综合点评

本场考试继续延续一场多题的情况，共有ABCD四套题目。其中文章的题材涉及生物，天文，社科，历史，地质类等，涵盖的范围较广。本场考试阅读加试比较普遍，涉及的词汇题题目个数较多，同时有重复前些年文章的情况。

Passage one

学科分类

题目

生命科学类

寒武纪生命大爆发

参考阅读

参考文章05-03: The Cambrian Explosion

The geologic timescale is marked by significant geologic and biological events, including the origin of Earth about 4.6 billion years ago, the origin of life about 3.5 billion years ago, the origin of eukaryotic life-forms (living things that have cells with true nuclei) about 1.5 billion years ago, and the origin of animals about 0.6 billion years ago. The last event marks the beginning of the Cambrian period. Animals originated relatively late in the history of Earth—in only the last 10 percent of Earth’s history. During a geologically brief 100-million-year period, all modern animal groups (along with other animals that are now extinct) evolved. This rapid origin and diversification of animals is often referred to as “the Cambrian explosion.”

Scientists have asked important questions about this explosion for more than a century. Why did it occur so late in the history of Earth? The origin of multicellular forms of life seems a relatively simple step compared to the origin of life itself. Why does the fossil record not document the series of evolutionary changes during the evolution of animals? Why did animal life evolve so quickly? Paleontologists continue to search the fossil record for answers to these questions.

One interpretation regarding the absence of fossils during this important 100-million-year period is that early animals were soft bodied and simply did not fossilize. Fossilization of soft-bodied animals is less likely than fossilization of hard-bodied animals, but it does occur. Conditions that promote fossilization of soft-bodied animals include very rapid covering by sediments that create an environment that discourages decomposition. In fact, fossil beds containing soft-bodied animals have been known for many years.

The Ediacara fossil formation, which contains the oldest known animal fossils, consists exclusively of soft-bodied forms. Although named after a site in Australia, the Ediacara formation is worldwide in distribution and dates to Precambrian times. This 700-million-year-old formation gives few clues to the origins of modern animals, however, because paleontologists believe it represents an evolutionary experiment that failed. It contains no ancestors of modern animal groups.

A slightly younger fossil formation containing animal remains is the Tommotian formation, named after a locale in Russia. It dates to the very early Cambrian period, and it also contains only soft-bodied forms. At one time, the animals present in these fossil beds were assigned to various modern animal groups, but most paleontologists now agree that all Tommotian fossils represent unique body forms that arose in the early Cambrian period and disappeared before the end of the period, leaving no descendants in modern animal groups.

A third fossil formation containing both soft-bodied and hard-bodied animals provides evidence of the result of the Cambrian explosion. This fossil formation, called the Burgess Shale, is in Yoho National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. Shortly after the Cambrian explosion, mud slides rapidly buried thousands of marine animals under conditions that favored fossilization. These fossil beds provide evidence of about 32 modern animal groups, plus about 20 other animal body forms that are so different from any modern animals that they cannot be assigned to any one of the modern groups. These unassignable animals include a large swimming predator called Anomalocaris and a soft-bodied animal called Wiwaxia, which ate detritus or algae. The Burgess Shale formation also has fossils of many extinct representatives of modern animal groups. For example, a well-known Burgess Shale animal called Sidneyia is a representative of a previously unknown group of arthropods (a category of animals that includes insects, spiders, mites, and crabs).

Fossil formations like the Burgess Shale show that evolution cannot always be thought of as a slow progression. The Cambrian explosion involved rapid evolutionary diversification, followed by the extinction of many unique animals. Why was this evolution so rapid? No one really knows. Many zoologists believe that it was because so many ecological niches were available with virtually no competition from existing species. Will zoologists ever know the evolutionary sequences in the Cambrian explosion? Perhaps another ancient fossil bed of soft-bodied animals from 600-million-year-old seas is awaiting discovery.

