11月3日托福考试落下帷幕考情速递也已经出炉了！
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R1
重复20240915 Passage1
Climate Change in Early Urban Centers
During the third millennium ace, the first urban centers in Egypt, Mesopotamia, lran, Central Asta, and South Asia, flourished and grew in complexity and wealth in a wet and cost climate. This smooth development was sharply, if not universally, interrupted beginning around 2200 A.C.E. Bath archaeological and written records agree that across Afro-Eurasia, most of the urban, rural, and pastoral societies underwent radical change. Those watered by major rivers were destabllized, while the settled communities on the highland plateaus virtually disappeared. After a brief hiatus, some recovered, completely reorganized, and used new technologies to manage agriculture and water. The causes of this radical change have been the focus of much interest.
After four decades of research by climate specialists working together with archaeologists, a consensus has emerged that climate change toward a warmer and drier environment contributed to this disruption. Whether this was caused solely by human activity, in particular agriculture on a large scale, or was also related to cosmic causes such as the rotation of Earth's axis away from the Sun, is still a hotly debated topic. It was likely a combination of factors.
The urban centers dependent on the three major river systems in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley all experienced disruption. In Egypt, the hieroglyphic inscriptions tell us that the Nile no longer flooded over its banks to replenish the fields with fresh soil and with water for crops. Social and political chaos followed for more than a century. In southern Mesopotamia, rivers changed course, disrupting settlement patterns and taking fields out of cultivation. Other fields were poisoned by salts brought on through overcultivation and irrigation without fallow periods (periods when nothing is planted). Fierce competition for water and land put pressure on the central authority. To the east and west, pastoralists faced with shrinking pasture for their flocks, pressed in on the river valleys, disrupting the already challenged social and political structure of the densely urban centers.
In northern Mesopotamia, the responses to the challenges of dryness were more varied. Some centers were able to weather the crisis by changing strategies of food production and distribution. Some fell victim to internal warfare, while others, on the rainfall margin, were abandoned. When the region was settled again, society was differently organized. The population did not drastically decrease, but rather it distributed across the landscape more evenly in smaller settlements that required less water and food. It appears that a similar solution was found by communities to the east on the lranian plateau, where the inhabitants of the huge urban center of Shahr i Sokhta abruptly left the city and settled in small communities across the oasis landscape.
The solutions found by people living in the cities of the Indus Valley also varied. Some cities, like Harappa, saw their population decrease rapidly. It seems that the bed of the river shifted, threatening the settlement and its hinterland. Another city, Mohenjo Daro, on the other hand, continued to be occupied for another several centuries, although the large civic structures fell out of use, replaced by more modest structures. And to the south, on the Gujarat Peninsula, the population and the number of settlements increased. They abandoned wheat as a crop, instead cultivating a kind of drought-enduring millet that originated in West Africa.
The evidence for this widespread phenomenon of climate change at the end of the third millennium a.c.e. is complex and contradictory. This is not surprising because every culture and each community naturally had an individual response to environmental and other challenges. Those with perennial sources of freshwater were less threatened than those in marginal zones, where only a slight decrease in rainfall can mean failed crops and herds. Likewise, certain types of social and political institutions were resilient and introduced innovations that allowed them to adapt, while others were too rigid or shortsighted to find local solutions. A feature of human culture is its remarkable ability to adapt rapidly. When faced with challenges, resilience, creativity, and ingenuity lead to cultural innovation and change.
在第三千纪，埃及、美索不达米亚、伊朗、中亚和南亚的第一批城市中心蓬勃发展，在潮湿和寒冷的气候中变得复杂和富有。这种平稳的发展在公元前2200年左右被急剧打断，如果不是普遍的话。巴特的考古和书面记录表明，在整个非洲-欧亚大陆，大多数城市、农村和牧区社会都经历了根本性的变化。那些被主要河流滋润的地方变得不稳定，而高原高原上的定居社区几乎消失了。在短暂的骚乱之后，一些人恢复了元气，进行了彻底的重组，并使用新技术来管理农业和水资源。这种剧烈变化的原因一直是人们关注的焦点。
R2
重复20240915 Passage2/2022 第24套 Passage2
Habitability of Planets
Magnetic fields deflect (turn away) charged particles. Earth has a magnetic field generated by the movement of liquid in its core. One reason that Earth's magnetic field is considered important for Earth's habitability (ability to support life) is that it helps protect the planet from bombardment by cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are energetic charged particles that originate from space, either from the Sun or from farther away in the galaxy. Solar cosmic rays are relatively low-energy particles that are released in a stream of charged particles (the "solar wind") from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. Galactic cosmic rays are high-energy particles and gamma rays that originate from outside the solar system. Prolonged exposure to either of these types of radiation can create health risks, including cancer-a serious consideration for astronauts out in space.
