托福阅读：掌握事实信息题的秘诀
回顾托福阅读的所有题型，其中有2种题型占据的比例----“词汇题”和“事实信息题”，前者每一场考试大约考察10-12题左右，而后者大约也会考察12题左右。因此，从每一场考试的39-42题总量上来看，这两种题型就占据了半壁江山。从难度系数上来看事实信息题的难度明显高于词汇题。那么，今天笔者打算简单谈一谈该题型的解决方法。
托福阅读备考之事实信息题讲解
1.提问方式：
Accordingto paragraph…which of the following statements is true of/concerned with/related to X?
例：According toparagraph 1,what was true of the Sahara region around 6,000 B.C.?(TPO 28 EarlySaharan Pastoralists)
Accordingto paragraph…why/how/what….?
例：According to paragraph 1,why is playdifficult to define?(TPO 30 Role of Playin Development)
分析：通过以上两种不同提问方式可以总结出该题型有以下几个特点：
1).该题型是就某段话当中的某个细节信息(即提问方式1中的X)进行提问。
2).该题型可以围绕该细节信息的不同方面进行提问，通过特殊疑问词which;what;why;how可以看出。
3).由于题干中未出现infer;suggest;indicate等字样，所以该题型旨在考察文本信息的字面含义，无需考生进行文本的隐含意推理。
2.解题步骤：
Step 1:读题干，找出定位词
注意：如果是提问方式1,那么定位词则是位于介词of/with/to后面的信息。
如果是提问方式2,那么定位词一般是名词，并且是非主题性的名词(当然定位词不一定只能找一个，一般可以找2到3个，因为定位词越多相对定位的位置也会越。)
例：
Accordingto paragraph 2,which of the following presents a particular challenge toresearchers who study play behavior in animals?(TPO30 Role of Play in Development)
分析：通过提问方式类似于第1种提问方式，其实题干可以改写成whichof the following statements is true of the challenge to researchers who…因此，定位词应该是位于介词of后面的challenge toresearchers。至于后面的playbehavior就不需要了，因为它属于通篇的主题词。
Accordingto paragraph 4,how did the Catholic Church react to the introduction ofmechanical clocks?(TPO 30 The Inventionof Mechanical Clock)
分析：通过提问方式属于第2种提问方式，因此考生们应该在题干中找出名词部分，考生们可以看到两组名词：CatholicChurch和MechanicalClocks,并且这两组词都是我们所需要的定位词。
Paragraph5 answers which of the following questions about mechanical clocks.(TPO 30 The Invention of Mechanical Clock)
分析：通过题干找出题干中一疑似的定位词组Mechanical Clocks,但是却发现整篇文章都在讨论MechanicalClocks。这种类型的提问方式是考生们怕看到的，因为定位词无效。此刻建议考生们可以反过来先读选项，然后根据选项中的定位词回读段落寻找答案。
Step 2:通过题干中定位词回原文进行定位。
注意：在定位的过程中考生们可能会遇到以下2个问题：
问题1：定位词在原文中可能是非原文原词(如果是专有名词一般在原文中就是原文原词，但如果是普通名词则有可能是非原文原词)。
例1：定位词为原文原词的情况
Paragraph 1:Evolutionary biologists believe thatspeciation,the formation of a new species,often begins when some kind ofphysical barrier arises and divides a population of a single species intoseparate subpopulations.Physical separation between subpopulations promotesthe formation of new species because once the members of one subpopulation canno longer mate with members of another subpopulation,they cannot exchangevariant genes that arise in one of the subpopulations.In the absences of geneflow between the subpopulations,genetic differences between the groups beginto accumulate.Eventually the subpopulations become so genetically distinctthat they cannot interbreed even if the physical barriers between them wereremoved.At this point the subpopulations have evolved into distinct species.This route to speciationis known as allopatry(“alio-”means“different”，and“patria”means“homeland”).(TPO31 Speciationin Geographically Isolated Populations)
Q:According to paragraph 1,allopatric speciation involveswhich of the following?
分析：此题干中的定位词为allopatric speciation,为专有名词，在原文中为原文原词，即后一句话为定位句。
例2：定位词为非原文原词的情况
Paragraph 2:Playappears to be a developmental characteristic of animals with fairlysophisticated nervous systems,mainly birds and mammals.Play has been studiedmost extensively in primates and canids(dogs).Exactly why animals play isstill a matter debated in the research literature,and the reasons may not bethe same for every species that plays.Determining the functions of play is difficultbecause the functions may be long-term,with beneficial effects not showing upuntil the animal's adulthood.(TPO30 Role of Play in Development)
According toparagraph 2,which of the following presents a particular challenge toresearchers who study play behavior in animals?
