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托福阅读素材:玛雅的衰落

托福考试 托福阅读 托福备考

  托福阅读对于很多正在备考的同学们来说,托福阅读的备考是至关重要的,那么接下来就和出国留学网一起来看看托福阅读素材:玛雅的衰落。

  托福阅读考试日期:

  2018年6月30日

  新托福阅读题目回忆:

  (重复2017-05-07,2017-11-25,2016-12-03)

  文明衰落引起很多人的研究兴趣。其中一个理论是认为高强度的农业造成了生态系统的崩溃:玛雅人口的数量和密度都比较大,为了供养这些人口,玛雅人从事高强度的农业,对土地施加的压力越来越大,最终造成生态系统极其脆弱,在不可预知的气候变化来临时崩溃了。也有人认为人口与农业只是导火索,更加直接的使得玛雅文明灭绝的原因在于食物短缺:因为玛雅农业主要依靠一种在沼泽里抬起来的高地系统,一年四季都可以进行农业生产,因为流失的土壤营养可以通过高地周围的水渠底部挖泥,再把泥巴堆回到高地而循环获取,前提条件是水渠里必须有稳定的水位,而严重的干旱大大降低了水位使得高地农田系统不再起作用,这是天灾,有地质证据证明,玛雅文明消失和历史一次大干旱时间相同;除此之外也有人祸,玛雅各城邦猛烈竞争,竞相修建起纪念碑,耗费了大量的人力物力,使得农业生产充满压力。

  推荐阅读:

  托福阅读素材:记忆储存

  托福阅读素材:人脸识别

  托福阅读背景素材:罗宋汤

...

与托福阅读素材相关的托福阅读

托福阅读素材:职场妈妈

托福考试 托福阅读 托福阅读素材

  托福阅读的高分是离不开平时对于托福阅读素材的积累,那么接下来就和出国留学网一起来看看托福阅读素材:职场妈妈。

  The real reason why more women don’t rise to the top of companies

  职场金字塔,女性为何越来越难以登顶?

  IN “BORGEN”, a Danish television drama, the country’s first female prime minister returns home late each night to domestic bliss. Her stay-at-home husband stacks the dishes and massages her back. The children cheer her televised speeches. But before long her son is seeing a shrink, the neglected hubby is having an affair and our heroine is throwing furniture around her office.

  在丹麦电视剧《权利的堡垒》中,国家的首位女总理每天很晚才能到家享受天伦之乐。她的家庭煮夫会收拾好了碗碟贴心唤她回家,她的孩子们为她在电视里的精彩演讲而欢呼。但好景不长,不久后她的儿子便被带去看心理医生了,她那被冷落的丈夫也有了外遇,而我们的女英雄只能悲愤得在办公室里摔家具。

  Rarely has there been so much angst about women reaching the top. In the Atlantic magazine last month, Anne-Marie Slaughter, the first female director of policy planning at America’s State Department, declared that women cannot successfully combine a super-demanding job with bringing up young children. (She quit Washington, DC, to return to academia.) This month a British member of Parliament, Louise Mensch, resigned, saying it was too hard to juggle job and family. Yet the news is not all grim. In July Yahoo!, a struggling internet firm, picked a 37-year-old from Google, Marissa Mayer, who is expecting a baby in October, as its new boss.

  处于事业巅峰的女性有这么多的痛苦困扰也不多见。在上个月的《大西洋月刊》里,美国国务院政策规划司首位女司长Anne-Marie Slaughter(她已经退出华盛顿政坛回归到学术界)...

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2018年托福阅读精选素材:微型机器人

托福考试 托福阅读 托福阅读素材

  对于托福考试的同学来说,不知道对于托福阅读素材积累得怎么样呢?下面就和出国留学网的小编来看看2018年托福阅读精选素材:微型机器人。

  Air travel

  Mechanical engineers

  Tiny robots will inspect and fix jet engines from the inside

  航空旅行

  机械工程师

  微型机器人将从内部检修喷气式发动机

  IF YOU are reading this while sitting in an aircraft and are of a nervous disposition, do not be alarmed, but the temperature inside the jet engines keeping you aloft probably exceeds the melting point of the materials that those engines are made from. That they do not consequently turn into a molten mess is a feat of modern engineering. It involves a combination of tough alloys and advanced production techniques, such as 3D printing, which allow components to be made with tiny channels through which cooling air circulates. Parts exposed to the most extreme temperatures, which can reach more than 1,300°C, are given additional protection with a coating of special heat-resisting ceramics.