Although Earth's magnetic field helps protect the planet from cosmic rays, that protection is only partial: the magnetic field barely deflects the most energetic cosmic rays that have energies of many gigaelectron volts. What then shields Earth's surface from high-energy cosmic rays? The answer is the atmosphere itself. Most cosmic rays, including those falling at the poles, are absorbed by the atmosphere at altitudes of 80 km or more. The high-energy ones create cascades of secondary particles, and some of these do indeed make it down to the surface. By the time they get there, however, they have lost most of their force, and so they account for less than 10 percent of the radiation exposure that an average person receives during the course of a year.
Planetary magnetic fields have another effect that may actually be more important in keeping a planet habitable. Earth's magnetic field prevents the solar wind from interacting directly with its atmosphere. (This statement is equivalent to saying that it protects Earth from solar cosmic rays.) Mars, which lacks an intrinsic magnetic field, does not have such protection, and consequently its atmosphere may have been sputtered away by the solar wind "Sputtering" is the term used to describe the process whereby collisions between solar wind particles and electrically charged atoms in a planet's upper atmosphere can lead to loss of atmospheric gases. Based partly on this observation, scientists Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee suggest that planets that lack magnetic fields are unlikely to be habitable.
This argument, though, overlooks something obvious: Venus, which also has no intrinsic magnetic field. has a very dense atmosphere-100 times thicker than Earth's. Furthermore. Venus is closer to the Sun than is either Earth or Mars, and hence it is exposed to a denser, more energetic solar wind. If solar wind sputtering is so effective, then why didn't Venus lose its atmosphere? The answer probably has to do with planetary size. Venus is roughly the same mass as Earth, and so its upper atmosphere is less extended than that of Mars. That makes it harder for the solar wind to strip away atmospheric gases. Both Venus and Mars do have induced magnetic fields (fields generated in their upper atmospheres by their interaction with solar wind), and in Venus's case this induced field is evidently sufficient to protect its atmosphere. Mars's problem is the combination of its lack of an intrinsic magnetic field and its small size, which is clearly not conducive to planetary habitability.
This brings us to the issue of planetary size itself. Mars's small mass (1/9 of Earth's mass) also allowed the planet to cool more quickly. Without enough internal heat to sustain volcanism, it was unable to recycle carbonates (consisting of one carbon and three oxygen atoms) back into CO2 (carbon dioxide, a gas that traps heat at the planet's surface). Mars appears to have already cooled off by about 3.8 billion years ago. No one knows exactly how big a planet needs to be to stay volcanically active for 4.5 billion years, as Earth has done, but one can guess that it needs to be 1/3 of Earth's mass or more. A higher mass should also give a planet a better chance of sustaining a magnetic field because its core should take longer to solidify.
