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TOEFL阅读100篇附答案

PASSAGE 1

By the mid-nineteenth century, the term icebox had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had been invented.

Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.

But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The influence of ice on the diet

(B) The development of refrigeration

(D) Sources of ice in the nineteenth century

2. According to the passage , when did the word icebox become part of the language of the United States?

(A) in 1803

(B) sometime before 1850

(D) near the end of the nineteenth century

3. The phrase forward-looking in line 4 is closest in meaning to

(A) progressive

(B) popular

(D) well-established

4. The author mentions fish in line 4 because

(A) many fish dealers also sold ice

(B) fish was shipped in refrigerated freight cars

(D) fish was not part of the ordinary person's diet before the invention of the icebox

5. The word it in line 5 refers to

(A) fresh meat

(B) the Civil War

(D) a refrigerator

6. According to the passage , which of the following was an obstacle to the development of the icebox?

(A) Competition among the owners of refrigerated freight cars

(B) The lack of a network for the distribution of ice

(D) Inadequate understanding of physics

7. The word rudimentary in line 12 is closest in meaning to

(A) growing

(B) undeveloped

(D) uninteresting

8. According to the information in the second paragraph, an ideal icebox would

(A) completely prevent ice from melting

(B) stop air from circulating

(D) use blankets to conserve ice

9. The author describes Thomas Moore as having been on the right track (lines 18-19) to indicate that

(A) the road to the market passed close to Moore's farm

(B) Moore was an honest merchant

(D) Moore's design was fairly successful

10. According to the passage , Moore's icebox allowed him to

(A) charge more for his butter

(B) travel to market at night

(D) produce ice all year round

11. The produce mentioned in line 25 could include

(A) iceboxes

(B) butter

(D) markets

PASSAGE 2

The geology of the Earth's surface is dominated by the particular properties of water. Present on Earth in solid, liquid, and gaseous states, water is exceptionally reactive. It dissolves, transports, and precipitates many chemical compounds and is constantly modifying the face of the Earth.

Evaporated from the oceans, water vapor forms clouds, some of which are transported by wind over the continents. Condensation from the clouds provides the essential agent of continental erosion: rain. Precipitated onto the ground, the water trickles down to form brooks, streams, and rivers, constituting what are called the hydrographic network. This immense polarized network channels the water toward a single receptacle: an ocean. Gravity dominates this entire step in the cycle because water tends to minimize its potential energy by running from high altitudes toward the reference point, that is, sea level.

The rate at which a molecule of water passes though the cycle is not random but is a measure of the relative size of the various reservoirs. If we define residence time as the average time for a water molecule to pass through one of the three reservoirs — atmosphere, continent, and ocean — we see that the times are very different. A water molecule stays, on average, eleven days in the atmosphere, one hundred years on a continent and forty thousand years in the ocean. This last figure shows the importance of the ocean as the principal reservoir of the hydrosphere but also the rapidity of water transport on the continents.

A vast chemical separation process takes places during the flow of water over the continents. Soluble ions such as calcium, sodium, potassium, and some magnesium are dissolved and transported. Insoluble ions such as aluminum, iron, and silicon stay where they are and form the thin, fertile skin of soil on which vegetation can grow. Sometimes soils are destroyed and transported mechanically during flooding. The erosion of the continents thus results from two closely linked and interdependent processes, chemical erosion and mechanical erosion. Their respective interactions and efficiency depend on different factors.

1. The word modifying in line 4 is closest in meaning to

(A) changing

(B) traveling

(D) destroying

2. The word which in line 5 refers to

(A) clouds

(B) oceans

(D) compounds

3. According to the passage , clouds are primarily formed by water

(A) precipitating onto the ground

(B) changing from a solid to a liquid state

(D) being carried by wind

4. The passage suggests that the purpose of the hydrographic network (line 8) is to

(A) determine the size of molecules of water

(B) prevent soil erosion caused by flooding

(D) regulate the rate of water flow from streams and rivers

5. What determines the rate at which a molecule of water moves through the cycle, as discussed in the third paragraph?

(A) The potential energy contained in water

(B) The effects of atmospheric pressure on chemical compounds

(D) The relative size of the water storage areas

6. The word rapidity in line 19 is closest in meaning to

(A) significance

(B) method

(D) reliability

7. The word they in line 24 refers to

(A) insoluble ions

(B) soluble ions

(D) continents

8. All of the following are example of soluble ions EXCEPT

(A) magnesium

(B) iron

(D) calcium

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

(A) relationship

(B) growth

(D) effectiveness

PASSAGE 3

The Native Americans of northern California were highly skilled at basketry, using the reeds,

grasses, barks, and roots they found around them to fashion articles of all sorts and sizes — not only trays, containers, and cooking pots, but hats, boats, fish traps, baby carriers, and ceremonial objects.

