Tài liệu The complete guide to the toefl IBT reading part 8 pdf

Trang 1

Passage 1

A bird’s territory may be small or large Some males claim only their nest and

the area right around it, while others, such as hawks, claim immense territories

which include their hunting areas Gulls, penguins, and other waterfowls nest in huge colonies, but even in the biggest colonies, each male and his mate have tiny territories of their own immediately around their nest Males defend their territories chiefly against other males of the same species In some cases, a warning call or a threatening pose may be the only defense that is needed, but in other cases, intruders may refuse to leave peacefully

and a battle for the territory takes place

1 Which of the following sentences best expresses the essential information in the sentence in bold?

©) The intruder generally frightens the defender with warning calls and threatening poses

Passage 2

Psychologist Abraham Maslowe believed that, even though each person is a unique individual, all humans have certain common needs Maslowe identified these needs and put them in order from the most basic to the highest-level need This hierarchy of needs has become the basis for many theories of motivation The five classes of motivation are as follows:

1 Physiological needs (food, water, air, etc.)

2 Safety needs (protection from threats)

3 Love and social needs (feelings of belonging and affection)

4 Self-esteem needs (feelings of self-worth, achievement, and recognition from others)

5 Self-actualization needs (fulfillment of one’s ambitions)

Trang 2

concerned about the availability of food It is also possible, of course, that people are concerned with several of these classes of motivation simultaneously, as would be the case if, on the same day, a person installed a fire safety alarm (satisfying a need for protection) and joined a folk-dancing club (satisfying a need for belonging)

Glossary

hierarchy: a group of things, people, or concepts that is arranged according to their rank or importance 2 Which of the following sentences best restates the information in the sentence in bold? © People may satisfy more than one of Maslowe’s categories of needs at the same time

The first Dutch outpost in New Netherlands was established at Fort Orange (now Albany) in 1624 It became a depot of the fur trade But the most important settlement was built at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan, which commanded the great harbor at the mouth of the Hudson and East Rivers Peter Minuit, the first governor general of New Netherlands, “purchased” the island from the Canarsie Indians However, the Canarsie might be described as tourists from Brooklyn, and Minuit had to make a later payment to the group that actually resided there In 1626, engineers from the

Netherlands arrived in Manhattan to begin constructing Fort Amsterdam Within its rectangular walls, permanent houses were built, replacing the thatched dwellings of the original Manhattanites The fort became the nucleus of the town of New Amsterdam Soon Manhattan had its first skyline: the solid outline of the fort, the flagstaff flying the Dutch flag, the silhouette of a giant windmill, and the masts of trading ships

Glossary

Manhattan: one of the five boroughs (sections) of New York City, Manhattan is today the commercial heart of the city

Brooklyn: another borough of New York City, located across the East River

from Manhattan

Trang 3

3 Which of the following sentences best expresses the information in the sentence in bold?

Later, the governor-general had to pay the real residents of Manhattan because the Canarsie had just been visiting

Even in its earliest days, Manhattan benefited greatly from tourism The Canarsie had to give the payment that they received for the island of Manhattan to another group because the Canarsie lived in a nearby area, not in Manhattan itself 00 0O Passage 4

Until the late 1700’s, metal could not be turned on a lathe to make it uniformly

smooth and round because a machinist could not guide the cutting tool evenly by hand against the turning piece This problem was solved by the toolmaker

David Wilkinson of Pawtucket, Rhode Island In 1798 he invented a machine

tool in which the cutter was clamped onto a moveable slide that could be advanced precisely, by hand crank, parallel to the work The slide rest lathe, as it came to be called, allowed the machinist to turn large pieces of metal very quickly and precisely It permitted the manufacture of machine parts that are so uniform that they can be used interchangeably Many people regard the slide rest lathe as one of the most important developments in the production of machine tools Woodworking, metalworking, toolmaking, and manufacturing were all revolutionized Without this tool, mass production would not have been possible As it turns out, the great British toolmaker Henry Maudsley had developed what was basically the same mechanism several years

