新托福阅读备考

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　　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 Plymou...

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新托福阅读备考：the code of Hammurabi

　了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world's first metropolis. Many relics of Hammurabi's reign ([1795-1750 BC]) have been preserved, and today we can study this remarkable King....as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code. . .

　　by far the most remarkable of the Hammurabi records is his code of laws, the earliest-known example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. The code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly intended to be reared in public view. This noted stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, to which some later conqueror must have carried it in triumph. It begins and ends with addresses to the gods. Even a law code was in those days regarded as a subject for prayer, though the prayers here are chiefly cursings of whoever shall neglect or destroy the law.

　　Yet even with this earliest set of laws, as with most things Babylonian, we find ourselves dealing with the end of things rather than the beginnings. Hammurabi's code was not really the earliest. The preceding sets of laws have disappeared, but we have found several traces of them, and Hammurabi's own code clearly implies their existence. He is but reorganizing a...

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新托福阅读备考：Plant adaptation to the desert

了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　Cactus adaptations.

　　The secret to the superior endurance of cacti lies in their adaptations. Over millions of years, through natural selection, only the strongest and best adapted species survived.

　　As you know, it is very dry in the desert. Plants that adapt to this are known as xerophytes (from xeros, dry and phyton, plant). There are plants that avoid the dry season by sprouting from seed just after the spring rain and growing very fast so that by the time the dry season comes, they have already produced a lot of seeds and died. These seeds lie on the soil for the dry season and sprout again in spring and the cycle repeats. Other xerophytes simply drop their leaves and stay dormant for the winter. But there is another special type of xerophyte which stores water in its fleshy tissues. Such plants are called succulents (from succus, juicy). The cactus is a typical example of a succulent.

　　If you cut a cactus open, you see a juicy, slimy tissue. This is where the moisture is stored for the dry season. The part between the middle circle (or pith) and just under the very green part of the plant (or palisade parenchyma) just under the skin is allocated for the storage of water and food for the plant. This is a type of spongy parenchyma and can take up up to 85% of the plant's volume. This is a major adaptation in the desert. Because the plant rema...

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新托福阅读备考：The American Revolution

了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　The War of Revolution between America and Britain began in April 1775 in *Lexington, Massachusetts, when soldiers from each side met and somebody fired a shot. It was called the 'shot heard round the world' because the war that followed changed the future of the *British Empire and America. But the American Revolution, the movement to make an independent nation, began many years earlier.

　　The causes of revolution

　　The desire of Americans to be independent from Britain arose out of a long series of disagreements about money and political control. Britain had had colonies (= places taken over by people from a foreign country) in North America since 1607 and kept soldiers there to defend them from attack by the French and Spanish, and by *Native Americans. In order to raise money for this, the British *Parliament tried to make the colonists (= people who had gone to settle in America) pay taxes.

　　From 1651, Britain passed a series of laws called Navigation Acts, which said that the colonists should trade only with Britain. These laws were frequently broken and were a continuing source of tension. Taxes imposed in the 18th century increased ill feeling towards Britain. In 1764 the Sugar Act made colonists pay tax on sugar, and in 1765 the *Stamp Act put a tax on newspapers and official documents. Opposition to this was strong and the following year P...

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新托福阅读备考：The Civil War

　了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　Causes of the war

　　The American Civil War was fought between the northern and southern states from 1861 to 1865. There were two main causes of the war. The first was the issue of *slavery: should Africans who had been brought by force to the US be used as slaves. The second was the issue of states' rights: should the US federal government be more powerful than the governments of individual states.

　　The North and South were very different in character. The economy of the South was based on agriculture, especially cotton. Picking cotton was hard work, and the South depended on slaves for this. The North was more industrial, with a larger population and greater wealth. Slavery, and opposition to it, had existed since before independence (1776) but, in the 19th century, the abolitionists, people who wanted to make slavery illegal, gradually increased in number. The South's attitude was that each state had the right to make any law it wanted, and if southern states wanted slavery, the US government could not prevent it. Many southerners became secessionists, believing that southern states should secede from the union (= become independent from the US).

