2013年5月11日托福阅读考题解析

　　第一篇：狮子

　　第一部分说上古时代，除少数例外，狮子广泛分布在各个大陆。

　　解析：

　　Lions are most active at night and live in a variety of habitats but prefer grassland, savanna, dense scrub, and open woodland. Historically, they ranged across much of Europe, Asia, and Africa, but now they are found mainly in parts of Africa south of the Sahara.

　　第二部分讲了狮子不同于其他动植物的一些特点——处于食物链顶层，所以能量储存有限(此处存疑)。

　　解析：

　　Lions prey on a large variety of animals ranging in size from rodents and baboons to water buffalo and hippopotamuses, but they predominantly hunt medium- to large-sized hoofed animals such as wildebeests, zebras, and antelopes. Prey preferences vary geographically as well as between neighbouring prides.

　　Though a group of hunting lions is potentially nature's most formidable predatory force on land, a high proportion of their hunts fail. The cats pay no attention to the wind's direction (which can carry their scent to their prey), and they tire after running short distances.

　　第三部分：随时间推移，狮子的数量减少，分布区域缩小，在欧洲完全消失——原因一是气候变化导致草原变为森林，二是人类的影响。

　　解析：

　　during the Pleistocene Epoch (2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago), lions ranged across all of North America and Africa, through most of the Balkans, and across Anatolia and the Middle East into India. They disappeared from North America about 10,000 years ago, from the Balkans about 2,000 years ago, and from Palestine during the Crusades. By the 21st century their numbers had dwindled to a few tens of thousands, and those outside national parks are rapidly losing their habitat to agriculture. Conflict with humans, especially herders, outside parks is a major problem, and humans living around parks remain the predominant source of mortality for most populations.

　　第四部分从环境变化角度讲解了亚洲，尤其是印度地区狮子减少的原因。个例：仅有的少量狮子在禁猎的私人林地中生产。

　　解析：About 200 Asiatic lions constitute a slightly smaller race that lives under strict protection in India's Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary.

　　Gir National Park

　　national park in Gujarat state, west-central India, located about 37 miles (60 km) south-southwest of Junagadh in a hilly region of dry scrubland. It has an area of about 500 square miles (1,295 square km). Vegetation consists of teak with an admixture of deciduous trees, including sal (Shorea robusta), dhak (Butea frondosa), and thorn forests.

　　The Gir Forests Reserve, created in 1913 to protect the largest of the surviving groups of Asiatic lions, was accorded sanctuary status in 1965. Several hundred Asiatic lions have been bred in the sanctuary since it was established. “Lion shows” consisting of guided tours in protected vehicles are held regularly for visitors. Other fauna include leopards, wild pigs, spotted deer, nilgai (a type of antelope), four-horned antelope, and chinkaras (a type of gazelle). A large central water hole contains a few crocodiles. The park also has a small temple dedicated to Krishna near the Tulsi-Shyam Springs.

　　第二篇：live performance，现场演出

　　Part1: 很多艺人喜欢现场演出，因为与观众的互动让双方满足。Part2: 现场演出中与观众互动的具体形式，及live和电影电视等录制节目的比较。第三部分：由于在现场，舞台和演员的状态有不可控因素，所以难免出错，这也正是现场演出有趣、exciting的地方。出错反过来使得艺人改善自己的艺术。第四部分是live给普通人生活的若干启示。

　　解析：两篇媒体文章供参考

　　What's better? Live or recorded music?

　　There are a million ways to experience music, but for the purpose of this blog let's just break it down to two categories: live and recorded.

　　I don't know about you, but if I get to hear live music more than twice a month, that's pretty good. Sure, I can look back and remember some great concerts in my life, like the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden in 1969, Miles Davis in a tiny club in Greenwich Village in the early '70s, and Stevie Ray Vaughan in the '80s. The Pixies in the '90s were definitely a high point.

　　I recently attended a concert with the Chelsea Symphony at St. Paul's Church in Manhattan. Sitting in the top balcony, the sound was simply awesome; I've never heard anything close to that sound reproduced by even the very best high-end audio systems. The orchestra certainly didn't need amplification; it was definitely loud enough. Not quite rock concert loud, but the Chelsea Symphony's eight percussionists can make a strong impression.

　　Better yet, the sound never hurt my ears. But the orchestra was far more viscerally dynamic than any rock band, and the sound of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion filling the acoustic space of the church was a thrill I won't soon forget. That is, you don't so much hear the sound of each instrument, you hear it filling the church. The sound of the entire orchestra floated, like a cloud, above the pews. The sound was beyond what I've ever experienced from an orchestra in a large concert hall.

　　In those and other experiences, the music connection was stronger than it could ever be from recordings, but for the most part I actually prefer recorded music. First and most obviously because it's a repeatable pleasure I can have any time I want it. Next, recorded music is, after all, perfected and approved by the artist(s)--live music is subject to the vagaries of chance.

　　Recorded music's production can't necessarily be duplicated in concert. Depending on where you sit, and how good or bad the sound system is, live music is a crap shoot. With a decent hi-fi at home, you can get better sound than most live gigs. Oh, and you can play it at exactly the volume you want.

