TPO 33 写作听力 阅读文本

Carved stone balls are a curious type of artifact found at a number of locations in Scotland. They date from the late Neolithic period, around 4,000 years ago. They are round in shape; they were carved from several types of stone; most are about 70 mm in diameter; and many are ornamented to some degree. Archaeologists do not agree about their purpose and meaning, but there are several theories.

One theory is that the carved stone balls were weapons used in hunting or fighting. Some of the stone balls have been found with holes in them, and many have grooves on the surface. It is possible that a cord was strung through the holes or laid in the grooves around the ball. Holding the stone balls at the end of the cord would have allowed a person to swing it around or throw it.

A second theory is that the carved stone balls were used as part of a primitive system of weights and measures. The fact that they are so nearly uniform in size –at 70 mm in diameter –suggests that the balls were interchangeable and represented some standard unit of measure. They could have been used as standard weights to measure quantities of grain or other food, or anything that needed to be measured by weight on a balance or scale for the purpose of trade.

A third theory is that the carved stone balls served a social purpose as opposed to a practical or utilitarian one. This view is supported by the fact that many stone balls have elaborate designs. The elaborate carving suggests that the stones may have marked the important social status of their owners.

Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.

(female professor) None of the three theories presented in the reading passage are very convincing.

First, the stone balls as hunting weapons, common Neolithic weapons such as arrowheads and hand axes generally show signs of wear, so we should expect that if the stone balls had been used as weapons for hunting of fighting, they, too, would show signs of that use. Many of the stone balls would be cracked or have pieces broken off. However, the surfaces of the balls are generally well preserved, showing little or no wear or damage.

Second, the carved stone balls maybe remarkably uniform in size, but their masses vary too considerably to have been used as uniform weights. This is because the stone balls were made with different types of stone including sandstone, green stone and quartzite. Each type of stone has a different density. Some types of stone are heavier than others just as a handful of feathers weight less than a handful of rocks. Two balls of the same size are different weights depending on the type of stone they are made of. Therefore, the balls could not have been used as a primitive weighing system.

Third, it’s unlikely that the main purpose of the balls was as some kind of social marker. A couple of facts are inconsistent with this theory. For one thing, while some of the balls are carved with intricate patterns, many others have markings that are extremely simple, too simple to make the balls look like status symbols. Furthermore, we know that in Neolithic Britain, when someone died, particularly a high-ranking person, they were usually buried with their possessions. However, none of the carved stone balls have been actually found in tombs or graves. That makes it unlikely that the balls were personal possessions that marked a person’s status within the community.

Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenged the specific theories presented in the reading passage.

Independent Writing

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

When teachers assign projects on which students must work together, the students learn much more effectively than when they are asked to work alone on projects. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

托福TPO44综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文

为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO44综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文，希望对大家备考有所帮助。 托福TPO44综合写作阅读原文文本： In 1957 a European silver coin dating to the eleventh century was discovered at a Native American archaeological site in the state of Maine in the United States. Many people believed the coin had been originally brought to North America by European explorers known as the Norse, who traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and came into contact with Native Americans almost a thousand years ago. However, some archaeologists believe that the coin is not a genuine piece of historical evidence but a historical fake; they think that the coin was placed at the site recently by someone who wanted to mislead the public. There are three main reasons why some archaeologists believe that the coin is not genuine historical evidence. Great Distance from Norse Settlements First, the Native American site in Maine where the coin was discovered is located very far from other sites documenting a Norse presence in North America. Remains of Norse settlements have been discovered in far eastern Canada. The distance between the Maine site and the Norse settlements in Canada is more than a thousand kilometers, suggesting the coin has no real connection with the settlements. No Other Coins Found A second problem is that no other coins have been found at the Canadian sites that were inhabited by the Norse. This suggests that the Norse did not bring any silver coins with them to their North American settlements. Third, the Norse who traveled to North America would have understood that silver coins would most likely be useless to them. Silver coins may have been in wide use in Europe at the time, but the Norse, as experienced explorers, would have known that native North Americans did not recognize silver coins as money. 托福TPO44综合写作听力原文文本： Professor: Actually many archaeologists believe that the coin discussed in the reading is not a fake. They believe it represents genuine evidence that the Norse came into contact with Native Americans a thousand years ago. First, the great distance of the Maine site from the Norse settlements in Canada. Well, many other objects found at that same Native American site had come from faraway places. Not just the coin. There's a perfectly reasonable historical explanation for these objects. The Native Americans who lived at the Maine site traveled great distances within North America. They were interested in obtaining objects from faraway places. The Native Americans could have reached the Norse settlements during their travels and brought the silver coin back to Maine. Second, does the fact that we found no other coins at Norse settlements mean that the Norse didn't bring any coins with them? Not necessarily. The Norse didn't create permanent settlements in North America. At some point, they went back to Europe. When