  如果你看这篇文章时正在坐飞机,而你是个比较容易紧张的人,请不要因为接下来的文字而惊慌:带你在高空飞行的喷气式发动机内部的温度之高,可能要超过发动机制造材料的熔点。但发动机并没有因此而熔化成一堆烂铁,实在是现代工程技术的一项重大成就。这包括坚固的合金和先进的生产工艺,比如3D打印。3D打印能制造出带有细微通道的零部件,冷却用的空气可在这些通道中流通。那些暴露在最极端温度——可能超过1300°C——中的零部件还会被包裹上一层特殊的耐热陶瓷,作为额外的保护措施。

  New jet engines are designed to run hot because that results in a more complete combustion, which lowers fuel consumption and cuts emissions. Hot engines, though, need nurturing. Nowadays the three big aircraft-engine makers, General Electric (GE), Rolls-Royce and Pratt &...

与托福阅读素材相关的托福阅读

托福阅读素材:一切始于一个细胞

托福考试 托福阅读 托福阅读素材

  对于托福阅读素材的积累,一方面是提高对于英文的敏感以及熟练,其次也是培养自己的语感,那么下面就和出国留学网的小编一起来看看托福阅读素材:一切始于一个细胞。

  Unruly origins

  Beginnings, and how to spot them

  It all starts with a single cell

  放肆的开端

  开端,以及如何发现它们

  一切都开始于一个细胞

  DIANE MILLEY, a teacher, remembers getting the small, dry cough just before school broke up(词汇)for the summer in 2013. She wasn’t worried: she considered herself generally healthy—she ran three times a week and went to the gym. Her doctor in Bradford, Massachusetts, put her on a course of antibiotics. When they didn’t work she had an X-ray. It showed nodules(词汇)across her lungs. A bronchoscopy(词汇)was ordered to retrieve a tissue sample(词汇) from her lung. As she came round from the anaesthetic she remembers overhearing two medical staff talking. One said “It’s malignant.” She had late-stage lung cancer.戴安·米莉(Diane Milley)是一名教师。她记得2013年夏天学校临放假前,她开始轻微的干咳。她并没有放在心上——她觉得自己总体上很健康,每周跑步三次还去健身房。马萨诸塞州布拉德福德的医生对她用了一个疗程的抗生素。治疗无效后她拍了一张X光片,显示她的肺部存在结节。随后医生让她做支气管镜检查,从她的肺部提取组织样本。当她从麻醉中醒来时,听到两名医务人员在说话。其中一人说:“是恶性的。”她患的是晚期肺癌。

  Ms Milley’s body, like all human bodies, contained tens of trillions of copies of her genome. In theory, all those copies should be more or less the same. In practice, over the years, they all get knocked around(句型) in different ways. The oxygen that powers cell metabolism(词汇)damages the DNA on which the genes are stored as a matter of course; so do background radiation and exposure to the...

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托福阅读素材:科学将打赢抗击癌症的技术战

托福考试 托福阅读 托福素材

  平时对于托福阅读素材的积累,说不定会在考试时能够运用到,那么下面就和出国留学网的小编一起来看看托福阅读素材:科学将打赢抗击癌症的技术战。

  Health care

  Closing in on cancer

  Science will win the technical battle against cancer. But that is only half the fight

  医疗保健

  围攻癌症

  科学将打赢抗击癌症的技术战。但那只是战场的一半

  THE numbers are stark. Cancer claimed the lives of 8.8m people in 2015; only heart disease caused more deaths. Around 40% of Americans will be told they have cancer during their lifetimes. It is now a bigger killer of Africans than malaria. But the statistics do not begin to capture the fear inspired by cancer’s silent and implacable cellular mutiny. Only Alzheimer’s exerts a similar grip on the imagination.数字是惨烈的。2015年癌症夺走了880万人的生命,只有因心脏病死亡的人数比这更高。约40%的美国人一生中会被告知罹患癌症。对于非洲人来说,如今癌症比疟疾的杀伤力更大。但是统计数据远远不能体现癌症带来的恐惧——细胞变异悄无声息地发生着,却绝不留情。只有阿尔茨海默症能如此抓住人的想像力。

  Confronted with this sort of enemy, people understandably focus on the potential for scientific breakthroughs that will deliver a cure. Their hope is not misplaced. Cancer has become more and more survivable over recent decades owing to a host of advances, from genetic sequencing to targeted therapies. The five-year survival rate for leukemia in America has almost doubled, from 34% in the mid-1970s to 63% in 2006-12. America is home to about 15.5m cancer survivors, a number that will grow to 20m in the next ten years. Developing countries have made big gains, too: in parts of Central and South America, survival ...

