toefl真题t1阅读解析翻译

1、Attempts at Determining Earths AgeSince the dawn of civilization, people have been curious aboutofEarth. In addition, we have not been satisfied in being able to sate merely therelative geologic age of a rock or fossil. Human curiosity demandsknow actual age in years.t weGeologists working during th

2、e nineteenth century understood rock bodies,they would have to concentrate on natural prosest continue at aconstant rate andt also leave some sort of tangible record in the rocks.Evolution is one such pros, and geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875)recognized this. BY comparing the amount of evolution

3、exhibited by marine mollusks then, Lyell estimated t 80 million years had elapsed since the beginning of the Tertiary Period. He came astonishingly close to the mark, since it was actually about 65 million years. However, for older sequence of evolutionary development, estimates based on parts rates

4、 of evolution weredifficult, and not only because of missing in the fossil record. Rates ofevolution for many orders of plants and animals were not welderstood.ition could beIn another attempt, geologists reasonedt if rates of dedetermined for sedimentary rocks, they might be able to estimate the ti

5、merequired for deition of a given thickness of strata, or rock layers. Similarreasoning suggestedt one could estimate total elapsed geologic time bydividing the average thickness of sediment transported annually to the oceanso the total thickness of sedimentary rockd ever been deited inthe past. Unf

6、ortunay, such estimates did not adequay account for pastdifference in rates of sedimenion or losses to the total section of strataduringsodes of ero. Also, some very ancient sediments were no longerrecognizable, having been converted to igneous and metamorphic rockshecourse of mountain building. Est

7、imates of Earths total age based onsedimenion rates ranged from as little as million to over a billion year.Yet another scheme for approximating Earths age had been proed in1715 by Sir Edmund Halley (1656-1742), whose name we assote with thefamous comet. Halley surmisedt the ocean formed soon after

8、the origin ofthe planet and therefore would be only slightly youngert the age of thesolid Earth. He reasonedt the original ocean was not salty andtsubsequently saerived from the weathering of rocks was brought to the seaby streams. Thus, if one knew the total amount of saissolvedhe oceanand the amou

9、nt added each year, it might besible to calculate the oceansage in 1899, Irish geologist John Joly (1857-1933) attempted the calculation. From information provide by gauges placed at the mouths of streams. Joly was able to estimate the annual increment of salt to the oceans. Then,knowing the salinit

10、y of ocean water and the approximate volume of water, hecalculated the estimate ofocean by theamount of salt already held in solution in the oceans. Anof the ocean was obtained by diving the total saltherate of salt added each year. Beginning with essentiallynon-saline oceans, it would have taken ab

11、out 90 million years of the oceans to reach their present salinity, according to Joly. The figure, however, was off thecurrently accepted mark of 4.54 billion by a factor of 50, largely because therewas no way to account accuray by recycled salt and salt incorporatedoclay mineral deited on the sea f

12、loors. Even though in error, Jolyscalculations clearly supported those geologists who insisted on an age forEarth far in exs of a few million years. The bef in Earths immenseantiquity was also supported by Darwin, Huxley, and other evolutionarybiologists, who saw the need for timehedreds of millions

13、 of years toplish theanic evolution apparenthe fossil record.Paragraph 2Geologists working during the nineteenth century understood rock bodies,they would have to concentrate on natural prosest continue at aconstant rate andt also leave some sort of tangible recordhe rocks.Evolution is one such pros

14、, and geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875)recognized this. BY comparing the amount of evolution exhibited by marinemollusks then, Lyell estimatedt 80 million years had elapsed since the beginning of the Tertiary Period. He came astonishingly close to the mark,since it waually about 65 million years.

15、However, for older sequence ofevolutionary development, estimates based on rates of evolution were difficult,and not only because of missing partshe fossil record. Rates of evolutionfor many orders of plants and animals were not welderstood.1. The word “tangible”A. physicalhe passage is closesteanin

16、g toB.C.D.relatedsignificant helpful1. A：词汇题。 tangible 与physical 都有“可接触到的”意思，其他选项都没有此意。2. It can be inferred form paragraph 2t Charles Lyell based his study of themarine mollusk fossils on which of the following amptions?of timeA.The Tertiary Period was separatedlength.o divit were equal inB.C.D.Mol

17、lusks lived under rockshe sea during the Tertiary period.Evolution of mollusks proceeded at a uniform rate over timeMollusks have evolved less raly with the passing of time2.C：推理题。根据原文的“Evolution is one such pros”，可以找到段首句，自然进化的过程是不断持续的，C 选项的“proceeded at a uniformrate ”符合这个隐含意思。3. The word “sequence

