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发表于 2015-8-11 12:50:56
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2013年1月26日托福考试真题分享——阅读部分
第一篇：
Chemistry的发展，分有机和无机。有机化学发展的慢，原因在于原材料成分太复杂，很难提纯，用非常温和的手段也会导致化学反应的发生。另一方面，研究者不知道得到的东西是不是想要的。但无机化学的原料纯度比较高，例如单质金属、硫(细节题)，故研究化学家乐于研究无机化学。
解析：
Inorganic chemistry
Modern chemistry, which dates more or less from the acceptance of the law of conservation of mass in the late 18th century, focused initially on those substances that were not associated with living organisms. Study of such substances, which normally have little or no carbon, constitutes the discipline of inorganic chemistry. Early work sought to identify the simple substances—namely, the elements—that are the constituents of all more complex substances. Some elements, such as gold and carbon, have been known since antiquity, and many others were discovered and studied throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, more than 100 are known. The study of such simple inorganic compounds as sodium chloride (common salt) has led to some of the fundamental concepts of modern chemistry, the law of definite proportions providing one notable example. This law states that for most pure chemical substances the constituent elements are always present in fixed proportions by mass (e.g., every 100 grams of salt contains 39.3 grams of sodium and 60.7 grams of chlorine). The crystalline form of salt, known as halite, consists of intermingled sodium and chlorine atoms, one sodium atom for each one of chlorine. Such a compound, formed solely by the combination of two elements, is known as a binary compound. Binary compounds are very common in inorganic chemistry, and they exhibit little structural variety. For this reason, the number of inorganic compounds is limited in spite of the large number of elements that may react with each other. If three or more elements are combined in a substance, the structural possibilities become greater.
无机化学研究始于制取常用化学品，如盐、火药等的需求。19世纪的无机化学在研究元素与常见化合物方面取得巨大成就。
After a period of quiescence in the early part of the 20th century, inorganic chemistry has again become an exciting area of research. Compounds of boron and hydrogen, known as boranes, have unique structural features that forced a change in thinking about the architecture of inorganic molecules. Some inorganic substances have structural features long believed to occur only in carbon compounds, and a few inorganic polymers have even been produced. Ceramics are materials composed of inorganic elements combined with oxygen. For centuries ceramic objects have been made by strongly heating a vessel formed from a paste of powdered minerals. Although ceramics are quite hard and stable at very high temperatures, they are usually brittle. Currently, new ceramics strong enough to be used as turbine blades in jet engines are being manufactured. There is hope that ceramics will one day replace steel in components of internal-combustion engines. In 1987 a ceramic containing yttrium, barium, copper, and oxygen, with the approximate formula YBa2Cu3O7, was found to be a superconductor at a temperature of about 100 K. A superconductor offers no resistance to the passage of an electrical current, and this new type of ceramic could very well find wide use in electrical and magnetic applications. A superconducting ceramic is so simple to make that it can be prepared in a high school laboratory. Its discovery illustrates the unpredictability of chemistry, for fundamental discoveries can still be made with simple equipment and inexpensive materials.
20世纪早期，对化合物分子结构的研究成为无机化学的热点课题。无机化学的进步使得包括超导材料在内的许多新材料的制造成为可能。
Many of the most interesting developments in inorganic chemistry bridge the gap with other disciplines. Organometallic chemistry investigates compounds that contain inorganic elements combined with carbon-rich units. Many organometallic compounds play an important role in industrial chemistry as catalysts, which are substances that are able to accelerate the rate of a reaction even when present in only very small amounts. Some success has been achieved in the use of such catalysts for converting natural gas to related but more useful chemical substances. Chemists also have created large inorganic molecules that contain a core of metal atoms, such as platinum, surrounded by a shell of different chemical units. Some of these compounds, referred to as metal clusters, have characteristics of metals, while others react in ways similar to biologic systems. Trace amounts of metals in biologic systems are essential for processes such as respiration, nerve function, and cell metabolism. Processes of this kind form the object of study of bioinorganic chemistry. Although organic molecules were once thought to be the distinguishing chemical feature of living creatures, it is now known that inorganic chemistry plays a vital role as well.
