老托福精选95-05阅读理解原文、真题及答案
own.
But the Great Basin has not always been so arid. Many of its dry, closed depressions were once filled with water. Owens Valley, Panamint Valley, and Death Valley were once a string of interconnected lakes. The two largest of the ancient lakes of the Great Basin were Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. The Great Salt Lake is all that remains of the latter, and Pyramid Lake is one of the last briny remnants of the former. There seem to have been several periods within the last tens of thousands of years when water accumulated in these basins. The rise and fall of the lakes were undoubtedly linked to the advances and retreats of the great ice sheets that covered much of the northern part of the North American continent during those times. Climatic changes during the Ice ages sometimes brought cooler, wetter weather to midlatitude deserts worldwide, including those of the Great Basin. The broken valleys of the Great Basin provided ready receptacles for this moisture.
41.What is the geographical relationship between the Basin and Range Province and the Great Basin? (A) The Great Basin is west of the Basin and Range Province. (B) The Great Basin is larger than the Basin and Range Province.
(C) The Great Basin is in the northern part of the Basin and Range Province. (D) The Great Basin is mountainous; the Basin and Range Province is flat desert. 42.According to the passage, what does the great Basin lack? (A) Snow (B) Dry air
(C) Winds from the west (D) Access to the ocean
43.The word \ (A) most frequent (B) occasional (C) gentle
(D) most dangerous
44.It can be inferred that the climate in the Great Basin is dry because (A) the weather patterns are so turbulent (B) the altitude prevents precipitation
(C) the winds are not strong enough to carry moisture (D) precipitation falls in the nearby mountains 45.The word \ (A) Pacific Ocean (B) air (C) west
(D) the Great Basin
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老托福精选95-05阅读理解原文、真题及答案
46.Why does the author mention cottonwoods and willows in line 8-9? (A) To demonstrate that certain trees require a lot of water
(B) To give examples of trees that are able to survive in a difficult environment (C) To show the beauty of the landscape of the Great Basin
(D) To assert that there are more living organisms in the Great Basin than there used to be
47.Why does the author mention Owens Valley, Panamint Valley, and Death Valley in the second paragraph? (A) To explain their geographical formation
(B) To give examples of depressions that once contained water
(C) To compare the characteristics of the valleys with the characteristics of the lakes (D) To explain what the Great Basin is like today 48.The words \ (A) Lake Bonneville (B) Lake Lahontan (C) The Great Salt Lake (D) Pyramid Lake
49. The word \ (A) dried (B) flooded (C) collected (D) evaporated
50. According to the passage, the Ice Ages often brought about (A) desert formation (B) warmer climates (C) broken valleys (D) wetter weather
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老托福精选95-05阅读理解原文、真题及答案
1996.01
Questions 1-9
In science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that are related. A theory often involves an imaginary model that helps scientists picture the way an observed event could be produced. A good example of this is found in the kinetic molecular theory, in which gases are pictured as being made up of many small particles that are in constant motion.
A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observations, helps to predict events that have not as yet been observed. After a theory has been publicized, scientists design experiments to test the theory. If observations confirm the scientists' predictions, the theory is supported. If observations do not confirm the predictions, the scientists must search further. There may be a fault in the experiment, or the theory may have to be revised or rejected.
Science involves imagination and creative thinking as well as collecting information and performing experiments facts by themselves are not science. As the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said: \built with facts just as a house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts cannot be called science any more than a pile of bricks can be called a house.\
Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists have learned about a particular problem. After known facts have been gathered, the scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requires considerable imagination. Possible solutions to the problem are formulated. These possible solutions are called hypotheses.
In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown. It extends the scientist's thinking beyond the known facts. The scientist plans experiments, performs calculations, and makes observations to test hypotheses. For without hypotheses, further investigation lacks purpose and direction. When hypotheses are confirmed, they are incorporated into theories.
1. The word \ (A) connected (B) described (C) completed (D) identified
2. The word \ (A) a good example (B) an imaginary model (C) the kinetic molecular theory (D) an observed event
3. According to the second paragraph, a useful theory is one that helps scientists to (A) find errors in past experiments
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老托福精选95-05阅读理解原文、真题及答案
(B) make predictions (C) observe events (D) publicize new findings
4. The word \ (A) finished (B) adjusted (C) investigated (D) upheld
5. Bricks are mentioned in lines 11-13 to indicate how (A) mathematicians approach science
(B) building a house is like performing experiments (C) science is more than a collection of facts
(D) scientific experiments have led to improved technology
6. In the fourth paragraph, the author implies that imagination is most important to scientists when they (A) evaluate previous work on a problem (B) formulate possible solutions to a problem (C) gather known facts (D) close an investigation
7. In line 18, the author refers to a hypothesis as \ (A) are sometimes ill-conceived (B) can lead to dangerous results (C) go beyond available facts (D) require effort to formulate
8. In the last paragraph, what does the author imply is a major function of hypotheses? (A) Sifting through known facts
(B) Communicating a scientist's thoughts to others (C) Providing direction for scientific research (D) Linking together different theories
9. Which of the following statements is supported by the passage? (A) Theories are simply imaginary models of past events.
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老托福精选95-05阅读理解原文、真题及答案
(B) It is better to revise a hypothesis than to reject it. (C) A scientist's most difficult task is testing hypotheses. (D) A good scientist needs to be creative Questions 10-20
By the mid-nineteenth century, the term \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 rubs 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. 10. What does the passage mainly discuss? (A) The influence of ice on the diet (B) The development of refrigeration (C) he transportation of goods to market (D) Sources of ice in the nineteenth century
11. According to the passage, when did the word \(A) In 1803
(B) Sometime before 1850 (C) During the Civil War
(D) Near the end of the nineteenth century
12. The phrase \
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