18、”he passage is closeteaning toA.B.C.D.3.observations sensesseries categories C：词汇题。Sequence 与series 同义，意为“一系列”。4. According to paragraph 2, Lyells strategy for estimation geologic dates wasnot very accurate for periods before the Tertiary Period party becauseA.B.C.Marine mollusks did not evolve unti

19、l the Tertiary Periodfossil records of the very distant past arepletethere was not much agreement about how to identify or categorize ear erasthe duration of previous geologic periods was difficult to determinerD.4. B：事实信息题。根据题干定位到原文“because of missing parts fossil record” B 选项为该定位句的同义改写。Paragraph 3

20、heIn another attempt, geologists reasonedt if rates of deition couldbe determined for sedimentary rocks, they might be able to estimate the timerequired for deition of a given thickness of strata, or rock layers. Similarreasoning suggestedt one could estimate total elapsed geologic time bydividing t

21、he average thickness of sediment transported annually to the oceanso the total thickness of sedimentary rockd ever been deited inthe past. Unfortunay, such estimates did not adequay account for pastdifference in rates of sedimenion or losses to the total section of strataduringsodes of ero. Also, so

22、me very ancient sediments were no longerrecognizable, having been converted to igneous and metamorphic rocks inthe course of mountain building. Estimates of Earths total age based onsedimenion rates ranged from as little as million to over a billion year.5. The phrase “another attempt” he passage re

23、fers toA.B.C.D.trying to understand the fossil recordtrying to determine the evolutionary rate of marine molluskstrying to understand natural prosestrying to determine Earthual age5.D：指代题。根据第一、二段的主旨内容可以得出 geologists are “trying todetermine Earthual age”6. The world “converted”he passage is closestea

24、ning toA.B.C.D.6.added changed restored reduced B：词汇题。Convert 与change 为同义词，意为“转变”。7. According to paragraph 3, all of the following were problems with thecalculation of Earths age using the study of sedimentary rocks EXCEPTA.B.C.D.7.the inconsistency of sedimenion rates over timethe effect of geolog

25、ic pros on sedimentary rockthe expanof some sedimentary rocks due to Earthsernal heatthe loss of an unknown number of sedimentary layers due to eroC：否定事实信息题。C 选项内容原文未提及。Paragraph 4Yet another scheme for approximating Earths age had been proed in1715 by Sir Edmund Halley (1656-1742), whose name we as

26、sote with thefamous comet. Halley surmisedt the ocean formed soon after the origin ofthe planet and therefore would be only slightly youngert the age of thesolid Earth. He reasonedt the original ocean was not salty andtsubsequently saerived from the weathering of rocks was brought to thesea by strea

27、ms. Thus, if one knew the total amount of salt dissolved in theocean and the amount added each year, it might besible to calculate theoceans age in 1899, Irish geologist John Joly (1857-1933) attempted the calculation. From information provide by gauges placed at the mouths of streams. Joly was able

28、 to estimate the annual increment of salt to the oceans.Then, knowing the salinity of ocean water and the approximate volume ofwater, he calculated the amount of salt already held in solutionhe oceans.An estimate ofof the ocean was obtained by diving the total saltheocean by the rate of salt added e

29、ach year. Beginning with essentially non-saline oceans, it would have taken about 90 million years of the oceans to reach their present salinity, according to Joly. The figure, however, was off thecurrently accepted mark of 4.54 billion by a factor of 50, largely because therewas no way to account a

30、ccuray by recycled salt and salt incorporatedoclay mineral deited on the sea floors. Even though in error, Jolyscalculations clearly supported those geologists who insisted on an age forEarth far in exs of a few million years. The bef in Earths immenseantiquitywasalsosupportedbyDarwin,Huxley,andothe

31、revolutionary biologists, who saw the need for time in thedreds ofmillions of years torecord.plish theanic evolution apparent in the fossil8. The world “approximating”he passage is closesteaning toA.B.C.D.8.thinking about researching estimating demonstrating C：词汇题。Approximate 与estimate 同义词，意为“估计”。9.

