此次托福閱讀考試涉及話題為動物、藝術及人文

第一篇：獅子

第一部分說上古時代，除少數例外，獅子廣泛分布在各個大陸。

第二部分講了獅子不同于其他動植物的一些特點——處于食物鏈頂層，所以能量儲存有限(此處存疑)。

第三部分：隨時間推移，獅子的數量減少，分布區域縮小，在歐洲完全消失——原因一是氣候變化導致草原變為森林，二是人類的影響。

第四部分從環境變化角度講解了亞洲，尤其是印度地區獅子減少的原因。個例：僅有少量獅子在禁獵的私人林地中生存。

可參考以下閱讀材料：

In Africa, lions can be found in savanna grasslands with scattered Acacia trees which serve as shade; their habitat in India is a mixture of dry savanna forest and very dry deciduous scrub forest. The habitat of lions originally spanned the southern parts of Eurasia, ranging from Greece to India, and most of Africa except the central rainforest-zone and the Sahara desert. Herodotus reported that lions had been common in Greece around 480 BC; they attacked the baggage camels of the Persian king Xerxes on his march through the country. Aristotle considered them rare by 300 BC. By 100 AD they were extirpated. A population of Asiatic lions survived until the tenth century in the Caucasus, their last European outpost.

The species was eradicated from Palestine by the Middle Ages and from most of the rest of Asia after the arrival of readily available firearms in the 18th century. Between the late 19th and early 20th century, they became extinct in North Africa and Southwest Asia. By the late 19th century, the lion had disappeared from Turkey and most of northern India, while the last sighting of a live Asiatic lion in Iran was in 1941 (between Shiraz and Jahrom, Fars Province), although the corpse of a lioness was found on the banks of the Karun river, Khūzestān Province in 1944. There are no subsequent reliable reports from Iran. The subspecies now survives only in and around the Gir Forest of northwestern India. About 400 lions live in the area of the 1,412 km2 (545 sq mi) sanctuary in the state of Gujarat, which covers most of the forest. Their numbers have increased from 180 in 1974 mainly because the natural prey species have recovered.

第二篇：Live performance現場演出

Part1: 很多藝人喜歡現場演出，因為與觀眾的互動讓雙方滿足。

Part2: 現場演出中與觀眾互動的具體形式，及live和電影電視等錄制節目的比較。

Part3：由于在現場，舞臺和演員的狀態有不可控因素，所以難免出錯，這也正是現場演出有趣、exciting的地方。出錯反過來使得藝人改善自己的藝術。

Part4：是live給普通人生活的若干啟示。

可參考以下閱讀材料：

Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Videotape did not exist until 1957. Television networks provide most live television mostly for morning shows with television programs such as: Today, Good Morning America & CBS This Morning in the US (albeit...only airing live in the Eastern Time Zone), and Daybreak, BBC Breakfast, This Morning, etc. in the UK.

Most local television station newscasts are broadcast live in the U.S. as they are an essential medium for providing up-to-the-minute weather forecasts and breaking news stories.

In general, a live television program was more common for broadcasting content produced specifically for commercial television in the early years of the medium, before technologies such as video tape appeared. As video tape recorders (VTR) became more prevalent, many entertainment programs were recorded and edited before broadcasting rather than being shown live. Entertainment events such as sports television and The Academy Awards continue to be generally broadcast live.

第三篇：Olmec civilization

講解了奧爾梅克文明的建筑與藝術。農商業的發展給藝術發展創造了合適的土壤。文章用大篇幅介紹了Olmec civilization藝術的細節與特點。最后，Olmec藝術的影響深遠，包括Maya在內文明的拉美文化深受其影響。

可參考以下閱讀材料：

The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco.

The Olmec flourished during Mesoamerica's Formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. Pre-Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about 2500 BCE, but by 1600–1500 BCE Early Olmec culture had emerged centered around the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed. Among other "firsts", the Olmec appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies.

The most familiar aspect of the Olmecs is their artwork, particularly the aptly named "colossal heads". The Olmec civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors purchased on the pre-Columbian art market in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Olmec artworks are considered among ancient America's most striking.