揭秘托福阅读的大坑货：地质时期

时间：2024-02-15 06:26:43 楚薇20由分享

为了帮助大家做好地质时期这种题材的托福阅读，下面小编给大家带来揭秘托福阅读的大坑货：地质时期，希望看了这篇文章后，大家会有所收获！

揭秘托福阅读的大坑货：地质时期

TPO 里面有一篇阅读文章的开头是这么写的：

Paleozoic Era 334 to 248 million years ago

Mesozoic Era 245 to 65 million years ago

—Triassic Period

—Jurassic Period

—Cretaceous Period

Cenozoic Era 65 million years ago to the present

想必大家第一反应是崩溃的，这都是什么鬼?What the heck?

一个不幸的消息是出现这些词的托福文章还不少。虽然托福是考查大家的英语语言能力水平，但是了解托福常考学科的背景知识，可以帮助大家更快地熟悉阅读乃至听力里面的内容。

今天V酱请来了朗播网的王宜涵老师，带大家了解一下这些单词背后到底指的什么和它们背后的故事

前面超复杂的英文翻译其实是这样的：

古生代(从 3 亿 3 千 4 百万年前到 2 亿 4 千 8 百万年前)

中生代(从 2 亿 4 千 5 百万年前到 6 千 5 百万年前)

—三叠纪时期

—侏罗纪时期

—白垩纪时期

新生代 (从 6 千 5 百万年前到现在)

在地质学和考古学中，地质年代是用来描述地球历史事件的时间单位。其中最大的时间单位是宙/元(eon)，宙下是代(era)，代下分纪(period)，纪下分世(epoch)，世下分期(age)。如下图所示。

一 | Paleozoic Era 古生代

古生代意为远古的生物时代，持续约 3 亿年。对动物界来说，这是一个重要时期。它以一场至今不能完全解释清楚的进化拉开了寒武纪的序幕。

寒武纪动物的活动范围只限于海洋，但在古生代的廷续下，有些动物的活动转向干燥的陆地。古生代后期，爬行动物和类似哺乳动物的动物出现，古生代以迄今所知最大的一次生物绝灭宣吿完结。

★ Cambrian Period 寒武纪

寒武纪距今约 5 亿 4 千 1 百万年前 — 4 亿 8 千 8 百万年。这个名字来自于英国威尔士一个古代地名的罗马名称“Cambria”，该地的寒武纪地层被最早研究。中文名称源自旧时日本人使用日语汉字音读的音译名“寒武纪”。

寒武纪距今十分久远，人们对当时的地貌几乎一无所知。只知当时的大陆由一块主要大陆的和几块较小的组成，当时的动物都生活在海洋。

寒武纪时期气候温暖，海平面升高，淹没了大片的低洼地。这种浅海地带为新的物种诞生创造了极为有利的条件，产生了一批具有坚硬的贝壳或内骨骼的动物。它们很容易形成化石，因此和以前的软体动物不同，寒武纪动物留下了大量遗体。

托福曾经就考过 Cambrian Explosion 寒武纪大爆炸。

Animals originated relatively late in the history of Earth—in only the last 10 percent of Earth’s history. During a geologically brief 100-million-year period, all modern animal groups (along with other animals that are now extinct) evolved. This rapid origin and diversification of animals is often referred to as “the Cambrian explosion.”

Excerpt from TPO 6 Reading

是不是现在读起来更顺滑了一些?

此外，寒武纪是单细胞生物变为多细胞生物的时期，有一个非常出名的动物在此时期出现：Trilobite 三叶虫。

三叶虫是非常知名的化石动物，其知名度可能仅次于恐龙。大多数三叶虫是结构简单、体型微小的海生动物，它们在海底爬行，通过过滤泥沙来吸取营养。它们身体分节，有带沟将身体分为三个垂直的叶。

(V酱看着这个化石瑟瑟发抖

)

托福阅读中出现过三叶虫的踪迹：

Occasionally, a sequence of fossil-rich layers of rock permits a comprehensive look at one type of organism over a long period of time.

For example, Peter Sheldon’s studies of trilobites, a now extinct marine animal with a segmented body, offer a detailed glimpse into three million years of evolution in one marine environment.

