托福阅读常考话题及练习题推荐一：农业（2）

1 托福阅读常考话题：农业练习题

Paragraph 1: How did it come about that farming developed independently in a number of world centers (the Southeast Asian mainland, Southwest Asia, Central America, lowland and highland South America, and equatorial Africa) at more or less the same time? Agriculture developed slowly among populations that had an extensive knowledge of plants and animals. Changing from hunting and gathering to agriculture had no immediate advantages. To start with, it forced the population to abandon the nomad's life and become sedentary, to develop methods of storage and, often, systems of irrigation. While hunter-gatherers always had the option of moving elsewhere when the resources were exhausted, this became more difficult with farming. Furthermore, as the archaeological record shows, the state of health of agriculturalists was worse than that of their contemporary hunter-gatherers.

1.The word "option" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. choice

B. benefit

C. idea

D. experience

2.According to paragraph 1, all of the following are advantages of hunting and gathering over agriculture EXCEPT:

A. It is a healthier lifestyle.

B. It requires less knowledge of plants and animals.

C. It does not need storage capabilities.

D. It is not tied to any specific location.

Paragraph 2: Traditionally, it was believed that the transition to agriculture was the result of a worldwide population crisis. It was argued that once hunter-gatherers had occupied the whole world, the population started to grow everywhere and food became scarce; agriculture would have been a solution to this problem. We know, however, that contemporary hunter-gatherer societies control their population in a variety of ways. The idea of a world population crisis is therefore unlikely, although population pressure might have arisen in some areas.

3.The word "therefore" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. in theory

B. obviously

C. frequently

D. as a result

4.Which of the following best describes the way paragraph 2 is organized?

A. A possible explanation for a phenomenon is presented and then criticized

B. Two similar ways of accounting for a puzzling fact are considered.

C. Early societies' response to a problem is contrasted with contemporary societies' response.

D. A prehistoric development is first explained in traditional terms and then in contemporary terms.

Paragraph 3: Climatic changes at the end of the glacial period 13,000 years ago have been proposed to account for the emergence of farming.The temperature increased dramatically in a short period of time (years rather than centuries), allowing for a growth of the hunting-gathering population due to the abundance of resources. There were, however, fluctuations in the climatic conditions, with the consequences that wet conditions were followed by dry ones, so that the availability of plants and animals oscillated brusquely.

5.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A. The resources needed by the growing hunting and gathering population increased rapidly once temperatures rose.

B. Dramatic temperature increases and the simultaneous growth of the hunting and gathering population led to the need for more resources.

C. Higher temperatures led to the existence of increased resources, thus enabling the hunting and gathering population to grow.

D. The dramatic temperature increase occurred during the few years when abundant resources allowed the hunting and gathering population to grow.

6.According to paragraph 3, the abundance of resources fluctuated sharply after the end of the glacial period because

A. locally abundant resources were quickly exhausted by hunter-gatherers

B. the temperature became much higher in some areas over others

C. different types of plants and animals became available as the climate changed

D. the amount of rainfall varied radically from one period to the next

Paragraph 4: It would appear that the instability of the climatic conditions led populations that had originally been nomadic to settle down and develop a sedentary style of life, which led in turn to population growth and to the need to increase the amount of food available. Farming originated in these conditions. Later on, it became very difficult to change because of the significant expansion of these populations. It could be argued, however, that these conditions are not sufficient to explain the origins of agriculture.Earth had experienced previous periods of climatic change, and yet agriculture had not been developed.

7.It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that it was difficult for people to change from farming back to hunting and gathering because

A. people had become more used to different types of food

B. climatic conditions were no longer favorable for hunting and gathering

C. populations had become too large to be supported by hunting and gathering

D. the farmer's sedentary life was easier than the hunter-gatherer's nomadic life

8. Why does the author state that "Earth had experienced previous periods of climatic change, and yet agriculture had not been developed"?

A. To suggest that climate change had occurred long before the development of agriculture

B. To argue that climate change does not properly explain why agriculture developed

C. To challenge the assumption that agriculture developed only in some parts of the world

D. To question the claim that climate change occurred at the time when agriculture developed