Of all these experts, none excelled the Pomo — a group who lived on or near the coast during the 1800's, and whose descendants continue to live in parts of the same region to this day. They made baskets three feet in diameter and others no bigger than a thimble. The Pomo people were masters of decoration. Some of their baskets were completely covered with shell pendants; others with feathers that made the baskets' surfaces as soft as the breasts of birds. Moreover, the Pomo people made use of more weaving techniques than did their neighbors. Most groups made all their basketwork by twining —the twisting of a flexible horizontal material, called a weft, around stiffer vertical strands of material, the warp. Others depended primarily on coiling — a process in which a continuous coil of stiff material is held in the desired shape with tight wrapping of flexible strands. Only the Pomo people used both processes with equal ease and frequency. In addition, they made use of four distinct variations on the basic twining process, often employing more than one of them in a single article.

Although a wide variety of materials was available, the Pomo people used only a few. The warp was always made of willow, and the most commonly used weft was sedge root, a woody fiber that could easily be separated into strands no thicker than a thread. For color, the Pomo people used the bark of redbud for their twined work and dyed bullrush root for black in coiled work. Though other materials were sometimes used, these four were the staples in their finest basketry.

If the basketry materials used by the Pomo people were limited, the designs were amazingly varied. Every Pomo basketmaker knew how to produce from fifteen to twenty distinct patterns that could be combined in a number of different ways. 1. What best distinguished Pomo baskets from baskets of other groups?

(A) The range of sizes, shapes, and designs

(B) The unusual geometric

(D) The rare materials used

2. The word fashion in line 2 is closest in meaning to

(A) maintain

(B) organize

(D) create

3. The Pomo people used each of the following materials to decorate baskets EXCEPT

(A) shells

(B) feathers

(D) bark

4. What is the author's main point in the second paragraph?

(A) The neighbors of the Pomo people tried to improve on the Pomo basket weaving techniques.

(B) The Pomo people were the most skilled basket weavers in their region.

(D) The Pomo baskets have been handed down for generations.

5. The word others in line 9 refers to

(A) masters

(B) baskets

(D) surfaces

6. According to the passage , a weft is a

(A) tool for separating sedge root

(B) process used for coloring baskets

(D) pattern used to decorate baskets

7. According to the passage , what did the Pomo people use as the warp in their baskets?

(A) bullrush

(B) willow

(D) redbud

8. The word article in line 17 is close in meaning to

(A) decoration

(B) shape

(D) object

9. According to the passage . The relationship between redbud and twining is most similar to the relationship between

(A) bullrush and coiling

(B) weft and warp

(D) sedge and weaving

10. The word staples in line 23 is closest in meaning to

(A) combinations

(B) limitations

(D) basic elements

11. The word distinct in lime 26 is closest in meaning to

(A) systematic

(B) beautiful

(D) compatible

12. Which of the following statements about Pomo baskets can be best inferred from the passage ?

(A) Baskets produced by other Native Americans were less varied in design than those of the Pomo people.

(B) Baskets produced by Pomo weavers were primarily for ceremonial purposes.

(D) The basketmaking production of the Pomo people has increased over the years. PASSAGE 4

The term Hudson River school was applied to the foremost representatives of nineteenth-century North American landscape painting. Apparently unknown during the golden days of the American landscape movement, which began around 1850 and lasted until the late 1860's, the Hudson River school seems to have emerged in the 1870's as a direct result of the struggle between the old and the new generations of artists, each to assert its own style as the representative American art. The older painters, most of whom were born before 1835, practiced in a mode often self-taught and monopolized by landscape subject matter and were securely established in and fostered by the reigning American art organization, the National Academy of Design. The younger painters returning home from training in Europe worked more with figural subject matter and in a bold and impressionistic technique; their prospects for patronage in their own country were uncertain, and they sought to attract it by attaining academic recognition in New York. One of the results of the conflict between the two factions was that what in previous years had been referred to as the American, native, or, occasionally, New York school — the most representative school of American art in any genre — had by 1890 become firmly established in the minds of critics and public alike as the Hudson River school.

