新托福TPO3阅读原文(一)Architecture及译文

新托福TPO3阅读原文(一):Architecture

TPO-3-1：Architecture

Architecture is the art and science of designing structures that organize and enclose space for practical and symbolic purposes. Because architecture grows out of human needs and aspirations, it clearly communicates cultural values. Of all the visual arts, architecture affects our lives most directly for it determines the character of the human environment in major ways.

Architecture is a three-dimensional form. It utilizes space, mass, texture, line, light, and color. To be architecture, a building must achieve a working harmony with a variety of elements. Humans instinctively seek structures that will shelter and enhance their way of life. It is the work of architects to create buildings that are not simply constructions but also offer inspiration and delight. Buildings contribute to human life when they provide shelter, enrich space, complement their site, suit the climate, and are economically feasible. The client who pays for the building and defines its function is an important member of the architectural team. The mediocre design of many contemporary buildings can be traced to both clients and architects.

In order for the structure to achieve the size and strength necessary to meet its purpose, architecture employs methods of support that, because they are based on physical laws, have changed little since people first discovered them—even while building materials have changed dramatically. The world’s architectural structures have also been devised in relation to the objective limitations of materials. Structures can be analyzed in terms of how they deal with downward forces created by gravity. They are designed to withstand the forces of compression (pushing together), tension (pulling apart), bending, or a combination of these in different parts of the structure.

Even development in architecture has been the result of major technological changes. Materials and methods of construction are integral parts of the design of architecture structures. In earlier times it was necessary to design structural systems suitable for the materials that were available, such as wood, stone, brick. Today technology has progressed to the point where it is possible to invent new building materials to suit the type of structure desired. Enormous changes in materials and techniques of construction within the last few generations have made it possible to enclose space with much greater ease and speed and with a minimum of material. Progress in this area can be measured by the difference in weight between buildings built now and those of comparable size built one hundred years ago.

Modern architectural forms generally have three separate components comparable to elements of the human body: a supporting skeleton or frame, an outer skin enclosing the interior spaces, and equipment, similar to the body’s vital

organs and systems. The equipment includes plumbing, electrical wiring, hot water, and air-conditioning. Of course in early architecture—such as igloos and adobe structures—there was no such equipment, and the skeleton and skin were often one.

Much of the world’s great architecture has been constructed of stone because of its beauty, permanence, and availability. In the past, whole cities grew from the arduous task of cutting and piling stone upon. Some of the world’s finest stone architecture can be seen in the ruins of the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu highin theeastern Andes Mountains of Peru. The doorways and windows are made possible by placing over the open spaces thick stone beams that support the weight from above. A structural invention had to be made before the physical limitations of stone could be overcome and new architectural forms could be created. That invention was the arch, a curved structure originally made of separate stone or brick segments. The arch was used by the early cultures of the Mediterranean area chiefly for underground drains, but it was the Romans who first developed and used the arch extensively in aboveground structures. Roman builders perfected the semicircular arch made of separate blocks of stone. As a method of spanning space, the arch can support greater weight than a horizontal beam. It works in compression to divert the weight above it out to the sides, where the weight is borne by the vertical elements on either side of the arch. The arch is among the many important structural breakthroughs that have characterized architecture throughout the centuries.

译文：TPO-3-1 建筑物

建筑是一门出于实用和象征的双重目的，通过组织和利用空间来实现设计结构的艺术和科学。。因为建筑源于人类的需求和愿望，同样也可以清楚地传达文化价值。在所有的视觉艺术中，建筑最直接地影响了我们的生活，因为它在很多方面决定了我们生存的环境特征。

建筑是一种利用空间、质量、纹理、线条、光线和颜色的三维立体形式。一幢建筑物必须实现各种要素的和谐搭配。人类本能地希望可以提供居住并且改善他们生活质量的建筑。建筑师们创造出来的建筑物不单纯的是建筑物，还为人们带来了灵感和喜悦。建筑物为人类的生活提供了遮蔽处和丰富的空间、增加人们的活动场所、完善人们的居所、帮助人们适应气候的变化，同时在经济上也可承

受。建筑团队中，最重要的是那些为建筑支付建设费用并且设计其功能的人，许多当代建筑平庸的根源在于客户和建筑师双反。

为了达到建筑的目的，一定的大小和强度是必须的。尽管建筑材料已经发生了翻天覆地的变化，建筑采用的各种支撑方法自从人们发现它们以来鲜有改变，因为这些方法都建立在物理定律的基础上。世界的建筑结构也因为克服材料限制的目的而发展起来。建筑师们在设计建筑结构的时候需要将重力对材料的影响考虑在内，通过结构设计使建筑不同部分能抵抗压力、拉力、弯曲力或混合的压力。

