综合点评

本场考试整体难度一般，有之前考过的类似的文章题材，难度系数相对较小

Passage one

学科分类

题目

植物类

落叶植物

内容回忆

其实在很久很久以前，落叶的植物并不像现在这么普遍，落叶植物可以追溯到还有恐龙的时候。但是那个时候地球其实整体还挺温暖的，因为在靠近北方的地区，现在已经很寒冷了，但是当时还有很多的绿叶的植物。

通过植物叶子的形状，科学家们其实可以判断出当时的天气的寒冷程度，当时虽然整个地球温度都很低，但是实际上冬天的低温没有现在这么寒冷。

在冬天的时候，当时又冷又暗，因此会有非常多的植物会把叶子都给落掉，这样会防止能量的损失和植物体内水分的损失。而当进入冬天之后，这些植物马上又会把树叶长出来来进行光合作用，产生生长所需的能量。

落叶的植物当春天来的时候，会重新长出叶子，进行大量的光合作用，产生能量。当叶子落掉之后，就会减少能量的输出。而针叶植物则冬天不会落叶，还一直都会进行光合作用来生产能量，但是与此同时他生产的能量也很少，丧失的能量也很少。

后来科学家又做了一个什么实验，发现落叶植物当把叶子都落掉之后，会丧失更多的能量以及生物组织相比于针叶植物，但是因为春天来了之后，他们又能产生更多的能量，因此就损害没有那么大。

参考阅读

Spartina

Spartina alterniflora, known as cordgrass, is a deciduous, perennial flowering plant native to the Atlantic coast and the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is the dominant native species of the lower salt marshes along these coasts, where it grows in the intertidal zone (the area covered by water some parts of the day and exposed others).

These natural salt marshes are among the most productive habitats in the marine environment. Nutrient-rich water is brought to the wetlands during each high tide, making a high rate of food production possible. As the seaweed and marsh grass leaves die, bacteria break down the plant material, and insects, small shrimplike organisms, fiddler crabs, and marsh snails eat the decaying plant tissue, digest it, and excrete wastes high in nutrients. Numerous insects occupy the marsh, feeding on living or dead cordgrass tissue, and redwing blackbirds, sparrows, rodents, rabbits, and deer feed directly on the cordgrass. Each tidal cycle carries plant material into the offshore water to be used by the subtidal organisms.

Spartina is an exceedingly competitive plant. It spreads primarily by underground stems; colonies form when pieces of the root system or whole plants float into an area and take root or when seeds float into a suitable area and germinate. Spartina establishes itself on substrates ranging from sand and silt to gravel and cobble and is tolerant of salinities ranging from that of near freshwater (0.05 percent) to that of salt water (3.5 percent). Because they lack oxygen, marsh sediments are high in sulfides that are toxic to most plants. Spartina has the ability to take up sulfides and convert them to sulfate, a form of sulfur that the plant can use; this ability makes it easier for the grass to colonize marsh environments. Another adaptive advantage is Spartina’s ability to use carbon dioxide more efficiently than most other plants.

These characteristics make Spartina a valuable component of the estuaries where it occurs naturally. The plant functions as a stabilizer and a sediment trap and as a nursery area for estuarine fish and shellfish. Once established, a stand of Spartina begins to trap sediment, changing the substrate elevation, and eventually the stand evolves into a high marsh system where Spartina is gradually displaced by higher-elevation, brackish-water species. As elevation increases, narrow, deep channels of water form throughout the marsh. Along the east coast Spartina is considered valuable for its ability to prevent erosion and marshland deterioration; it is also used for coastal restoration projects and the creation of new wetland sites.

Spartina was transported to Washington State in packing materials for oysters transplanted from the east coast in 1894. Leaving its insect predators behind, the cordgrass has been spreading slowly and

steadily along Washington’s tidal estuaries on the west coast, crowding out the native plants and drastically altering the landscape by trapping sediment. Spartina modifies tidal mudflats, turning them into high marshes inhospitable to the many fish and waterfowl that depend on the mudflats. It is already hampering the oyster harvest and the Dungeness crab fishery, and it interferes with the recreational use of beaches and waterfronts. Spartina has been transplanted to England and to New Zealand for land reclamation and shoreline stabilization. In New Zealand the plant has spread rapidly, changing mudflats with marshy fringes to extensive salt meadows and reducing the number and kinds of birds and animals that use the marsh.

