy 15 minutes admiring the Lion-Man in the company of our countrys foremost naturalist and television communicator. So I was astonished to learn a week later from a member of the museum staff that this was not the original piece but a high-grade replica. On a second visit I scrutinised all available labels and then learnt that the original was still in the museum in Ulm (where two recently recognised fragments are being added). This should have been made clear at the outset. But that was a minor disappointment in the presence of the concentrated assemblage of ancient masterpieces exhibited here, whose immediacy and freshness of vision bridges the centuries with consummate ease.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中找到两篇文章对应：Long-term Stability of Eco-systems和Succession, Climax and Ecosystem.Ecological succession The structure of communities is constantly changing. All communities are subject to periodic disturbances, ranging from events that have only localized effects, such as the loss of a tree that creates a gap in the canopy of a forest, to those that have catastrophic consequences, which include wildfires that sweep across vast landscapes or storms that pound immense stretches of shoreline. Each new disturbance within a landscape creates an opportunity for a new species to colonize that region. New species also alter the character of the community, creating an environment that is suitable to even newer species. By this process, known as ecological succession, the structure of the community evolves over time. Types of succession Two different types of succession, primary and secondary, have been distinguished. Primary succession occurs in essentially lifeless areasregions in which the soil is incapable of sustaining life as a result of such factors as lava flows, newly formed sand dunes, or rocks left from a retreating glacier. Secondary succession occurs in areas where a community that previously existed has been removed; it is typified by smaller-scale disturbances that do not eliminate all life and nutrients from the environment. Events such as a fire that sweeps across a grassland or a storm that uproots trees within a forest create patches of habitat that are colonized by early successional species. Depending on the extent of the disturbance, some species may survive, other species may be recolonized from nearby habitats, and others may actually be released from a dormant condition by the disturbance. For example, many plant species in fire-prone environments have seeds that remain dormant within the soil until the heat of a fire stimulates them to germinate.The process of succession Primary and secondary succession both create a continually changing mix of species within communities as disturbances of different intensities, sizes, and frequencies alter the landscape. The sequential progression of species during succession, however, is not random. At every stage certain species have evolved life histories to exploit the particular conditions of the community. This situation imposes a partially predictable sequence of change in the species composition of communities during succession. Initially only a small number of species from surrounding habitats are capable of thriving in a disturbed habitat. As new plant species take hold, they modify the habitat by altering such things as the amount of shade on the ground or the mineral composition of the soil. These changes allow other species that are better suited to this modified habitat to succeed the old species. These newer species are superseded, in turn, by still newer species. A similar succession of animal species occurs, and interactions between plants, animals, and environment influence the pattern and rate of successional change. In ecology, the final stage of biotic succession att