O The delay between activities and the benefitsthe animal derives from them.
O The difficulty in determining which animalspecies play and which do not.
O The fact that for most animals,there is noclear transition from youth to full adulthood.
O The lack of research on the play behavior ofanimals other than canids and primates.
分析：此题干中的定位词为challenge&researchers,在原文中考生们无法找到这两个定位词，但是可以找到challenge的同义替换形式difficult,因此该句即是我们所需要的定位句。
问题2：定位词在原文中出现不止一次。
Paragraph 7:Occasionally,a sequence offossil-rich layers of rock permits a comprehensive look at one type of organismover a long period of time.For example,Peter Sheldon's studies of trilobites,a now extinct marineanimal with a segmented body,offer a detailed glimpse into three million yearsof evolution in one marine environment.In that study,each of eight different trilobitespecies was observed to undergo a gradual change in the number of segments---typically an increase of one or two segments over the whole time interval.Nosignificant discontinuous were observed,leading Sheldon to conclude thatenvironmental conditions were quite stable during the period he examined.(TPO30 The Pace of Evolutionary Change)
According toparagraph 7,Peter Sheldon’s studies demonstrated which of the following abouttrilobites?
O They underwent gradual change over a longtime period
O They experienced a number of discontinuoustransitions during their history
O They remained unchanged during a long periodof environmental stability
O They evolved in ways that cannot be countedfor by either of the two competing theories.
分析：通过题干找出定位词Peter Sheldon&trilobites,然后回读原文进行定位，考生们会发现这两组定位词在原文中分别出现2次。因此，考生们需要定位的范围变大，难度由此也加大了。这种类型的事实信息题是考生们在考场上不愿意看到的一种，但是很不幸的是由新的几套TPO中的例题显示这种类型的题目正在变多，所以朗阁海外考试研究中心的专家请各位考生平时在练习时加大这种类型的考题的练习。
Step3:比较定位句与选项的内容，选出语义接近的选项。
注意：1).考生们所看到的定位句可能是一个非常长的句子，而选项相对比较简短，所以考生们一定要学会从长难句中截取你所需要的能回答问题的部分。简单点说就是比如题干中问你why….;那么，此时考生们在分析原文定位句时应该重点看because这种能够解释的部分。
2).考生们在比较定位句与选项时切忌不能随意推理，只需要把握文本的字面意思即可。
例1：
Paragraph 3:To what extent competition determines the composition of acommunity and the density of particular species has been the source ofconsiderable controversy.The problem is that competition ordinarily cannot beobserved directly but must be inferred from the spread or increase of onespecies and the concurrent reduction or disappearance of another species.TheRussian biologist G.F.Gause performed numerous two-species experimentsin the laboratory,in which one of the species became extinct when only asingle kind of resource was available.On the basis of these experiments and offield observations,the so-called law of competitive exclusion was formulated,according to which no two species can occupy the same niche.Numerousseeming exceptions to this law have since been found,but they can usually beexplained as cases in which the two species,even though competing for a majorjoint resource,did not really occupy exactly the same niche.(TPO 29 Competition)
Paragraph 3 supports the idea that Gause’s experiments were importantbecause they
O provided a situation in whichcompetition could be removed from the interaction between two species
O showed that previous ideasabout the extent to which competition determines the composition of a communitywere completely mistaken
O helped establish thatcompetition will remove all but one species from any given ecological niche
O offered evidence thatcompetition between species is minimal when there is an overabundance of asingle food source
解题步骤：
1).读题干，找出定位词Gause’s experiments,然后把握题目问的内容是有关于G的实验的importance。
2).通过定位词回到原文进行定位，位于第三句话。但是第三句只提到了定位词之一，接下来的第四句中提到了由此形成了一个law,可以对应题干中想问的importance。
3).第3句和第4句两句定位句的大意为“当只有一种食物来源被提供时，两种物种中的一种会消亡。参照这些实验和观察就形成了竞争互斥规律----没有哪两种物种可以占据同样的生态圈”，接下来浏览四个选项，发现C选项大意吻合----确定了竞争将会移除其他所有的物种在任何一个生态圈里面。
例2：
As railroad linesfanned out from Chicago,farmers began to acquire open prairie land in Illinois andthen Iowa,putting the fertile,deep black soil into production.Commercialagriculture transformed this remarkable treeless environment.To settlersaccustomed to eastern woodlands,the thousands of square miles of tall grasswere an awesome sight.Indian grass,Canada wild rye,and native big bluestemall grew higher than a person.Because eastern plows could not penetrate thedensely tangled roots of prairie grass,the earliest settlers erected farmsalong the boundary separating the forest from the prairie.In 1837,however,John Deere patented a sharp-cutting steel plow that sliced through the sodwithout soil sticking to the blade.Cyrus McCormick refined a mechanical reaperthat harvested fourteen times more wheat with the same amount of labor.By the1850s McCormick was selling 1,000 reapers a year and could not keep up withdemand,while Deere turned out 10,000 plows annually.(TPO 33 Railroads andCommercial Agriculture in Nineteenth-Century United States)
Accordingto paragraph 5,the firstsettlersgenerally did not farm open prairie land because
A.they could not plow it effectively with the tools that were available.