The sobriquet was first applied around 1879. While it was not intended as flattering, it was hardly inappropriate. The Academicians at whom it was aimed had worked and socialized in New York, the Hudson's port city, and had painted the river and its shores with varying frequency. Most important, perhaps, was that they had all maintained with a certain fidelity a manner of technique and composition consistent with those of America's first popular landscape artist, Thomas Cole, who built a career painting the Catskill Mountain scenery bordering the Hudson River. A possible implication in the term applied to the group of landscapists was that many of them had, like Cole, lived on or near the banks of the Hudson. Further, the river had long served as the principal route to other sketching grounds favored by the Academicians, particularly the Adirondacks and the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The National Academy of Design

(B) Paintings that featured the Hudson River

(D) The training of American artists in European academies

2. Before 1870, what was considered the most representative kind of American painting?

(A) Figural painting

(B) Landscape painting

(D) Historical painting

3. The word struggle in line 5 is closest in meaning to

(A) connection

(B) distance

(D) competition

4. The word monopolized in line 7 is closest in meaning to

(A) alarmed

(B) dominated

(D) pursued

5. According to the passage , what was the function of the National Academy of Design for the painters born before 1835?

(A) It mediated conflicts between artists.

(B) It supervised the incorporation of new artistic techniques.

(D) It supported their growth and development.

6. The word it in line 12 refers to

(A) matter

(B) technique

(D) country

7. The word factions in line 13 is closest in meaning to

(A) sides

(B) people

(D) images

8. The word flattering in line 18 is closest in meaning to

(A) expressive

(B) serious

(D) flashy

9. Where did the younger generation of painters receive its artistic training?

(A) In Europe

(B) In the Adirondacks

(D) In New Hampshire

PASSAGE 5

Perhaps the most obvious way artistic creation reflects how people live is by mirroring the environment — the materials and technologies available to a culture. Stone, wood, tree bark, clay, and sand are generally available materials. In addition, depending on the locality, other resources may be accessible: shells, horns, gold, copper, and silver. The different uses to which societies put these materials are of interest to anthropologists who may ask, for example, why people choose to use clay and not copper when both items are available. Although there are no conclusive answers yet, the way in which a society views its environment is sometimes apparent in its choice and use of artistic materials. The use of certain metals, for example, may be reserved for ceremonial objects of special importance. Or the belief in the supernatural powers of a stone or tree may cause a sculptor to be sensitive to that material.

What is particularly meaningful to anthropologist is the realization that although the materials available to a society may to some extent limit or influence what it can do artistically, the materials by no means determine what is done. Why do the artists in Japanese society rake sand into patterns; and the artists in Roman society melt sand to form glass? Moreover, even when the same material is used in the same way by members of different societies, the form or style of the work varies enormously from culture to culture. A society may simply choose to represent objects or phenomena that are important to its population. An examination of the art of the Middle Ages tells us something about the medieval preoccupation with theological doctrine. In addition to revealing the primary concerns of a society, the content of that society's art may also reflect the culture's social stratification.

1. According to the passage , gold, copper, and silver are

(A) more difficult to handle than wood and

(B) of their stable social conditions

(D) available only in specific locations

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

(A) definitive

(B) controversial

(D) realistic

3. The word apparent in line 8 is closest in meaning to

(A) attractive

(B) logical

(D) distinct

4. Why does the author mention the supernatural powers of a stone or tree in line 10?

(A) to show that some sculptors avoid working with specific materials

(B) to emphasize the unusual properties of certain materials

(D) as an illustration of the impact of the environment on religious beliefs

5. The word it in line 13 refers to

(A) realization

(B) society

(D) influence

6. It can be inferred that the author mentions the Japanese and Roman societies because

(A) they influenced each other stone

(B) commonly used by artists in all societies

(D) they used the same artistic material in very different ways

7. According to the passage , all of the following statements about sand are true EXCEPT

(A) It is used to create glass.