32、 The word “subsequently”he passage is closesteaning toA.B.C.D.9.later furthermore evidentlyaccidentally A：词汇题。Subsequently 与 later 同义词，意为“接下来”。10. According to paragraph 4, John Jolys calculations were founded on all thefollowing EXCEPTA.B.C.D.knowing how salty the ocean water isestimating how much

33、salt enters the ocean each yearaccounting for the amount of saltt is recycledfiguring the volume of water containedhe ocean10. C：否定事实题。根据题干内容，定位到原文“Joly was able to estimate the annual increment of salt to the oceans.”由此可知，Joly 的计算是基于海洋盐度的增加，而不是C 选项所说的循环，因此错误。11.According to paragraph 4, in which of

34、 the following ways could Jolysestimate of Earths age be considered significant?A.B.C.It provedIt indicatedlleys idea aboutt Earth was much olderof the ocean was fairly accurate.n some scientists had claimed.It was favored by the majority of scientists at the end of the nineteenthcenturyD. It was th

35、e basis for mu11. Bodern researcho the salinity of the ocean：事实信息题。根据题干定位到原文“Even though in error, Jolyscalculations clearly supported those geologists who insisted on an age for Earth far in exs of a few million years.”因此，B 选项是该句信息的同义改写。12. The author mentions “Darwin, Huxley, and other evolutionar

36、ybiologists” in order toA.Provide evidencet Jolys calculations inspired scientists working onother lines of scientific inquiryB.Support the claimt all of the leading scientists of the time bevedtEarth was just over 90 million years oldC.Arguet Jolys calculations would have been more exact if he hadc

37、ollaborated with experts in other fieldsD.Provide exles of scientists who bevedof Earth to be greatern just a few million on year, like Joly, in order to account for their findings12. D：修辞目的题。标阴影的部分是例子，所要论证的内容是前一句“Jolys calculations clearly supported those geologists who insisted on an age forEarth

38、far in exParagraph 2s of a few million years.”D 选项符合该论点的内容。Geologists working during the nineteenth century understood rock bodies,they would have to concentrate on natural prosest continue at aconstant rate andt also leave some sort of tangible record in the rocks.Evolution is one such pros, and ge

39、ologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875)recognized this. By comparing the amount of evolution exhibited by marine mollusks then, Lyell estimated t 80 million years had elapsed since the beginning of the Tertiary Period. He came astonishingly close to the mark, since it wa ually about 65 million years. Howe

40、ver, for older sequence of evolutionary development, estimates based on parts in the fossil record.Rates of evolution for many orders of plants and animals were not wellunderstood. 13. Look at the four squares could be added to the passage.t indicate where the following sentenceMorefundamentally,Lye

41、llsevolutionaryapproachisrinsically limited because Earth evolution began.Where would the sentence best fit?13. Dexisted long before life and“more fundamentally”，说明：文本题。句中有一个前面一句应该涉及 earth 上的生命，因此放在 D 选项，因为其前一句在说动植句要表达的 “more fundamentally is物的进化是难以理解的，恰好接上limited”14. Directions：Anroductory sentence

42、 for a brief summary of the passageis provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answerchoit express the most important ideashe passage. Some sentendo not belong in the summary because they express ideast are notpresentedhe passage or are minor ideashe passage. This question isworth

43、 2 pos.Since the dawn of civilization, people have been curious aboutEarths ageAnswer choiIt was not until the nineteenth centuryA.t attempts were made todetermine the relative geologic age of rocks and fossils.Charles Lyell made a good estimate of the Tertiary Period from the fossilB.record, but hi

44、s method could not be extended to earr geological periods.C.Attempts were made to calculate Earths age from the thickness of surviving sedimentary rock and from the current level of the oceans salinity.In the nineteenth century, scientists made a number of important, butD.unsucsful, attempts to calc

45、ulate Earths age from the record of variousnatural proses.E.Darwin and Huxley supported the accuracy of John Jolys Calculation ofEarths age because it agree with their view of how long evolution hadbeen in progress.F.Earths true age, 4.54 billion years, was determined by combining data from the geol

46、ogical and fossil records.14. BCD：小结题。B 概括了原文第 1 段主旨，C 概括了原文第 4 段主旨，D 概括了原文第 3 段主旨。其他选项都是错误的。翻译：确定地球自文明到来的时刻起，人们对地球的能够仅仅陈述岩石或化石的相对地质的尝试感到好奇。此外，没有满足于。人类的好奇心要求知道实际。在十九世纪工作的地质学家理解岩体，他们集中在以恒定速率继续的自然过程，并且在岩石中留下某种有形的。进化是一个这样的过程，地质学家Charles Lyell（1797-1875）认识到这一点。通过比较海洋软体动物的演化量，Lyell 估计自第三纪开始以来已经过去了 8000 万

47、年。这个数字惊人的贴近事实，因为它实际上是大约 6500 万年。然而，对于较早的进化发展序列，基于进化的部分速率的估计是的，并且不仅是因为化石中的缺失，还因为对于许多种类的植物和动物的进化速率不是很清楚。在另一个尝试中，地质学家推断，如果沉积岩的沉积速率可以确定，它们可以能够估计特定厚度的岩层或岩石层的沉积下来所需的时间。类似的推理表明，人们可以通过将每年到达海洋的沉积物的平均厚度除以过去曾经沉积的沉积岩的总厚度来估计过去总的地质时间。不幸的是，这种估计没有充分考虑过去在侵蚀期间沉积速率或对地层总面积的损失的差异。此外，一些非常古老的沉积物不再被识别，在山建造过程中已经转化为火成岩和变质岩。基