B.prairie land was usually very expensive to buy.
C.the soil along boundaries between the forest and the prairie was more fertile thanthe soil of the open prairie.
D.the railroad lines had not yet reached the open prairie when the first settlersarrived.
解题步骤：
1).读题干，找出定位词settlers&open prairie land,并且抓住题干问的重点是because
2).根据定位词定位到句和第三句这样的语义群，这样的语义群可以给我们提供一个大范围定位，然后接下来考生们在第四句里看到了because,所以第四句就是我们需要的定位点。
3).定位句的语义大约为“因为东部的耕种工具无法穿透这里的根部缠结在一起的草，因此，早期的定居者们将农场建立在了远离草原的边界地区。”接下来浏览四个选项，只有A选项提到了因为耕作工具的原因，所以选择A选项。
3.总结：
1).此种题型必须要先阅读题干，摸清题干所问的具体内容，然后再读文章进行定位
2).此种题型既可以只考察某一个特定的定位句理解;同时也可以考察2-3个定位句范围的意群理解。但无论怎样，考生不是漫无目的地搜索，而是根据题干有目的性地寻找答案。
托福阅读材料：如何延长友情的“保质期”
1.Make time for friendships.Nothing makes closeness fade away more than never talking to or seeing each other.While some bonds of friendship may be strong enough to span long silences,most aren't.If you cherish a person's friendship,make time for him or her,whether it's just the occasional phone call,e-mail or a weekly get-together.
为朋友腾出时间。不交流，也不见面会让朋友日渐疏远。尽管有的友谊足够牢固，经得起长时间冷却，但大多数是不行的。如果你珍惜一人友情，就为他或她留出时间。不管是偶尔打个电话，或是发一封邮件，又或是周末聚会。
1)On your computer at home or work,make a note to"call friends"regularly.
在你公司或家里的电脑上贴个便条“给朋友打电话”。
2)Keep a Post-it note on the phone,the bathroom mirror,the car dashboard,anywhere you're likely to see it.
贴张便条在电话上，浴室的镜子上，或汽车挡板上，任何你可能看到的地方。
3)Also make sure your friends'phone numbers are programmed into your phone.Then call a friend when you have a spare 10 minutes.
确认你电话里存有朋友的电话号码，有空的时候给朋友打个电话。
4)Schedule a regular once-a-month lunch?same time,same place.
定期安排一个月一次的午餐，同一时间，同一地点。
2.Remember:a true friend doesn't flee when changes occur.Nothing is sadder for new parents than to find that their single friends have abandoned them because of the baby.A good friend is one who stays true through it all?marriage,parenthood,new jobs,new homes,any losses.Just because a situation's changed doesn't mean the person has.
记住：真正是朋友是在发生变故时仍留在你身边。没有什么比这更难过了，刚当爸妈却发现他们的单身朋友因为他们有了小孩就放弃了他们。好朋友是能够经历一切的：结婚，生儿育女，新工作，新家庭，任何损失。因为情况改变了并不意味人改变了。
3.Make sure you aren't being a burden to a friend.Friendships fade away if there isn't an equilibrium between the give and the take.Be sensitive to how much your friend can and can't offer you?be it time,energy or help?and don't overstep the mark.And vice versa:friendships that drain you will not last.If a friendship is out of balance,talk the situation through.
