2024年4月27日发(作者：)

TOEFL托福阅读理解真题

为了让大家更好的预备托福考试，我给大家整理一些托福阅读真

题，下面我就和大家共享，来观赏一下吧。

托福阅读真题1

It is estimated that over 99 percent of all species that ever existed

have become extinct. What causes extinction? When a species is no

longer adapted to a changed environment, it may perish. The exact

causes of a species death vary from situation to situation. Rapid

ecological change may render an environment hostile to a species. For

example, temperatures may change and a species may not be able to

adapt. Food resources may be affected by environmental changes, which

will then cause problems for a species requiring these resources. Other

species may become better adapted to an environment, resulting in

competition and, ultimately, in the death of a species.

The fossil record reveals that extinction has occurred throughout

the history of Earth. Recent analyses have also revealed that on some

occasions many species became extinct at the same time — a mass

extinction. One of the best-known examples of mass extinction occurred

65 million years ago with the demise of dinosaurs and many other forms

of life. Perhaps the largest mass extinction was the one that occurred

225 million years ago, when approximately 95 percent of all species died,

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mass extinctions can be caused by a relatively rapid change in the

environment and can be worsened by the close interrelationship of many

species. If, for example, something were to happen to destroy much of

the plankton in the oceans, then the oxygen content of Earth would drop,

affection even organisms not living in the oceans. Such a change would

probably lead to a mass extinction.

One interesting, and controversial, finding is that extinctions during

the past 250 million years have tended to be more intense every 26

million years. This periodic extinction might be due to intersection of the

Earths orbit with a cloud of comets, but this theory is purely speculative.

Some researchers have also speculated that extinction may often be

random. That is, certain species may be eliminated and others may

survive for no particular reason. A species survival may have nothing to

do with its ability or inability to adapt. If so, some of evolutionary history

may reflect a sequence of essentially random events.

1. The word it in line 3 refers to

(A) environment

(B) species

(C) extinction

(D) 99 percent

2. The word ultimately in line 8 is closest in meaning to

(A) exceptionally

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(B) dramatically

(C) eventually

(D) unfortunately

3. What does the author say in paragraph 1 regarding most species

in Earths history

(A) They have remained basically unchanged from their original

forms.

(B) They have been able to adapt to ecological changes.

(C) They have caused rapid change in the environment.

(D) They are no longer in existence.

4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 1 as

resulting from rapid ecological

change?

(A) Temperature changes

(B) Availability of food resources

(C) Introduction of new species

(D) Competition among species

5. The word demise in line 12 is closest in meaning to

(A) change

(B) recovery

(C) help

(D) death

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6. Why is plankton mentioned in line 17?

(A) To demonstrate the interdependence of different species.

(B) To emphasize the importance of food resources in preventing

mass extinction.

(C) To illustrate a comparison between organisms that live on the

land and those that live in the

ocean.

(D) To point out that certain species could never become extinct.

7. According to paragraph 2, evidence from fossils suggests that

(A) Extinction of species has occurred from time to time throughout

Earths history.

(B) Extinctions on Earth have generally been massive

(C) There has been only one mass extinction in Earths history.

(D) Dinosaurs became extinct much earlier than scientists originally

believed.

8. The word finding in line 20 is closest in meaning to

(A) published information

(B) research method

(C) ongoing experiment

(D) scientific discovery

9. Which of the following can be inferred about the theory

mentioned in Line 21-23?

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(A) Many scientists could be expected to disagree with it.

(B) Evidence to support the theory has recently been found.

(C) The theory is no longer seriously considered.

(D) Most scientists believe the theory to be accurate.

10. In paragraph 3, the author makes which of the following

statements about a species survival?

(A) It reflects the interrelationship of many species.

(B) It may depend on chance events.

(C) It does not vary greatly from species to species

(D) It is associated with astronomical conditions.

11. According to the passage , it is believed that the largest

extinction of a species occurred

(A) 26 million years ago

(B) 65 million years ago

(C) 225 million years ago

(D) 250 million years ago

PASSAGE 77 BCDCD AADAB C

托福阅读真题2

Archaeological discoveries have led some scholars to believe that

the first Mesopotamian inventors of writing may have been a people the

later Babylonians called Subarians. According to tradition, they came

from the north and moved into Uruk in the south. By about 3100 B.C.,

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they were apparently subjugated in southern Mesopotamia by the

Sumerians, whose name became synonymous with the region

immediately north of the Persian Gulf, in the fertile lower valleys of the

Tigris and Euphrates. Here the Sumerians were already well established

by the year 3000 B.C. They had invented bronze, an alloy that could be

cast in molds, out of which they made tools and weapons. They lived in

cities, and they had begun to acquire and use capital. Perhaps most

important, the Sumerians adapted writing (probably from the Subarians)

into a flexible tool of communication.

Archaeologists have known about the Sumerians for over 150 years.

Archaeologists working at Nineveh in northern Mesopotamia in the

mid-nineteenth century found many inscribed clay tablets. Some they

could decipher because the language was a Semitic one (Akkadian), on

which scholars had already been working for a generation. But other

tablets were inscribed in another language that was not Semitic and

previously unknown. Because these inscriptions made reference to the

king of Sumer and Akkad, a scholar suggested that the new language be

called Sumerian.

But it was not until the 1890s that archaeologists excavating in

city-states well to the south of Nineveh found many thousands of tablets

inscribed in Sumerian only. Because the Akkadians thought of Sumerian

as a classical language (as ancient Greek and Latin are considered today),

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they taught it to educated persons and they inscribed vocabulary,

translation exercises, and other study aids on tablets. Working from

known Akkadian to previously unknown Sumerian, scholars since the

1890s have learned how to read the Sumerian language moderately well.

Vast quantities of tablets in Sumerian have been unearthed during the

intervening years from numerous sites.

1. According to the passage , the inventors of written language in

Mesopotamia were probably

the

(A) Babylonians

(B) Subarians

(C) Akkadians

(D) Sumerians

2. The word subjugated in line 4 is closest in meaning to

(A) distinguished

(B) segregated

(C) concentrated

(D) conquered

3. The phrase synonymous with in line 5 is closest in meaning to

(A) equivalent to

(B) important for

(C) respected in

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