托福阅读-考官，你究竟在想什么？

自古道，考场如战场。特别是像托福考试这种花几千大洋好不容易抢到一张入场券，我们更需要好好珍惜来之不易的门票，争取赢得这场战争的最后胜利，带着骄傲和光荣离开！

俗话说，知己知彼，百战不殆。因此，作为考生，除了了解自己的水平外，更需要了解我们的对手——“狡猾”的考官，琢磨琢磨他们是如何给我们“下套的”，也就是所谓的出题思路。当我们能够初步把握他们的思路，托福就占尽了先机！

那么，阅读考试考官究竟要考我们什么呢？大部分同学都会说，一定是考词汇量啊！确实，认识一定数量的词汇对于文章和题目选项的理解很重要，阅读考试中也的确包含了不少的词汇题考察。

经过很多权威老师的统计，托福阅读考试常考的词汇量大致在6500左右。也就是说，背再多的词汇，就算是把文章能够翻译成中文，也不能保证考到高分。

 

因为托福阅读其实考的是两个点： 

1 基本词汇和长难句的认知  

2  建立初步的句间逻辑和句内逻辑关系概念

 

换句话说，阅读考官的思路，往往是逻辑上给考生“下套”，而不是在词汇上要和我们较劲。

下面，我就用一篇机经上的阅读文章和所对应的题目，来给大家做一下出题思路的分析：

Soil Fertilization

Despite its effectiveness, the use of animal manure in the United States has decreased.  There  are  three  reasons  for  this:  the  replacement  of  most mixed animal-raising and crop-farming operations with separate operations for growing crops and raising animals, the high costs of transporting animal manure from feedlots near urban areas to distant rural crop-growing areas, and the replacement of horses and other draft animals that added manure to the soil with tractors and other motorized farm machinery.

According to paragraph 2, all of the following contributed to the decrease in the use of animal manure in the United States EXCEPT

¡ changes in crop-farming and animal-raising operations

¡ high transportation costs

¡ the movement or large numbers of feedlots to distant rural areas

¡ the introduction of motorized farm machinery

 

分析此段落结构，主要讲的是解释为何在美国动物肥料的使用率下降了，之后就列举了3个因素。而这段话的写作手法使用了并列结构，分别罗列出这三种因素。

并列结构是排除题的重点出题点，在这样的段落中，大量相同属性细节信息都在一起阐述。

Green manure is fresh or growing green vegetation plowed into the soil to increase the organic matter and humus (degraded organic matter) available to the next crop. Compost is a sweet-smelling, dark-brown, humuslike material that is rich in organic matter and soil nutrients. It is produced when microorganisms in soil (mostly fungi and aerobic bacteria) break down organic matter such as leaves, food wastes, paper, and wood in the presence of oxygen. Compost is a rich natural fertilizer and soil conditioner that aerates soil, improves its ability to retain water and nutrients, helps prevent erosion, and prevents nutrients from being wasted by being dumped in landfills. Compost is produced by piling up alternating layers of nitrogen-rich wastes (such as grass clippings, weeds, animal manure, and vegetable kitchen scraps), carbon-rich plant wastes (dead leaves, hay, straw, sawdust), and topsoil. Compost provides a home for microorganisms that help decompose plant and manure layers and reduces the amount of plant wastes taken to landfills and incinerators.

According to paragraph 3, what is one advantage of using compost in raising crops?

¡ It makes the soil easier to plow in preparation for planting.

¡ Water and nutrients stay in the soil and enable plant growth.

¡ The damage to soil from microorganisms is reduced.

¡ Excess oxygen is removed from the soil. 

 

正确答案（B）

这道题题目问的是使用compost化肥的优点，需要注意的是advantage这个词是不可能直接在文中找到的，文章也不会非常很明显的告诉考生compost的优点。

但我们可以换一个思路，所谓优势就是compost有什么具体的功能或者是能导致一些好的结果。因此我们只需要寻找含有compost句中有表示正向因果关系词即可。

因此我们找到这句话：

Compost is a rich natural fertilizer and soil conditioner that aerates soil, improves its ability to retain water and nutrients, helps prevent erosion, and prevents nutrients from being wasted by being dumped in landfills. 

此句中有几个表示正向因果动词，比如： improve, help, prevent 。这几个词也可以看作是一种正向结果关系。因此我们只要从选项中选出符合这些动词后面的优点即可。

According to paragraph 3, one important physical effect of compost is that it

¡ adds an oxygen-rich layer to the layers rich in nitrogen and carbon

¡ decreases the quantity of plant material that needs to be discarded

¡ helps keep the same amount of moisture in each layer of soil

¡ reduces the amount of fungi and aerobic bacteria in the pile

 

在此题干中我们需要注意一个表示结果的单词effect，也是考察因果关系，询问的是compost所导致的一个重要结果。

我们来看这句话：

Compost provides a home for microorganisms that help decompose plant and manure layers and reduces the amount of plant wastes taken to landfills and incinerators.