Efforts to control Spartina outside its natural environment have included burning, flooding, shading plants with black canvas or plastic, smothering the plants with dredged materials or clay, applying herbicide, and mowing repeatedly. Little success has been reported in New Zealand and England; Washington State’s management program has tried many of these methods and is presently using the herbicide glyphosphate to control its spread. Work has begun to determine the feasibility of using insects as biological controls, but effective biological controls are considered years away. Even with a massive effort, it is doubtful that complete eradication of Spartina from nonnative habitats is possible, for it has become an integral part of these shorelines and estuaries during the last 100 to 200 years.

Passage two

学科分类

题目

历史类

玛雅文明

内容回忆

古代玛雅文明曾经非常的辉煌，但是在突然某一个时间点，他们就放弃了整个城市。整个城市就破坏了，然后科学家们就想研究，到底是什么原因，使得整个城镇被放弃了。

他们分别考虑了几个原因，第1个原因是有可能当时农业大面积减产，就是他们当时发现了有森林砍伐，而且有很多的淤泥，而且他们还要去工作，很有可能把当地的资源全都利用完了之后，他们也不会耕种，因此就搬走了。

但是科学家们发现他们已经都可以种植玉米了，那就可以提供非常充足的粮食，而且他们的变化是很快的，所以科学家们无法解释。

也有可能是干旱，就是他们当时全球都处于上千年的干旱期，那么这个地方玛雅文明这个位置，具体是否是有干旱，还需要用考古证据去验证。

还有科学家认为，有可能经历了地震或者是经历了飓风，但是地震和飓风往往只会造成局部的伤害，而不会造成整个文明的毁灭。

后来还发现他们当时使用的陶器，在朝末期发生了很明显的变化，因此有人认为有可能是外来文明的入侵，但是也不确定是是哪个文明入侵了。

还有人认为是他们找到了更好更为发达的文明，因此就整体迁移过去了。

参考阅读

Navajo Art

The Navajo, a Native American people living in the southwestern United States, live in small scattered settlements. In many respects, such as education, occupation, and leisure activities, their life is like that of other groups that contribute to the diverse social fabric of North American culture in the twenty-first century. At the same time, they have retained some traditional cultural practices that are associated with particular art forms. For example, the most important traditional Navajo rituals include the production of large floor paintings. These are actually made by pouring thin, finely controlled streams of colored sands or pulverized vegetable and mineral substances, pollen, and flowers in precise patterns on the ground. The largest of these paintings may be up to 5.5 meters in diameter and cover the entire floor of a room. Working from the inside of the design outward, the Navajo artist and his assistants will sift the black, white, bluish-gray, orange, and red materials through their fingers to create the finely detailed imagery. ■ The paintings and chants used in the ceremonies are directed by well-trained artists and singers who enlist the aid of spirits who are impersonated by masked performers. ■ The twenty-four known Navajo chants can be represented by up to 500 sand paintings. ■These complex paintings serve as memory aids to guide the singers during the performance of the ritual songs, which can last up to nine days.■

The purpose and meaning of the sand paintings can be explained by examining one of the most basic ideals of Navajo society, embodied in their word hozho (beauty or harmony, goodness, and happiness). It coexists with hochxo ("ugliness," or "evil," and "disorder") in a world where opposing forces of dynamism and stability create constant chan When the world, which was created in beauty, becomes ugly and disorderly, the Navajo gather to perform rituals with songs and make sand paintings to restore beauty and harmony to the world. Some illness is itself regarded as a type of disharmony. Thus, the restoration of harmony through a ceremony can be part of a curing process.

Men make sand paintings that are accurate copies of paintings from the past. The songs sung over the paintings are also faithful renditions of songs from the past. By recreating these arts, which reflect the original beauty of creation, the Navajo bring beauty to the present world. As relative newcomers to the Southwest, a place where their climate, neighbors, and rulers could be equally inhospitable, the Navajo created these art forms to affect the world around them, not just through the recounting of the actions symbolized, but through the beauty and harmony of the artworks themselves. The paintings generally illustrate ideas and events from the life of a mythical hero, who, after being healed by the gods, gave gifts of songs and paintings. Working from memory, the artists re-create the traditional form of the image as accurately as possible.

