托福阅读修辞目的题典型题分析：例证类之一

？ In paragraph 5, why does the author mention the new trade route opened up by Vasco da Gamar’s fifteenth-century voyage around Africa?

o To provide evidence that European seafarers took every opportunity to bypass Middle Eastern merchants

o To present an instance in which Middle Eastern states lost money and power because of their reliance on long-distance trade

o To argue this new route became necessary when European seafarers wanted to avoid Middle Eastern states whose central power had begun to erode

o To explain how da Gama helped European traders avoid the dangerous predators prowling the areas surrounding Middle Eastern cities.

答案：B

解析：Vasco da Gamar所在句子由as occurred引导。通过as（就像）可知，as后引导的内容为前一句的例子，所以前一句为论点句。答案B是原句的同义替换。

 

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？ Paragraph 3: Glaciers are part of Earth's hydrologic cycle and are second only to the oceans in the total amount of water contained. About 2 percent of Earth's water is currently frozen as ice. Two percent may be a deceiving figure, however, since over 80 percent of the world's freshwater is locked up as ice in glaciers, with the majority of it in Antarctica. The total amount of ice is even more awesome if we estimate the water released upon the hypothetical melting of the world's glaciers. Sea level would rise about 60 meters. This would change the geography of the planet considerably. In contrast, should another ice age occur, sea level would drop drastically. During the last ice age, sea level dropped about 120 meters.

？ Why does the author consider the hypothetical melting of the world's glaciers?

o To contrast the effects of this event with the opposite effects of a new ice age

o To emphasize how much water is frozen in glaciers

o To illustrate the disastrous effects of a warming trend

o To support the claim that glaciers are part of Earth' s hydrologic cycle

答案：B

解析：hypothetical所在句归属if引导的条件句。此条件句为前面的主句The total amount…服务，用假设的情况重点突出冰川水的巨大容量。

 

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？ Paragraph 5: Even the kind of stability defined as simple lack of change is not always associated with maximum diversity. At least in temperate zones, maximum diversity is often found in mid-successional stages, not in the climax community. Once a redwood forest matures, for example, the kinds of species and the number of individuals growing on the forest floor are reduced. In general, diversity, by itself, does not ensure stability. Mathematical models of ecosystems likewise suggest that diversity does not guarantee ecosystem stability — just the opposite, in fact. A more complicated system is, in general, more likely than a simple system to break down. A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more likely to break down than a child’s tricycle. 

？ In paragraph 5, why does the author provide the information that “A fifteen-speed racing bicycle is more likely to break down than a child’s tricycle”?

o To illustrate a general principle about the stability of systems by using an everyday example

o To demonstrate that an understanding of stability in ecosystems can be applied to help understand stability in other situations

o To make a comparison that supports the claim that, in general, stability increases with diversity

o To provide an example that contradicts mathematical models of ecosystems 

答案：B

解析：从old-fashioned steam radiator所在句句首This is the same arrangement可以得出是对前面一句话的进一步说明。本段分析的是棱皮龟的逆交换系统，之所以提到老式蒸汽散热器，主要是用我们生活中熟知的事物来解释说明较难理解的学术概念。此题中棱皮龟的血管就相当于蒸汽散热器的盘管，两者的工作原理类似。

易错选项分析：C选项是比较容易选的错误选项。注意，文中从未提及过模仿的内容，所以不要自己脑补。

 

 

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？ Paragraph 6: In a countercurrent exchange system, the blood vessels carrying cooled blood from the flippers run close enough to the blood vessels carrying warm blood from the body to pick up some heat from the warmer blood vessels; thus, the heat is transferred from the outgoing to the ingoing vessels before it reaches the flipper itself. This is the same arrangement found in an old-fashioned steam radiator, in which the coiled pipes pass heat back and forth as water courses through them. The leatherback is certainly not the only animal with such an arrangement; gulls have a countercurrent exchange in their legs. That is why a gull can stand on an ice floe without freezing.

