Tài liệu The complete guide to the toefl IBT reading part 6 docx

refused to use airports that were shared with the military In paragraph 3, the author suggests that seaplanes © were not as safe as landplanes © were used only for domestic flights © cou

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76 Section 1 Guide to Reading

2A

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26

27

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In paragraph 1, the author suggests that Standiford Field and Love Field

In paragraph 3, the author suggests that seaplanes

©) were not as safe as landplanes

It can be inferred from the passage that both La Bourget and the LaGuardia landplane terminals

It can be inferred from the passage that scale would not be a problem in airport design if

©) designed to solve several functional problems

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Lesson 3: Inference Questions 77

31 The passage implies that the term satellite plan is used to describe some air-

ports because

a planet

32 In paragraph 7, the author suggests that monorails and electric trains carry

people to satellite terminals mainly from

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33 It can be inferred from the information in paragraph 8 that mobile lounges

would be preferable to buses when

©) passengers are in a hurry

©) flights have been delayed

©) passengers need to save money

34 The author suggests that making airports more attractive will

Passage 5

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In 1877, an unfamiliar type of weed appeared in Bon Homme County, South Dakota, and began spreading across the northern Great Plains The plant, called tumbleweed, has green stems, intricate branches, a nearly round shape, and long leaves with sharp points on the end Mice, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn antelope feed on it The branches are soft and green when young but woody and gray when mature Unlike other plants, the tumbleweed does not spend its entire life rooted to the soil In the fall, a layer of cells in the stem weakens and the plant breaks off from its roots and rolls across the fields in the wind The tumbleweed doesn‘t depend on wind, birds, or mammals to disperse its seeds

As this woody sphere rolls along, it drops its numerous seeds (up to 250,000 per plant) The seeds are unusual in that they lack any kind of a stored food reserve Instead, each seed is a coiled, embryonic plant wrapped in a thin membrane

Within ten years, tumbleweeds had invaded twelve western states and four western Canadian provinces, thriving in regions too dry for other plants The sharp tips of the leaves penetrated heavy leather gloves as well as the legs of horses It obstructed irrigation canals It built up in great numbers against fences

in such dense masses that it formed wind breaks and eventually the fences were destroyed Farmers and ranchers viewed the weed with alarm One legislator in North Dakota even proposed building a fence around the entire state to keep tumbleweeds out

To present-day Americans, the tumbleweed symbolizes the Old West

Tumbleweeds are mentioned in the books of Zane Grey Western musicians sing sad ballads about tumbleweeds They share scenes with cowboys and covered wagons in old western movies such as those made by director John Ford The image of tumbleweeds blowing down the main street of a deserted western town evokes ideas of desolation and loneliness Yet the tumbleweed is actually a comparatively recent newcomer

Aithough most settlers found the appearance of this weed unusual, one group of immigrants did not find it at all unfamiliar The tumbleweed, it turns out, was a native of southern Russia, where it was known as the Tartar thistle

It was probably unintentionally brought into the United States by these immigrants in bags of flax seeds

It was agriculture that enabled the tumbleweed to spread so quickly In the U.S Midwest, the tall prairie grasses would have made it impossible for tumbleweeds to roll any great distance Tumbleweeds thrive in ploughed fields, especially if it is sandy Archaeologists have found tumbleweed seeds in the oldest agricultural sites in the world Without agriculture, tumbleweed can live only in areas that are naturally open and bare

Frontier settlers gave the plant various names: saltwort, Russian cactus, buckbush, and wind witch Botanists at the U.S Department of Agriculture preferred Russian thistle as the plant’s common name However, these botanists had a much harder time agreeing on the plant's scientific name Generally, botanists compare a plant to published accounts of similar plants or to samples kept as specimens Unfortunately, no book described the weed and no samples existed in herbaria in the United States The U.S botanists did not realize that the plant had been catalogued and classified years before, in 1810, by Robert Brown of the British Museum He discovered it in Australia, where it was probably also brought by accident However, Brown didn’t get credit for his discovery for 170 years

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Lesson 3: Inference Questions 79

Since 1945, pesticides have been able to keep tumbleweeds under control

for the most part, but they still cause problems sometimes, especially during dry,

windy years And one interesting use for tumbleweeds has been discovered:

young tumbleweeds are able to remove radioactive materials from the soil faster

than any other plants

Glossary

herbaria: scientific collections of dried plants

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35 Which of the following can be inferred about tumbleweeds?