地球就是因为有自身的磁场，所以才能保证自己可以免受宇宙射线的冲击，宇宙射线是在宇宙当中，穿行的高能带电粒子，而太阳系当中，太阳本身也会释放非常多的带电粒子，但是这种带电粒子能量相对比较小。而在外面宇宙当中进入太阳系的高能粒子则会能量比较强。如果地球上的生物长时间暴露于这种高能带电，粒子之下都会使得地球上面的生物去产生病痛。同时这也对于宇航员来说带来了很大的威胁。而磁场还有另外一个作用，就是防止了大气层与太阳风的直接相连。因为火星是没有自己的磁场，因此也就相应没有磁场的保护，相应的火星上的大气层就可以被太阳风给吹掉。因此科学家们认为，如果一旦一个行星没有磁场的话，它就不是很适合居住。当然地球除了整个磁场对于地球的保护之外，地球的大气层其实也是保护了地球上的生物。大多数的宇宙射线其实都被大气层所吸收了，只有这些高能粒子散开之后的一些比较弱的例子。才会真正的到达地球表面，但是当他们到达地球表面之后，他大多数的能量也都消失了。因此这些高能粒子给地球上的生物所带来的辐射不到它每年所接受辐射的10%。但是我们也要注意到，就是虽然金星没有磁场，但是金星的大气层其实非常的稠密。而金星本身更靠近太阳，因此它所遭受的太阳粒子的冲击会更大，那么为什么？金星仍然会能保留住自己的磁场呢？这是因为金星本身的质量与地球相同。但是它的大气层的高度比较低，这样就使得他会受。整个进行磁场的吸引而不会被吹散。而火星本身体积比较小，而且还没有磁场，在这种情况下火星就不适合居住。而火星的质量本身比较小，同时也使得这块星球冷却的速度会更快，并且内部的热量还不足以支撑它有火山的活动。相应的就无法产生二氧化碳等一堆温室气体，因此火星在几十亿年前就已经冷却了。而地球一直能到今天仍然保持火山的活跃，这很有可能就是因为它的质量远大于整个的火星，而更高的质量也使得地球的磁场能够维持。
R3
重复20200816 Passage1
The Sentinel Behavior of Meerkats
A species of small mongooses in Africa called meerkats share sentinel (guard) duties to warn other group members by repeating alarm calls if a predator is seen. This is an important job, because when meerkats are foraging, their heads are in the ground seeking prey, and they cannot see a predator coming.
The question is, why do group members take turns acting as sentinels? Kin selection, that is, being able to save the lives of family members can be one hypothesis for this type of sentinel behavior. Family members share copies of a meerkat's genes. Kin selection is achieved by helping a meerkat’s own offspring as well as non-descendant kin, including sibling, nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles. Therefore, if members of a certain group are closely related, a sentinel ensures that copies of its genes can be passed on to future generations by saving the majority of family members by alerting others, even at the expense of its own life.
Assuming this hypothesis is true, we can predict that group members have close genetic ties. Otherwise, kin selection would not work. But this prediction does hold true. A dominant, breeding female is mother to 75 percent of all the litters in a group, and one dominant male fathers 75 percent of all the pups born. Even though a typical meerkat group includes a few immigrants, most subordinate adults are siblings or half siblings. Therefore, it is likely that subordinate adults share 25 or 50 percent of their genes.
On account of most meerkat group members being family, it is possible that kin selection has favored sentinel behavior. Nonetheless, by itself, a close inherent relationship is not enough evidence to conclude that kin selection has played a role. Thus, we need further evidence, and must improve the prediction.
Based on the same hypothesis, a more specific prediction is that each mongoose should increase the frequency of sentinel behavior when they are guarding family members. This new prediction needed testing, so the group was observed to determine which members stand guard and when. The immigrants without any kin relations to other group members acted as sentinels just as much as the individuals with many relatives nearby. Therefore, the result of this test does not support the kin-selection hypothesis.
Another hypothesis that is often suggested to explain such cooperative behavior is that it results from reciprocal Altruism—each individual takes turns standing guard to benefit the rest of the group, rather than itself. The reciprocal altruism theory can work only when those who cheat by avoiding guard duty can be identified and punished by the rest of the group. This hypothesis produces the prediction that there should be a regular rotation of sentry duty within the group and that the ones who neglect this duty should be chastised. However, this is not observed. In fact, the group members do take turns on sentry duty, but there is no predetermined order for this. In addition, when some members shorten their shift, other group members increase their contributions to compensate. The predictions and observations of the reciprocal-altruism hypothesis do not coincide with each other.
Yet another hypothesis for the evolution of meerkat sentinel behavior is that it results from selfish antipredator behavior. This idea stems from the fact that the meerkat watching for predators increases its personal safety, and warning others does not harbor any disadvantage. So, when a meerkat has had enough to eat, it should watch for predators. The sentinel on duty can then return to foraging. This hypothesis produces a prediction that sentinel duty is not dangerous or risky in any way. This does seem to be true. Over the course of 2,000 hours of observation, no sentinels were attacked or killed by predators. They may actually be safer because they are the first to sense the predator. Moreover, they generally stand guard within 5 meters of a burrow, and are the first underground when a predator comes close.