Passage two

学科分类

题目

历史类

道路建设

内容回忆

罗马人在占据英国时修的路

参考阅读

参考文章：19-01: The Roman Army's Impact on Britain

In the wake of the Roman Empire's conquest of Britain in the first century A.D., a large number of troops stayed in the new province, and these troops had a considerable impact on Britain with their camps, fortifications, and participation in the local economy. Assessing the impact of the army on the civilian population starts from the realization that the soldiers were always unevenly distributed across the country. Areas rapidly incorporated into the empire were not long affected by the military. Where the army remained stationed, its presence was much more influential. The imposition of a military base involved the requisition of native lands for both the fort and the territory needed to feed and exercise the soldiers' animals. The imposition of military rule also robbed local leaders of opportunities to participate in local government, so social development was stunted and the seeds of disaffection sown. This then meant that the military had to remain to suppress rebellion and organize government.

Economic exchange was clearly very important as the Roman army brought with it very substantial spending power. Locally a fort had two kinds of impact. Its large population needed food and other supplies. Some of these were certainly brought from long distances, but demands were inevitably placed on the local area. Although goods could be requisitioned, they were usually paid for, and this probably stimulated changes in the local economy. When not campaigning, soldiers needed to be occupied; otherwise they represented a potentially dangerous source of friction and disloyalty. Hence a writing tablet dated 25 April tells of 343 men at one fort engaged on tasks like shoemaking, building a bathhouse, operating kilns, digging clay, and working lead. Such activities had a major effect on the local area, in particular with the construction of infrastructure such as roads, which improved access to remote areas.

Each soldier received his pay, but in regions without a developed economy there was initially little on which it could be spent. The pool of excess cash rapidly stimulated a thriving economy outside fort gates. Some of the demand for the services and goods was no doubt fulfilled by people drawn from far afield, but some local people certainly became entwined in this new economy. There was informal marriage with soldiers, who until AD 197 were not legally entitled to wed, and whole new communities grew up near the forts. These settlements acted like small towns, becoming centers for the artisan and trading populations.

The army also provided a mean of personal advancement for auxiliary soldiers recruited from the native peoples, as a man obtained hereditary Roman citizenship on retirement after service in an auxiliary regiment. Such units recruited on an ad hoc (as needed) basis from the area in which they were stationed, and there was evidently large-scale recruitment within Britain. The total numbers were at least 12,500 men up to the reign of the emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), with a peak around A.D. 80. Although a small proportion of the total population, this perhaps had a massive local impact when a large proportion of the young men were removed from an area. Newly raised regiments were normally transferred to another province from whence it was unlikely that individual recruits would ever return. Most units raised in Britain went elsewhere on the European continent, although one is recorded in Morocco. The reverse process brought young men to Britain, where many continued to live after their 20 to 25 years of service, and this added to the cosmopolitan Roman character of the frontier population. By the later Roman period,   frontier garrisons (groups of soldiers) were only rarely transferred, service in units became effectively hereditary, and forts were no longer populated or maintained at full strength.

This process of settling in as a community over several generations, combined with local recruitment, presumably accounts for the apparent stability of the British northern frontier in the later Roman period. It also explains why some of the forts continued in occupation long after Rome ceased to have any formal authority in Britain, at the beginning of the fifth century A.D. The circumstances that had allowed natives to become Romanized also led the self-sustaining military community of the frontier area to become effectively British.

Passage three

学科分类

题目

历史考古类

古代炼铜炼银的传播与假说

参考阅读

参考文章：07-03  Agriculture, Iron, and the Bantu Peoples

There is evidence of agriculture in Africa prior to 3000 B.C. It may have developed independently, but many scholars believe that the spread of agriculture and iron throughout Africa linked it to the major centers of the Near East and Mediterranean world. The drying up of what is now the Sahara desert had pushed many peoples to the south into sub-Sahara Africa. These peoples settled at first in scattered hunting-and-gathering bands, although in some places near lakes and rivers, people who fished, with a more secure food supply, lived in larger population concentrations. Agriculture seems to have reached these people from the Near East, since the first domesticated crops were millets and sorghums whose origins are not African but west Asian. Once the idea of planting diffused, Africans began to develop their own crops, such as certain varieties of rice, and they demonstrated a continued receptiveness to new imports. The proposed areas of the domestication of African crops lie in a band that extends from Ethiopia across southern Sudan to West Africa. Subsequently, other crops, such as bananas, were introduced from Southeast Asia.