　　"Live" recordings fall between the two extremes, and if the band's up for it, may be the best of live and recorded.

　　There's an intimacy to recorded music, it's just you and the sound. Live is, depending on the venue, far less direct and the goings on around you can be distracting. Then again, when the vibe is just right, the music is that much better because of the atmosphere.

　　I'm not sure why, but when I've recorded live music I've noted that when playing it back the music almost never matches the feel of the live experience. Recordings and live music are two different things.

　　But for day-to-day I love listening to my collection; right now I'm on a major Neil Young kick. I've seen Neil in concert twice and was underwhelmed by both shows.

　　And finally, recorded music allows us to hear music from artists who are no longer with us, but their music lives on.

　　How about you? Live or recorded, which one rocks your world more?

　　Recorded vs. Live Performance

　　Two distinguished thespians opine on the differences between taped and live performances.

　　In a TV interview, the distinguished movie actor, Gene Hackman, stated that when acting in films, he often found himself withdrawing, being more introspective, and minimizing his physical gestures, things he had seen many other stage actors do when making the transition from working in the theatre, where one has to be concerned about "hitting the back wall*," to acting in motion pictures, where many of those same gestures would probably appear unnatural or seriously exaggerated when viewed through the intimacy of a camera’s lens.

　　In a similar statement, the great thespian, Sir Lawrence Olivier, once opined that acting on the stage is about acting, whereas acting in films is simply about "being" (in front of cameras). Others have posited that there are even further adjustments needed when acting for the small screen (TV) as compared with the large screen (theatrical motion pictures) since every sound and gesture appears even more exaggerated. (Theatrical motion pictures are technically adjusted for TV transmissions, according to an industry source, but this writer is clueless as to how this might affect any of these issues.)

　　From the musician’s perspective, with the advent of the Digital Age, we have again reached a point, as in earlier times in our developmental history, where live and recorded performances can often require different technical disciplines to accomplish the same musical results or effects. This is due to the increased sensitivity of today's recording devices, how (technically) the music** is recorded, and the various ways the final recorded product is disseminated. Musical and technical issues like dynamics, musical nuances, and general balances are often approached in a way not dissimilar to the experiences and observations of the two actors mentioned above. For musicians, this is exactly the opposite of the way things were a half-century ago when the rule-of-thumb was to exaggerate/overdo many of those same elements to get the desired recorded effects, for quite different reasons: a lack of sensitivity of recording devices and/or the record fabrication/reproduction process. Consequently, because of these differences, what might work well today in the concert hall may not be as successful on tape, and vice-versa, just as it was a half century ago, but quite obviously for different reasons. This could possibly explain why some performers are, and were, more convincing in one or the other of these venues. It is also one (of many) of the reasons some modern day recording artists prefer to "sync" their performances to their own recordings rather than performing "live.

　　第三篇：olmec civilization

　　讲解了奥尔梅克文明的建筑与艺术。农商业的发展给艺术发展创造了合适的土壤。文章用大篇幅介绍了olmec civilization艺术的细节与特点。最后，olmec艺术的影响深远，包括maya在内文明的拉美文化深受其影响。

　　解析：

　　the first elaborate pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica, and one that is thought to have set many of the fundamental patterns evinced by later Indian cultures of Mexico and Central America.

　　The Olmec people lived in hot, humid lowlands along the Gulf Coast in what is now southern Veracruz and Tabasco states in southern Mexico. The first evidence of their remarkable art style appears at about 1200 BC in their oldest known building site, San Lorenzo. This site is remarkable for its many stone monuments, prominent among which are colossal carved heads that have characteristic flat faces and helmetlike headgear. In the late 20th century, a stone slab engraved with symbols that appear to have been the Olmec writing system was discovered in the village of Cascajal, near San Lorenzo. The Cascajal stone dates to approximately 900 BC and may be the oldest example of writing from the Americas. A later Olmec ceremonial centre, La Venta, is marked by great mounds, a narrow plaza, and several other ceremonial enclosures. In the 21st century, inscribed carvings suggestive of later Mayan glyphs also were found at La Venta.

　　large buried mosaic “pavements” created from serpentine blocks

　　Front and side views of Colossal Head 1 now located at Museo de Antropología de Xalapa in Xalapa, Veracruz. This head dates from 1200 to 900 BCE and is 2.9 meters high and 2.1 meters wide.

　　The Olmecs developed a wide trading network, and between 1100 and 800 BC their cultural influence spread northwestward to the Valley of Mexico and southeastward to parts of Central America. It is clear that later Mesoamerican native religions and iconography, from all parts of the area, can be traced back to Olmec beginnings. Besides monumental architecture and sculpture, Olmec art is expressed in small jade carvings, pottery, and other media. Its dominant motif is the stylized figure of a god that is a hybrid between a jaguar and a human infant. From the Olmecs' constructions and monuments, as well as from the sophistication and power of their art, it is evident that their society was complex and nonegalitarian.

　　Olmec stylistic influence disappeared after about 400 BC. Not all of the Olmec sites were abandoned, but Olmec culture gradually changed, and the region ceased to be the cultural leader of Mesoamerica. See also Mesoamerican civilization.