If a meerkat’s personal safety is increased with serving as a sentinel, it would be possible to predict that an individual would spend a proportion of its time guarding, whether it was solitary or part of a group. As predicted, individual meerkats spend about the same time on guard duty as members of large groups. Groups with more members suffer less predation because there is a sentinel for a longer portion of foraging time than in small groups.
非洲有一种叫做猫触的小型猫，它们通过重复警报叫声来警告其他成员，如果看到捕食者，它们会分担哨兵(守卫)的职责。这是一项重要的工作，因为当猫触觅食时，它们的头埋在地下寻找猎物，它们看不到捕食者。
R4
重复20200104 Passage1/20150307 Passage1/阅读真经5 Passage1/真题第22套 Passage1
Colonial America and the Navigation Acts
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British parliament enacted a number of laws, called Navigation Acts, governing commerce between Britain and its overseas colonies. For example, the Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1663 barred the empire’s colonial merchants from exporting such commodities as sugar and tobacco anywhere except to England and from importing goods in non-English ships. Similarly, the Molasses Act of 1733 taxed all foreign molasses (a thick liquid drained from sugarcane and used to make rum) entering the mainland American colonies at sixpence per gallon. This act was intended less to raise revenue than to serve as a protective tariff (tax) that would benefit British West Indian sugar producers at the expense of their French rivals. By 1750 a long series of Navigation Acts were in force, with several effects on the North American colonial economy.
For one thing, the laws limited all imperial trade to British ships, defined as those with British ownership and crews that were three-quarters British. For purposes of the legislation, Parliament classified all colonists as British. This restriction not only contributed to Great Britain’s rise as Europe’s foremost shipping nation but also laid the foundations for an American shipbuilding industry and merchant marine. By the 1750s one-third of all imperial vessels were American-owned, mostly by merchants in the northeast and in mid-Atlantic colonies. The swift growth of this merchant marine diversified the northern colonial economy and made it more self-sufficient. The expansion of colonial shipping in turn accelerated urbanization by creating a need for centralized docks, warehouses, and repair shops in the colonies. By 1770 Philadelphia and New York City had emerged as two of the British Empire’s busiest ports.
The Navigation Acts also barred the export of certain “enumerated goods” to foreign nations unless those items first passed through England or Scotland. The American mainland’s chief items of this sort were tobacco, rice, furs, indigo (a Carolina plant that produced a blue dye), and naval supplies (such as masts and tar). Parliament never restricted grain, livestock, fish, lumber, or rum, which altogether made up 60 percent of American colonial exports. Furthermore, Anglo-American exporters of tobacco and rice—the chief commodities affected by enumeration—had their burdens reduced by two significant concessions. First, Parliament gave tobacco growers a monopoly over the British market by excluding foreign tobacco, even though this hurt British consumers. (Rice planters enjoyed a natural monopoly because they had no competitors.) Second, Parliament tried to minimize the added cost of landing tobacco and rice in Britain (where customs officials collected duties on both) by refunding the duties on all tobacco and rice that the colonists later shipped to other countries.
The navigation system’s impact on the colonies encouraged economic diversification as well. Parliament used British tax money to pay modest incentives to Americans producing such items as silk, iron, dyes, hemp, and lumber, which Britain would otherwise have had to import from other countries, and it raised the price of commercial rivals’ imports by imposing protective tariffs on them. The trade laws did prohibit Anglo-Americans from competing with large-scale British manufacturing of certain products, most notably clothing. However, colonial tailors, hatters, and other small clothes manufacturers could continue to make any item of dress in their households or small shops. Manufactured by low-paid labor, British clothing imports generally undersold whatever the colonists could have produced given their higher labor costs. The colonists were also free to produce iron and built numerous ironworks.
Finally, the Navigation Acts made the colonies a protected market for low-priced consumer goods and other exports from Britain. Steady overseas demand for colonial products created a prosperity that enabled colonists to consume ever-larger amounts not only of clothing but of dishware, home furnishings, tea, and a range of other items both produced in Britain and imported by British and colonial merchants from elsewhere. Consequently, the share of British exports sold to the colonies rapidly increased from just 5 percent in 1700 to almost 40 percent by 1760. Cheap imported goods enabled many colonists to adopt a lifestyle similar to that of middle-class Britons.