Trang 4

earlier, but this was unknown to Wilkinson and seems to be a case of “great minds thinking in the same channels,” and so should not detract from his accomplishment in any way

Glossary

lathe: a tool in which a piece of metal or wood is spun on a horizontal surface while a blade of some kind cuts or shapes it

machine tool: a tool used to make other tools

4 Which of the following sentences is closest in meaning to the sentence in bold in the passage above?

There has never been an adult scientist who has been half as curious as almost any child under the age of six Adults sometimes mistake this superb curiosity about the world as a lack of ability to concentrate because a child’s curiosity may leap from topic to topic quickly and unpredictably The truth is that children begin to learn at birth, and by the time they begin formal schooling at the age of six, they have already absorbed a fantastic

amount of information, perhaps more, fact for fact, than they will

learn for the rest of their lives Adults can multiply by many times the amount of knowledge children absorb if they learn to appreciate this curiosity while simultaneously encouraging children to learn

5 Which of the following sentences best expresses the information in the

sentence in bold in the passage?

Before the age of five or six, children probably learn more than they do for the rest of their lives

Trang 5

Passage 6

Among mammals, rodents show the greatest variety of nest-building patterns Beaver dams contain a single-chambered lodge that provides a home for a pair

of beavers and their last two litters Wood rats, also known as pack rats or

trade rats, build nests of twigs and leaves in wooded areas, while in the desert, they build houses of pebbles and cacti Laboratory rats and house mice use cloth, paper, or similar material to build bowl-shaped nests Prairie dogs build virtual underground towns consisting of interconnected bur- rows Each burrow contains a multi-chambered living area One chamber is built high above the bottom of the burrow This serves as an underground “lifeboat” that traps air for the prairie dogs in case the burrow is flooded

6 Which of the following sentences best explains what the author means in the

sentence in bold in the passage above?

©) Wood rats are given their name because they are found only in wooded areas © Wood rats, pack rats, and trade rats all use different materials to build their nests, ©) The houses built by wood rats in forests are larger than those they build in the desert © Wood rats use different materials for nest building depending on what is available Passage 7

A sense of humor has long been considered an important character trait People regularly rank humor as one of the most important traits that they look for when choosing a friend, a roommate, an employee, or a potential spouse Public speakers are told to begin their speeches with a joke, and sales personnel are told that they will have more success if they can get their clients laughing before they begin their sales pitch There is medical research to indicate that laughter can reduce stress and even extend life Clearly, humor is important, but few people spend much time thinking about the topic of humor There are, however, a couple of important facts that everyone should know about humor

One is that humor is learned, not inherited Infants have no sense of humor, but

quickly learn what is funny from their parents and later from friends and from

books, television, magazines, and movies It is, therefore, possible to sharpen

your sense of humor, no matter what your age Another important fact to remember is that humor is highly subjective What is funny changes from era to era, from country to country, and from group to group A joke book from the nineteenth century may contain a few funny jokes, but it also contains jokes that leave us scratching our heads and wondering “Why was that funny?” Similarly, if

Trang 6

you go to a comedy act when you visit another country, you probably won't laugh as hard or as often as the other people in the audience, even if you understand the language perfectly This may be in part because you don't understand the cultural references—a joke about a politician that you have never heard of will probably not be very funny—but it is also because there are some basic differences in what people in various countries think is humorous Studies have also shown that men and women find different things funny, and so do people of different age groups All of this indicates that you have to pay attention to your audience when you employ

humor What you find hilarious, someone else may find baffling or even offensive Zs) eel = Z -) 7 Which of the following best expresses the information in the sentence in bold in the passage?