　　In 1860, Abraham *Lincoln was elected President. He and his party, the *Republicans, were against slavery, but said that they would not end it. The southern states did not believe this, and ...

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新托福阅读备考：Native Americans

了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　Native Americans were living in North America for many hundreds of years before Europeans reached the continent. For a long time white people called them Indians. Today, many people do not like this name since it is based on a mistake: it was given to the people living in the Americas by Christopher *Columbus who, when he arrived there, thought he had discovered India. Instead, people prefer to use the term Native Americans. There are also native peoples living in *Alaska and Canada, e.g. *Inuits and Aleuts, but they are separate groups and are not called Native Americans.

　　Early contact with Europeans

　　In *Pre-Columbian North America there were many tribes who lived by hunting animals and gathering plants. Many of the tribes moved from one place to another according to the season and what food was available. Most of what is known about Native Americans dates from the time when they came into contact with Europeans.

　　The first place in the US where Europeans settled permanently was *Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607. At first Native Americans were positive about the Europeans and were happy to have the many new things they brought, e.g. metal cooking pots, cloth and guns. But the Europeans also introduced diseases that Native Americans had no resistance to, so many became ill and died. They also brought alcohol, the effects of which Native Ame...

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新托福阅读备考：LavaGeorge Washington (1732-99)

了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　the first US *President (1789-97), who had led its army to success in the *American Revolution. He is called 'the Father of His Country'. The *Continental Congress placed him in charge of the American forces in 1775. Although his army had a difficult and dangerous winter at *Valley Forge, General Washington led them to several victories, including the final Battle of *Yorktown. He later gave his important approval for the *American Constitution and was elected in 1789 as the country's first president. He supported a strong central government but disliked political party arguments. He was elected a second time, but refused to stand as a candidate for a third time and returned to his home at *Mount Vernon.

　　Americans have always admired Washington as one of their best and most moral presidents. He is considered by many to have been the country's greatest leader and perhaps the only one who could have united the colonists during the American Revolution. Most people know the story of how as a boy he cut down his father's cherry tree and then admitted what he had done, saying, 'I cannot tell a lie.' The story may not be true but it is seen as a symbol of his honesty. Washington's fine personal qualities and fair politics were recognized during his life, and they seem even more impressive today. His memory is honoured by the *Washington Monument and the names of the country's capital...

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新托福阅读备考：jazz的完整历史

　了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　The roots of jazz

　　The folk songs and plantation dance music of black Americans contributed much to early jazz. These forms of music occurred throughout the Southern United States during the late 1800's.

　　Ragtime, a musical style that influenced early jazz, emerged from the St. Louis, Mo., area in the late 1890's. It quickly became the most popular music style in the United States. Ragtime was an energetic and syncopated variety of music, primarily for the piano, that emphasized formal composition.

　　The blues is a form of music that has always been an important part of jazz. The blues was especially widespread in the American South. Its mournful scale and simple repeated harmonies helped shape the character of jazz. Jazz instrumentalists have long exploited the blues as a vehicle for improvisation.

　　Early jazz.

　　Fully developed jazz music probably originated in New Orleans at the beginning of the 1900's. New Orleans style jazz emerged from the city's own musical traditions of band music for black funeral processions and street parades. Today, this type of jazz is sometimes called classic jazz, traditional jazz, or Dixieland jazz. New Orleans was the musical home of the first notable players and composers of jazz, including cornetists Buddy Bolden and King Oliver, cornetist and trumpeter Louis Armstrong, saxophonis...