当代，有机化学与无机化学研究之间的鸿沟有缩小的趋势。
第二篇：
日本的气候受季风影响，表现为冬季西伯利亚冷气团为主，夏季暖湿气流为主，雨雪气候导致北部寒冷，南部则适宜发展农业。自然地，人口易于集中在南方。现代，人口北移。气候也在变化，有某种特有气候现象(专业术语)，导致夏天气温下降两至三度，低于麦子成长最佳温度(题)。人口迁移与气候无因果关系(题)。
解析：
Climate
In general, Japan's climate is characterized as monsoonal (i.e., governed by wet and dry seasonal winds). The main influences are the country's latitudinal extent, the surrounding oceans, and its proximity to the neighbouring Asian landmass. There are numerous local climatic variations, the result of relief features. In winter the high pressure zone over eastern Siberia and the low pressure zone over the western Pacific result in an eastward flow of cold air (the winter monsoon) from late September to late March that picks up moisture over the Sea of Japan. The winter monsoon deposits its moisture as rain or snow on the side of Japan facing the Sea of Japan and brings dry, windy weather to the Pacific side. The pressure systems are reversed during the summer, and air movements from the east and south (the summer monsoon) from mid-April to early September bring warmer temperatures and rain. Cyclonic storms and frequent and destructive typhoons (tropical cyclones) occur during late summer and early fall, especially in the southwest.
季风是日本气候形成的主导因素，纬度、海洋与亚欧大陆的影响也非常重要。
The warm waters of the Kuroshio (Japan Current), which corresponds in latitude and general directional flow to the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, flow northward along Japan's Pacific coast as far as latitude 35° N. The Tsushima Current branches westward from the Kuroshio off southern Kyushu and washes the coasts of Honshu and Hokkaido along the Sea of Japan; it is this current that lends moisture to the winter monsoon. The Pacific counterpart of the Atlantic's Labrador Current, the cold Oya (Kuril) Current, flows southeastward from the Bering Sea along the east coast of Hokkaido and northeastern Honshu. Its waters meet those of the Kuroshio, causing dense sea fogs in summer, especially off Hokkaido.
The physical feature that most affects climate is the mountainous backbone of the islands. The ranges interrupt the monsoonal winds and cause the gloomy weather and heavy snows of winter along the Sea of Japan coast and the bright and windy winter weather along the Pacific. Temperatures and annual precipitation are about the same on both coasts, but they drop noticeably in the mountainous interior.
Temperature
Temperatures are generally warmer in the south than in the north, and the transitional seasons of spring and fall are shorter in the north. At Asahikawa, in central Hokkaido, the average temperature in January, the coldest month, is 18 °F (−8 °C), and the average temperature in August, the warmest month, is 70 °F (21 °C), with an annual average temperature of 44 °F (7 °C). At Tokyo the average temperature for January is 42 °F (6 °C), the average for August 81 °F (27 °C), and the annual average 61 °F (16 °C). Inland from Tokyo, Nagano is cooler, with an annual average temperature of 53 °F (12 °C), whereas an annual average of 57 °F (14 °C) occurs on the Sea of Japan coast at Kanazawa. The warmest temperatures occur on Kyushu and the southern islands; at Kagoshima, the mean temperature for January is 46 °F (8 °C), the mean for August is 82 °F (28 °C), and the average is 64 °F (18 °C).
Precipitation
Precipitation in the form of rain and snow is plentiful throughout the islands. Maximum precipitation falls in the early summer, and the minimum occurs in winter—except on the Sea of Japan coast, which receives the country's highest snowfall. The summer rainy season occurs through June and July; it is known as the baiu (“plum rain”) because it begins when the plums ripen. Torrential rains accompany the typhoons.
Precipitation patterns vary with topography, but most of the country receives more than 40 inches (1,020 mm) annually, mainly as rain during the summer. The smallest amount of precipitation occurs on eastern Hokkaido, where only 36 inches (920 mm) fall annually at Obihiro, whereas the mountainous interior of the Kii Peninsula of central Honshu receives more than 160 inches (4,060 mm) annually. Varying amounts of snow fall on Japan. From November to April snow blankets Hokkaido, northern and interior Honshu, and the northwest coast.