TPO17 综合写作 听力文本

Listening The passage clams that there will be fewer and fewer birds, but the arguments used to support this claim are unconvincing. First, it’s true that urban growth has been bad for some types of birds, but urban development actually provides better and larger habitats for other types, so much so that city and suburban dwellers often complain about increased birds populations—seagulls at landfills, pigeons on the streets and so on. Even birds like hawks and falcons can now be found in cities, where they prey on the increasing populations of pigeons and rodents. So it’s not going to be a story of uniform decline of bird populations in the future. Some populations may shrink, but others will grow. As for agriculture, it’s true that it too will increase in the future, but not in the way assumed by the reading passage. The truth is, in the United States, less and less land is being used for agriculture every year. Increasing in agricultural production have resulted from and will continue to result from the introduction of new, more productive varieties of crops. These new crops produce more food per unit of land, and as a result, there’s no need to destroy wilderness areas. And third, while it’s certainly true that traditional pesticides have been destruct ive to birds, it’s incorrect to project this history into the future. Now that people are aware of the possible consequences of traditional pesticides, two changes have occurred. First, new and much less toxic pesticides have been developed, and that’s imp ortant. Second, and perhaps more importantly there is a growing trend to develop more pest resistant crops, crops that are genetically designed to be unattractive to pests. Pest resistant crops greatly reduce the need for chemical pesticides. And best of all, pest resistant crops don’t harm birds at all.

TPO42综合写作听力文本

Glass is a favored building material for modern architecture, yet it is also very dangerous for wild birds. Because they often cannot distinguish between glass and open air, millions of birds are harmed every year when they try to fly through glass windows. There are, however, several solutions that responsible businesses can use to prevent injuries to birds. One-Way Glass One solution is to replace the regular, clear glass with one-way glass that is transparent in only one direction. The occupants of the building can see out, but birds and others cannot see in. If birds cannot see through a window, they will understand that the glass forms a solid barrier and will not try to fly through it. Colorful Designs A second solution is to paint colorful lines or other designs on regular window glass. For example, a window could have a design of thin stripes painted over the glass. People would still be able to see through the openings in the design where there is no paint, while birds would see the stripes and thus avoid trying to fly through the glass. Architects can be encouraged to include colorful painted patterns on glass as part of the general design of buildings. Magnetic Field The third solution is to create an artificial magnetic field to guide birds away from buildings. Humans use an instrument called a magnetic compass to determine directions—either north, south, east, or west. Bird research has shown that birds have a natural ability to sense Earth’s magnetic fields; this ability works just like a compass, and it helps birds navigate in the right direction when they fly. A building in a bird flight path can be equipped with powerful electromagnets that emit magnetic signals that steer birds in a direction away from the building. Now liste n to part of a lecture on the topic you’ve just read about. None of the solutions you’ve read about will effectively stop birds from getting injured. First, replacing regular glass with one-way glass. Well, the problem with one-way glass is that to the bird on the outside, a one-way glass surface reflects just like a mirror. And a surface that reflects like a mirror is just as bad as regular glass for birds because birds don’t understand mirrors. If they see a reflection of the sky in a mirror or of a tree in the mirror, they think the reflection is the sky or is the tree and they’ll fly right into them. The second solution, painting colorful patterns like stripes on regular glass, also has problems. As the reading said, these designs include openings so people inside the buildings can see out. But birds will perceive these unpainted openings as open holes. And if birds think they’re seeing holes, they will try to fly right through them. To prevent birds from doing this, the unpainted spaces in the window would have to be extremely small. But that would then make the rooms of the buildings too dark for the people inside them. The third solution, creating an artificial magnetic field, won’t work very well, either. While it’s true that birds use Earth’s magn etic field to help them navigate, they use this only when they’re traveling very long distances. For example, if a bird is migrating from a cold country to a warm one during winter, it will use its magnetic sense to figure out which way it should fly. But this ability isn’t used to go over short distances such as going from one side to the city to another.