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新托福阅读备考：睡与梦

了解托福阅读文章的一些背景知识，对于提高托福阅读做题准确率，拓展知识储备都很有好处，为大家带来托福阅读背景知识，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　睡与梦( dream and sleep)

　　梦是生活中难解之谜，自古以来引起各种各样的解释和猜想。释梦几乎是精神分析医生及占卜者所独有。笔者就近期对脑电波、香味、音乐与气功的研究科学观点出发，尝试努力把哲学、生理学、心理学及脑科学知识融为一体客观地去探索“睡与梦”的机理，寻找启发性新理论来满足科学及哲学范畴对“睡与梦”解释的需要。透过对“睡与梦”探讨过程，希能使朋友们更好地去认识您自己，发掘自己的潜能。

　　慢波和快波睡眠

　　从脑电波“EEG“对睡眠的研究得知，我们每天从入睡到起床的睡眠皆会做梦。睡眠过程中有慢波及快波两种睡眠“参考图一”，入睡开始时先会很快进入慢波睡眠，大约九十分钟後会进入第一次快波睡眠，快波和慢波两者交替发生，一夜的睡眠中约出现三至五次快慢波循环。第一个快波睡眠周期约五分锺长，随後第二个快波睡眠周期按比例渐加长时间。快波睡眠时，睡者有快速眼球转动“REM”的特别现象。快波睡眠时如叫醒睡者，他就知道正在做梦，如果做梦之後过五分锺才叫醒睡者就不会知道自己曾经做过梦。世界各地的睡眠研究报告均证实人在快波睡眠期会做梦，因此快波睡眠又称为“做梦期”。

　　脑神经生理学及精神分析学对“梦”的解释

　　对梦的解释不论古今中外都引起广泛兴趣及争论，大致可分脑神经生理学及精神分析学两学派：

　　1.脑神经生理学者克里克“F.Crick”是近代代表者。

　　他认为做事是为了整理记忆，梦并不是提醒我们什麽，而是通过快波睡眠忘记无用讯息，避免储存讯息过度饱和而造成混乱。做事时主要是大脑的脑干部份产生兴奋，发出讯号引起脑视觉区出现影像，前脑把传送到视觉区讯号勉强编成梦，若浪费精力去解释梦意义是毫无价值。

　　2.精神分析学者佛浴伊德“S.Freud”认为：人有根多欲望和想法被压抑在潜意识深处。入睡後，彼压抑的欲望和观念便会在梦中偷偷进入意识里，但它们是经过化装的，真实意义已经过象征化或符号化。对梦作分析可以了解压抑与问题所在“也可预先参考图二”。

　　从电脑学发掘“梦”的新理论

　　快波睡眠等于做梦吗?实验报告证明快波睡眠期约有百分之七十机会做梦。但如果说快波睡眠就是做梦期，在母体内的胎儿及新生儿，快波睡眠高达百分之五十五至百分百。为什麽人生经验几乎是零的胎儿及新生儿，脑中还有什麽压抑欲望或无用讯息须花费那麽多时间去做梦?不论克里克或佛洛伊德的理论都无法获得满意答案。纽曼“T.Newman”和伊凡斯“C.Evans”两位学者提出从电脑角度去胁助理解人脑做梦机制，他们把人脑入睡後不能感知外界讯息时比拟电脑需暂停正常运作始能输入新程式或修改旧程式，来解释快波睡眠期可能是人脑在膳录或修改程式的时刻。此新启发性理论可满意解释胎儿及新生儿需要那麽长的快波睡眠，因为他们脑中的蛋白质分子正忙著在其脑纹上膳录生存本能及生活所必需的大量程式。此电脑程式观点不仅能把佛洛伊德和克里克理论互相沟通，同时对于析解各种人脑之谜注前迈跨一步。

　　梦境探讨

...

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新托福阅读备考

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新托福阅读备考：关于美国的历史

新托福阅读备考：the code of Hammurabi

新托福阅读备考：Plant adaptation to the desert

新托福阅读备考：The American Revolution

新托福阅读备考：The Civil War

新托福阅读备考：Native Americans

新托福阅读备考：LavaGeorge Washington (1732-99)

新托福阅读备考：jazz的完整历史

新托福阅读备考：睡与梦