老托福阅读真题PASSAGE 75.docx

老托福阅读真题PASSAGE 75

托福阅读的思维方式就是托福阅读的出题方式，只有掌握了这种思维方式，才有可能在做题之前，预测到新托福阅读题的出题形式和特点，为找答案节省时间。老托福阅读试题的核心价值，在于其最贴近真题的阅读思维方式。此外老托福阅读真题比新托福IBT阅读文章要短，比较容易适应。这也是大家在备考托福的时候非常重要的一点。因为前期的入手如果能从容易的开始，就会形成一个循序渐进的过程方式，让大家的练习有一个提高的过程。

既然老托福阅读试题有这样的效果，那我们如何利用那有限的真题来达到锻炼自己的目的呢？事实上这就一个办法，就是坚持。本期为大家推荐老托福阅读的真题PASSAGE 75，附有原文及答案，希望对托福考生备考有所帮助。

Many prehistoric people subsisted as hunters and gatherers. Undoubtedly, game animals, including some very large species, provided major components of human diets. An important controversy centering on the question of human effects on prehistoric wildlife concerns the sudden disappearance of so many species of large animals at or near the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Most paleontologists suspect that abrupt changes in climate led to the mass extinctions. Others, however, have concluded that prehistoric people drove many of those species to extinction through overhunting. In their Pleistocene overkill hypothesis, they cite what seems to be a remarkable coincidence between the arrival of prehistoric peoples in North and South America and the time during which mammoths, giant ground sloths, the giant bison, and numerous other large mammals became extinct.

Perhaps the human species was driving others to extinction long before the dawn of history. Hunter-gatherers may have contributed to Pleistocene extinctions in more indirect ways. Besides overhunting, at least three other kinds of effects have been suggested: direct competition, imbalances between competing species of game animals, and early agricultural practices. Direct competition may have brought about the demise of large carnivores such as the saber-toothed cats. These animals simply may have been unable to compete with the increasingly sophisticated hunting skills of Pleistocene people.

Human hunters could have caused imbalances among game animals, leading to the extinctions of species less able to compete. When other predators such as the gray wolf prey upon large mammals, they generally take high proportions of each year's crop of young. Some human hunters, in contrast, tend to take the various age-groups of large animals in proportion to their actual occurrence. If such hunters first competed with the larger predators and then replaced them, they may have allowed more young to survive each year, gradually increasing the populations of favored species. As these populations expanded, they in turn may have competed with other game species for the same environmental niche, forcing the less hunted species into extinction. This theory, suggests that human hunters played an indirect role in Pleistocene extinctions by hunting one species more than another.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) The effects of human activities on prehistoric wildlife

(B) The origins of the hunter-gatherer way of life

(C) The diets of large animals of the Pleistocene epoch

(D) The change in climate at the end of the Pleistocene epoch

2. The word Undoubtedly in line 1 is closest in meaning to

(A) occasionally

(B) unexpectedly

(C) previously

(D) certainly

3. The word components in line 2 is closest in meaning to

(A) parts

(B) problems

(C) changes

(D) varieties

4. Which of the following is mentioned as supporting the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis?

(A) Many of the animals that became extinct were quite large.

(B) Humans migrated into certain regions around the time that major extinctions occurred.

(C) There is evidence that new species were arriving in areas inhabited by humans.

(D) Humans began to keep and care for certain animals.

5. The word Besides in line 14 is closest in meaning to

(A) caused by

(B) whereas

(C) in addition to

(D) in favor of

6. The author mentions saber-toothed cats in line 17 as an example of a carnivore that

(A) became extinct before the Pleistocene epoch

(B) was unusually large for its time

(C) was not able to compete with humans

(D) caused the extinction of several species

7. The word they in line 22 refers to

(A) human hunters

(B) game animals

(C) other predators

(D) large mammals

8. According to the passage , what is one difference between the hunting done by some humans and the hunting done by gray wolves?

(A) Some humans hunt more frequently than gray wolves.

(B) Gray wolves hunt in larger groups than some humans.

(C) Some humans can hunt larger animals than gray wolves can hunt.

(D) Some humans prey on animals of all ages, but gray wolves concentrate their efforts on young animals.

9. The word favored in line 26 is closest in meaning to

(A) large

(B) escaping

(C) preferred

(D) local

10. According to the passage , the imbalances discussed in paragraph 3 may have resulted from

(A) the effect of climate changes on large game animals

(B) large animals moving into a new environment

(C) humans hunting some species more than others

(D) older animals not being able to compete with younger animals

参考答案：ADABC CCDCC

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