托福閱讀真題

1、托福閱讀真題3PASSAGE 3The Native Americans of northern California were highly skilled at basketry, using thereeds,grasses, barks, and roots they found around them to fashion articles of all sorts and sizesnot only trays, containers, and cooking pots, but hats, boats, fish traps, baby carriers, andceremoni

2、alobjects.Of all these experts, none excelled thePomo a group who lived on or near thecoastduring the 1800's, and whose descendants continue to live in parts of the same region to thisday. They made baskets three feet in diameter and others no bigger than a thimble. The Pomopeople were masters o

3、f decoration. Someof their baskets were completely covered with shellpendants; others with feathers that madethe baskets' surfaces as soft as the breasts of birds.Moreover, the Pomopeople madeuse of more weaving techniques than did their neighbors.Most groups made all their basketwork by twining

4、 the twisting of a flexible horizontal material,called a weft, around stiffer vertical strands of material, the warp. Others depended primarily oncoiling a process in which a continuous coil of stiff material is held in the desired shape withtight wrapping of flexible strands. Only the Pomopeople us

5、ed both processes with equal easeand frequency. In addition, they made use of four distinct variations on the basic twining process, often employing more than one of them in a single article.Although a wide variety of materials was available, the Pomo people used only a few. Thewarp was always madeo

6、f willow, and the most commonlyused weft was sedge root, a woody fiber that could easily be separated into strands no thicker than a thread. For color, the Pomopeople used the bark of redbud for their twined work and dyed bullrush root for black incoiled work. Though other materials were sometimes u

7、sed, these four were the staples in theirfinest basketry.If the basketry materials used by the Pomopeople were limited, the designs were amazingly varied. Every Pomo basketmaker knew how to produce from fifteen to twenty distinct patterns that could be combined in a number of different ways.1. What

8、best distinguished Pomo baskets from baskets of other groups(A) The range of sizes, shapes, and designs(B) The unusual geometric(C) The absence of decoration(D) The rare materials used2. The word "fashion" in line 2 is closest in meaning to(A) maintain(B) organize(C) trade(D) create3. The

9、Pomo people used each of the following materials to decorate baskets EXCEPT(A) shells(B) feathers(C) leaves(D) bark4. What is the author's main point in the second paragraph(A) The neighbors of the Pomo people tried to improve on the Pomo basket weaving techniques.(B) The Pomo people were the mo

10、st skilled basket weavers in their region.(C) The Pomopeople learned their basket weaving techniques from other Native Americans.(D) The Pomo baskets have been handed down for generations.5. The word "others " in line 9 refers to(A) masters(B) baskets(C) pendants(D) surfaces6. According to

11、 the passage , a weft is a(A) tool for separating sedge root(B) process used for coloring baskets(C) pliable maternal woven around the warp(D) pattern used to decorate baskets7. According to the passage , what did the Pomopeople use as the warp in their baskets(A) bullrush(B) willow(C) sedge(D) redb

12、ud8. The word "article" in line 17 is close in meaning to(A) decoration(B) shape(C) design(D) object9. According to the passage . The relationship between redbud and twining is most similar to the relationship between(A) bullrush and coiling(B) weft and warp(C) willow and feathers(D) sedge

13、 and weaving10. The word "staples" in line 23 is closest in meaning to(A) combinations(B) limitations(C) accessories(D) basic elements11. The word "distinct" in lime 26 is closest in meaning to(A) systematic(B) beautiful(C) different(D) compatible12. Which of the following statem

14、ents about Pomo baskets can be best inferred from the passage(A) Baskets produced by other Native Americans were less varied in design than those of the Pomo people.(B) Baskets produced by Pomo weavers were primarily for ceremonial purposes.(C) There were a very limited number of basketmaking materi

15、als available to the Pomo people.(D) The basketmaking production of the Pomo people has increased over the years.PASSAGE 4The term "Hudson River school" was applied to the foremost representatives ofnineteenth- century North American landscape painting. Apparently unknown during the golden

16、days of the American landscape movement, which began around 1850 and lasted until the late1860's, the Hudson River school seems to have emerged in the 1870's as a direct result of thestruggle between the old and the new generations of artists, each to assert its own style as the representati

17、ve American art. Theolder painters, most of whom were born before 1835,practiced in a mode often self-taught and monopolized by landscape subject matter and were securelyestablished in and fostered by the reigning American art organization, the NationalAcademy ofDesign. The younger painters returnin

18、g home from training in Europe worked more with figuralsubject matter and in a bold and impressionistic technique; their prospects for patronage in theirown country were uncertain, and they sought to attract it by attaining academic recognition inNew York. One of the results of the conflict between

19、the two factions was that whatin previousyears had been referred to as the "American", "native", or, occasionally, "New York" school themost representative school of American art in any genre had by 1890 become firmlyestablished in the minds of critics and public alike

20、as the Hudson River school.The sobriquet was first applied around 1879. While it was not intended as flattering, it washardly inappropriate. The Academicians at whomit was aimed had worked and socialized inNew York, the Hudson's port city, and had painted the river and its shores with varyingfre

21、quency. Most important, perhaps, was that they had all maintained with a certain fidelity amanner of technique and composition consistent with those of America's first popularlandscape artist, Thomas Cole,who built a career painting the Catskill Mountainscenerybordering the Hudson River. A possi

22、ble implication in the term applied to the groupof landscapists was that many of them had, like Cole,lived on or near the banks of the Hudson.Further, the river had long served as the principal route toother sketching grounds favored bythe Academicians, particularly the Adirondacks and the mountains

23、 of Vermont and New Hampshire.1. What does the passage mainly discuss(A) The National Academy of Design(B) Paintings that featured the Hudson River(C) North American landscape paintings(D) The training of American artists in European academies2. Before 1870, what was considered the most representati

24、ve kind of American painting(A) Figural painting(B) Landscape painting(C) Impressionistic painting(D) Historical painting3. The word "struggle" in line 5 is closest in meaning to(A) connection(B) distance(C) communication(D) competition4. The word "monopolized" in line 7 is closest in meaning to(A) alarmed(B) dominated(C) repelled(D) pursued5. According to the passag