与托福阅读素材相关的托福阅读

托福阅读素材:互联网免费经济

托福考试 托福阅读 托福阅读素材

  平时对于托福阅读素材的积累,以及通过阅读素材来练习自己的阅读速度以及了解英语思维是非常重要的,那么下面就和出国留学网的小编一起来看看托福阅读素材:互联网免费经济。

  Free exchange

  Priceless

  Free stuff on the internet comes at a cost

  自由交流

  道是无价却有价

  互联网免费午餐有代价

  FACEBOOK, whose users visit for an average of 50 minutes a day, promises members: “It’s free and always will be.” It certainly sounds like a steal. But it is only one of the bargains that apparently litter the internet: YouTube watchers devour 1bn hours of videos every day, for instance. These free lunches do come at a cost; the problem is calculating how much it is. Because consumers do not pay for many digital services in cash, beyond the cost of an internet connection, economists cannot treat these exchanges like normal transactions. The economics of free are different.

  Facebook的用户平均每天花50分钟使用该网站。它“免费,且永远免费”的承诺对用户来说无疑像捡了个大便宜。表面上看,互联网上净是这种“大便宜”,Facebook只是其中之一——YouTube的观众每天观看视频的时间总计多达10亿小时。这些免费午餐确实是有代价的,问题在于如何计算这些代价。除了连接互联网的费用,消费者没有为很多数字服务付费,经济学家因而不能将这类交换视为常规交易。免费服务的经营模式有所不同。

  Unlike conventional merchants, companies like Facebook and Google have their users themselves produce value. information and pictures uploaded to social networks draw others to the site. Online searches, selections and “likes” teach algorithms what people want. (Now you’ve bought “The Communist Manifesto”, how about a copy of “Das Kapital”?)

  有别于传统商家,Facebook 和谷歌这样的公司让用户自己来为它们创造价值。上传到社交网络的信息和图片会将其他人吸引过来。在线搜索、选择和“点赞”让算...

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托福阅读素材:中欧铁路新路线将改变贸易模式

托福考试 托福阅读 托福备考

  托福阅读水平的提高不是一朝一夕的事情,而是一场持久战,而平时的积累就是至关重要的,那么下面就和出国留学网的小编一起来看看托福阅读素材:中欧铁路新路线将改变贸易模式。

  Logistics

  Freight gain

  New rail routes between China and Europe will change trade patterns

  物流

  货运发展

  中欧之间的新铁路线将改变贸易模式

  ASTANA in Kazakhstan is one of the world’s most remote capitals, surrounded by thousands of kilometres of empty steppe. This summer Astana attempted to launch itself onto the global stage by hosting the World Expo, which closed on September 10th and underwhelmed many attendees. But there are other ways to have an impact. On the city’s north side, away from the Expo’s exhibits, a series of diesel trains, each pulling dozens of containers, roll through the old railway station. Most are heading from China to Europe. Last year over 500,000 tonnes of freight went by train between the two, up from next to nothing before 2013. Airlines and shipping firms are watching things closely. 哈萨克斯坦的阿斯塔纳(Astana)是世界上最偏僻的首都之一,周围是绵延数千公里的空旷大草原。今年夏天,阿斯塔纳主办了世博会,试图借此登上国际舞台。世博会于9月10日闭幕,并未给许多参会者留下深刻印象。不过,要想产生影响还有别的办法。在远离世博会会址的阿斯塔纳北部,一列列装运着几十个集装箱的柴油机车驶过老火车站,大多是从中国开往欧洲的。去年,中欧之间有超过50万吨货物经铁路往来,而2013年之前还寥寥无几。航空公司和船运公司正在密切关注这一发展趋势。

  The trains rumbling through Astana result from a Chinese initiative, in tandem with countries like Kazakhstan, to build a “New Silk Road” through Central Asia. The earlier overland routes were once the conduits for most trade between Europe and China and India; they faded into irrele...

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托福阅读素材:为什么青少年需要更多的睡眠

托福考 托福阅读 托福备考

  想要提升托福阅读能力,是可以通过平时的不断积累词汇以及素材来提升的,那么下面就和出国留学网的小编来看看托福阅读素材:为什么青少年需要更多的睡眠。

  托福双语材料:Why teenagers need more sleep(为什么青少年需要更多的睡眠)。

  In the UK, the clocks go back(句型) by one hour on Sunday to mark the end of British Summer Time. Experts have been weighing up(句型) a more permanent time shift in our daily schedules, particularly for tired teenagers who struggle with early school starts.

