托福（TOEFL）考试阅读模拟试题（4）
Questions 11-20
Philosophy in the second half of the 19th century was based more on biology and history than on mathematics and physics. Revolutionary thought drifted away from metaphysics and epistemology and shifted more towards ideologies in science, politics, and sociology. Pragmatism became the most vigorous school of thought in American philosophy during this time, and it continued the empiricist
tradition of grounding knowledge on experience and stressing the inductive procedures of experimental science. The three most important pragmatists of this period were the American philosophers Charles Peirce (1839-1914), considered to be the first of the American pragmatists, William James (1842-1910), the first great American psychologist, and John Dewey (1859-1952), who further developed the pragmatic principles of Peirce and James into a comprehensive system of thought that he called “experimental naturalism”, or “instrumentalism”.
Pragmatism was generally critical of traditional western philosophy, especially the notion that there are absolute truths and absolute values. In contrast, Josiah Royce (1855-1916), was a leading American exponent of idealism at this time, who believed in an absolute truth and held that human thought and the external world were unified. Pragmatism called for ideas and theories to be tested in practice, assessing whether they produced desirable or undesirable results. Although pragmatism was popular for a time in Europe, most agree that it epitomized the American faith in know-how and practicality, and the equally American distrust of abstract theories and ideologies. Pragmatism is best understood in its historical and cultural context. It arose during a period of rapid scientific advancement, industrialization, and material progress; a time when the theory of evolution suggested to many thinkers that humanity and society are in a perpetual state of progress. This period also saw a decline in traditional religious beliefs and values. As a result, it became necessary to rethink fundamental ideas about values, religion, science, community, and individuality. Pragmatists regarded all theories and institutions as tentative hypotheses and solutions.
According to their critics, the pragmatist’s refusal to affirm any absolutes carried negative implications for society, challenging the foundations of society’s institutions.
11. What is this passage primarily about?
(a) the evolution of philosophy in the second half of the 19th
century
(b) the three most important American pragmatists of the late 19th century
(c) the differences between pragmatism and traditional western philosophy
(d) American pragmatism
12. Which of the following is true
(a) idealism was an important part of the pragmatic approach
(b) “pragmatism” was also known as “traditional western philosophy”
(c) pragmatism continued the empiricist tradition
(d) pragmatism is best understood independently of its historical and cultural context
13. Which of the following is true, according to the passage
(a) absolute truths and values are notions in western traditional philosophy
(b) John Dewey was the first great American psychologist
(c) the empiricist tradition is part of traditional western
philosophy
(d) revolutionary thought was not pragmatic
14. The phrase “at this time” in line 14 refers to
(a) at the time traditional western philosophy was dominant in
America
(b) at the time pragmatism was popular in Europe
0308 托福试题 阅读( 55minutes ) Question 1-11 seen in putrefying materials .He did (10) this by passing air through guncotton filters, the fibers of which stop solid particles. After the guncotton was dissolved in a mixture of alcohol and ether, the particles that it had trapped fell to the bottom of the liquid and were examined on a microscope slide .Pasteur found that in ordinary air these exists a variety of solid structures ranging in size from 0.01 mm to more than 1.0 mm .Many of these bodies resembled the reproductive (15) structures of common molds, single-celled animals, and various other microbial cells . As many as 20 to 30 of them were found in fifteen If food is allowed to stand for some time, putrefies .When the putrefied material is examined microscopically ,it is teeming with bacteria. Where do these bacteria come from , since they are fresh food? Even until the mid-nineteenth century, many people believed microorganisms originated by spontaneous (5 ) generation ,a hypothetical living organisms develop from nonliving matter. The most powerful spontaneous generation microbiologist Louis showed that structures present in air closely found not that it to be seen in such process by which of the theory of French chemist and opponent was the Pasteur(1822-1895).Pasteur resemble the microorganisms
2020年托福阅读模拟试题及答案（卷九） 托福阅读文本： The Native American peoples of the north Pacific Coast created a highly complex maritime culture as they invented modes of production unique to their special environment. In addition to their sophisticated technical culture, they also attained one of the most complex social organizations of any nonagricultural people in the world. In a division of labor similar to that of the hunting peoples in the interior and among foraging peoples throughout the world, the men did most of the fishing, and the women processed the catch. Women also specialized in the gathering of the abundant shellfish that lived closer to shore. They collected oysters, crabs, sea urchins, mussels, abalone, and clams, which they could gather while remaining close to their children. The maritime life harvested by the women not only provided food, but also supplied more of the raw materials for making tools than did fish gathered by the men. Of particular importance for the native tool kit before the introduction of metal was the wide knife made from the larger mussel shells, and a variety of cutting edges that could be made from other marine shells. The women used their tools to process all of the fish and marine mammals brought in by the men. They cleaned the fish, and dried vast quantities of them for the winter. They sun-dried fish when practical, but