The Navajo are also world-famous for the designs on their woven blankets. Navajo women own the family flocks, control the shearing of the sheep, the carding, the spinning, and dying of the thread, and the weaving of the fabrics. While the men who make faithful copies of sand paintings from the past represent the principle of stability in Navajo thought, women embody dynamism and create new designs for every weaving they make. Weaving is a paradigm of the creativity of a mythic ancestor named Spider, woman who wove the universe as a cosmic web that united earth and sky. It was she who, according to legend, taught Navajo women how to weave. As they prepare their materials and weave, Navajo women imitate the transformations that originally created the world.

Working on their looms, Navajo weavers create images through which they experience harmony with nature. It is their means of creating beauty and thereby contributing to the beauty, harmony, and healing of the world. Thus, weaving is a way of seeing the world and being part of it.

Passage three

学科分类

题目

地质类

地层发展研究

内容回忆

地球在形成的时候，其实本质上就是分了层的，有人在有的物质，在地壳有的物质，在地层中间有的物质分布在地表。他们都是有整个太阳系当中的尘埃慢慢聚合而成的。

地球在形成的过程当中会产生很多的热量，比如说各种物质互相撞击起来他们聚合在一起的时候会产生很多的热量。而且重力本身慢慢聚合在一起的时候，也会产生热量，这也会让整个地球越来越紧密。

地球当中的放射性物质本身也会产生热量，而且某些地层是隔离的，不导热的，因此在地壳的部分积攒的热量就特别多。

然后慢慢的经历了一段时间之后，有可能几百万年这些地球当中的一些金属元素就慢慢的来到了地心，然后他们会变成液态，而且形成那整个地球的一个磁场，而这个磁场还有另外一个作用就是阻挡太阳风对于地球的破坏。

当我们想到整个地球的形成的时候，就会把上面所有的这些因素聚合在一起，而在地球的中央会有非常高的温度。

参考阅读

peciation in Geographically Isolated Populations

Evolutionary biologists believe that speciation, the formation of a new species, often begins when some kind of physical barrier arises and divides a population of a single species into separate subpopulations. Physical separation between subpopulations promotes the formation of new species because once the members of one subpopulation can no longer mate with members of another subpopulation, they cannot exchange variant genes that arise in one of the subpopulations. In the absence of gene flow between the subpopulations, genetic differences between the groups begin to accumulate. Eventually the subpopulations become so genetically distinct that they cannot interbreed even if the physical barriers between them were removed. At this point the subpopulations have evolved into distinct species. This route to speciation is known as allopatry (“allo-” means “different”, and “patria” means “homeland”).

Allopatric speciation may be the main speciation route. This should not be surprising, since allopatry is pretty common. In general, the subpopulations of most species are separated from each other by some measurable distance. So even under normal situations the gene flow among the subpopulations is more of an intermittent trickle than a steady stream. In addition, barriers can rapidly arise and shut off the trickle. For example, in the 1800s a monstrous earthquake changed the course of the Mississippi River, a large river flowing in the central part of the United States of America. The change separated populations of insects now living along opposite shore, completely cutting off gene flow between them.

Geographic isolation also can proceed slowly, over great spans of time. We find evidence of such extended events in the fossil record, which affords glimpses into the breakup of formerly continuous environments. For example, during past ice ages, glaciers advanced down through North America and Europe and gradually cut off parts of populations from one another. When the glaciers retreated, the separated populations of plants and animals came into contact again. Some groups that had descended from the same parent population were no longer reproductively compatible— they had evolved into separate species. In other groups, however, genetic divergences had not proceeded so far, and the descendants could still interbreed— for them, reproductive isolation was not completed, and so speciation had not occurred.

Allopatric speciation can also be brought by the imperceptibly slow but colossal movements of the tectonic plates that make up Earth’s surface. About 5 million years ago such geologic movements created the land bridge between North America and South America that we call the Isthmus of Panama. The formation of the isthmus had important consequences for global patterns of ocean water flow. While previously the gap between the continents had allowed a free flow of water, now the isthmus presented a barrier that divided the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean. This division set the stage for allopatric speciation among populations of fishes and other marine species.

In the 1980s, John Graves studied two populations of closely related fishes, one population from the Atlantic side of isthmus, the other from the Pacific side. He compared four enzymes found in the muscles of each population. Graves found that all four Pacific enzymes function better at lower temperatures than the four Atlantic versions of the same enzymes. This is significant because Pacific seawater is typically 2 to 3 degrees cooler than seawater on the Atlantic side of isthmus. Analysis by gel electrophoresis revealed slight differences in amino acid sequence of the enzymes of two of the four pairs. This is significant because the amino acid sequence of an enzyme is determined by genes.