这句话中我们可以注意到有两个关键性的词：help 和reduce 。主要告诉我们compost有两个结果，一是帮助分解植物和化肥层；二是减少植物肥料进入垃圾填埋区和焚化炉的数量。 由此此题应该选择c。

 

Corn, tobacco, and cotton can deplete the topsoil of nutrients, especially nitrogen, if planted on the same land several years in a row. One way to reduce such losses is crop rotation. Farmers plant areas or strips with nutrient-depleting crops one year. In the next year they plant the same areas with legumes, whose root nodules add nitrogen to the soil. In addition to helping restore soil nutrients, this method reduces erosion by keeping the soil covered with vegetation and helps reduce crop losses to insects by presenting them with a changing target.

According to paragraph 5, one of the main reasons for using legumes in crop rotation is that legumes

¡ have no serious insect pests

¡ cover the soil more completely than any other crop does

¡ build up the nitrogen content of the soil

¡ are very easy to plant in strips

我们仔细观察一下这道题，注意一个词组one of the main reasons 也就是说题目要求我们寻找其中的一个主要原因。那么我们来做一下预判，既然要在这个段落中寻找其中一个主要原因，那么必然原因不止一个，至少有2个原因。

我们看一下这个句子：

In addition to helping restore soil nutrients, this method reduces erosion by keeping the soil covered with vegetation and helps reduce crop losses to insects by presenting them with a changing target.  

在这句话中，我们注意到有一个表示并列关系词组：in addition to  表示这句话中有两个原因，一个是帮助储存土壤营养，一个是减少侵蚀和帮助减少因为虫害导致的农作物损失。而这个储存土壤营养其实就是前一句的氮，此题选c

paragraph 6

Today, many farmers rely on commercial inorganic fertilizers containing nitrogen (as ammonium ions, nitrate ions, or urea), phosphorus (as phosphate ions), and potassium (as potassium ions). Inorganic commercial fertilizers are easily transported, stored, and applied. Worldwide, their use increased about tenfold between 1950 and 1989 but declined by 12% between 1990 and 1999. Today, the additional food they help produce feeds one of every three people in the world, without them, world food output, would drop an estimated 40%.

 

Paragraph 7

Commercial inorganic fertilizers have some disadvantages, however. These include (1) not adding humus to the soil, (2) reducing the soil’s content of organic matter and thus its ability to hold water (unless animal manure and green manure are also added to the soil), (3) lowering the oxygen content of soil and keeping fertilizer from being taken up as efficiently, (4) typically supplying only two or three of the twenty or so nutrients needed by plants, and (5) releasing nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that can enhance global warming. The widespread use of commercial inorganic fertilizers, especially on sloped land near streams and lakes, also causes water pollution as nitrate and phosphate fertilizer nutrients are washed into nearby bodies of water. The resulting plant nutrient enrichment causes algae blooms that use up oxygen dissolved in the water, thereby killing fish.

 

How is paragraph 7 related to paragraph 6?

¡ Paragraph 7 presents the drawbacks of a practice that paragraph 6 presents as an advantage.

¡ Paragraph 7 argues that the viewpoint presented in paragraph 6 is based on several factual errors.

¡ Paragraph 7 provides supporting evidence for some of the claims made in paragraph 6.

¡ Paragraph 7 contrasts recently developed practices with the more traditional, established ones discussed in paragraph 6.

 

此题考查两个段落的关系，很多同学看到这种段落的题就害怕，一是觉得自己词汇量不够，二是觉得没有那么多时间看完两段。但其实考官要考察的并不是句子和词汇的理解，而是段落大意和两段之间的逻辑关系。

为了节约时间，我们可以先看第七段句话：

Commercial inorganic fertilizers have some disadvantages, however. 

此句话中一个表示转折关系的词 however. 说明第七段和第六段是转折关系。第七段主要内容为商用无机肥料有一些缺点，那么第六段反过来说的就是商用无机肥料的优点。因此这题选A。

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.

The widespread use of commercial inorganic fertilizers, especially on sloped land near streams and lakes, also causes water pollution as nitrate and phosphate fertilizer nutrients are washed into nearby bodies of water.

¡ The main cause of water pollution is the widespread use of commercial inorganic fertilizers on sloped land near streams and lakes.

¡ In addition, the widespread use of commercial inorganic fertilizers causes water pollution when nitrates and phosphates are washed into streams and lakes.

¡ Also, the widespread commercial production of inorganic fertilizers has caused water pollution in bodies of water such as streams and lakes.

¡ The most commonly used commercial inorganic fertilizers are nitrate and phosphate fertilizers, which cause water pollution if they enter streams or lakes.

 

这道句子简化题，考官就是考察句内逻辑关系。通过分析原句不难看出，这句话中有三个主要的逻辑：并列（also）和因果（cause）。

接下来我们先可以通过逻辑对应优先找到B和C选项可能是答案。C选项错误在把streams and lakes 作为一个例子成分，然而原句中小溪和河流应该是一个时间状语成分，因此此题选B.

总结

通过分析此文章的某些题，我们不难看出，考官除了考察我们词汇量和句子理解外，非常重视考生是否能够识别句子中明显和隐藏的逻辑关系，主要的考点也就是在这里。

托福文章是类似于科普性质的文章，这种文章非常大的目的就是要让读者清楚的了解文章要表达的重要观点和阐述事实。为了做到这一点，必须要逻辑非常的清晰明了，因此也就不难理解考官为何会把出题点都放在这里了。

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