0308 托福试题 阅读（55minutes） Question 1-11 If food is allowed to stand for some time, it putrefies .When the putrefied material is examined microscopically ,it is found to be teeming with bacteria. Where do these bacteria come from , since they are not seen in fresh food? Even until the mid-nineteenth century, many people believed that such microorganisms originated by spontaneous (5 ) generation ,a hypothetical process by which living organisms develop from nonliving matter. The most powerful opponent of the theory of spontaneous generation was the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur(1822-1895).Pasteur showed that structures present in air closely resemble the microorganisms seen in putrefying materials .He did (10) this by passing air through guncotton filters, the fibers of which stop solid particles. After the guncotton was dissolved in a mixture of alcohol and ether, the particles that it had trapped fell to the bottom of the liquid and were examined on a microscope slide .Pasteur found that in ordinary air these exists a variety of solid structures ranging in size from 0.1 mm to more than 1.0 mm .Many of these bodies resembled the reproductive (15)structures of common molds, single-celled animals, and various other microbial cells . As many as 20 to 30 of them were found in fifteen liters of ordinary air ,and they could not be distinguished from the organisms found in much larger numbers in putrefying materials .Pasteur concluded that the organisms found in putrefying materials originated from the organized bodies present in the air .He postulated that
托福（TOEFL）考试阅读模拟试题（4） Questions 11-20 Philosophy in the second half of the 19th century was based more on biology and history than on mathematics and physics. Revolutionary thought drifted away from metaphysics and epistemology and shifted more towards ideologies in science, politics, and sociology. Pragmatism became the most vigorous school of thought in American philosophy during this time, and it continued the empiricist tradition of grounding knowledge on experience and stressing the inductive procedures of experimental science. The three most important pragmatists of this period were the American philosophers Charles Peirce (1839-1914), considered to be the first of the American pragmatists, William James (1842-1910), the first great American psychologist, and John Dewey (1859-1952), who further developed the pragmatic principles of Peirce and James into a comprehensive system of thought that he called “experimental naturalism”, or “instrumentalism”. Pragmatism was generally critical of traditional western philosophy, especially the notion that there are absolute truths and absolute values. In contrast, Josiah Royce (1855-1916), was a leading American exponent of idealism at this time, who believed in an absolute truth and held that human thought and the external world were unified. Pragmatism called for ideas and theories to be tested in practice, assessing whether they produced desirable or undesirable results. Although pragmatism was popular for a time in Europe, most agree that it epitomized the American faith in know-how and practicality, and the equally American distrust of abstract theories and ideologies. Pragmatism is best understood in its historical and cultural context. It arose during a period of rapid scientific advancement, industrialization, and material progress; a time when the theory of evolution suggested to many thinkers that humanity and society are in a perpetual state of progress. This period also saw a decline in traditional religious beliefs and values. As a result, it became necessary to rethink fundamental ideas about values, religion, science, community, and individuality. Pragmatists regarded all theories and institutions as tentative hypotheses and solutions.
2019托福阅读：模拟试题及答案解析（6） 【托福】 Although only 1 person in 20 in the Colonial period lived in a city, the cities had a disproportionate influence on the development of North America. They were at the cutting edge of social change. It was in the cities that the elements that can be associated with modern capitalism first appeared — the use of money and commercial paper in place of barter, open competition in place of social deference and hierarchy, with an attendant rise in social disorder, and the appearance of factories using coat or water power in place of independent craftspeople working with hand tools. "The cities predicted the future," wrote historian Gary. B. Nash, "even though they were but overgrown villages compared to the great urban centers of Europe, the Middle East and China." Except for Boston, whose population stabilized at about 16,000 in 1760, cities grew by exponential leaps through the eighteenth century. In the fifteen years prior to the outbreak of the War for independence in 1775, more than 200,000 immigrants arrived on North American shores. This meant that a population the size of Boston was arriving every year, and most of it flowed into the port cities in the Northeast. Philadelphia's population nearly doubted in those years, reaching about 30,000 in 1774, New York grew at almost the same rate, reaching about 25,000 by 1775. The quality of the hinterland dictated the pace of growth of the cities. The land surrounding Boston had always been poor farm country, and by the mid-eighteenth century it
