2017年4月1日托福閱讀難題解析

　　考題1

　　The phrase "this respect" in the passage refers to

　　A. enormous variations

　　B. being smaller

　　C. number of inhabitants

　　D. shared characteristics

　　解析：

　　難點(diǎn)一，很多考生誤以為這是詞匯題，而詞匯題的通常問(wèn)法是：The word/phrase "…" is closest in meaning to。這道題題干中的“refers to”表明這是代詞指代題，需要讀懂句子找清前后指代關(guān)系;

　　難點(diǎn)二，很多人不知道respect有名詞用法，=aspect，表“方面”;

　　難點(diǎn)三，回到原文讀考句，讀不懂。該句為： One may call them towns because even though they varied enormously in numbers of inhabitants, and some were smaller than large villages in this respect, they shared certain characteristics that set them off from rural settlements. 表明從居民數(shù)量的方面來(lái)看，一些城鎮(zhèn)比大村莊的居民數(shù)量還少，但它們?nèi)匀皇浅擎?zhèn)，共享著區(qū)別于村莊的某些特征。所以此題正確答案是C。

　　考題2

　　Because what distinguished towns from villages was not so much size as the density of economic and social activities, one writer has argued that an important criterion for town is the existence of traffic jams—the hustle and bustle of oxcarts, long lines of wagons bringing fruits and vegetables, raw materials, and finished goods to markets, and the parade of men and women coming to shop, visit, or attend meetings.

　　解析：

　　這是句子簡(jiǎn)化題所在考句，最大考點(diǎn)在于“not so much A…as B”句式真正意義的考查。在這里，否定A，而肯定B。即城鎮(zhèn)區(qū)別于村莊的特征并不是其規(guī)模大小，而是其經(jīng)濟(jì)活動(dòng)和社會(huì)活動(dòng)的密集度。同樣的句式表達(dá)還有l(wèi)ess A than B。反過(guò)來(lái)，more A than B，就是肯定A而否定B了。這一考點(diǎn)在同一篇文章中又再次考到，看下題。

　　考題3

　　考句：In southern Europe there was more continuity from earlier settlement patterns. Growth came less from the creation of new towns than from the flow of immigrants to old settlements.

　　It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that urban growth in southern Europe was marked by

　　A. more people in a greater number of towns

　　B. more people in the same number of towns

　　C. development of new settlement patterns

　　D. movement of people into newly created towns

　　解析：

　　第一句話“In southern Europe there was more continuity from earlier settlement patterns.”屬于抽象語(yǔ)言，對(duì)抽象語(yǔ)言的理解，一靠大量閱讀的積淀，二靠向下文尋找具體對(duì)應(yīng)。此句中的抽象概念“more continuity from earlier settlement patterns”，具體對(duì)應(yīng)到下句的“the flow of immigrants to old settlements”。因?yàn)椤發(fā)ess A than B”中，A是否定內(nèi)容，B才是作者重點(diǎn)敘述的肯定內(nèi)容。

　　所以綜合兩句信息來(lái)看，南歐地區(qū)城鎮(zhèn)的增長(zhǎng)是來(lái)自于移民涌入原有的老的定居點(diǎn)，而不是去建造新的定居點(diǎn)/新城鎮(zhèn)。所以正確答案選B。