(B) Roman artists mix it into their paints.

(D) Japanese artists use it to create artistic patterns.

8. The word Moreover in line 16 is closest in meaning to

(A) similarly

(B) in addition

(D) frequently

9. The word preoccupation in line 20 is closest in meaning to

(A) involvement

(B) separation

(D) argument

10. The word primary in line 21 is closest in meaning to

(A) discrete

(B) preliminary

(D) fundamental

PASSAGE 6

Potash (the old name for potassium carbonate) is one of the two alkalis (the other being soda, sodium carbonate) that were used from remote antiquity in the making of glass, and from the early Middle Ages in the making of soap: the former being the product of heating a mixture of alkali and sand, the latter a product of alkali and vegetable oil. Their importance in the communities of colonial North America need hardly be stressed.

Potash and soda are not interchangeable for all purposes, but for glass- or soap-making either would do. Soda was obtained largely from the ashes of certain Mediterranean sea plants, potash from those of inland vegetation. Hence potash was more familiar to the early European settlers of the North American continent.

The settlement at Jamestown in Virginia was in many ways a microcosm of the economy of colonial North America, and potash was one of its first concerns. It was required for the glassworks, the first factory in the British colonies, and was produced in sufficient quantity to permit the inclusion of potash in the first cargo shipped out of Jamestown. The second ship to arrive in the settlement from England included among its passengers experts in potash making.

The method of making potash was simple enough. Logs was piled up and burned in the open, and the ashes collected. The ashes were placed in a barrel with holes in the bottom, and water was poured over them. The solution draining from the barrel was boiled down in iron kettles. The resulting mass was further heated to fuse the mass into what was called potash.

In North America, potash making quickly became an adjunct to the clearing of land for agriculture, for it was estimated that as much as half the cost of clearing land could be recovered by the sale of potash. Some potash was exported from Maine and New Hampshire in the seventeenth century, but the market turned out to be mainly domestic, consisting mostly of shipments from the northern to the southern colonies. For despite the beginning of the trade at Jamestown and such encouragements as a series of acts to encourage the making of potash, beginning in 1707 in South Carolina, the softwoods in the South proved to be poor sources of the substance.

1. What aspect of potash does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) How it was made

(B) Its value as a product for export

(D) Its importance in colonial North America

2. All of the following statements are true of both potash and soda EXPECT:

(A) They are alkalis.

(B) They are made from sea plants.

(D) They are used in making glass.

3. They phrase the latter in line 4 refers to

(A) alkali

(B) glass

(D) soap

4. The word stressed in line 6 is closest in meaning to

(A) defined

(B) emphasized

(D) mentioned

5. The word interchangeable in line 7 is closest in meaning to

(A) convenient

(B) identifiable

(D) advantageous

6. It can be inferred from the passage that potash was more common than soda in colonial North America because

(A) the materials needed for making soda were not readily available

(B) making potash required less time than making soda

(D) the colonial glassworks found soda more difficult to use

7. According to paragraph 4, all of the following were needed for making potash EXCEPT

(A) wood

(B) fire

(D) water

8. The word adjunct in line 22 is closest in meaning to

(A) addition

(B) answer

(D) possibility

9. According to the passage , a major benefit of making potash was that

(A) it could be exported to Europe in exchange for other goods

(B) it helped finance the creation of farms

(D) stimulated the development of new ways of glassmaking

10. According to paragraph 5, the softwoods in the South posed which of the following problems for southern settles?

(A) The softwoods were not very plentiful.

(B) The softwoods could not be used to build houses.

(D) The softwoods were not very useful for making potash.

(20)

As Philadelphia grew from a small town into a city in the first half of the eighteenth century, it became an increasingly important marketing center for a vast and growing agricultural hinterland. Market days saw the crowded city even more crowded, as farmers from within a radius of 24 or more kilometers brought their sheep, cows, pigs, vegetables, cider, and other products for direct sale to the townspeople. The High Street Market was continuously enlarged throughout the period until 1736, when it reached from Front Street to Third. By 1745 New Market was opened on Second Street between Pine and Cedar. The next year the Callowhill Market began operation.