托福TPO4综合写作阅读+听力原文+满分范文【雷哥托福】

托福TPO4综合写作阅读+听力原文+满分范文 【雷哥托福整理】 在备考托福写作的过程中，总是将托福的独立作文放在了第一位，但是实际上，综合作文也是占到了作文总分30分里面的50%的分值，不要等到分数出来了，才发现其实是综合作文的limited或者fair极大的影响了自己的分数。 考过的同学会发现托福综合作文分数不高，很大程度上是受我们听力实力的影响，我们很多托福考生的听力分数只有16分上下的时候，对于托福综合作文的听力妥妥的是束手无策，而且很多托福考生还感觉自己都听懂了，那也只能说明你听懂了大意，但是听力里面要的是每一个细节！请注意，是每一个细节！ 雷哥托福小托君给大家分享TPO1-33综合作文部分的阅读和听力文本全集与综合作文的满分作文，以及满分作文的解析。如果自己的托福综合作文分数如果可以很给力的话，就已经搞定了15分的分数，可以极大地缓解托福独立作文的压力。如何使用这个文件呢？ TPO4 综合写作听力+阅读原文 Reading Endotherms are animals such as modern birds and mammals that keep their body temperatures constant. For instance, humans are endotherms and maintain an internal temperature of 37°C, no matter whether the environment is warm or cold. Because dinosaurs were reptiles, and modern reptiles are not endotherms, it was long assumed that dinosaurs were not endotherms. However, dinosaurs differ in many ways from modem reptiles, and there is now considerable evidence that dinosaurs were, in fact, endotherms. Polar dinosaurs One reason for believing that dinosaurs were endotherms is that dinosaur fossils have been discovered in Polar Regions. Only animals that can maintain a temperature well

托福TPO50综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文

为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO50综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文，希望对大家备考有所帮助。 托福TPO50综合写作阅读原文文本： Scientists are considering the possibility of sending humans to Mars in the coming decades. Although there have been successful manned missions to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s, Mars is 150 times further away from Earth than the Moon is. Thus the project of sending humans to Mars would require solving an array of problems the Moon missions did not have to face. One problem is that a round-trip to Mars and back is likely to take at least two years. The trip to the Moon lasted only a few days, and it was easy to bring enough supplies of food, water, and oxygen; but the cargo capacity of space vehicles is too limited to put on board the food, water, and oxygen required by a crew for a period of two years. Without those essentials, though, a Mars mission is impossible. A second problem is that astronauts on the Mars mission would be in the zero-gravity environment of space for many months at a time. Spending a long time in the zero-gravity environment has negative effects on the human body, such as decreased muscle mass and lower bone density. Over the course of a two-year mission, the effects would be so severe, they would make it impossible for humans to make the trip without experiencing grave medical problems. Finally, astronauts on a mission to Mars would be exposed to dangerous levels of space radiation, much of which comes in the form of charged particles emitted by the Sun. Earth's magnetic field, which normally protects us from dangerous solar radiation, would not be able to protect a spaceship traveling in interplanetary space. Constructing a shield that would protect the whole spaceship from space radiation is at present impossible because it would add too much weight to the ship. 托福TPO50综合写作听力原文文本： A trip to mars would definitely be challenging but scientists have proposed solutions to the problems the reading selection discusses. First of all, food, water and oxygen. Well astronauts can use hydroponics. Hydroponics is a technique for growing plants with their roots in water rather than in soil. It requires relatively little space. Using hydroponics, the astronauts should be able to cultivate food crops in the spacecraft. In addition, the hydroponic will grow plants with recycle waste water and release it as clean water vapor, which can be collected as drinking water. And of course, all plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. So thanks to hydroponics the astronauts will also have fresh air to breathe. Second, the effects of zero gravity. Over the last few decades, we have launched several space stations orbiting the earth. And a number of astronauts have spent many months on them in a zero gravity environment. These astronauts have learned to use

托福TPO49综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文

为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO49综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文，希望对大家备考有所帮助。 托福TPO49综合写作阅读原文文本： Like many creatures, humpback whales migrate long distances for feeding and mating purposes. How animals manage to migrate long distances is often puzzling. In the case of humpback whales, we may have found the answer: they may be navigating by the stars, much as early human sailors did. What we know about humpback whales makes this a distinct possibility. First, humpback whales seem to be intelligent enough to use stars to navigate by. Whales' brains have a high degree of complexity--a common determiner of intelligence. This suggests that the whales' brain power far exceeds that of most other animals. The whales' well-developed cognitive ability seems to provide a sound basis for the ability to use a complex, abstract system of sensory stimuli such as the night sky for orientation. Second, humpback whales migrate in straight lines. Animals can maintain movement in a straight direction for long distances only if they orient themselves by some external objects or forces. Many birds and other terrestrial creatures, for example, use physical landmarks to help them stay on track as they migrate. Whales, which swim in the open ocean, cannot rely on land features; they could, however, rely on stars at night to provide them with external signs by which to maintain direction over long distances. Third, humpback whales exhibit an unusual behavior: they are sometimes observed floating straight up for minutes at a time, their heads above the water as though they were looking upward. The behavior is known as spy-hopping, and it is very rare among marine animals. One explanation for the function of spy-hopping is that the whales are looking at the stars, which are providing them with information to navigate by. 托福TPO49综合写作听力原文文本： Professor: The theory that humpback whales use the stars to navigate the open seas is a fascinating one, but the evidence supporting the theory is not very convincing. First, there doesn’t seem to be any real connection between intelligence and an animal's ability to use stars for navigation. You know, there are other animals that use stars to navigate. Some birds have this ability, like ducks for example. Now the general cognitive ability of ducks is only average. They are not highly intelligent. The fact that the ducks evolved the ability to use stars for navigation does not seem to have much of a connection to their overall intelligence. It's just an instinct they were born with, not a sign of intelligence. So the fact that humpback whales happen to be intelligent does not make them particularly likely to use stars for navigation. The two things just don't seem to be connected. Second, there may be a different explanation for the humpback whale’s ability

