400-080-6358 www.zhan.com TOEFL阅读讲义

1. 句子简化题

The Great Red Spot

One distinctive feature of the planet Jupiter is the Great Red Spot, a massive oval of swirling reddish-brown clouds. Were Earth to be juxtaposed with the Great Red Spot, our planet would be dwarfed in comparison, with a diameter less than half that of the Great Red Spot. The Spot’s clouds, most likely tinted red as a result of the phosphorus that they contain, circulate in a counterclockwise direction. The outer winds require six Earth days to complete the circumference of the Great Red Spot, a length of time indicative of vastness of the Great Red Spot.

1. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A. The density of the Great Red spot is much higher than that the Earth.

B. If the diameter of the Great Red Spot were doubled, it would equal that of the Earth.

C. By placing the Earth next to the Great Red Spot, one could see the Earth has a much smaller diameter.

D. Because the Earth is close to the Great Red Spot, Earth is influenced by its huge size. 答案：C

2.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A. The Earth’s outer winds move a distance equal to the circumference of the Great Red Spot. B. The outer winds of the Great Red Spot move more quickly than do those on Earth. C. The Winds moving across the Great Red Spot finally change direction every six Earth days. D. The fact that the winds take so long to move around the Great Red Spot proves how big it is.

400-080-6358 www.zhan.com 答案：D

Passage One (Question 1-2)

Camouflage

Camouflage is one of the most effective ways for animals to avoid attack in the treeless Arctic. However, the summer and winter landscapes there are so diverse that a single protective coloring scheme would, of course, prove ineffective in one season or the other. Thus, many of the inhabitants of the Arctic tundra change their camouflage twice a year. The arctic fox is a clear-cut example of this phenomenon; it sports a brownish-gray coat in the summer which then turns white as cold weather sets in, and the process reverses itself in the springtime. Its brownish-gray coat blends in with the barren tundra landscape in the months without snow, and the white coat naturally blends in with the landscape of the frozen wintertime tundra.

1. Which of the sentences below expresses the essential information in the first highlighted sentence in the passage?

Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A. Opposite conditions in summer and in winter necessitate different protective coloration for

Arctic animals.

B. The coloration of the summer and winter landscapes in the Arctic fails to protect the Arctic

tundra.

C. In a single season, protective coloring scheme are ineffective in the treeless Arctic. D. For many animals, a single protective coloring scheme effectively protects them during

summer and winter months. 答案：A

2. Which of the sentences below expresses the essential information in the second highlighted sentence in the passage?

Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A. The arctic fox is unusual in that he color of its coat changes for no reason.

B. The arctic fox lives in an environment that is brownish gray in the summer and white in the

winter.

400-080-6358 www.zhan.com C. It is a phenomenon that the coat of the arctic fox turns white I the springtime and gray in

the fall.

D. The arctic fox demonstrates that protective coloration can change during different seasons. 答案：D

Passage Two (Question 3-6)

Post-it Notes

Post-it Notes were invented in the 1970s at the 3M company in Minnesota quite by accident, Researchers at 3M were working on developing different types of adhesives, and one particularly weak adhesive, a compound of acrylate copolymer microspheres, was developed. Employees at 3M were asked if they could think of a use for a weak adhesive which, provided it did not get dirty, could be reused. One suggestion was that it could be applied to a piece of paper to use as a bookmark that would stay in place in a book. Another use was found when the product was attached to a report that was to be sent to a colleague with a request for comments on the report; the colleague made his comments on the paper attached to the report and returned the report. The idea for Post-it Notes was born.

It was decided within the company that there would be a test launch of product in 1977 in four American cities. Sales of this innovative product in test cities were less than stellar, most likely because the product, while innovative, was also quite unfamiliar. A final attempt was then made in the city of Boise to introduce the product. In that attempt, 3M salesmen gave demonstrations of the product in offices throughout Boise and gave away free samples of the produce. When the salesmen returned a week later to the office workers, having noted how useful the simple little product could be, were interested in purchasing it. Over time, 3M came to understand the huge potential of this new product, and over the next few decades more than 400 varieties of Post-it products - in different colors, shapes, and sizes – have been developed.

3. Which of the sentences below expresses the essential information in the first highlighted sentence in the passage 1?

Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A. Of the many adhesives that were being developed at 3M, one was not a particularly strong

adhesive.

400-080-6358 www.zhan.com B. Researchers at 3M spent many years trying to develop a really weak adhesive.

C. Numerous weak adhesives resulted from a program to develop the strongest adhesive of all. D. Researchers were assigned to develop different types of uses for acrylate copolymer

microspheres. 答案：A

4. Which of the sentences below expresses the essential information in the second highlighted sentence in the passage 1?

Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A. The 3M company suggested applying for a patent on the product in a report prepared by a

colleague.

B. One unexpectedly-discovered use for the adhesive was in sending and receiving notes

attached to documents.

C. A note was attached to a report asking for suggestion for uses of one of 3M’s products. D. A colleague who developed the new product kept notes with suggestions by other workers. 答案：B

5. Which of the sentences below expresses the essential information in the first highlighted sentence in the passage 2?

Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A. The 3M company was unfamiliar with the process of using test cities to introduce innovative

products.

B. Sales of the product soared even though the product was quite unfamiliar to most customers. C. The new product did not sell well because potential customers did not understand it.

D. After selling the product for a while, the company understood that the product was not

innovative enough. 答案：C

6. Which of the sentences below expresses the essential information in the second highlighted sentence in the passage 2?

Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A. The company immediately understood the potential of the product and began to develop it

400-080-6358 www.zhan.com further.

B. The company worked overtime to develop its new product, initially creating numerous

varieties to make it successful.

C. The company initially introduced 400 varieties of the product and then watched for decades as

sales improved.

D. It took some time for the company to understand how important its new product was and how

many variation were possible. 答案：D

2. 排除列举题

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 Line modifying the face of the Earth.

(5) 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 recepatcle: an ocean. (10) 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 through the cycle is not random but is a measure of the relative size of the various reservoirs. If we define residence time as the (15) average time for a water molecule to pass throught 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