Along with market days, the institution of twice-yearly fairs persisted in Philadelphia even after similar trading days had been discontinued in other colonial cities. The fairs provided a means of bringing handmade goods from outlying places to would-be buyers in the city. Linens and stockings from Germantown, for example, were popular items.

Auctions were another popular form of occasional trade. Because of the competition, retail merchants opposed these as well as the fairs. Although governmental attempts to eradicate fairs and auctions were less than successful, the ordinary course of economic development was on the merchants' side, as increasing business specialization became the order of the day. Export merchants became differentiated from their importing counterparts, and specialty shops began to appear in addition to general stores selling a variety of goods.

One of the reasons Philadelphia's merchants generally prospered was because the surrounding area was undergoing tremendous economic and demographic growth. They did their business, after all, in the capital city of the province. Not only did they cater to the governor and his circle, but citizens from all over the colony came to the capital for legislative sessions of the assembly and council and the meetings of the courts of justice.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) Philadelphia's agriculture importance

(B) Philadelphia's development as a marketing center

(D) The administration of the city of Philadelphia

2. It can be inferred from the passage that new markets opened in Philadelphia because

(A) they provided more modem facilities than older markets

(B) the High Street Market was forced to close

(D) farmers wanted markets that were closer to the farms.

3. The word hinterland in line 3 is closest in meaning to

(A) tradition

(B) association

(D) region

4. The word it in line 6 refers to

(A) the crowded city

(D) the period

5. The word persisted in line 9 is closest in meaning to

(A) returned

(B) started

(D) continued

6. According to the passage , fairs in Philadelphia were held

(A) on the same day as market says

(B) as often as possible

(D) whenever the government allowed it

7. It can be inferred that the author mentions Linens and stockings in line 12 to show that they were items that

(A) retail merchants were not willing to sell

(B) were not available in the stores in Philadelphia

(D) could easily be transported

8. The word eradicate in line 15 is closest in meaning to

(A) eliminate

(B) exploit

(D) operate

9. What does the author mean by stating in lines 15-16 that economic development was on the merchants' side ?

(A) Merchants had a strong impact on economic expansion.

(B) Economic forces allowed merchants to prosper.

(D) Specialty shops near large markets were more likely to be economically successful.

10. The word undergoing in line 21 is closest in meaning to

(A) requesting

(B) experiencing

(D) including

PASSAGE 8

The canopy, the upper level of the trees in the rain forest, holds a plethora of climbing mammals of moderately large size, which may include monkeys, cats, civets, and porcupines. Smaller species, including such rodents as mice and small squirrels, are not as prevalent overall in high tropical canopies as they are in most habitats globally.

Small mammals, being warm blooded, suffer hardship in the exposed and turbulent environment of the uppermost trees. Because a small body has more surface area per unit of weight than a large one of similar shape, it gains or loses heat more swiftly. Thus, in the trees, where shelter from heat and cold may be scarce and conditions may fluctuate, a small mammal may have trouble maintaining its body temperature.

Small size makes it easy to scramble among twigs and branches in the canopy for insects, flowers, or fruit, but small mammals are surpassed, in the competition for food, by large ones that have their own tactics for browsing among food-rich twigs. The weight of a gibbon (a small ape) hanging below a branch arches the terminal leaves down so that fruit-bearing foliage drops toward the gibbon's face. Walking or leaping species of a similar or even larger size access the outer twigs either by snapping off and retrieving the whole branch or by clutching stiff branches with the feet or tail and plucking food with their hands.

Small climbing animals may reach twigs readily, but it is harder for them than for large climbing animals to cross the wide gaps from on tree crown to the next that typify the high canopy. A macaque or gibbon can hurl itself farther than a mouse can: it can achieve a running start, and it can more effectively use a branch as a springboard, even bouncing on a climb several times before jumping. The forward movement of a small animal is seriously reduced by the air friction against the relatively large surface area of its body. Finally, for the many small mammals that supplement their insect diet with fruits or seeds, an inability to span open gaps between tree crowns may be problematic, since trees that yield these foods can be sparse.

1. The passage answers which of the following questions?

(A) How is the rain forest different from other habitats?

(B) How does an animal's body size influence an animal's need for food?

(D) Why do large animals tend to dominate the upper canopy of the rain forest?