在17世纪和18世纪，英国议会颁布了一系列法律，称为《航海法案》，管理英国与其海外殖民地之间的商业往来。例如，1660年和1663年的《航海法案》禁止帝国民商人将糖和烟草等商品出口到英国以外的任何地方,禁止用非英国船只进口商品。同样，1733年的《糖浆法案》对所有进入美国殖民地的外国糖浆(一种从糖浆中提取的浓稠液体，用于制作朗姆酒)征收每加仑六便士的税。这项法案的目的与其说是增加收入，不如说是作为一种保护性关税(税)，以牺牲法国竞争对手为代价使英国西印度群岛的糖生产商受益。到1750年，一系列漫长的《航海法案》生效，对北美殖民地经济产生了几个影响。
R5
重复阅读真题合集Passage34
Megafauna Extinctions in Ancient Australia
In an effort to discover the connections in Australia's past between climate change, the vanishing of the large Ice Age animals (megafauna) there, and the arrival of humans, Gifford Miller turned to fossil eggshells he found in dune deposits along the ancient shoreline of a now vanished lake.
The eggshells had been left by emus, ostrich- like flightless birds that still walk Australia's savannas and woodlands, and by Genyornis newtoni, an extinct bird species whose massive bones suggest each individual would have weighed about 550 pounds. Australia's acid soils and severe climate quickly leach all organic matter out of bone. But because eggshells have a different mineral structure than bone, the ancient shells retained traces of protein. This made it possible to date them using a technique called amino acid racemization. Results from a large set of samples—1,200 dates collected from three different sites—showed that the emu and Genyornis had coexisted for millennia. Then, about 45,000 50,000 years ago, Genyornis vanished.
The eggshells also offered clues to the big birds' diets. Grasses that thrive in hot habitats use a unique chemical pathway to capture the Sun's energy, a process that distorts the amount of the stable isotope carbon-13 they contain relative to most other plants. Miller and his colleagues compared the carbon isotope signatures of fossil emu and Genyornis eggshells. The results show that the two bird species relied on different food sources. Grass must have been abundant right before the extinction event, because the emu of that era ate little else. The doomed Genyornis ate both shrubs and grass.
Two large, flightless birds living in the same habitat would have to develop different survival strategies, and different food sources, or constantly clash with each other. The emu is now, as it was during the Pleistocene (1.8 million years ago-11,700 years ago), a flexible eater. If necessary, it ate only grass, but it could also make do with shrubs and herbs. Genyornis included shrubs in its menu but seems to have been unable to get by without grass. About 45,000 years ago, the vegetation changed throughout the Lake Eyre basin. Emus shifted their tactics and began eating lots of shrubs. Genyornis could not adapt, and the species died out. More recently, Miller has analyzed the carbon isotope signatures of teeth fossils of the wombat (a pouched mammal). Like the emu, the wombat survived the ecological shift that came 45,000 years ago because it fed on shrubs, making do without grass.
According to Miller, the arrival of people, carrying fire sticks in their hands, changed everything. The harsh landscape of interior Australia does not hold well-preserved deposits of ancient pollen that might precisely track the changing vegetation. Based on the shifting diets of the herbivores he has studied, however, Miller can envision how and why the balance tipped. "Before people came, there must have been a savanna mixed with open woodland, the kind of habitat where grasses are abundant in years of good rainfall and the trees and shrubs sustain the animals when water is scarce," he explains. Frequent burning tends to favor grasses over shrubs and trees, yet at the moment of human arrival, emus and wombats stopped eating grass, and Genyornis simply vanished.
Miller argues that burning did promote one kind of grass growth, but that grass was spinifex, an unpleasant tasting species that now dominates the region. Spinifex leaves are heavily loaded with silica and are nutrient-poor. No native mammal eats it, and introduced cattle will take only the freshest, youngest shoots that sprout up after a fire. And spinifex loves fire: it grows in hummocks (low mounds) where live and dead blades intermix, laden with flammable resin, and it resprouts quickly after a burn. Australian plants had evolved with fire for millions of years. Before people came, the bush burned regularly at the end of the dry season, the time of many lightning strikes. But humans could light fires at any time of the year. In Miller's scenario, the increased frequency of fire wiped out many plants. Many ecosystems in the interior, he says, are adapted to burn every 20 to 50 years, the kind of frequency that occurs if lightning is the only ignition source. Torched frequently by Aboriginal people, such habitats would not have enough time to recover between burns.