Graves drew two conclusions from these observations. First, at least some of the observed differences between the enzymes of the Atlantic and Pacific fish populations were not random but were the result of evolutionary adaptation. Second, it appears that closely related populations of fishes on both sides of the isthmus are starting to genetically diverge from each other. Because Graves’s study of geographically isolated populations of isthmus fishes offers a glimpse of the beginning of a process of gradual accumulation of mutations that are neutral or adaptive, divergences here might be evidence of allopatric speciation in process.

综合点评

听力加试情况较多，还有学生反应遇到听力阅读双加试

Conversation1

话题分类

学术讨论

内容回忆

学生来找导师去商量一个下周要开的一个生物学的会议，他在研究转基因。这个植物学生，觉得这个教授做的工作特别棒。而且这个学生还学习了新闻专业，然后他想问问老师可不可以就下个月的这个会议来做一些新闻，因为他们自己学校的5位教授也会在这个上面来进行发言。

学生想把这些新闻报道全都放在网上。因为现在的学生喜欢在网上来获取知识，他说这样还能节省纸张，然后他也有朋友会做网页设计，就是以前的学校的校友。有人还希望能提供一个能用电子邮件在线订阅的版本，导师说可以在下周的会议上商量商量。

Conversation2

话题分类

论文讨论

内容回忆

学生来找教授来讨论学习小组的问题，这个学习小组会互相分享自己的作业和论文，学生不知道这样做是否正确，然后导师告诉他这样互相交换的时候，你将会更能了解到你的同学的写作想法，是有好处的。

教授又跟他讨论这个学生接下来的写作的主题，给他推荐了一个建筑设计师，这个设计师会用简单的建筑风格来装饰他的房子。并且这个建筑师的文笔也很优美简洁；教授说到了一些没有经验的作家，会过度的去装饰自己的论文，还推荐了这个建筑师所写的书，这个书是珍藏版，因此教授会让图书馆给学生一份影印件。

Lecture1

话题分类

艺术

内容回忆

讲的是美国的一个民间的一个艺术家，他在创作一些艺术的时候，往往都是想方设法去表达自己的一些想法，而不是传统的厄大家的其他人的想法，而且他用的制作的材料和制作的过程也全都是自己独特的一种方法。

因此也有人质疑，他所创造的东西是否可以被称为一个传统的艺术，因为传统的艺术都是要用一些之前祖辈所使用的方法工具以及方式来进行制作的，但是这个人全都用自己创新的方法来进行制作。

这个艺术家他在一个叫做三角洲的组织里来教授其他人学习艺术，包括给孩子来提供教育，当然这个人也都是自学的，而且他会用各种各样手边的材料来进行创作，比如说他在画画的时候就并没有采用颜料，而是采用化妆品来进行创作，这个就是很创新的。

因此有人认为这个艺术家所做的东西并不应该被归类为传统艺术当中的一类。

Lecture2

话题分类

商业类

内容回忆

讲贸易逆差不一定是坏事，国际贸易不能只用单纯的进口和出口资金比来衡量

Task 1

内容回忆

Your university plans to restrict the use of the Internet to research only and to no longer allow access to personal e-mail and social media Web sites on library computers. Do you think this is a good idea? Explain why or why not.

参考答案

Personally speaking, I don’t think it is a good idea for students. There are 2 reasons. One of the ideas is that it is not very convenient for students to save it personally. When students search online for valuable information as citations, what they often do is to download files or links and convey them by personal e-mail. If they cannot utilize it, they need to save it up by extra equipment or print it out. It is not only a kind of waste, but also a trouble that students will suffer from. What is more, social media web sites are inevitable, students cannot live without them in daily life. If students are not allowed to use them while searching online, I assume that they will quit searching information in library. Because it is not very attractive for them to stay, in a word, if students cannot achieve their goals by the way they’ve always been doing, students will put them aside.

