托福考試閲讀真題
對於托福考試來説，做題不是做過一遍就算了，而是必須反覆練習，精讀精練。接下來，不妨去實際操練一下往年的託福閲讀真題吧。還有更多託福閲讀資訊盡在應屆畢業生考試網。
2016年9月24日託福閲讀真題詞彙題：
1. Wrought=created
2. Peculiar=unusual
3. Temporarily=briefly
4. Relatively=comparatively
5. Permeated=spread throughout
6. Precede=occur before
7. Resemble=be similar to
8. Distortion=irregularities
9. Cultivate=encourage the growth of
10. Duties=responsibility
11. Chronological=time
2016年9月24日託福閲讀真題第一篇 有袋動物(Marsupial)生命類
原文回顧：有袋動物是現存動物裏一種活的化石，第一段講了有袋動物的定義(就是肚子上有個袋，裝着它們的孩子)。當地球大陸還相連的時候，m這種動物一直與p動物競爭。到後來m的數量越來越少，以至於只在澳洲和南美才有。再後來因為板塊漂移運動，澳大利亞獨立。M沒有了天敵，種類開始多樣化，大袋鼠小老鼠等。後面又説，一般認為m很久很久居住在北美，但是其實它們是歐洲人殖民北美以後才搬過去的，但是很少受到人類活動的影響：人類活動把狼，包子各種天地除掉了，加上各種垃圾給它們提供食物，m數量也來越多。
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相關背景學習：
Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to these species is that most of the young are carried in a pouch. Well-known marsupials include kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, possums, opossums, wombats, and Tasmanian devils. Others include the numbat, the bandicoot, the bettong, the bilby, the quoll, and the quokka.
Marsupials represent the clade originating from the last common ancestor of extant metatherians. Like other mammals in the Metatheria, they give birth to relatively undeveloped young that often reside with the mother in a pouch, for a certain amount of time. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur on the Australian continent (the mainland, Tasmania, New Guinea and nearby islands). The remaining 100 are found in the Americas — primarily in South America, but thirteen in Central America, and one in North America, north of Mexico.
Taxonomically, the two primary divisions of Marsupialia are: American and Australian marsupials. The order Microbiotheria (which has only one species, the monito del monte) is found in South America, but is believed to be more closely related to Australian marsupials. There are many small arboreal species in each group. The term "opossum" is used to refer to American species (though "possum" is a common diminutive), while similar Australian species are properly called "possums". Again, shrew opossums are more closely related to australidephians than to true opossums.
2016年9月24日託福閲讀真題第二篇 印刷術帶來的發展 歷史類
原文回顧：印刷術早發明於德國，然後再歐洲各個國家主要城市廣泛運用。隨着大眾需求的上升，press開始廣泛印刷書籍，並且開始使用各國的方言包括德語法語等語言)，而不是學術使用的Latin and Greek被上述語言，成了少部分使用的語言工具。這些語言的使用也讓歐洲人形成了民族認同感，慢慢的，書籍開始與policy無關，而僅僅取決於人們自己的需求。而且印刷的問世帶來了許多的書籍，以前的手稿只能人手一份，而且不能編輯，不利於文化交流。有了印刷之後，可以出版更多權威的書籍，列舉亞里士多德的例子。另外press不僅僅是印刷的地方，而是各種功能的集合體。
相關背景學習
Printing is a process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest examples include Cylinder seals and other objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The earliest known form of woodblock printing came from China dating to before 220 A.D. Later developments in printing include the movable type, first developed by Bi Sheng in China. Johannes Gutenberg introduced mechanical movable type printing to Europe in the 15th century. His printing press played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.
Modern large-scale printing is typically done using a printing press, while small-scale printing is done free-form with a digital printer. Though paper is the most common material, it is also frequently done on metals, plastics, cloth and composite materials. On paper it is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.