？ Why does the author mention old-fashioned steam radiator in the discussion of countercurrent exchange systems?

o To argue that a turtle's central heating system is not as highly evolved as that of other warm blooded animals

o To provide a useful comparison with which to illustrate how a countercurrent exchange system works

o To suggest that steam radiators were modeled after the sophisticated heating system of turtles

o To establish the importance of the movement of water in countercurrent exchange systems

答案：B

解析：从old-fashioned steam radiator所在句句首This is the same arrangement可以得出是对前面一句话的进一步说明。本段分析的是棱皮龟的逆交换系统，之所以提到老式蒸汽散热器，主要是用我们生活中熟知的事物来解释说明较难理解的学术概念。此题中棱皮龟的血管就相当于蒸汽散热器的盘管，两者的工作原理类似。

易错选项分析：C选项是比较容易选的错误选项。注意，文中从未提及过模仿的内容，所以不要自己脑补。

 

 

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？ Paragraph 4: The use of celebrities such as singers and movie stars is common in advertising. The intention is for the positively perceived attributes of the celebrity to be transferred to the advertised product and for the two to become automatically linked in the audience's mind. In children's advertising, the celebrities are often animated figures from popular cartoons. In the recent past, the role of celebrities in advertising to children has often been conflated with the concept of host selling. Host selling involves blending advertisements with regular programming in a way that makes it difficult to distinguish one from the other. Host selling occurs, for example, when a children's show about a cartoon lion contains an ad in which the same lion promotes a breakfast cereal. The psychologist Dale Kunkel showed that the practice of host selling reduced children's ability to distinguish between advertising and program material. It was also found that older children responded more positively to products in host selling advertisements.

？ In paragraph 4, why does the author mention a show about a cartoon lion in which an advertisement appears featuring the same lion character?

o To help explain what is meant by the term "host selling” and why it can be misleading to children

o To explain why the role of celebrities in advertising aimed at children has often been confused with host selling

o To compare the effectiveness of using animated figures with the effectiveness of using celebrities in advertisements aimed at children

o To indicate how Kunkel first became interested in studying the effects of host selling on children

答案：A

解析：由for example可知cartoon lion为例子，所以往前找到论点所在句。前一句是对host selling的定义，同时告诉我们host selling会使孩子难以与节目区分开来，所以例子更好地说明了host selling的意思以及它的误导性。

注意错误选项B，原文说the role of celebrities in advertising to children has often been conflated with the concept of host selling，但并未说confused。

 

 

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？ Paragraph 2: Economic exchange was clearly very important as the Roman army brought with it very substantial spending power. Locally a fort had two kinds of impact. Its large population needed food and other supplies. Some of these were certainly brought from long distances, but demands were inevitably placed on the local area. Although goods could be requisitioned, they were usually paid for, and this probably stimulated changes in the local economy. When not campaigning, soldiers needed to be occupied; otherwise they represented a potentially dangerous source of friction and disloyalty. Hence a writing tablet dated 25 April tells of 343 men at one fort engaged on tasks like shoemaking, building a bathhouse, operating kilns, digging clay, and working lead. Such activities had a major effect on the local area, in particular with the construction of infrastructure such as roads, which improved access to remote areas.

？ The author mentions “343 men at one fort engaged on tasks like shoemaking, building a bathhouse, operating kilns, digging clay, and working lead” in order to

o Describe the kinds of tasks soldiers were required to perform as punishment for disloyalty or misdeeds  

o Illustrate some of the duties assigned to soldiers to keep them busy and well-behaved when not involved in military campaigns

o Provide evidence that Roman soldiers had a negative effect on the local area by performing jobs that had been performed by native workers

o Argue that the soldiers would have been better employed in the construction of infrastructure such as roads

答案：B

解析：此句中的tasks like shoemaking, building a bathhouse, operating kilns, digging clay, and working lead与前一句的needed to be occupied构成一个语义总分关系，所以是前一句的例子。

注意错误选项A，虽有讲到tasks，但文章并没说是作为punishment。

 

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？ Paragraph3: Nomadism has further consequences. It means that pastoralist societies occupy and can influence very large territories. This is particularly true of the horse pastoralism that emerged in the Inner Eurasian steppes, for this was the most mobile of all major forms of pastoralism. So, it is no accident that with the appearance of pastoralist societies there appear large areas that share similar cultural, ecological, and even linguistic features. By the late fourth millennium B.C., there is already evidence of large culture zones reaching from Eastern Europe to the western borders of Mongolia. Perhaps the most striking sign of mobility is the fact that by the third millennium B.C., most pastoralists in this huge region spoke related languages ancestral to the modem Indo-European languages. The remarkable mobility and range of pastoral societies explain, in part, why so many linguists have argued that the Indo-European languages began their astonishing expansionist career not among farmers in Anatolia (present-day Turkey), but among early pastoralists from Inner Eurasia. Such theories imply that the Indo-European languages evolved not in Neolithic (10,000 to 3,000 B.C.) Anatolia, but among the foraging communities of the cultures in the region of the Don and Dnieper rivers, which took up stock breeding and began to exploit the neighboring steppes.