Task 2

阅读

建议关闭学校花园来恢复绿化，去草坪玩耍。

听力

学生反对：

1.可以把破坏严重的部分围起来，并提醒学生
2.草坪没有椅子并且泥很多

Task 3

动物示弱来避免被伤害

阅读

听力

Task 4

话题

动物孵化

听力

综合点评

8月22日的综合写作部分难度中等, 本场的独立写作题目与以下时间的考试重复： 2021.03.27/ 2019.07.07/ 2017.05.13 (三选一题型) :

综合写作

话题分类

生物类

考题回忆

总论点

是否政府应该拨款资助术家和艺术作品

阅读部分

1.政府资助艺术不在法律范围内，公民的娱乐已经超出了政府的管辖范围，而且有很多其他的东西需要政府的支持

2. 政府资助会增加艺术作品的审查，有些会造成不利影响，比如压抑和政治意见相左的艺术创作

3. 艺术作品不需要投入资金，因为很多文化产业公司已经很有钱，不需要政府拨款

听力部分

1.以美国拨款两亿修建国家公园为例，证明资助娱乐活动的重要性

2.审查工作是由NEA专门审查，且只针对艺术家本身，和政治无关

3. 好莱坞的成功是个例，其他的项目比如儿童艺术需要政府支持

解题思路

传统四段式写作，每一段阅读内容中心句+听力中心句+听力的支持细节。

参考范文

The writer and the speaker have a debate on whether the government should fund artists and works of art. The writer points out that they should not deserve the aid, but according to the lecture, it is important for the government to spend money on them.

First, the writer claims that government funding for art is not within the scope of the law.. However, the lecture points out that Supporting entertainment is the obligation of the state. Just as the government spends money on the construction of parks, it is what the people need.

Second, the passage states that government funding will increase the censorship of works of art, and some will have adverse effects, such as suppressing artistic creation with conflicting political opinions. Nevertheless, the speaker claims that the review work is specially reviewed by NEA and is only aimed at the artists themselves, which has nothing to do with politics.

Last, although works of art do not need investment, because many cultural industries are already very rich and do not need government funding, the speaker casts doubt on this opinion by saying that Hollywood's success is an example. Other projects, such as children's art, need government support.

独立写作

话题分类

教育类

考题回忆

which of the following values is the most important to share with a small child (5-10 years old)?

▪️Being helpful

▪️Being honest

▪️Being well-organized

解题思路

对于三选一题型简单的布局的方式就是明确选择一个考生内容和思路储备的选项，从而可以构建三个类似如下布局：

选Being honest

主体段1：A>B （honesty is the cardinal principle of conducting oneself）

主体段2：A>C （being honest can help us win the trust and respect from others）

主体段3：（让步段）：B和C的可取+B和C的不可取之处

参考范文

Childhood is the golden age of people’s lives because it is a time of physical growth and great leaps forward intellectually and socially. Being helpful, honest and well organized are values that parents and educators try to instill in children from a very young age. Personally, honesty would be the most important one to share with a young child.

It is true that honesty is the cardinal principle of conducting oneself. Imparting honesty into children can hold them accountable for their behavior and teach them how to distinguish right from wrong from a young age. Unlike adults, children are normally unaware of the consequence of telling lies, and teaching them the value of honesty can help them realize how to act with integrity and confidence. For example, children who are conscious of being honest are more likely to contribute positively to the whole society in the future and will never defraud their clients and customers in workplace. In contrast, students who are dishonest may plagiarize other people’s thesis and fail to achieve success even though they perform well at school.

Besides, being honest can help us win the trust and respect from others, even from those who are unfamiliar with us. It is widely known that childhood is an important period for children to learn lifelong social and emotional skills they need. Therefore, making them capable of being honest helps children learn how to behave in a more socially acceptable way. A common fact indicates that an honest child always gets along well with everyone at school, with a bunch of good friends around him. On the contrary, a dishonest child will be looked down upon by others and be regarded as a public enemy.

Admittedly, being helpful and well organized are both important qualities, which do benefit children in their own way. The young generation can learn responsibility and find enjoyment in helping others. But the fact is that children aged from 5 to 10 are too young to be able to take care of themselves, not to speak of giving a hand to other people. As for the organizational skill, it just makes little sense since kids of that age are naturally active and naughty. Overemphasis on children’s organizational ability would have an adverse impact on their growth. If children are required to be well organized at any time, their creativity and imagination will be stifled.

To sum up, I’m not saying that being helpful and well-organized are of no use, but compared to the importance of honesty, these two values can be crossed off the priority list. (430 words)