数万年前地球上的一些大型哺乳动物，现在都已经灭绝了。而在澳大利亚地区，一些比较大型的哺乳动物则是消失的，会更晚一些，因此考古学家们认为澳大利亚这片大陆上动物的消失，与人类的到来有关系，与其他大型动物的灭绝没有关系。在上一次冰期到来之前，其实澳大利亚就已经变得非常干燥了，大型哺乳动物的生存环境变得越来越恶劣。而有些考古学家认为是这种生存的环境导致了大型动物的灭绝。随着一种气候向另外一种气候的转变，这种气候的不稳定性对于大型的动物伤害的更大，因为大型动物的后代数量增长很慢。小型动物如果遇到比较极端的气候，很有可能会短时间内得到恢复，但是大型动物因为后代数量增长的慢，所以恢复速度也更慢。这就导致随着气候的大型波动，使得大型哺乳动物慢慢就灭绝了。一位考古学家指出，如果这些大型动物能让自己的体型缩小的话，其实是可以适应这种气候的变化的，因为体型减小之后成熟期就会变短，这样就使得它产生后代的迭代速度可以加快。但是因为这些大型动物体型太大了，所以他们产生后代的数量比较少。而降水量减少也会使得植物的生长会慢慢的减少，因为一些哺乳动物是要依靠食物来作为自己的食物的，那么这就对于食物和水的需求量都很大，但是。这个时候当它体型特别大，对于水和食物的需求量也更大的时候，气候的波动对于他们食物的影响就会非常大，很有可能就会灭亡。还有一个考古学家指出，大型的哺乳动物都是生活在树林当中的，而不是能生活在沙漠这些地方的。而在上一次寒冰期当中。整个沙漠的地带慢慢的扩大到了沿海地区。因此一些大型动物的生长环境慢慢的在变小。同时在一些局部地区可能会完全的灭绝。而且在还存活的一些林地当中降水量也在减小，这就使得大型动物的生存环境受到挤压。因此这就使得大型哺乳动物的生存范围被限制在了很小的区域之内，而一旦这些栖息地再进行退化的话，那么这些大型的哺乳动物是无法完全迁移到其他的栖息地的，这样他们就灭绝了。而当寒冰期来临的时候，这种情况会越来越多。而一旦多到一定程度的话，中小型哺乳动物也会灭绝。
听力
C 1
学生走在sidewalk被绊倒，去质问学校管理处，主管解释说冬季混凝土的性质会受天气状况的影响，学校的冰雪融化剂里添加了盐和甜菜汁，这种混合物对混凝土影响比较小且成本低。
L1
生物学：鸟模仿predator声音，举例是owl。
L 2
生物学：brain的一个示踪技术的局限
C 2
要intern推荐信
L 3
生物学：鸟类飞行时的排列策略
C 3
人类活动对斑纹蛾的进化的影响，工业革命期间黑色斑纹蛾数量比较多，现在白色斑纹蛾比较多，人类不同生产力时期的活动对动物的进化产生了直接的影响。
L 4
文学史：作者的身份和编辑的身份之间的关系
C 4
学生宿舍fine的缘由及解决方案，沙发受损是可以维修还是必须提交罚款。
L 5
人类学：旧石器时期的北欧人掌握了发酵的技术，考古学可以更好地定位农业发展的年份以及人类的定居生活
C 5
什么样的人是一个好的演讲者，老师说古希腊人认为演讲和说服别人是重要的能力，学生转换话题说老师是否可以帮他写推荐信。
L 6
工程学：蜻蜓翅膀对飞机设计的影响，蜻蜓飞行的模式可以悬停还有很好的稳定性，和直升机和蜜蜂不同，研究人员考虑用这种模式设计飞机机翼。
口语
TASK 1独立口语题
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Technology distances people from each other more than it brings them together. Use specific examples and details to support your opinion.
TASK 2校园题
In the past, the school dormitories were open every winter vacation. However, starting from next year, only one dormitory will be open. Since most students will leave the campus during the winter vacation, it's actually quite a waste to keep all the dormitories open. Of course, it's also quite troublesome to ask everyone to move to the same dormitory. So the school is now sending out a notice in advance, asking those who want to stay on campus during the winter vacation to register in advance for that same dormitory building.