托福阅读真题100篇原文+题目(一) 托福阅读在备考的过程中，大家可以多找一些真题来进行练习 PASSAGE 1 By the mid-nineteenth century, the term icebox had entered the American language, but icewas still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice tradegrew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by someforward-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, halfthe ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston andChicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new householdconvenience, 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 nineteenthcentury, 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 icefrom 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 theice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve thedelicate 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 righttrack. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the villageof Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport hisbutter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff
2020年托福阅读模拟试题及答案（卷七） 托福阅读文本： Aviculturists, people who raise birds for commercial sale, have not yet learned how to simulate the natural incubation of parrot eggs in the wild. They continue to look for better ways to increase egg production and to improve chick survival rates. When parrots incubate their eggs in the wild, the temperature and humidity of the nest are controlled naturally. Heat is transferred from the bird's skin to the top portion of the eggshell, leaving the sides and bottom of the egg at a cooler temperature. This temperature gradient may be vital to successful hatching. Nest construction can contribute to this temperature gradient. Nests of loosely arranged sticks, rocks, or dirt are cooler in temperature at the bottom where the egg contacts the nesting material. Such nests also act as humidity regulators by allowing rain to drain into the bottom sections of the nest so that the eggs are not in direct contact with the water. As the water that collects in the bottom of the nest evaporates, the water vapor rises and is heated by the incubating bird, which adds significant humidity to the incubation environment. In artificial incubation programs, aviculturists remove eggs from the nests of parrots and incubate them under laboratory conditions. Most commercial incubators heat the eggs fairly evenly from top to bottom,
0308托福试题 阅读（55minutes） Question 1-11 If food is allowed to stand for some time, it putrefies .When the putrefied material is examined microscopically ,it is found to be teeming with bacteria. Where do these bacteria come from , since they are not seen in fresh food? Even until the mid-nineteenth century, many people believed that such microorganisms originated by spontaneous (5 ) generation ,a hypothetical process by which living organisms develop from nonliving matter. The most powerful opponent of the theory of spontaneous generation was the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur(1822-1895).Pasteur showed that structures present in air closely resemble the microorganisms seen in putrefying materials .He did (10) this by passing air through guncotton filters, the fibers of which stop solid particles. After the guncotton was dissolved in a mixture of alcohol and ether, the particles that it had trapped fell to the bottom of the liquid and were examined on a microscope slide .Pasteur found that in ordinary air these exists a variety of solid structures ranging in size from 0.01 mm to more than 1.0 mm .Many of these bodies resembled the reproductive (15)structures of common molds, single-celled animals, and various other microbial cells . As many as 20 to 30 of them were found in fifteen liters of ordinary air ,and they could not be distinguished from the organisms found in much larger numbers in putrefying materials .Pasteur concluded that the organisms found in putrefying materials originated from the organized bodies present in the air .He postulated that these bodies are constantly (20)being deposited on all objects. Pasteur showed that if a nutrient solution was sealed in a glass flask and heated to boiling to destroy all the living organisms contaminating it, it never putrefied .The proponents of spontaneous generation declared that fresh air was necessary for spontaneous generation and that the air inside the sealed flask was affected in some way (25)by heating so that it would no longer support spontaneous generation. Pasteur constructed a swan-necked flask in which putrefying materials could he heated to boiling, but air could reenter. The bends in the neck prevented microorganisms from getting in the flask.. Material sterilized in such a flask did not putrefy. 1,What does the passage mainly discuss? (a)Pasteur’s influence on the development of the microscope. (b)The origin of the theory of spontaneous generation . (c)The effects of pasteurization on food. (d)Pasteur’s argument agai nst the theory of spontaneous generation . 2,The phrase “teeming with ”in line 2 is closest in meaning to (a)full of (b)developing into (c)resistant to (d)hurt by 3,Which of the following questions did the theory of spontaneous generation attempt to answer? (a)What is the origin of the living organisms are seen on some food? (b)How many types of organisms can be found on food? (c)What is the most effective way to prepare living organisms for microscopic examination? (d)How long can food stand before it putrefies? 4,The word “resemble” in line 9 is closest in meaning to
托福真题库：托福考试真题测试(3) 31. (A) Places the man has visited. (B) A paper the woman is writing for a class. (C) School activities they enjoy. (D) The woman's plans for the summer. 32. (A) She has never been to Gettysburg. (B) She took a political science course. (C) Her family still goes on vacation together. (D) She's interested in the United States Civil War. 33. (A) Why her parents wanted to go to Gettysburg. (B) Why her family's vacation plans changed ten years ago. (C) Where her family went for a vacation ten years ago. (D) When her family went on their last vacation. 34. (A) It's far from where she lives. (B) Her family went there without her. (C) She doesn't know a lot about it. (D) She's excited about going there.