确保你不会成为朋友的负担。如果付出和回报不平衡，友谊会逐渐褪色。对于哪些朋友能给予哪些不能给予要很敏感—无论是时间，精力或帮助，不要逾越界限，反之亦然。拖后腿的友谊不会长久的。如果友谊失去了平衡，就要说出来。
4.Be a good listener.It can be the hardest thing in the world to do?simply to listen as he or she pours it all out or is seeking your advice or opinion.To be a better listener,follow this advice:
做一个好的聆听者。这也许是世界上最难的事情—只是听他或她的倾诉或是向你寻求建议。做一位好的聆听者，有以下建议：
1)Maintain eye contact.Offer nods and murmurs to indicate that you understand his or her point of view.
保持眼神交流。时不时的点头和低语表明你了解他的观点。
2)Don't finish your friend's sentences.If you catch yourself planning your response while your friend is still talking,gently remind yourself to focus.
不要插话。如果当朋友在讲话时你正准备回应，提醒你自己集中精力。
3)Minimize distractions?don't write or read e-mails,open the mail or watch television while you're on the phone to your friend.He or she will hear the lack of interest in your responses.
尽量减少分心—当你在接朋友电话时不要写或阅读电子邮件，打开邮件或看电视。他或她会在你的回答中听到冷漠。
4)Be careful with advice.Assume your friend wants to let off steam,not necessarily ask for a plan of action.
提供建议需谨慎。假使你的朋友只是想发泄不满，不一定是寻求行动的计划。
5.Be in your friend's corner if he or she's not there to defend him or herself.If you're at a gathering at which someone mentions your friend disparagingly,defend him or her against gossip or criticism.Say,"Mary is my friend,and it makes me feel bad to hear you talk this way."Sooner or later,news of your loyalty will travel back to your pal,and it will deepen your friendship.
当朋友不在场时要站出来为他们辩护。当你站在一群人中正在说你朋友的坏话，你要站出来为他辩护，说，“玛丽是我的朋友，你们这样说她，我感觉很不好。”早晚，你朋友会知道你对友情的忠诚，而且会加深你们的友谊。
托福阅读背景知识：美国的历史
关于美国的历史
The continent's first inhabitants walked into North America across what is now the Bering Strait from Asia.For the next 20,000 years these pioneering settlers were essentially left alone to develop distinct and dynamic cultures.In the modern US,their descendants include the Pueblo people in what is now New Mexico;Apache in Texas;Navajo in Arizona,Colorado and Utah;Hopi in Arizona;Crow in Montana;Cherokee in North Carolina;and Mohawk and Iroquois in New York State.
The Norwegian explorer Leif Eriksson was the first European to reach North America,some 500 years before a disoriented Columbus accidentally discovered'Indians'in Hispaniola(now the Dominican Republic and Haiti)in 1492.By the mid-1550s,much of the Americas had been poked and prodded by a parade of explorers from Spain,Portugal,England and France.
The first colonies attracted immigrants looking to get rich quickly and return home,but they were soon followed by migrants whose primary goal was to colonize.The Spanish founded the first permanent European settlement in St Augustine,Florida,in 1565;the French moved in on Maine in 1602,and Jamestown,Virginia,became the first British settlement in 1607.The first Africans arrived as'indentured laborers'with the Brits a year prior to English Puritan pilgrims'escape of religious persecution.The pilgrims founded a colony at Plymouth Rock,Massachusetts,in 1620 and signed the famous Mayflower Compact-a declaration of self-government that would later be echoed in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.British attempts to assert authority in its 13 North American colonies led to the French and Indian War(1757-63).The British were victorious but were left with a nasty war debt,which they tried to recoup by imposing new taxes.The rallying cry'no taxation without representation'united the colonies,who ceremoniously dumped caffeinated cargo overboard during the Boston Tea Party.Besieged British general Cornwallis surrendered to American commander George Washington five years later at Yorktown,Virginia,in 1781.In the 19th century,America's mantra was'Manifest Destiny.'A combination of land purchases,diplomacy and outright wars of conquest had by 1850 given the US roughly its present shape.In 1803,Napoleon dumped the entire Great Plains for a pittance,and Spain chipped in with Florida in 1819.The Battle of the Alamo during the 1835 Texan Revolution paved the way for Texan independence from Mexico,and the war with Mexico(1846-48)secured most of the southwest,including California.