48、于沉降速率的地球总的估计从小到几百万到超过 10 亿年。1715 年，Edmund Halley 爵士（1656-1742）提出了另一种近似地球的方案，其名称与着名的彗关。哈雷推测，在地球之后形成的海洋，因此将比固体地球的时代稍微年轻。他认为，原始的海洋不咸，随后源自岩石的风化的盐被带到海上。因此，如果知道海洋中溶解的盐的总量和每年的添加量，可能有可能在 1899 年计算海洋的1857-1933），爱尔兰地质学家试图计算。从放置在溪流口处的仪表提供的信息。 Joly 能够估算盐对海洋的年增量。然后，知道海水的盐度和大致的水体积，他计算了已经保持在海洋中的溶液中的盐的量。海洋的估计是通过将海洋中

49、的总盐量每年加入盐的速率来获得的。根据 Joly 的说法，从基本上不含盐的海洋开始，它将花费约 9000 万年的海洋来达到其现有的盐度。然而，这个数字从目前接受的 45.4 亿下降了 50倍，主要是因为没有办法准确地计算回收的盐和盐加入到沉积在海底的粘土矿物中。即使错误，Joly 的计算明确支持那些坚持一个地球的超过几百万年的地质学家。对于地球的远古年代，赫克斯利和其他进化生物学家也都支持，他们认为数亿年来需要时间来完成化石中的有机进化。Water Supply in VeniceThe city of Venice, built on saltwater marshes and crissc

50、rossed by cs, experienced problems with its water supply for most of its history. Onefifteenth-century French traveler notedt “in a city” in which theinhabitants are in water up to their mouths, they often go thirsty “How wasthe community to solve this important problem?Water drawn from the lagoon (

51、the large, shallow body of water betnVenice and the Mediterranean Sea) and the cs withhe city served manydomestic uses such as washing and cooking inventories of even the mostmodest households list large numbers of buckets, which were emptied andrinsed, the ones used to carry the brackish (somewhat

52、salty) cwater werekept separate from thoseneeds would have been imended for fresh water. Still, even serving suchsible if the cs of Venice had been extremelypolluted. Theernment was obliged to ime controls, and in the earlyfourteenth century, the Great Council prohibited the washing of all clonddyed

53、 woolens in the cs, addingt water used for dyeing could not beflushedlagoon.o the cnks tos. Henceforth dirty water oft sort was to goo theon the part of the dyers, infractions were many,the law did not reflect common practice. A century later, however, most of thedye workst used blood or indigo (a d

54、ark blue dye)had shifted to theperiphery of the city, as had all activities “t let off bad odors or smells.”,such as bhering. Blood, carcasses, and spoiled meat were to goo thelagoon. The cs of Venice began to be protected in the name of nascentecological awareness.Muore stringent measures were nesa

55、ry to guarantee a supply ofdrinking water, however. In the early centuries of settlement in the lagoonbasin, the populations depended on wells on the nearby coastal region. By thenh century, however, with the increase in population density, cisternsbecame nesary. Basically, the cisterns were large,

56、covered pits dugo theground and lined with clay to hold water. The cisterns were locatedhe city,but unlike the wells, the cisterns were notd with water from the lagoon,they collected rainwater instead. Cisterns became widespreadcity.he growingOver a period of severaldred years, Venice developed an e

57、laboratesystem of cisterns and gome-the gutters or pipest carried rainwater to thecisterns andt, for a single cistern, might extend over an area of severalstreets. Wealthy households had their own cisterns. In less affluent areas ofthe city, cisterns were often owned and maained by neighborhood grou

58、ps.In crowded parts of the city where landlords offered small house for rent, one or two cisterns were provided for each street. A network of public cisterns paralleled these private and semiprivate arrangements. Every public square inthe city had a cistern to serve the poorest venetians.In the thir

59、teenth century, a deciwas made to create 50 additionalcisterns, primarilysame time, ahe recently urbanized area at the edge of the city. At then was launched to repair the existing cisterns. Expanof the cistern system stopped during much of the fourteenth century as Venice,like other cities in Europ

60、e, suffered from bubonic. In the fifteenthcentury, however, a new program of cistern construction and repair wasundertaken.In spite of the expanof the cistern system, Venice continued to haveproblems with its water supply, espelly during dry periods. Flotillas ofboats had to be dispatched Bottenigo,