36 Information in paragraph 1 implies that most of the world’s plants

37 In paragraph 3 the passage suggests that most present-day Americans

38 It can be inferred from the information in paragraph 3 that the books of

Zane Grey

39 It is probable that the group of immigrants mentioned in paragraph 4

40 It can be inferred from paragraph 5 that tumbleweeds spread best in

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42

It can be inferred from the information in paragraph 6 that the botanists at the U.S Department of Agriculture

a large prairie fire

an oil spill

an accident at a nuclear energy plant

an earthquake

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LESSON 4

PURPOSE, METHOD, AND OPINION QUESTIONS

Some questions in the Reading Section ask why an author does something in a passage (a purpose question), how an author does something in a passage (a method question), or what an author thinks about something in the passage (an opinion question)

(A) Purpose Questions Purpose questions ask why the author of a passage (or someone that the author quotes) uses a certain piece of information in the passage ETS calls this kind of question a “rhetorical purpose” question This kind of question really asks you about the development of the passage In other words, it asks you why an author makes a point or why the author supports and strengthens a point in a certain way

The question may ask you why the author

* mentions a specific piece of information s® uses a certain example

e refers to a study

* uses a certain sequence or order of events

se makes a comparison

¢ quotes a person or a document

¢ uses a particular word or phrase Purpose questions may also ask you the importance of a sentence or paragraph

to the passage

Here are some examples of purpose questions:

Why does the author mention in paragraph ?

Why does the author give an example of ?

in paragraph is given as an example of

The author refers to _ to indicate that

The author quotes _ to show that

The phrase in paragraph is used to illustrate the effect of Why do the scientists mentioned in paragraph say that

Why does the author provide details about in paragraph —?

The author gives statistics about in paragraph — because

vvvvvvvvvyv Why does the author first discuss and then discuss

2 The author’s main purpose in paragraph is to

Here is a section of one of the passages in the Reading Preview Test and an example of a purpose question about it

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Sample For animals, some barriers are behavioral The blue spotted salamander lives only on mountain slopes in the southern Appalachian Highlands Although these creatures could survive in the river valleys, they never venture there Birds that fly long distances often remain in very limited areas Kirkland’s warblers are found only in a few places in Michigan in the summer and fly to the Bahamas in winter No physical barriers restrict the warblers to these two locations, yet they never spread beyond these boundaries Brazil’s Amazon River serves as a northern or southern boundary for many species of birds They could freely fly over

Why does the author mention the Amazon River in paragraph 4?

©) To give an example of an important physical barrier

©) To point out that many migrating birds fly across it

©) To provide an example of a behavioral barrier

© To describe a barrier that affects aquatic animals The topic of this section of the passage is behavioral borders The author first gives two examples of animals that are affected by behavioral barriers The author then provides an example of a behavioral boundary, so the third choice is the best The Amazon is clearly a behavioral boundary, not a physical one, because the author says, “They (the birds) could freely fly over the river, but they seldom do.”

To answer purpose questions correctly, you must think like the author

Imagine that you have written the passage Why would you use this example, word, statistic, etc.?

Probably there will be three or four of these questions in each Reading Section

(B) Method Questions Method questions ask how the author of a passage (or someone that the author quotes) explains something or accomplishes something in the passage Again, these questions are really about the development of the passage How does the author strengthen or clarify a point that he or she has made?

The question may ask how the author

s explains a concept

* supports an idea or a theme or an argument

¢ clarifies an idea

¢ introduces a topic

s gives an example

e shows the importance of a person, development, or idea

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Lesson 4: Purpose, Method, and Opinion Questions 83

Here are some examples of method questions:

> In paragraph _, the author explains the concept of by

> How does the author explain the idea of in paragraph

> How do some scientists explain ?

> The author illustrates the idea of by

> The author shows the significance of by

Following is a section of one of the passages in the Reading Preview Test and an

example of a method question about it

Sample

Virtually all living things have some way of getting from here to there Animals

may walk, swim, or fly Plants and their seeds drift on wind or water or are car-

ried by animals Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that, in time, all species

might spread to every place on Earth where favorable conditions occur Indeed,

there are some cosmopolitan species A good example is the housefly, found

almost everywhere on Earth However, such broad distribution is the rare

exception Just as barbed wire fences prevent cattle from leaving their aa biological barriers prevent the dispersal of many species

How does the author explain the concept of biological barriers in paragraph 1?

The author explains the concept of biological barriers by giving an analogy In

other words, the author compares two things or ideas in order to clarify one of

them The author of this passage wants to clarify the idea of biological barriers He

compares a familiar type of barrier—farmers’ barbed wire fences that prevent cattle

from leaving their fields—to the less familiar concept of biological barriers that

block the dispersal of species The author does not give any examples of biological

species (although he does give an example of an organism that is not blocked by

barriers: the housefly) He does not describe how barriers are formed, and he does

not explain how houseflies have been affected by biological barriers (In fact, the

housefly has not been greatly affected by barriers at all.)