  每年入冬时,英国把时钟往后拨1个小时,这标志着夏令时结束。专家们在考虑对我们的日常作息时间作出更为永久性的调整,特别是针对那些艰难应对大清早上学的没睡醒的青少年。

  The rethink on teen slumber is largely due to the emerging science on circadian rhythms. The genetics associated with body clocks earned this year’s Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine. The timing of release of the sleep hormone melatonin is thought to change with age: during adolescence, secretion begins late at night and continues until about 8am. The sleep rhythm of a teenager can lag an adult by two to three hours.

  重新思考青少年的睡眠问题,在很大程度上是因为新兴的昼夜节律科学。与生物钟有关的基因研究赢得了今年的诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。人体释放睡眠荷尔蒙——褪黑激素的时间据信会随着年龄改变:在青春期,褪黑激素在深夜开始释放并持续到早上8点左右。青少年的睡眠节律可能比成年人晚两到三个小时。

  circadian ADJ of or relating to biological processes that occur regularly at about 24-hour intervals, even in the absence of periodicity in the environment

  melatonin N the hormone-like secretion of the pineal gland, causing skin colour changes in some animals and thought to be involved in reproductive function

  N-UNCOUNT Secretion is the process by whi...

与托福阅读素材相关的托福阅读

托福阅读素材:人脸识别

托福考试 托福阅读 托福阅读素材

  对于托福阅读来说,科技类的文章在托福阅读的题库里面占有一定的比重,那么下面就和出国留学网的小编来看看托福阅读素材:人脸识别。

  人脸识别

  无处躲藏

  人脸识别不只是另一种技术。它将改变社会

  Facial recognition

  Nowhere to hide

  Facial recognition is not just another technology. It will change society

  THE human face is a remarkable piece of work. The astonishing variety of facial features helps people recognise each other and is crucial to the formation of complex societies. So is the face’s ability to send emotional signals, whether through an involuntary blush or the artifice of a false smile. People spend much of their waking lives, in the office and the courtroom as well as the bar and the bedroom, reading faces, for signs of attraction, hostility, trust and deceit. They also spend plenty of time trying to dissimulate.

  人类的脸是一件杰作。面部特征之纷繁各异令人惊叹,它让人们能相互辨认,也是形成复杂社会群体的关键。人脸传递情感信号的功能也同样重要,无论是通过下意识的脸红还是有技巧的假笑。人们在清醒时花费大量时光研读一张张面孔——在办公室,在法庭,在酒吧,在卧室,寻找着兴趣、敌意、信任和欺骗的迹象。他们也花大把的时间试图掩饰自己的神色。

  Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers’ attendance; in Britain, by retailers to spot past shoplifters. This year Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. In China it verifies the identities of ride-hailing drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile. Apple’s new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the homescreen....

与托福阅读素材相关的托福阅读

托福阅读素材:浮在海面或拴在海底的核电站可能会比陆地上的更具优势

托福考试 托福听力 托福听力素材

  托福听力的背景素材有很多,不知道同学们有多少了解呢?下面就和出国留学网一起来看看托福阅读素材:浮在海面或拴在海底的核电站可能会比陆地上的更具优势。

  托福阅读素材:Atomic power stations that float on the ocean or are anchored beneath it may have advantages over those built on land.

  Nuclear energy

  Putting to sea

  Atomic power stations that float on the ocean or are anchored beneath it may have advantages over those built on land

  核能

  出海

  浮在海面或拴在海底的核电站可能会比陆地上的同类更具优势

  AFTER

  the events of March 11th 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami led to a meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan, you might be forgiven for concluding that atomic power and seawater don’t mix. Many engineers, though, do not agree. They would like to see more seawater involved, not less. In fact, they have plans to site nuclear power plants in the ocean rather than on land—either floating on the surface or moored beneath it.2011年3月11日,一场地震和海啸导致日本福岛第一核电站的三座核反应堆熔毁。假如你由此得出结论,称核能和海水不能搅和在一起,那也是情有可原。但许多工程师并不这么想。他们希望掺和进来的海水更多些,而不是更少。实际上,他们已经有各种计划,在海上而非陆地上建造核电站。这些核电站或是漂浮在海面上,或是停泊在海面下。

  At first, this sounds a mad idea. It is not. Land-based power stations are bespoke structures, built by the techniques of civil engineering, in which each is slightly different and teams of specialists come and go according to the phase of the project. Marine stations, by contrast, could be mass-produced in factories using, if not the techniques of the assembly line...

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