？ In paragraph 3, why does the author discuss languages spoken in the region spanning from Eastern Europe to the western borders of Mongolia?

o To emphasize the frequency with which Indo-European languages changed as a result of the mobile nature of pastoralism

o To indicate one method linguists use to determine that inhabitants of the Don and Dnieper river area had taken up stock breeding

o To provide evidence that Indo-European languages have their roots in what is now Turkey

o To provide evidence that pastoralist societies can exercise cultural influence over a large area

答案：D

解析：前句有提到随着pastoralist societies的出现，大片的区域都有着包括culture在内的共性。from Eastern Europe to the western borders of Mongolia与large areas，languages与culture都构成了语义总分，所以是例子。另外，若分析完段落结构也可发现，此段为总分结构，所有内容都在围绕pastoralist societies对大片领域都产生了影响，通过段落结构分析也能得出答案。

 

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？ Paragraph 6: All these diverse constituents are aggregated together to form chondritic meteorites, like Allende, that have chemical compositions much like that of the Sun. To compare the compositions of a meteorite and the Sun, it is necessary that we use ratios of elements rather than simply the abundances of atoms. After all, the Sun has many more atoms of any element, say iron, than does a meteorite specimen, but the ratios of iron to silicon in the two kinds of matter might be comparable. The compositional similarity is striking. The major difference is that Allende is depleted in the most volatile elements, like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and the noble gases, relative to the Sun. These are the elements that tend to form gases even at very low temperatures. We might think of chondrites as samples of distilled Sun, a sort of solar sludge from which only gases have been removed. Since practically all the solar system's mass resides in the Sun, this similarity in chemistry means that chondrites have average solar system composition, except for the most volatile elements; they are truly lumps of nebular matter, probably similar in composition to the matter from which planets were assembled. 

？ In paragraph 6, why does the author mention that "the Sun has many more atoms of any element, say iron, than does a meteorite specimen"?

o To show how difficult it is to compare the composition of a meteorite with that of the Sun

o To explain why a comparison of the compositions of a meteorite and of the Sun has to be done in terms of ratios of elements

o To identify the most common element in both the Sun and meteorite specimens

o To emphasize how much larger the Sun is than any meteorite specimen is

答案：B

解析：after all的英文解释是emphasize something to be considered。所以词句是对前一句的进一步强调和解释说明。

 

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？ Paragraph 5: Large wind farms might also interfere with the flight patterns of migratory birds in certain areas, and they have killed large birds of prey (especially hawks, falcons, and eagles) that prefer to hunt along the same ridge lines that are ideal for wind turbines. The killing of birds of prey by wind turbines has pitted environmentalists who champion wildlife protection against environmentalists who promote renewable wind energy. Researchers are evaluating how serious this problem is and hope to find ways to eliminate or sharply reduce this problem. Some analysts also contend that the number of birds killed by wind turbines is dwarfed by birds killed by other human-related sources and by the potential loss of entire bird species from possible global warming. Recorded deaths of birds of prey and other birds in wind farms in the United States currently amount to no more than 300 per year. By contrast, in the United States an estimated 97 million birds are killed each year when they collide with buildings made of plate glass, 57 million are killed on highways each year; at least 3.8 million die annually from pollution and poisoning; and millions of birds are electrocuted each year by transmission and distribution lines carrying power produced by nuclear and coal power plants.

？ In paragraph 5, why does the author give details about the estimated numbers of birds killed each year?

o To argue that wind farms should not be built along ridge lines 

o To point out that the deaths of migratory birds exceed the deaths of birds of prey 

o To explain why some environmentalists oppose wind energy 

o To suggest that wind turbines result in relatively few bird deaths 

答案：D

解析：数据与前句the number of birds killed by wind turbines构成语义总分，所以前一句是论点句。答案对dwarfed进行了同义替换。

 

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？ Paragraph 1: Joy and sadness are experienced by people in all cultures around the world, but how can we tell when other people are happy or despondent? It turns out that the expression of many emotions may be universal. Smiling is apparently a universal sign of friendliness and approval. Baring the teeth in a hostile way, as noted by Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century, may be a universal sign of anger. As the originator of the theory of evolution, Darwin believed that the universal recognition of facial expressions would have survival value. For example, facial expressions could signal the approach of enemies (or friends) in the absence of language.

？ The author mentions "Baring the teeth in a hostile way" in order to

o Differentiate one possible meaning of a particular facial expression from other meanings of it

o Support Darwin's theory of evolution

o Provide an example of a facial expression whose meaning is widely understood

o Contrast a facial expression that is easily understood with other facial expression

答案：C

解析：smiling、baring the teeth in a hostile way与It turns out这句话中的expression of many emotions构成语义总分，所以是这句话的例子。正确选项把原句的universal同义替换成了widely understood。