2. Which of the following animals is less common in the upper canopy than in other environments?

(A) Monkeys

(B) Cats

(D) Mice

3. The word they in line 4 refers to

(A) trees

(B) climbing mammals of moderately large size

(D) high tropical canopies

4. According to paragraph 2, which of the following is true about the small mammals in the rain forest?

(A) They have body shapes that are adapted to live in the canopy.

(B) They prefer the temperature and climate of the canopy to that of other environments.

(D) They use the trees of the canopy for shelter from heat and cold.

5. In discussing animal size in paragraph 3, the author indicates that

(A) small animals require proportionately more food than larger animals do

(B) a large animal's size is an advantage in obtaining food in the canopy

(D) small animals and large animals are equally adept at obtaining food in the canopy

6. The word typify in line 19 is closest in meaning to

(A) resemble

(B) protect

(D) divide

7. According to paragraph 4, what makes jumping from one tree crown to another difficult for small mammals?

(A) Air friction against the body surface

(B) The thickness of the branches

(D) The inability to use the front feet as hands

8. The word supplement in line 24 is closest in meaning to

(A) control

(B) replace

(D) add to

9. Which of the following terms is defined in the passage ?

(A) canopy (line 1)

(B) warm blooded (line 5)

(D) springboard (line 21)

PASSAGE 9

Prehistoric mammoths have been preserved in the famous tar pits of Rancho La Brea (Brea is the Spanish word for tar) in what is now the heart of Los Angeles, California. These tar pits have been known for centuries and were formerly mined for their natural asphalt, a black or brown

petroleum-like substance. Thousands of tons were extracted before 1875, when it was first noticed that the tar contained fossil remains. Major excavations were undertaken that established the significance of this remarkable site. The tar pits were found to contain the remains of scores of species of animals from the last 30,000 years of the Ice Age.

Since then, over 100 tons of fossils, 1.5 million from vertebrates, 2.5 million from invertebrates, have been recovered, often in densely concentrated and tangled masses. The creatures found range from insects and birds to giant ground sloth's, but a total of 17 proboscides (animals with a proboscis or long nose) —including mastodons and Columbian mammoths —have been recovered, most of them from Pit 9, the deepest bone-bearing deposit, which was excavated in 1914. Most of the fossils date to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago.

The asphalt at La Brea seeps to the surface, especially in the summer, and forms shallow puddles that would often have been concealed by leaves and dust. Unwary animals would become trapped on these thin sheets of liquid asphalt, which are extremely sticky in warm weather. Stuck, the unfortunate beasts would die of exhaustion and hunger or fall prey to predators that often also became stuck.

As the animals decayed, more scavengers would be attracted and caught in their turn. Carnivores greatly outnumber herbivores in the collection: for every large herbivore, there is one saber-tooth cat, a coyote, and four wolves. The fact that some bones are heavily weathered shows that some bodies remained above the surface for weeks or months. Bacteria in the asphalt would have consumed some of the tissues other than bones, and the asphalt itself would dissolve what was left, at the same time impregnating and beautifully preserving the saturated bones, rendering them dark brown and shiny.

1. What aspect of the La Brea tar pits does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The amount of asphalt that was mined there