Livestock also came from outside Africa. Cattle were introduced from Asia, as probably were domestic sheep and goats. Horses were apparently introduced by the Hyksos invaders of Egypt (1780-1560 B.C.) and then spread across the Sudan to West Africa. Rock paintings in the Sahara indicate that horses and chariots were used to traverse the desert and that by 300-200 B.C., there were trade routes across the Sahara. Horses were adopted by peoples of the West African savannah, and later their powerful cavalry forces allowed them to carve out large empires. Finally, the camel was introduced around the first century A.D. This was an important innovation, because the camel’s abilities to thrive in harsh desert conditions and to carry large loads cheaply made it an effective and efficient means of transportation. The camel transformed the desert from a barrier into a still difficult, but more accessible, route of trade and communication.

Iron came from West Asia, although its routes of diffusion were somewhat different than those of agriculture. Most of Africa presents a curious case in which societies moved directly from a technology of stone to iron without passing through the intermediate stage of copper or bronze metallurgy, although some early copper-working sites have been found in West Africa. Knowledge of iron making penetrated into the forest and savannahs of West Africa at roughly the same time that iron making was reaching Europe. Evidence of iron making has been found in Nigeria, Ghana, and Mali.

This technological shift cause profound changes in the complexity of African societies. Iron represented power. In West Africa the blacksmith who made tools and weapons had an important place in society, often with special religious powers and functions. Iron hoes, which made the land more productive, and iron weapons, which made the warrior more powerful, had symbolic meaning in a number of West Africa societies. Those who knew the secrets of making iron gained ritual and sometimes political power.

Unlike in the Americas, where metallurgy was a very late and limited development, Africans had iron from a relatively early date, developing ingenious furnaces to produce the high heat needed for production and to control the amount of air that reached the carbon and iron ore necessary for making iron. Much of Africa moved right into the Iron Age, taking the basic technology and adapting it to local conditions and resources.

The diffusion of agriculture and later of iron was accompanied by a great movement of people who may have carried these innovations. These people probably originated in eastern Nigeria. Their migration may have been set in motion by an increase in population caused by a movement of peoples fleeing the desiccation, or drying up, of the Sahara. They spoke a language, proto-Bantu (“Bantu”means “the people”), which is the parent tongue of a language of a large number of Bantu languages still spoken throughout sub-Sahara Africa. Why and how these people spread out into central and southern Africa remains a mystery, but archaeologists believe that their iron weapons allowed them to conquer their hunting-gathering opponents, who still used stone implements. Still, the process is uncertain, and peaceful migration—or simply rapid demographic growth—may have also caused the Bantu explosion.

Passage Four

学科分类

题目

天文类

星球上的环形山是怎么形成的

参考阅读

参考文章：25-01 The surface of Mars

The surface of Mars shows a wide range of geologic features, including huge volcanoes-the largest known in the solar system-and extensive impact cratering. Three very large volcanoes are found on the Tharsis bulge, an enormous geologic area near Mars’s equator. Northwest of Tharsis is the largest volcano of all: Olympus Mons, with a height of 25 kilometers and measuring some 700 kilometers in diameter at its base. The three large volcanoes on the Tharsis bulge are a little smaller-a “mere”18 kilometers high.

None of these volcanoes was formed as a result of collisions between plates of the Martian crust-there is no plate motion on Mars. Instead, they are shield volcanoes — volcanoes with broad, sloping slides formed by molten rock. All four show distinctive lava channels and other flow features similar to those found on shield volcanoes on Earth. Images of the Martian surface reveal many hundreds of volcanoes. Most of the largest volcanoes are associated with the Tharsis bulge, but many smaller ones are found in the northern plains.

