下面,朗阁海外考试研究中心的专家截取了TPO 3 Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer的两道词汇题,我们来一起分析一下托福阅读词汇的重点。
Paragraph 4: This unprecedented development of a finite groundwater resource with an almost negligible natural recharge rate—that is, virtually no natural water source to replenish the water supply—has caused water tables in the region to fall drastically.
1)The word “unprecedented” in the passage is closest in meaning to
○Difficult to control
○Without any restriction
○Unlike anything in the past
○Rapidly expanding
2)The word “virtually” in the passage is closest in meaning to
○Clearly ○Perhaps ○Frequently ○Almost
第二题:*逻辑关系猜测,不难发现,这句话有两个信号都告诉我们这个单词的意思,一个是:that is,而另一个是:”—” 破折号。这两个信号起着一个作用,那就是解释说明,所以virtually的意思在这句话的前面出现了,就是almost,所以答案是D。除此之外,我们还要知道:in other words, put it in another way, that is to say, 括号,冒号,define, definition, call, refer to as都是表示下定义或是对前面内容解释说明的意思。
朗阁海外考试研究中心的专家在此列举TPO 1 The Origin of Theatre的一道句子简化题。
For example, some early societies ceased to consider certain rites essential to their well-being and abandoned them, nevertheless, they retained as parts of their oral tradition the myths that had grown up around the rites and admired them for their artistic qualities rather than for their religious usefulness.
○A society’s rites were more likely to be retained in the oral tradition if its myths were admired for artistic qualities.
○The artistic quality of a myth was sometimes an essential reason for a society to abandon it from the oral tradition.
○Some early societies stopped using myths in their religious practices when rites ceased to be seen as useful for social well-being.
○Myths sometimes survived in a society’s tradition because of their artistic qualities even after they were no longer deemed religiously beneficial.
这个句子长达四行文字,句中出现了一个转折连词nevertheless,说明句中是转折关系。主语是some early societies,谓语动词是ceased和abandoned,这两个词用and相连,abandoned后面的them,肯定指的就是ceased后面提到的一个复数名词:rites。所以这句话的前半句就是:早期社会不再觉得宗教仪式对他们的幸福重要了并且放弃了宗教仪式。Nevertheless后面的代词they,指的是主句的主语:some early societies,谓语动词是retained和admired也是用and相连,所以admired后面的them,指的是retained后面提到的复数名词:myths,所以后半句的意思是:但是早期社会保留了神话作为口头传统的一部分并且是因为它的艺术性而不是宗教的实用性才崇拜神话。