There will probably be one or two method questions in each Reading Section

(C) Opinion Questions

These questions ask you what the author (or someone the author quotes, such as

an expert in the field) thinks about some issue or idea The author's opinion is usu-

ally not stated directly You have to infer what the author thinks by the language

and the ideas that he or she presents in the passage

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Here are some examples of opinion questions:

> Which of the following statements best expresses the author's opinion of

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> In paragraph _, the author expresses the opinion that

> The author of this passage probably believes that

` Whatistheauthorsopinonof_ —— — ? Here is a section of one of the passages in the Reading Preview Test and an example of an opinion question about it

Any commentary about Easter Island would be incomplete without mentioning the theories of the Norwegian explorer and scientist Thor Heyerdahl, who came

to the island in the 1950s Heyerdahl learned that there had been two groups

of islanders: the Hanau Momoko and Hanau Eepe—names once mistranslated as

“Short Ears” and “Long Ears.” The Hanau Mamoko were dark-haired, the Hanau Eepe mostly red-haired The Hanau Eepe used heavy earrings to extend the length of their ears Heyerdahl theorized that the Hanau Momoko were Polynesians from other Pacific islands, but that the Hanau Eepe came later in rafts from South America He believed that the Hanau Momoko became the ser- vants of the Hanau Eepe, who forced them to build the statues Because the Hanau Eepe were the masters, the statues resembled them Heyerdahl said that the red “hats” of the statues actually represented the red hair of the Hanau Eepe He also pointed out that the ears of the statues resembled those of the Hanau Eepe According to Heyerdahl’s theory, the Hanau Momoko eventually rose up in revolt, overturning most of the statues and killing off all but a few Hanau Eepe

Heyerdahl gave other evidence for the South American origin of the Hanau Eepe The stonework of the stone platforms called ahu was incredibly intricate,

unlike any made by other Pacific Islanders However, the Inca people of South

America were famous for intricate stonework Another piece of evidence

Heyerdahl presented was the fact that the staple food of the Easter Islanders, the

sweet potato, is not found in Polynesia He believed that it came with the Hanau

Eepe from South America

DNA testing has proven that all Easter Islanders were in fact descended from Polynesians The current theory is that the Hanau Momoko and Hanau Eepe

were two of perhaps twelve clans of islanders, all of whom built statues The

“statue toppling wars” broke out among the clans as the island became over-

populated When one group won a victory over another, they toppled their ene-

mies’ statues Archaeologists say that the resemblance between the stonework of

the Easter Islanders and that of the Inca is coincidental As for the sweet potato,

most scientists now believe that sweet potato seeds came to the island in the

stomachs of sea birds

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Lesson 4: Purpose, Method, and Opinion Questions 85

Which of these statements best reflects the author's opinion of the theories of

Thor Heyerdahl?

Only the first answer choice summarizes the author's opinion of Thor

Heyerdahl’s theories In paragraph 4, the author says, “Any commentary about

Easter Island would be incomplete without mentioning the theories of the

Norwegian explorer and scientist Thor Heyerdahl .” Clearly, the author believes

that Heyerdahl is an important expert on Easter Island because anything written

about Easter Island is incomplete if it does not examine these ideas He also says

that an important part of Heyerdahl’s theory is that one group of Easter Islanders—

the Hanau Eepe—came from South America However, in paragraph 6, the author

says that DNA testing has shown that all Easter Islanders come from Polynesia So,

while the theory is important, it is incorrect In the second answer choice, the word

true tells us that this choice is incorrect, and in the third choice, the word valid

does the same While Heyerdahl’s theories may be outdated (last answer choice)

there is no reason to think that they are useful Again, you need to think like the

author to answer opinion questions

You will probably see one or two opinion questions per Reading Section

EXERCISE 4.1 Focus: Recognizing correct and incorrect answer choices for purpose, method, and

opinion questions

Directions: Read the passages Then mark the statements about the passage True

(T) or False (F)

Passage 1

Optics is a branch of physics that describes the behavior and properties of light

Among many other things, optics deals with microscopes, telescopes, eye-

glasses, mirrors, prisms, cameras, rainbows, and sunsets Optics explains

reflections, refraction, diffraction, dispersion, and polarization Optics usually

describes the behavior of visible light, infrared light, and ultraviolet light Since

light is an electromagnetic wave, optical scientists sometimes study phenomena

such as X rays, microwaves, and radio waves that share some of the properties

of light

However, as a field, optics is usually regarded as largely separate from

physics It has its own journals, societies, and conferences The purely scientific

aspects of the field are called optical physics The applied technology aspects are

called optical engineering Applications of optical engineering related to lighting

Tiêu đề	The Complete Guide to the Toefl Ibt Reading Part 6
Trường học	University of South Dakota
Chuyên ngành	English Language
Thể loại	Hướng dẫn
Năm xuất bản	2023
Thành phố	Vermillion

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Số trang	15
Dung lượng	4,81 MB