The great height of Martian volcanoes is a direct consequence of the planet’s low surface gravity. As lava flows and spreads to form a shield volcano, the volcano’s eventual height depends on the new mountain’s ability to support its own weight. The lower the gravity, the lesser the weight and the greater the height of the mountain. It is no accident that Maxwell Mons on Venus and the Hawaiian shield volcanoes on Earth rise to about the same height (about 10 kilometers) above their respective bases-Earth and Venus have similar surface gravity. Mars’s surface gravity is only 40 percent that of Earth, so volcanoes rise roughly 2.5 times as high. Are the Martian shield volcanoes still active? Scientists have no direct evidence for recent or ongoing eruptions, but if these volcanoes were active as recently as 100 million years ago (an estimate of the time of last eruption based on the extent of impact cratering on their slopes), some of them may still be at least intermittently active. Millions of years, though, may pass between eruptions.

Another prominent feature of Mars’s surface is cratering. The Mariner spacecraft found that the surface of Mars, as well as that of its two moons, is pitted with impact craters formed by meteoroids falling in from space. As on our Moon, the smaller craters are often filled with surface matter-mostly dust-confirming that Mars is a dry desert world. However, Martian craters get filled in considerably faster than their lunar counterparts. On the Moon, ancient craters less than 100 meters across (corresponding to depths of about 20 meters) have been obliterated, primarily by meteoritic erosion. On Mars, there are relatively few craters less than 5 kilometers in diameter. The Martian atmosphere is an efficient erosive agent, with Martian winds transporting dust from place to place and erasing surface features much faster than meteoritic impacts alone can obliterate them.

As on the Moon, the extent of large impact cratering (i.e. craters too big to have been filled in by erosion since they were formed) serves as an age indicator for the Martian surface. Age estimates ranging from four billion years for Mars’s southern highlands to a few hundred million years in the youngest volcanic areas were obtained in this way.

The detailed appearance of Martian impact craters provides an important piece of information about conditions just below the planet’s surface. Martian craters are surrounded by ejecta (debris formed as a result of an impact) that looks quite different from its lunar counterparts. A comparison of the Copernicus crater on the Moon with the (fairly typical) crater Yuty on Mars demonstrates the differences. The ejecta surrounding the lunar crater is just what one would expect from an explosion ejecting a large volume of dust, soil, and boulders. However, the ejecta on Mars gives the distinct impression of a liquid that has splashed or flowed out of crater. Geologists think that this fluidized ejecta crater indicates that a layer of permafrost, or water ice, lies just a few meters under the surface. Explosive impacts heated and liquefied the ice, resulting in the fluid appearance of the ejecta.

                          综合点评

本次考试口语、写作均为旧题重复

                         Conversation

话题分类

校园生活

内容回忆

学生问一个申请，结果说了一大堆暖气问题的对话

                          Conversation

话题分类

论文场景

内容回忆

学生想写这个老师的自传文章，要约时间采访他。

                          Conversation

话题分类

校园生活

内容回忆

关于学校停车问题

                               Lecture

话题分类

海洋生物学

内容回忆

Marine biology 海底水压大温度低，有两种adaptive strategy, 一个是产很大的卵，让它有足够的能量在深海里生存孵化，一个是产很多小的卵，然后这些卵浮起来，到浅水孵化然后再回深海去。

                               Lecture

话题分类

历史学

内容回忆

Music history，主要讲的是baroque，也有提到文艺复兴时期各种手法的运用。

                               Lecture

话题分类

天文学

内容回忆

米兰科维奇理论，还有绘画的纸张颜料要选不易消逝的。

Lecture

话题分类

华盛顿雕像

内容回忆

华盛顿雕像

Lecture

话题分类

社会在没有农业情况下的起源

内容回忆

社会在没有农业情况下的起源

Lecture

话题分类

微生物的认识

内容回忆

微生物的认识

Task 1

内容回忆

Do you prefer a job that deals with different tasks or one that deals with the same task everyday?