(B) The chemical and biological interactions between asphalt and animals

(D) Scientific methods of determining the age of tar pits

2. In using the phrase the heart of Los Angeles in line 2, the author is talking about the city's

(A) beautiful design

(B) central area

(D) supplies of natural asphalt

3. The word noticed in line 5 closest in meaning to

(A) predicted

(B) announced

(D) observed

4. The word tangled in line 10 is closest in meaning to

(A) buried beneath

(B) twisted together

(D) easily dated

5. The word them in line 13 refers to

(A) insects

(B) birds

(D) proboscideans

6. How many proboscideans have been found at the La Brea tar pits?

(A) 9

(B) 17

(D) 2.5 million

7. The word concealed in line 17 is closest in meaning to

(A) highlighted

(B) covered

(D) contaminated

8. Why does the author mention animals such as coyotes and wolves in paragraph 4?

(A) To give examples of animals that are classified as carnivores

(B) To specify the animals found least commonly at La Brea

(D) To define the term scavengers

PASSAGE 10

One area of paleoanthropological study involves the eating and dietary habits of hominids, erect bipedal primates — including early humans. It is clear that at some stage of history, humans began to carry their food to central places, called home bases, where it was shared and consumed with the young and other adults. The use of home bases is a fundamental component of human social behavior; the common meal served at a common hearth is a powerful symbol, a mark of social unity. Home base behavior does not occur among nonhuman primates and is rare among mammals. It is unclear when humans began to use home bases, what kind of communications and social relations were involved, and what the ecological and food-choice contexts of the shift were. Work on early tools, surveys of paleoanthropological sites, development and testing of broad ecological theories, and advances in comparative primatology are contributing to knowledge about this central chapter in human prehistory.

One innovative approach to these issues involves studying damage and wear on stone tools. Researchers make tools that replicate excavated specimens as closely as possible and then try to use them as the originals might have been used, in woodcutting, hunting, or cultivation. Depending on how the tool is used, characteristic chippage patterns and microscopically distinguishable polishes develop near the edges. The first application of this method of analysis

to stone tools that are 1.5 million to 2 million years old indicates that, from the start, an important function of early stone tools was to extract highly nutritious food — meat and marrow —from large animal carcasses. Fossil bones with cut marks caused by stone tools have been discovered lying in the same 2-million-year-old layers that yielded the oldest such tools and the oldest hominid specimens (including humans) with larger than ape-sized brains. This discovery increases scientists' certainty about when human ancestors began to eat more meat than present-day nonhuman primates. But several questions remain unanswered: how frequently meat eating occurred; what the social implications of meat eating were; and whether the increased use of meat coincides with the beginnings of the use of home bases.

1. The passage mainly discusses which of the following aspects of hominid behavior?

(A) Changes in eating and dietary practices

(B) The creation of stone hunting tools

(D) Methods of extracting nutritious food from carcasses

2. According to the passage , bringing a meal to a location to be shared by many individuals is

(A) an activity typical of nonhuman primates

(B) a common practice among animals that eat meat

(D) a behavior that encourages better dietary habits

3. The word consumed in line 4 is closest in meaning to

(A) prepared

(B) stored

(D) eaten

4. According to paragraph 2, researchers make copies of old stone tools in order to

(A) protect the old tools from being worn out

(B) display examples of the old tools in museums

(D) learn how to improve the design of modern tools

5. In paragraph 2, the author mentions all of the following as examples of ways in which early stone tools were used EXCEPT to

(A) build home bases

(B) obtain food

(D) shape wood

6. The word innovative in line 13 is closest in meaning to

(A) good

(B) new

(D) costly

7. The word them in line 15 refers to

(A) issues

(B) researchers

(D) specimens

8. The author mentions characteristic chippage patterns in line 16 as an example of

(A) decorations cut into wooden objects

(B) differences among tools made of various substances

(D) indications of wear on stone tools

9. The word extract in line 19 is closest in meaning to

(A) identify

(B) remove

(D) compare

10. The word whether in line 26 is closest in meaning to

(A) if

(B) how

(D) when

PASSAGE 11

Plants are subject to attack and infection by a remarkable variety of symbiotic species and have evolved a diverse array of mechanisms designed to frustrate the potential colonists. These can be divided into preformed or passive defense mechanisms and inducible or active systems. Passive plant defense comprises physical and chemical barriers that prevent entry of pathogens, such as bacteria, or render tissues unpalatable or toxic to the invader. The external surfaces of plants, in addition to being covered by an epidermis and a waxy cuticle, often carry spiky hairs known as trichomes, which either prevent feeding by insects or may even puncture and kill insect larvae. Other trichomes are sticky and glandular and effectively trap and immobilize insects.

If the physical barriers of the plant are breached, then preformed chemicals may inhibit or kill the intruder, and plant tissues contain a diverse array of toxic or potentially toxic substances, such as resins, tannins, glycosides, and alkaloids, many of which are highly effective deterrents to insects that feed on plants. The success of the Colorado beetle in infesting potatoes, for example, seems to be correlated with its high tolerance to alkaloids that normally repel potential pests. Other possible chemical defenses, while not directly toxic to the parasite, may inhibit some essential step in the establishment of a parasitic relationship. For example, glycoproteins in plant

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