2016年9月24日託福閲讀真題第三篇 一種會發電信號的魚 生命類
原文回顧：這篇閲讀重複了2016年7月9日的一篇文章，而且在2015年9月5日也相同出現過。該魚發出的電信號實用性強。它可以幫助魚類定位找到準確的出口，可以幫助魚類內部相互交流和互動。比如魚類之間的交配行為，雌魚和雄魚能夠根據對方發出的信號確認是否合適。它也是魚類進攻和示弱的表現。這個電信號可以有多種方式來體現;比如加強，停頓，減弱。魚類為了信號不互相干擾，會停掉自己的信號去檢測其他魚的信號，但是這一個過程持續時間比較短。這種魚屬於交流時間迅速的一類。但也不是所有魚為了識別其他魚而停止釋放自己的'信號。還有另一種魚可以同時注意自己和身邊的魚的輕快。
原文部分重現
Weak Electric Systems In Fish
1. Some blind elephantnose fish produce weak electric signals that are used for detecting objects in their surroundingsa phenomenon called active electrolocation. These fish have specialized electric organs that discharge either in pulses or in a wave-like fashion, depending on the species. Although discharges follow one another almost continuously throughout the life of the fish, their power level is much too low to be detected by human handlers but potent enough to create a stable electric field around the body of the fish. When an object enters into this electric field, it causes distortions in the current that are detected by electroreceptor organs distributed over the fish's skin.
2. A weak electric system may have several uses, including the exploration of novel environments. For example, blind elephantnose fish can easily find the only opening that allows them to cross through a newly installed partition within their aquarium, even though they cannot see it with their eyes. Their electric sense must be implicated because when these individuals become electrically silent (unable to use their electric system through denervation of their electric organs), they can no longer find the opening.
3. During the 1970s, biologists became interested in the role of the weak electric system not only as a means of electrolocation but also as a means of electrical communication between individual fish. Communication is possible because the rate and waveform of the electric discharges can vary between species, between sexes, between individuals, or even between situations in the same individual. Moreover, some fish can temporarily interrupt their normally continuous train of discharges, and these pauses can be full of meaning. The effective range of communication by electric signals can reach a little over 1 meter depending on water resistance.
第一段：弱電系統的背景知識以及運作的過程
第二段：弱電系統的幾種用法，舉例：探索新環境
第三段：生物學家發現弱電系統的新功能：個體間交流，論證這種功能的可能性
第四段：弱電系統的新功能：同類繁殖
第五段：弱電系統的新功能：與侵略性有關
第六段：(第三段引出)問題，解決問題(兩種帶電接收器)，舉例：一種魚類的交流過程
第七段：介紹了一種魚類的行為(防止干擾弱電系統而作出的迴應)，以及這種迴應實現的過程
相關背景學習
Electromagnetic field receptors (ampulla of Lorenzini) and motion detecting canals in the head of a shark
Active electrolocation. Conductive objects concentrate the field and resistive objects spread the field.
Electroreception, or electroception, is the ability to detect electric fields or currents. Some fish, such as catfish and sharks, have organs that detect weak electric potentials on the order of millivolts. Other fish, like the South American electric fishes Gymnotiformes, can produce weak electric currents, which they use in navigation and social communication. In sharks, the ampulla of Lorenzini are electroreceptor organs. They number in the hundreds to thousands. Sharks use the ampullae of Lorenzini to detect the electromagnetic fields that all living things helps sharks (particularly the hammerhead shark) find prey. The shark has the greatest electrical sensitivity of any animal. Sharks find prey hidden in sand by detecting the electric fields they produce. Ocean currents moving in the magnetic field of the Earth also generate electric fields that sharks can use for orientation and possibly navigation.
Electric field proximity sensing is used by the electric catfish to navigate through muddy waters. These fish make use of spectral changes and amplitude modulation to determine factors such shape, size, distance, velocity, and conductivity. The abilities of the electric fish to communicate and identify sex, age, and hierarchy within the species are also made possible through electric fields. EF gradients as low as 5nV/cm can be found in some saltwater weakly electric fish
The paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) hunts plankton using thousands of tiny passive electroreceptors located on its extended snout, or rostrum. The paddlefish is able to detect electric fields that oscillate at 0.5–20 Hz, and large groups of plankton generate this type of signal. See: Electroreceptors in paddlefish
Electric fishes use an active sensory system to probe the environment and create active electrodynamics imaging
In 1973, it was shown that Atlantic salmon have conditioned cardiac responses to electric fields with strengths similar to those found in oceans. "This sensitivity might allow a migrating fish to align itself upstream or downstream in an ocean current in the absence of fixed references."
Magnetoception, or magneto reception, is the ability to detect the direction one is facing based on the Earth's magnetic field. In 1988, researchers found iron, in the form of single domain magnetite, resides in the skulls of sockeye salmon. The quantities present are sufficient for magnetoception