Excerpt from TPO 30 Reading

这回终于知道三叶虫是什么鬼了。

二 | Mesozoic Era 中生代

中生代最早是由意大利地质学家 Giovanni Arduino 所建立，在希腊文中，中生代意为“中间的”+“生物”。中生代介于古生代与新生代之间，可分为三叠纪，侏罗纪和白垩纪三个纪。

由于这段时期的优势动物是爬行动物，尤其是恐龙，因此又称为爬行动物时代(Age of the Reptiles)。中生代的气候非常温暖，对动物的演化产生影响。在中生代末期，已见现代生物的雏形。

★ Triassic Period 三叠纪

三叠纪是 2.5 亿至 2 亿年前的一个地质时代，它位于二叠纪和侏罗纪之间，是中生代的第一个纪。这一时期最出名的应该就是盘古大陆(Pangea)了，考古学家认为这一时期地球上的陆地都是连接在一起的，直到侏罗纪末期陆地才开始漂移，彼此分开。

★ Jurassic Period 侏罗纪

侏罗纪(1 亿 9960 万年前到 1 亿 4550 万年前)界于三叠纪和白垩纪之间，是中生代的第二个纪。

侏罗纪前期，因为经历大灭绝，所以各种动植物都非常稀少，不过恐龙伺机称霸陆地。侏罗纪中晚期以后，恐龙成为地球上最繁荣昌盛的优势物种，此后统治地球长达 1.5 亿年。

ETS 可能觉得大家对侏罗纪非常的熟悉，所以托福很少涉及到这一时期的内容。但偶尔，侏罗纪还是会冒出来刷一波存在感，在 TPO 6 的阅读文章中就曾经考查过相关内容。

Limestone may be found in the Cambrian or—300 million years later—in the Jurassic strata, but a trilobite—the ubiquitous marine arthropod that had its birth in the Cambrian—will never be found in Jurassic strata, nor a dinosaur in the Cambrian.

Excerpt from TPO 6 Reading

这一句话不仅有 Jurassic，还有前面提到的 Cambrian 和 trilobite，emmmmm，出题人还真是喜欢寒武纪。

★ Cretaceous Period 白垩纪

白垩纪是中生代的最后一个纪，长达 8000 万年，因欧洲西部该年代的地层主要为白垩沉积而得名。白垩纪的气候相当暖和，是恐龙最兴盛的时期，托福中经常提到的恐龙都是出自白垩纪。

举个栗子：综合写作中出现过的Tyrannosaurus(简称 T—rex)也就是霸王龙，相信不少同学刚听到的时候脑子是懵懵的。 What the hell?

我们来看一篇 TPO 阅读里面的节选片段：

Data from diverse sources, including geochemical evidence preserved in seafloor sediments, indicate that the Late Cretaceous climate was milder than today’s.

The days were not too hot, nor the nights too cold. The summers were not too warm, nor the winters too frigid. The shallow seas on the continents probably buffered the temperature of the nearby air, keeping it relatively constant.

Excerpt from TPO 8 Reading

现在结合白垩纪的背景，读起来是不是没有理解上的障碍了?

三 | Cenozoic Era 新生代

新生代是地球历史上最新的一个地质时代，它从 6600 万年前开始一直持续到今天。

随着恐龙的灭绝，中生代结束，新生代开始。新生代中，盘古大陆彻底分裂，地球上的各个大陆逐渐移动到今天的位置上。

托福经常考的是这时期的“冰川时期 the Ice Age”，比如：

Eventually, Agassiz and others convinced geologists and the general public that a great continental glaciation had extended the polar ice caps far into regions that now enjoy temperate climates.

For the first time, people began to talk about ice ages. It was also apparent that the glaciation occurred in the relatively recent past because the drift was soft, like freshly deposited sediment. We now know the age of the glaciation accurately from radiometric dating of the carbon-14 in logs buried in the drift.

The drift of the last glaciation was deposited during one of the most recent epochs of geologic time, the Pleistocene, which lasted from 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago.

Excerpt from TPO 19 Reading

Pleistocene 为更新世，它是新生代下面的其中一个世。了解些许的背景，这段理解起来就没有之前那么困难了，si 不 si?