TPO40综合写作听力原文文本：

托福TPO40综合写作听力原文文本： Professor: Setting up a permanent station on Venus may not be without challenges, but it is certainly possible. One solution that's been proposed is to establish a station that would be floating in Venus's atmosphere, like a balloon, rather than standing on its surface. The station would float about 50 kilometers above Venus's surface. On a station located high in the atmosphere, the problems the reading mentions can be solved. First, atmospheric pressure. Well, it is a well-known physical fact that high up in the atmosphere, the pressure is much lower than at the surface. So while the pressure at Venus's surface is too high for humans, 50 kilometers up in the atmosphere, the pressure's equal to the normal pressure we're used to here on Earth. There would be no danger of the station getting crushed. Second, water and oxygen. Well, as you read, Venus's atmosphere contains compounds such as carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. There are chemical processes that could be used on the station to make water and oxygen out of these compounds. So the water and oxygen necessary for human survival could be produced using chemical materials that can be easily obtained from Venus's atmosphere. It would not be necessary to import them. Third, the light blocking clouds. Well, it is true that there are still clouds 50 kilometers above Venus's surface. However, clouds above that level are not very thick, so there would be a considerable amount of sunlight filtering through. Moreover, at you read, the clouds reflect sunlight. The station can make use of this reflected light too. In other words, its solar-powered cells could collect both the direct sunlight filtering from above and the sunlight reflected by the clouds below. More than enough electricity could be generated this way to power the station.

【解析】TPO2托福综合写作阅读原文 听力原文 满分范文

【解析】TPO2托福综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满 分范文 现在大家在进行托福备考时TPO托福模考软件相信是大家用的最多的工具了，对于托福成绩的提升是非常有帮助的。那么，如何利用现有资料TPO模考软件来提升大家的托福成绩呢?今天三立在线教育托福网在这里整理了TPO2托福综合写作阅读原文+听力原文+满分范文分享给大家，希望大家在备考托福时能有所帮助。 TPO2托福综合写作阅读原文文本： First of all, a group of people has a wider range of knowledge，expertise, and skills than any single individual is likely to possess. Also, because of the numbers of people involved and the greater resources they possess, a group can work more quickly in response to the task assigned to it and can come up with highly creative solutions to problems and issues. Sometimes these creative solutions come about because a group is more likely to make risky decisions that an individual might not undertake. This is because the group spreads responsibility for a decision to all the members and thus no single individual can be held accountable if the decision turns out to be wrong. Taking part in a group process can be very rewarding for members of the team. Team members who have a

TPO42综合写作听力原文：

托福TPO42综合写作听力原文文本： Professor: None of the solutions you've read about will effectively stop birds from getting injured. First, replacing regular glass with one-way glass. Well, the problem with one-way glass is that to the bird on the outside, a one-way glass surface reflects just like a mirror, and a surface that reflects like a mirror is just as bad as regular glass for birds because birds don't understand the mirrors. If they see a reflection of the sky in a mirror or of a tree in a mirror, they'd think the reflection is the sky or is the tree. And they'll fly right into them. The second solution, painting colorful patterns like stripes on regular glass, also has problems. As the reading said, these designs include openings so people inside the buildings can see out, but birds will perceive these unpainted openings as open holes. And if birds think that they are seeing holes, they'll try to fly right through them. To prevent birds from doing this, the unpainted spaces in a window would have to be extremely small, but that would then make the rooms of the buildings too dark for the people inside them. The third solution, creating an artificial magnetic field, won't work very well either. While it's true that birds use Earth's magnetic field to help them navigate, they use this only when they are travelling very long distances. For example, if a bird is migrating from a cold country to a warm one before winter, it will use its magnetic sense to figure out which way it should fly. But this ability isn't used to go over short distances, such as going from one side of the city to another. For short trips, birds use their eyes and the brightness of light to determine where to go. So magnetic signals from buildings won't have much effect.