The observation of the skies has played a special part in the lives and cultures of peoples since the earliest of times. Evidence obtained from a site known as the Hole in the Rock, in Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona, indicates that it might have been used as an observatory by a prehistoric people known as the Hohokam. The physical attributes of the site allow its use as a natural calendar/clock. The "hole" at Hole in the Rock is formed by two large overhanging rocks coming together at a point, creating a shelter with an opening large enough for several persons to pass through. The northeast－facing overhang has a smaller opening in its roof. It is this smaller hole that produces the attributes that may have been used as a calendar/clock. Because of its location in the shelter's roof, a beam of sunlight can pass through this second hole and cast a spot onto the shelter's wall and floor. This spot of light travels from west to east as the sun moves across the sky. It also moves from north to south and back again as the Earth travels around the Sun, the west－to－east movement could have been used to establish a daily clock, much like a sundial, while the north－to－south movement could have been used to establish a seasonal calendar. The spot first appears and starts down the surface of the wall of the shelter at different times of the morning depending on the time of the year. The spot grows in size from its first appearance until its maximum size is achieved roughly at midday. It then continues its downward movement until it reaches a point where it jumps to the floor of the shelter. As the Sun continues to move to the west, the spot continues to move across the shelter floor and down the butte, or hill, toward a group of small boulders. If a person is seated on a certain one of these rocks as the spot reaches it, the Sun can be viewed through the calendar hole. This occurs at different times in the afternoon depending on the time of year. 1. What does the passage mainly discuss? （A） observations of the stars by ancient people （B） rock formations of Arizona （C） a site used by ancient people to measure time （D） the movement of the earth around the Sun 2. The word "obtained" in line 2 is closest in meaning to （A） acquired （B） transported （C） covered （D） removed
The Extinction of the Dinosaurs million years ago) and the Paleocene period (65..C55 million years ago) in part by the types and amounts of rocks and fossils they contain or lack. Before the limit of 65 million years ago，marine 2.strata are rich in calcium carbonate due to accumulations of fossils of microscopic algae deposited on the sea floor. Above the 65-million-year limit，sea-floor sediments contain much less calcium carbonate ，and fossils of several families of mollusks are no longer found. In continental sediments ，dinosaur fossils ，though frequent before 65 million years ago ，are totally absent. By 3.contrast，new families of mammals appear，including large mammals for the first time. Scientists wondered for many years about what could have caused the dinosaurs' rapid disappearance at the end of the Cretaceous period，coming up with a great variety of theories and scenarios. For some, it could have been due to unfavorable genetic changes triggered by a dramatic increaseby a factor of 10，100，1，000 in cosmic-ray particles reaching the Earth after a supernova explosion somewhere in the neighborhood of the solar system. For these high-energy particles to affect life，they would have to get through the protective barrier of the Earth's magnetosphere ，the region of the upper atmosphere controlled by Earth's magnetic field. That could have happened if the cloud of particles from the supernova explosion reached the Earth during a period when the magnetosphere was weakened ， something that may happen when the Earth's magnetic field changes direction. And we know that the magnetic north and south poles of the Earth switch on the average twice every million years. However，this is not the only possible explanation for dinosaur destruction . 4.Other theories have raised the possibility of strong climate changes in the tropics (but they then must be explained) . Certainly，if climate changes，the changed distributions of temperature and rainfall modify the conditions that favor one ecosystem over another. The extinction of a particular family，genus，or species may result from a complicated chain of indirect causes and effects. Over thirty years ago ，scientist Carl Sagan quoted one suggestion that the demise of the dinosaurs resulted from the disappearance of a species of fern plant that was important for dinosaur digestion. Other theories involved a worldwide cold wave following the spread of a layer of cold but not very salty water in the world's oceans ，which floated on the surface because，with its low salinity，the water was less dense. 5.Proponents of another theory that remains under consideration today postulate that the extinction of the dinosaurs corresponds to a period of intense volcanic activity. It's not a question of just one or even of a thousand eruptions comparable to the explosion of Krakatoa in 1883，one of the largest volcanic events in modern times ，but rather of a prolonged period of activity. On the Deccan plateau in India，basalt (volcanic) rocks cover more than 500，000 square kilometers (nearly 200，000 square miles)，and correspond to massive lava outflows occurring precisely at the end of the Cretaceous. This sort of outflow could correspond to volcanic activity similar to the activity that drives sea-floor spreading ，with lava emerging from elongated fractures in the crust rather than from craters. 6.The volcanic convulsion that buried the Deccan plateau in lava must also have changed the composition of the atmosphere and severely affected climate. Initially，there must have been strong sudden cooling resulting from the blocking of sunlight by sulfate aerosol veils in the