大家读到到这里，心里的 mmp 就出来了，托福阅读就爱考这些奇奇怪怪、超难记的单词，真想送一首《凉凉》给自己。

但现实是残酷的，想拿到高分，还是需要大家认真准备。同时，如果学有余力还可以多多了解托福常考的话题的背景知识，一来可以给自己长长见识，二来万一托福考到了，嘴上可以笑嘻嘻哟。

零基础如何搞定托福阅读

今天，首先要聊的就是新托福阅读。

当我们从0基础起步的时候，有一个特别应该注意的关键性问题，就是一定不要试图一开始就面面俱到!换句话说，我们在准备托福考试的时候，首先第一件事要做的，就是要先打开一个突破口，然后顺势而入，继而攻克其他的几个单项。这是首先一定要有的一个策略问题!

当我们有这样一个指导方针之后，首先第一步，象形各位考友都会非常心里有数的选择背单词了。在此特别提醒，一定要背2本单词书：大学4级单词+7天搞定托福单词。很多人总是会误解，认为考托福考试，就只背托福单词就好了，但是实际上，所有的托福单词书都是默认去掉大学4记单词的，但是对于0基础的考生，又恰巧是缺了这部分单词，因此一定要背2部分单词，分别是大学4级单词与托福单词。

第二步，语法。语法其实应该被我们分为2个部分，第一个部分是基础的语法知识，这个部分应该参照《iBT新托福语法》系列，将这个部分的内容进行补齐。

但是这个仅仅是一部分，还有第二部分，也就是对于更基础性的语法内容，应该首先让各位考友先报露出自己的问题，然后再通过矫正的手段来解决问题。要想这么做最好的方法就是，先写作文，然后再进行批改，这种方法是最好的，一个发现问题，然后解决问题的手段。

第三步，长难句。其实，现在中国的英语教学是重学不重用，对，也就是不中用。英语考试的核心应该是注重应用和理解，但是中国的英语考试，由于各种各样的原因，使得中国的英语考试就喜欢考察一些边角废料，最不常用的内容。

反过来倒使得最关键的立即和应用变成了配角，不得不说是一个天大的悲哀!分析托福阅读长难句，其实最关键的目的就是要去让自己快速的理解和整合句意，以达到快速解题的目的。

第四步，看美剧。尤其是要将中文字幕放在屏幕上面，英文字幕放在屏幕下面。这样做的目的就是让我们还原英语是一门语言的这个本质，去多接触英语怎么说，通过量变达到质变，这一点尤其对于最后期望达到100分的考友来说，十分重要。

托福阅读真题1

PASSAGE 69

Newspaper publishers in the United States have long been enthusiastic users and distributors of weather maps. Although some newspapers that had carried the United States Weather Bureau's national weather map in 1912 dropped it once the novelty had passed, many continued to print the daily weather chart provided by their local forecasting office. In the 1930's, when interest in aviation and progress in air-mass analysis made weather patterns more newsworthy, additional newspapers started or resumed the daily weather map. In 1935, The Associated Press (AP) news service inaugurated its WirePhoto network and offered subscribing newspapers morning and afternoon weather maps redrafted by the AP's Washington, B.C., office from charts provided by the government agency. Another news service, United Press International (UPI), developed a competing Photowire network and also provided timely weather maps for both morning and afternoon newspapers. After the United States government launched a series of weather satellites in 1966, both the AP and UPI offered cloud-cover photos obtained from the Weather Bureau.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, the weather map became an essential ingredient in the redesign of the American newspaper. News publishers, threatened by increased competition from television for readers' attention, sought to package the news more conveniently and attractively. In 1982, many publishers felt threatened by the new USA Today, a national daily newspaper that used a page-wide, full-color weather map as its key design element. That the weather map in USA Today did not include information about weather fronts and pressures attests to the largely symbolic role it played. Nonetheless, competing local and metropolitan newspapers responded in a variety of ways. Most substituted full-color temperature maps for the standard weather maps, while others dropped the comparatively drab satellite photos or added regional forecast maps with pictorial symbols to indicate rainy, snowy, cloudy, or clear conditions. A few newspapers, notably The New York Times, adopted a highly informative yet less visually prominent weather map that was specially designed to explain an important recent or imminent weather event. Ironically, a newspaper's richest, most instructive weather maps often are comparatively small and inconspicuous.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The differences between government and newspaper weather forecasting in the United

States.