© Acomedian’s joke about a politician that you are unfamiliar with is not funny because this kind of joke depends on an unknown cultural reference © People often do not laugh at jokes told by a comedian from another coun-

try partly because they do not know the cultural references and partly because they don’t understand the language very well

Passage &

Alice Walker has written books of poetry and short stories, a biography, and several novels She is probably best known for her novel The Color Purple, published in 1982 The book vividly narrates the richness and complexity of black people living in rural Georgia during the 1920's and 1930’s Although the novel was attacked by certain critics when it was first published, it was highly praised by others and won both the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction It became a best-seller and was made into a successful film by director Steven Spielberg The novel gets much of its special flavor from its use of the vocabulary, rhythms, and grammar of Black English, as well as from its epistolary style This style of writing was a narrative structure commonly used by eighteenth-century novelists, such as Jane Austen and Jean-Jacques Rousseau Unlike most epistolary novels, which have the effect of distancing the reader from the events described by the letter writer, The Color Purple uses the letter form to bring the reader into absolute intimacy with the uneducated

but wonderfully observant Celie, the main character of the novel

Glossary

epistolary style: a way of telling a story by means of letters written by one

of the characters in the story

Trang 7

8 Which of the following sentences best restates the information in the sentence in bold in the passage?

© Rather than making events in the novel seem more distant, the letter style in The Color Purple brings the reader close to the primary character Celie © The epistolary style generally makes readers feel more distant from the

action of the novel, as can be seen in the novel The Color Purple

© If Celie, the main character in The Color Purple, had been more educated, then the events that take place in this book would seem more intimate © Unlike books that are written in the epistolary style, The Color Purple

brings the reader very close to its main character, Celie, because the author of this book is so wonderfully observant D Passage 9

1 The system of law in the state of Louisiana is different from that in all the other forty-nine states If you have ever seen the movie or the play A Streetcar Named

esire, you heard the character Stanley Kowalski (played by Marlon Brando in the movie) tell his wife Stella, “We got here in Louisiana what's known as the Napoleonic Code.” Stanley was right The system of law in Louisiana is based on the system first formulated by the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon was not only a brilliant general, he was also a capable administrator He understood that a uniform system of law had to be in place He therefore took existing law, which was based on ancient Roman law and the thousands of laws passed by the Revolutionary government of France, and codified it That is, he put all the law into writing so that it could be understood by everyone When it was adopted in France in 1804, it was considered a very progressive system of law Colonial Louisiana was never governed under the Napoleonic Code (Louisiana was bought by the United States in 1803) but because of its French traditions, Louisiana adopted the Napoleonic code as its legal system

Louisiana’s? They all have laws based on English common law English common law is a system of law that is based on court precedent Laws and statutes are interpreted, and the ruling of one judge influences or even controls the ruling of another judge The Napoleonic Code, on the other hand, takes the civilian law approach Civilian law is based on scholarly research and the drafting of legal code which is passed into law by the legislative branch It is then the judge's job to interpret the intent of the legislature rather than follow judicial precedent much practical difference between Louisiana law and the law of the other states, and even those differences are eroding every day, espe-

cially in the area of commercial law However, in some areas, such as the

laws that govern inheritance, the differences are quite striking

Glossary

A Streetcar Named Desire: a 1947 play by Tennessee Williams set in the How do the legal systems of the other forty-nine states differ from that of

Except for differences in terminology, there is not, in fact, that

city of New Orleans, Louisiana; it was made into a movie in 1951

Trang 8

9 Which of the following sentences best restates the information in the bold sentence in the passage?

© There are many important differences between Louisiana law and law in the other forty-nine U.S states, including differences in legal terminology © Although the two systems use different terminology, Louisiana's legal

system and that of the other states are alike and are becoming more so © The terminology of Louisiana's legal system and that of the other states

is becoming more and more similar, especially the terminology of commercial law Passage 10 Food Nest 4 : š fe HE oe i J3111718 Mại Jƒ3§0888f 8 § § 8 Obstacle