参考答案

Sample answer:

For me, this is a fairly easy one to answer. A job that allows me to handle different sorts of tasks would apparently better meet my expectation for a meaningful career life. To say the least, one gets to improve more abilities and skills in such a position, and his social circle will inevitably enlarge in this process. Let’s say you work with a team in a news agency. That means you will need to choose the right stories, carry out investigations, and organize different types of reports. A lot can be learned during these activities, and you also would have to maintain good relations with your sources. That’s something you’ll never experience in a repetitive job.

Task 2

阅读

学校要在新生宿舍楼下搞library information desk，

帮他们解决很多他们可能会遇到的问题。

听力

态度：同意阅读，

原因一：省时间，

原因二：图书馆楼层太多，设施太多很多新生不知道怎么用，所以这样做很好

Task 3

阅读

阅读概念: sweeping generalization（一概而论），

定义: 错误地把一个principle用到所有的情况中的错误做法

听力

听力例子: 教授举例shouting at others，自己有一次在咖啡馆丢了包，15分钟以后发现包没拿，又回去拿包，原来坐在他旁边的女的还在那儿，说本来想提醒的，但是咖啡馆人太多太吵了，她不想shout，因为shout不好，所以没提醒

Task 4

话题

背景：阿尔卑斯山那边的环境很差，风大，水少，但是还是有很多植物survive下来了，它们有两种适应环境的方式，

听力

方式一：长得很矮，就能扛过high wind，

方式二：有种berry叶子表面有蜡，可以锁水，减少水分流失

综合点评

这次托福考试写作部分整体难度适中。

综合写作重复 2016年12月11日的题目,独立写作重复2016年12月10日和2019年1月12日旧题。

综合写作

话题分类

爱护动物

考题回忆

总论点

话题：迁徙犀牛对爱护该物种是否有效。

背景：犀牛角非常的珍贵，使得一些偷猎者大量猎杀犀牛，从而对犀牛的种群数量造成了严重的影响。为爱护犀牛，人们提出要把犀牛运到别的栖息地(relocation plan)，以防止偷猎者的捕杀。

阅读部分

阅读：relocation对爱护犀牛没有用。

分论点一：犀牛在relocation的过程中有5%的死亡率。运输过程中造成犀牛（濒危物种）死亡，做法不靠谱。

分论点二： 犀牛有紧密的种族社会关系。如果把犀牛迁徙到别处，就会造成公犀牛和母犀牛的数量失衡，影响繁殖; 此外，它们的种族纽带也会被切断。

分论点三： relocation不能完全防止偷猎者猎杀犀牛，因为犀牛角的价值很高，所以就算把迁徙犀牛迁徙到另外的地方，偷猎者还是会紧跟，因此不能从根本上解决问题。

听力部分

听力：relocation可以很好地爱护犀牛种群.

分论点一： 虽然犀牛在运输途中可能到发生伤亡，但是死亡的犀牛数量比较小。尤其是把运输导致的犀牛死亡率和盗猎导致的犀牛死亡率做对比时，会发现运输途中犀牛死亡数量远低于盗猎者猎杀犀牛的数量。两项比较，还是relocation更好一些.

分论点二：犀牛性别失衡的问题可以在relocation之前就避免。爱护者会挑选合适数量的公犀牛和母犀牛，维持比例平衡。另外，带着幼崽的母犀牛不会进行迁徙,因此不会拆散它们的社会关系。

分论点三：把犀牛运到别的地方，那里地域广阔，犀牛活动空间很大, 盗猎者在大面积的犀牛栖息地发现犀牛很困。而且，有些地方人很难通过，偷猎者无法到达。

解题思路

1. 确定听力与阅读的关系（反驳）

2. 灵活使用写作模板，点对点比较

参考范文

范文:

The reading casts doubt on the effectiveness of the relocation plan designed to preserve rhinoceros species (which are in danger of becoming extinct), while the lecturer argues the problems mentioned in the reading about the relocation plan are not convincing, and that the plan is beneficial to the preservation of rhinos.