The person in the listening material quite supports this idea because it's very cold in winter and heating is needed, which requires a lot of funds and manpower. So gathering everyone together like this can actually save a lot. But the only problem is that students don't always know in advance whether they will stay on campus during the winter vacation. For example, a friend of his originally planned to go home during the winter vacation, but suddenly got an opportunity to do experiments with his supervisor, so he decided to stay on campus temporarily. Therefore, it is hoped that some flexible rooms can be reserved in the still-open dormitory building.
TASK 3学术讲座题
In the plant kingdom, there is a symbiotic relationship. When one party disappears, the other party cannot exist either. Therefore, they must live together.
The example given in the listening material is about a kind of ant. This kind of ant lives in large nests, and there is actually a kind of fungus in these nests. Originally, this fungus serves as food for the ants. However, if this fungus is damaged by bacteria, it will die, and then the ants will have no food. So the ants will use a kind of chemical substance to kill these bacteria. Therefore, the ants will smear this chemical substance on the fungus to ensure the health of these fungi. Outside the ant nests, this kind of fungus basically disappears because they don't have the protection of the ants.
TASK 4 学术讲座题
People usually have the same logic, that is, as long as you are optimistic, you will succeed, and if you succeed, you will be happy. However, scientists have found that if you hold a pessimistic attitude, the worst result may actually occur, but it often has a positive impact. Because when people are more pessimistic, negative results tend to occur, which prompts people to take some preventive measures in advance.
For example, when a pessimistic person goes on a trip, even if it's sunny outside, he will still bring some rain gear. In this way, he won't get wet if it rains.
Moreover, scientists have also found that pessimistic people are often better able to adapt to some bad situations. Because pessimistic people have usually already made psychological preparations. The example given is that when a pessimistic person is applying for a job, he doesn't expect to be hired in the first place. So even if he isn't hired, he won't be overly sad.
写作
综合写作
Sample answer:
Deer are renowned for their majestic antlers, which have long captured the fascination of biologists and enthusiasts alike. The reading proposes three reasons behind why deer grow antler, while the listening provides counter ideas to challenge the ideas suggested by the reading.
The reading suggests that one reason deer grow antlers is to aid in dissipating excess body heat. It posits that the wind passing through the antlers cools the blood circulating within them, preventing the animal from overheating. However, the listening section contradicts this notion by highlighting that during summer, the growth of antlers halts, and in winter, deer retain their antlers for an extended period. This indicates that the purpose of antlers might not solely be for cooling, as their presence during colder months would not align with the theory of heat dissipation.
Another theory proposed in the reading is that antlers evolved as a defense mechanism against predators. The idea is that deer use their antlers to protect themselves from potential threats, much like other horned animals. Nevertheless, the listening disputes this claim by suggesting that when predators are spotted, deer engage in a series of territorial actions, including confronting and even attacking the intruders. This contradicts the defense theory, indicating that antlers may not primarily serve as a means of warding off predators but rather as a tool for asserting dominance over territory.
The reading finally asserts that antlers function as a signal of dominance among male deer, with larger antlers indicating superior strength. However, the listening challenges this view by stating that during territorial disputes, larger-antlered deer sometimes retreat first. This behavior contradicts the dominance signaling theory, implying that the size of antlers may not always correlate with dominance and could lead to unexpected outcomes during territorial confrontations.
学术讨论
Doctor:Let's discuss the role that being on a sports team plays in a child's development. Many argue that playing a team sport, such as basketball, football, or baseball, is an important experience that all children can benefit from in different ways. Conversely, others feel that the focus on team sports for children does more harm than good. What do you think? Is participation in team sports important for a child's development? Why or why not?
Kelly:Of course, children should participate in team sports! Not everyone is a great student. For many children, team sports are a chance to excel and build their confidence. They can recognize the importance of working hard to accomplish a goal, and this can transfer to other aspects of their lives.
Claire: I don't think participating in team sports is always a good thing. One reason is the bad behavior of parents during their children's competitions. Too many parents get overly invested and want to win more than their children do. To that end, they will argue with sports officials and referees and set a bad example for their children.
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