Ants can find the shortest route from a food source to a nest without using the sense of sight They are also capable of finding a new shortest route when the old path has been blocked by an obstacle such as a pebble or a twig The primary means that ants use to find and follow the shortest path is a pheromone trail Ants deposit a certain amount of pheromone while they walk, and other ants can detect this pheromone with their antennae Ants always follow a direc- tion that is rich in pheromones rather than one that has a lower concentration of pheromones This is why ants move in a line When an unexpected obstacle appears and blocks the path of ants on their way to a food source, the ants can no longer follow the accustomed path The same is true of the ants on the other side of the obstacle that are taking food back to the nest The ants on both sides have to choose between turning left or right On average, half the ants go one way, half the other Those ants that choose, by chance, the shorter path around the obstacle will get back to the original path on the other side of the obstacle sooner than those that take the longer path All ants move at the same speed, but it takes more time to go around the longer side of the

Trang 9

therefore, in the same period of time, the shorter path receives more ant traffic and a higher buildup of pheromones This concentration of pheromones on the shorter path in turn causes more and more ants to choose that path Eventually all the ants will choose the shorter route

Glossary

pheromone: a chemical that is produced by an animal and serves as a stimulus for other animals of the same species

10 Which of the following sentences best expresses the information in the sentence in bold in the passage?

© Fast ants will travel the long route while slow ants will travel the shorter route, and because there are more slow ants than fast ones, there is a greater amount of pheromones deposited on the shorter route

©) More ants use the shorter route, not because some ants travel faster but because it takes less time, and this results in more pheromones on the shorter path

© Itis the job of certain ants to mark the shorter path around a twig or a pebble with pheromones so that all ants that follow know which path is fastest © Ants that travel a longer distance will naturally deposit more pheromones

Trang 10

REFERENCE QUESTIONS

Reference questions ask you to look at a’ i pronoun or other reference

word in the passage You are then given four nouns or noun phrases, usually taken from the paragraph in the passage where the highlighted word is found You must choose which of these words or phrases (called the referent) the highlighted word refers to

Two things to remember:

= ~The referent almost always comes before the reference word in the passage m The referent is not always the noun that is closest to the reference word

Here are some of the reference words you might be asked about:

Personal pronouns/adjectives he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs Reflexive pronouns himself, herself, itself, themselves Relative pronouns/adverbs who, whose, whom, which, that, where, when

Demonstrative pronouns/adjectives | this, that, these, those (may also be

used before nouns or noun phrases:

this one, that time, these new ideas, those problems) Other reference words some, few, any, none, several, both here, there most, many one, ones

another, other, others the former, the latter

(some of these words may also be

used in phrases: some of these, several examples, both places, most of

which, one theory, another process)

To answer reference questions, first look at the passage and read the sentence in which the highlighted word appears and a few of the sentences that come before this sentence If you can’t decide immediately which of the four answers is correct, substitute each of the four choices for the highlighted reference word in the passage Which one of the four is the most logical substitute?

Trang 11

Sample

4 For animals, some barriers are behavioral The blue spotted salamander lives only on mountain slopes in the southern Appalachian Highlands Although these creatures could survive in the river valleys, they never venture there Birds that fly long distances often remain in very limited areas Kirkland’s warblers are found only in a few places in Michigan in the summer and fly to the Bahamas in winter No physical barriers restrict the warblers to yet they never spread beyond these boundaries Brazil’s Amazon River serves as a north- ern or southern boundary for many species of birds They could freely fly over the river, but they seldom do

C Brazil and the Bahamas

By reading the sentence, we see that the phrase

the two places where the Kirkland warbler is restricted, which are “a few places in Michigan in the summer” and “the Bahamas in winter.” The first choice gives Michigan as one of the places, but the Appalachian Highlands is mentioned in the passage as the habitat of a type of salamander, not of the Kirkland warbler The sec- ond choice correctly mentions the Bahamas but also gives Brazil Brazil is given as the location of the Amazon River, which is mentioned as a behavioral boundary for many types of birds, but not for the Kirkland warbler The third choice incorrectly gives both the Appalachian Highlands and Brazil Only the fourth choice gives both of the locations that the phrase t : refers to

You will probably see two or three referees questions in the Reading Section You may find that this is the easiest type of Reading question, but be careful not to answer these questions so quickly that you make mistakes