The systematic annihilation of the buffalo hunted by the Plains Indians,encroachment on their lands,and treaties not worth the paper they were written on led to Native Americans being herded into reservations,deprived of both their livelihoods and their spiritual connection to their land.Nineteenth-century immigration drastically altered the cultural landscape as settlers of predominantly British stock were joined by Central Europeans and Chinese,many attracted by the 1849 gold rush in California.The South remained firmly committed to an agrarian life heavily reliant on African American slave labor.Tensions were on the rise when abolitionist Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860.The South seceded from the Union,and the Civil War,by far the bloodiest war in America's history,began the following year.The North prevailed in 1865,freed the slaves and introduced universal adult male suffrage.Lincoln's vision for reconstruction,however,died with his assassination.America's trouncing of the Spaniards in 1898 marked the USA's ascendancy as a superpower and woke the country out of its isolationist slumber.
The US still did its best not to get its feet dirty in WWI's trenches,but finally capitulated in 1917,sending over a million troops to help sort out the pesky Germans.Postwar celebrations were cut short by Prohibition in 1920,which banned alcohol in the country.The 1929 stock-market crash signaled the start of the Great Depression and eventually brought about Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal,which sought to lift the country back to prosperity.After the Japanese dropped in uninvited on Pearl Harbor in 1941,the US played a major role in defeating the Axis powers.Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 not only ended the war with Japan,but ushered in the nuclear age.The end of WWII segued into the Cold War-a period of great domestic prosperity and a surface uniformity belied by paranoia and betrayal.Politicians like Senator Joe McCarthy took advantage of the climate to fan anticommunist flames,while the USSR and USA stockpiled nuclear weapons and fought wars by proxy in Korea,Africa and Southeast Asia.Tensions between the two countries reached their peak in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The 1960s was a decade of profound social change,thanks largely to the Civil Rights movement,Vietnam War protests and the discovery of sex,drugs and rock&roll.The Civil Rights movement gained momentum in 1955 with a bus boycott in Montgomery,Alabama.As a nonviolent mass protest movement,it aimed at breaking down segregation and regaining the vote for disfranchised Southern blacks.The movement peaked in 1963 with Martin Luther King Jr's'I have a dream speech'in Washington,DC,and the passage of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act.Meanwhile,America's youth were rejecting the conformity of the previous decade,growing their hair long and smoking lots of dope.'Tune in,turn on,drop out'was the mantra of a generation who protested heavily(and not disinterestedly)against the war in Vietnam.Assassinations of prominent political leaders-John and Robert Kennedy,Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr-took a little gloss off the party,and the American troops mired in Vietnam took off the rest.NASA's moon landing in 1969 did little to restore national pride.In 1974 Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign from office,due to his involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate burglaries,bringing American patriotism to a new low.
The 1970s and'80s were a period of technological advancement and declining industrialism.Self image took a battering at the hands of Iranian Ayatollah Khomeni.A conservative backlash,symbolized by the election and popular two-term presidency of actor Ronald Reagan,sought to put some backbone in the country.The US then concentrated on bullying its poor neighbors in Central America and the Caribbean,meddling in the affairs of El Salvador,Nicaragua,Panama and Grenada.The collapse of the Soviet Bloc's'Evil Empire'in 1991 left the US as the world's sole superpower,and the Gulf War in 1992 gave George Bush the opportunity to lead a coalition supposedly representing a'new world order'into battle against Iraq.Domestic matters,such as health reform,gun ownership,drugs,racial tension,gay rights,balancing the budget,the tenacious Whitewater scandal and the Monica Lewinsky'Fornigate'affair tended to overshadow international concerns during the Clinton administration.In a bid to kickstart its then-ailing economy,the USA signed NAFTA,a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico,in 1993,invaded Haiti in its role of upholder of democracy in 1994,committed thousands of troops to peacekeeping operations in Bosnia in 1995,hosted the Olympics in 1996 and enjoyed,over the past few years,the fruits of a bull market on Wall St.The 2000 presidential election made history by being the most highly contested race in the nation's history.
The Democratic candidate,Al Gore,secured the majority of the popular vote but lost the election when all of Florida's electoral college votes went to George W Bush,who was ahead of Gore in that state by only 500 votes.Demands for recounts,a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court in favor of partial recounts,and a handful of lawsuits generated by both parties were brought to a halt when the US Supreme Court split along party lines and ruled that all recounts should cease.After five tumultuous weeks,Bush was declared the winner.The early part of Bush's presidency saw the US face international tension,with renewed violence in the Middle East,a spy-plane standoff with China and nearly global disapproval of US foreign policy with regard to the environment.On the domestic front,a considerably weakened economy provided challenges for national policymakers.Whether the US can continue to hold onto its dominant position on the world stage and rejuvenate its economy remains to be seen.
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