(B) The history of publishing weather maps in United States newspapers

(D) Information that forms the basis for weather forecasting in the United States

2. The word resumed in line 7 is closest in meaning to

(A) began again

(B) held back

(D) referred to

3. According to the passage , one important reason why newspapers printed daily weather maps

during the first half of the twentieth century was

(A) the progress in printing technology

(B) a growing interest in air transportation

(D) the improvement of weather forecasting techniques

4. What regular service did The Associated Press and United Press International begin to offer

subscribing newspapers in the 1930's?

(A) A new system of weather forecasting

(B) An air-mass analysis

(D) Cloud-cover photographs

5. The phrase attests to in line 21 is closest in meaning to

(A) makes up for

(B) combines with

(D) gives evidence of

6. The word others in line 24 refers to

(A) newspapers

(B) ways

(D) weather maps

7. The word drab in line 24 is closest in meaning to

(A) precise

(B) poor

(D) dull

8. In contrast to the weather maps of USA Today, weather maps in The New York Times tended to

(A) printed in foil color

(B) included for symbolic reasons

(D) filled with detailed information

9. The word prominent in line 27 is closest in meaning to

(A) complex

(B) noticeable

(D) perfect

10. The author uses the term Ironically in line 28 to indicate that a weather map's appearance

(A) is not important to newspaper publishers

(B) does not always indicate how much information it provides

(D) often can improve newspaper sales

PASSAGE 69 BABCD ADDBB

托福阅读真题2

The origins of nest-building remain obscure, but current observations of nest-building activities provide evidence of their evolution. Clues to this evolutionary process can be found in the activities of play and in the behavior and movements of birds during mating, such as incessant pulling at strips of vegetation or scraping of the soil. During the early days of the reproductive cycle, the birds seem only to play with the building materials. In preparation for mating, they engage in activities that resemble nest-building, and continue these activities throughout and even after the mating cycle. Effective attempts at construction occur only after mating.

Although nest-building is an instinctive ability, there is considerable adaptability in both site selection and use of materials, especially with those species which build quite elaborate constructions. Furthermore, some element of learning is often evident since younger birds do not build as well as their practiced elders. Young ravens, for example, first attempt to build with sticks of quite unsuitable size, while a jackdaw's first nest includes virtually any movable object. The novelist John Steinbeck recorded the contents of a young osprey nest built in his garden, which included three shirts, a bath towel, and one arrow.

Birds also display remarkable behavior in collecting building materials. Crows have been seen to tear off stout green twigs, and sparrowhawks will dive purposefully onto a branch until it snaps and then hang upside down to break it off. Golden eagles, over generations of work, construct enormous nests. One of these, examined after it had been dislodged by high winds, weighed almost two tons and included foundation branches almost two meters long. The carrying capacity of the eagles, however, is only relative to their size and most birds are able to carry an extra load of just over twenty percent of their body weight.

1. The word obscure in line 1 is closest in meaning to

(A) interesting

(B) unclear

(D) complex

2. According to the passage , which of the following activities is characteristic of the early part of the reproductive cycle of birds?

(A) Selecting a mate

(B) Collecting nest-building materials

(D) Building a nest

3. The word display in line 17 is closest in meaning to

(A) communicate

(B) imitate

(D) exhibit

4. The novelist John Steinbeck is mentioned in line 14 because he

(A) conducted a scientific study on the behavior of ospreys

(B) was the first to describe where ospreys built their nests

(D) compared the size of osprey nests with the nests of other species

5. Which of the following birds are mentioned as those that build nests that include unusual

objects?

(A) Ravens

(B) Ospreys

(D) Sparrowhawks

6. According to the passage , when gathering materials to build their nests, sparrowhawks do

which of the following?

(A) Hang upside down

(B) Select only green twigs

(D) Collect more branches than necessary

7. The word these in line 20 refers to

(A) golden eagles

(B) generations

(D) nests

8. The word load in line 23 is closest in meaning to

(A) weight

(B) number

(D) level

9. The author mentions twenty percent in line 23 to indicate that

(A) eagles are twenty percent bigger than most birds

(B) twenty percent of all nests include foundation branches

(D) birds can carry twenty percent more of their own weight

PASSAGE 70 BCDCB ADAD

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