EXERCISE 6.1

Focus: Finding the referents for pronouns and other expressions in sentences and short passages

DirEcTIONS: Each of the sentences or short passages has one or more pronoun(s) or other reference words Read each one, then write the referent or referents (which may be words or p rases) on the line(s) provided

1 X rays allow rt historians to examine paintings internally without

damaging 1

Trang 12

10

11

Florists often refrigerate cut flowers to protect Ÿ

The principles used in air conditioning are basically the same as

Leaves are found on all deciduous trees, but 4 resh appearance unusual Water is an exception to many of nature’s rules because of its properties used by the human body to cool itself Ropes are cords at least 15 inches (3.8 millimeters) in diameter made of three or more strands that are ff s formed of twisted yarn Grocers slice sides, quarters, and what are called primal cuts of beef into are then packaged and sold shape Harriet Boyd Hawes greatly expanded the world’s knowledge of the ancient

Minoans by discovering a number of their archaeological sites on Crete, by supervising their excavation, and by then publishing her findings

In the past, biologists considered mushrooms and other fungi a type of non-

green plants Today, however are commonly regarded as a separate kingdom of living things

Using the clock as a model, eighteenth- century inventors developed many

other machines based on wheels and gears, som h were of incredible

complexity

Trang 13

12 13 14 15, 16 17

The detailed information in maps is now produced almost entirely from satellite hotogra hy rather than by ground surveying or aerial photography because i is faster, cheaper, and often more accurate

Even after the Revolutionary War, American importers continued to obtain merchandise from Britain because British merchants understood American tastes, offered attractive prices, and provided: ith easy credit

Yasuo Kuniyashi was born in Japan in 1883 and studied at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design He also studied and painted in New York City for several years That he gave his first one-person show In the 1920! S, like many artists of} , Kuniyashi went to Paris While living

influenced by the works of Chagall and other French artists The poisonous, plantlike anemone lives in a coral reef When a small fish ven- tures near this: it is stung and eaten For some reason, the anemone makes an exception of the clown fish When the clown fish is in danger from a predator, it dashes among the anemone’s tentacles The clown fish even builds its nest among the anemone'’s tentacles, where it cannot be raided by other fish

William Dean Howells, a contemporary of Mark Twain, wrote a number of books that realistically portrayed life on farms in the midwestern United States One of his followers, Hamlin Garland, was even more bitter in is criticism of

rural life than h While fats h ve ve lately acquired a bad i image, one should not forget how

proteins—provide energy for the body in the form of calories, O

Trang 14

KS

essential to human health Moreover, same contain fatty acids that provide necessary growth factors, strengthen the immune system, and aid in the digestion of other foods

18 The Wisconsin Dells is a region along the Wisconsin River where swift-running water from melting glaciers cut though soft sandstone The Winnebago Indians had a name for it—Nee-ah-ke-coonah-er-ah—meaning “the place where dark rushing waters meet,” and early French settlers called it “les dalles,” meaning “the flat rocks.” The strange formations that have been carved out of the rocks

there have been delighting tourists since the 1800’s Some are named for

objects that they resemble, such as Grand Piano and Chimney Rock, while

@thers have been given colorful names, such as Devil’s Elbow, Witches’ Gulch,

Fat Man’s Misery, and Cow in a Milk Bottle EXERCISE 6.2

Focus: Answering multiple-choice reference questions about longer passages Directions: Read the following passages and the reference questions about them Decide which one of the four choices best answers the question and mark that answer

Passage 1

In addition to the various types of deep mining, several types of surface mining may be used when minerals lie relatively close to the surface of the earth One type is open-pit mining The first step is to remove the overburden, the layers of rock and dirt lying above the ore, with giant scrapers The ore is broken up in a series of blasting operations Power shovels pick up the pieces and load them into trucks or, in some cases, ore trains é carry it up ramps to ground level Soft ¢ ores are removed by drilling screws, called augers

Trang 15

3

Định dạng
Số trang	15
Dung lượng	4,86 MB