First, the reading points out that there is a death rate of 5% for rhinos during the relocation process. The lecturer, however, dismisses this concern, claiming that compared with the number of killings committed by poachers, the number of deaths during relocation is relatively small.

Second, the reading passage states that the relocation plan will disrupt not only the bonds between members of the rhino species but also the gender balance between male and female rhinos. However, the lecture contradicts this, pointing out that the right percentage of male and female rhinos will be chosen to keep gender balance before the relocation begins. Furthermore, those rhinos that have offspring to care for will not be transported to other places, so the bond between mothers and infants will not be affected.

Finally, the reading says that given the enormous profits hunters can gain, the relocation method will not prevent poachers from hunting rhinos. The lecturer, however, argues that the designated habitats for relocated rhinos are huge, making it difficult for hunters to locate/find rhinos. Furthermore, some places are not even accessible to potential hunters. (234 words)

独立写作

话题分类

生活类话题，重复2016年12月10日/2019年1月12日

考题回忆

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

It is better to travel abroad to visit foreign countries/travel abroad when you are younger rather than when you are older.

Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer

解题思路

写作思路：

本题是二选一，可以选择一边倒。话题比较个人化，观点不难想。本题探讨出国旅行对人的影响，可以从人生观形成（对不同文化的理解）、学业发展、外语技能、职业发展等方面去分析。还可以考虑身体健康/体能因素。这里选择几个容易写的观点。

总论点：年轻的时候出国旅行更好。

分论点一：年轻时候出国有利于外语提升。

分论点二：年轻时候出国有利于职业发展。

分论点三：年轻时出国更能应对旅行的挑战（如应对紧急情况的能力）。（篇幅所限，可以不写）

参考范文

范文：

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

It is better to travel abroad to visit different/foreign countries when you are younger rather than when you are older. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

In this highly interconnected world, it is quite common for people to travel overseas, and this is partly due to the availability of efficient transportation vehicles such as airplanes and high-speed trains. Faced with the choice between traveling abroad at a younger age and traveling overseas an older age, I prefer to travel abroad when I am younger.

First, traveling to foreign countries when I am younger helps to improve my foreign language skills. An overseas trip not only creates a pressing need for people to improve foreign language skills prior to the trip but also creates plenty of opportunities for them to hone language skills by using the foreign language while visiting a different country. For example, a few years ago when I was making the plan of traveling to the UK, I realized that I needed to significantly improve my English skills to reduce the risk of potential language-induced misunderstandings, so I spent more time every day on English learning. Furthermore, improvements in my English (particularly in listening and speaking) also occurred when I was using the English language to communicate with local people in everyday situations. Although this linguistic benefit that comes with overseas trips applies to virtually all people regardless of age, the benefit is probably greater for younger people who need better language skills for utilitarian purposes (e.g. landing a job at a multinational corporation) than older people.

Second, traveling to different countries at a younger age may generate career advancement opportunities that we can take advantage of later in life. For example, in my country many people have become highly successful business owners because their earlier overseas experiences afforded them the opportunity to find a niche in the market that they filled later. My friend Vivian is particularly good case in point. She visited a number of countries in her twenties on vacation trips, and during her stay in those countries, she realized, incidentally, that a large number of local people were interested in Chinese–style jewelry and that she could profit from promoting jewelry products with traditional Chinese cultural flavor to cater for the customers’ needs. After returning to China, she quit her stable job at a large state-owned enterprise and set up her own jewelry trade company, which is now thriving. Had she chosen to travel abroad at a later time, she might not have retained the compelling drive and stamina needed for starting her own business.

In summary, while there are certainly benefits that people can gain from traveling overseas when they are older, it seems to be me that traveling abroad at a younger age is more advisable. This is because by doing so, I can gain enormous benefits such as boosting foreign language proficiency and improving career prospects. (459 words)