第三篇：
根据美国西南部某文化衰落的史实探究古代文化衰亡的原因。学术界对衰落的真正原因有争论——有认为人口膨胀是主因，也有人认为气候变化导致古文明难以适应，因而灭亡。
Pueblo Indians
North American Indian peoples known for living in compact permanent settlements known as pueblos. Representative of the Southwest Indian culture area, most live in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico.
Pueblo peoples are thought to be the descendants of the prehistoric Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) culture. Just as there was considerable regional diversity among the Ancestral Pueblo, there is similar diversity, both cultural and linguistic, among the Pueblo. Contemporary Puebloans are customarily described as belonging to either the eastern or the western division. The eastern Pueblo villages are in New Mexico along the Rio Grande and comprise groups who speak Tanoan and Keresan languages. Tanoan languages such as Tewa are distantly related to Uto-Aztecan, but Keresan has no known affinities. The western Pueblos include the Hopi villages of northern Arizona and the Zuni, Acoma, and Laguna villages, all in western New Mexico. Of the western Pueblos, Acoma and Laguna speak Keresan; the Zuni speak Zuni, a language of Penutian affiliation; and the Hopi Pueblos, with one exception, speak Hopi, a Uto-Aztecan language. The exception is the village of Hano, composed of Tewa refugees from the Rio Grande.
Each of the 70 or more Pueblo villages extant before Spanish colonization was politically autonomous, governed by a council composed of the heads of religious societies. These societies were centred in the kivas, subterranean ceremonial chambers that also functioned as private clubs and lounging rooms for men. Traditionally, Pueblo peoples were farmers, with the types of farming and associated traditions of property ownership varying among the groups. Along the Rio Grande and its tributaries corn (maize) and cotton were cultivated in irrigated fields in river bottoms; among the western Pueblos, especially the Hopi, farming was less reliable because there were few permanent water sources. Traditionally, women did most of the farming, but as hunting has diminished in importance, men have also become responsible for agricultural work. Many of the Rio Grande Pueblos had special hunting societies that hunted deer and antelope in the mountains, and easterly Pueblos such as the Taos and Picuris sometimes sent hunters to the Plains for bison. Among all Pueblos communal rabbit hunts were held, and women gathered wild plants to eat.
In 1539 a Franciscan friar, Marcos de Niza, claimed the Pueblo region for Spain. Explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado followed in 1540, quickly and brutally pacifying all indigenous resistance. In 1680 a Tewa man, Popé, led the Pueblo Rebellion against the Spanish. The colonizers retreated from the region for several years but completed a reconquest in 1691. Subsequently, most villages adapted to colonial rule through syncretism, adopting and incorporating those aspects of the dominant culture necessary for survival under its regime, while maintaining the basic fabric of traditional culture. Historical examples of Pueblo syncretism include the addition of sheep and shepherding to the agricultural economy and the adoption of some Christian religious practices.
The Matachines Dance at San Ildefonso Pueblo portrays a battle between good and evil.
Contemporary Pueblo peoples continue to use syncretic strategies; they have adopted a variety of modern convenience products, yet extensively retain their traditional kinship systems, religions, and crafts. Social life centres on the village, which is also the primary political unit. Kinship plays a fundamental role in social and religious life in 21st-century Pueblo communities; it may delimit an individual's potential marriage partners and often determines eligibility for membership in religious societies and a wide variety of social and economic obligations. Kinship is typically reckoned through the lineage, a group that shares a common ancestor; several lineages together form a clan. Early 20th-century kinship studies indicated that some pueblos may have had more than 30 clans at one time, which were often grouped into two larger units, or moieties. The clans of the eastern Pueblos are organized into complementary moieties, known respectively as the Summer people and the Winter people (Tanoans) or as the Turquoise people and the Squash people. These groups alternate responsibility for pueblo activities, and their secret societies deal primarily with curing rituals. In contrast, the western Pueblos are organized into several matrilineal lineages and clans; secret societies, each controlled by a particular clan, perform a calendrical cycle of rituals to ensure rain and tribal welfare. Many Pueblo peoples continue to practice the kachina (katsina) religion, a complex belief system in which hundreds of divine beings act as intermediaries between humans and God.
Early 21st-century population estimates indicated approximately 75,000 individuals of Pueblo descent.
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发表于 2015-8-11 12:46:03