甚至建筑的发展也是由重大的技术变革造成的。材料和建设方法是建筑结构设计整体的组成部分。早期，人们必须设计结构系统来配合当前可用的材料，如木头、石头和砖。现今的技术已经发展到能够创造新的建筑材料来适应想要应用的建筑结构。近几代建筑材料和科技的巨大变化使得包围空间更加简单、快速，并且用更少的材料。在这一领域的进步可以用现在修建的建筑和100年前建造的同规模建筑之间的重量差异来衡量。

类似人类的身体结构，现代建筑可以划分为三个独立的部分：支撑骨架或框架、围住内部空间的外壳以及像人体内器官一样重要的设施。这些设施包括管道、电线、热水和空调。当然，在早期的圆顶建筑和土坯建筑中并没有这样的设施，皮肤和骨骼也往往是合在一起的。

世界上大多数伟大的建筑都是石料建筑，因为石料建筑不仅外形漂亮、持久耐用，而且石头随处可得。在过去，整个城市的建筑物都是从艰苦的石块切割和堆砌发展起来的。在秘鲁安第斯山脉东部的马丘比丘印加古城遗址，可以看到世界上最棒的石质建筑。在开阔的空间上放置厚石板来支撑上面的石头，使门和窗的修建成为可能。设计师们必须在克服石头的物理限制以及新建筑形式发展之前

发明出建筑结构，这就是拱形结构，即最初由分段的石头或砖块构成的弧形结构。拱最初在地中海早期文化中用来建设地下水渠，但古罗马人最先开发和广泛的利用它作为地上建筑的结构，他们完善了由分段的石块组成的半圆形拱。作为跨越空间的一种方式，拱可以比水平横梁支撑更大的重量。它使得其上的压力转移到两侧，由两侧垂直的部分来承担压力。拱形结构只是近百年来众多重要建筑结构的突破之一。

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为了帮助大家高效备考托福，为大家带来托福TPO46阅读Passage1原文文本+题目+答案解析，希望对大家备考有所帮助。 The Origins of Writing It was in Egypt and Mesopotamia(modern-day Iraq)that civilization arose,and it is there that we find the earliest examples of that key feature of civilization,writing.These examples,in the form of inscribed clay tablets that date to shortly before 3000 B.C.E.,have been discovered among the archaeological remains of the Sumerians,a gifted people settled in southern Mesopotamia. The Egyptians were not far behind in developing writing,but we cannot follow the history of their writing in detail because they used a perishable writing material.In ancient times the banks of the Nile were lined with papyrus plants,and from the papyrus reeds the Egyptians made a form of paper;it was excellent in quality but,like any paper,fragile.Mesopotamia’s rivers boasted no such useful reeds,but its land did provide good clay,and as a consequence the clay tablet became the standard material.Though clumsy and bulky it has a virtue dear to archaeologists:it is durable.Fire,for example,which is death to papyrus paper or other writing materials such as leather and wood,simply bakes it hard,thereby making it even more durable.So when a conqueror set a Mesopotamian palace ablaze,he helped ensure the survival of any clay tablets in it.Clay,moreover,is cheap,and forming it into tablets is easy,factors that helped the clay tablet become the preferred writing material not only throughout Mesopotamia but far outside it as well,in Syria,Asia Minor,Persia,and even for a while in Crete and Greece.Excavators have unearthed clay tablets in all these lands.In the Near East they remained in use for more than two and a half millennia,and in certain areas they lasted down to the beginning of the common era until finally yielding,once and for all,to more convenient alternatives. The Sumerians perfected a style of writing suited to clay.This script consists of simple shapes,basically just wedge shapes and lines that could easily be incised in soft clay with a reed or wooden stylus;scholars have dubbed it cuneiform from the wedge-shaped marks(cunei in Latin)that are its hallmark.Although the ingredients are merely wedges and lines,there are hundreds of combinations of these basic forms that stand for different sounds or words.Learning these complex signs required long training and much practice;inevitably,literacy was largely limited to a small professional class,the scribes. The Akkadians conquered the Sumerians around the middle of the third millennium B.C.E.,and they took over the various cuneiform signs used for writing Sumerian and gave them sound and word values that fit their own language.■A The Babylonians and Assyrians did the same,and so did peoples in Syria and Asia Minor.■B The literature of the Sumerians was treasured throughout the Near East,and long after Sumerian ceased to be spoken,the Babylonians and Assyrians and others kept it alive as a literary

新托福TPO19阅读原文及译文(一)

新托福TPO19阅读原文(一)：The Roman Army's Impact on Britain TPO19-1：The Roman Army's Impact on Britain In the wake of the Roman Empire's conquest of Britain in the first century A.D., a large number of troops stayed in the new province, and these troops had a considerable impact on Britain with their camps, fortifications, and participation in the local economy. Assessing the impact of the army on the civilian population starts from the realization that the soldiers were always unevenly distributed across the country. Areas rapidly incorporated into the empire were not long affected by the military. Where the army remained stationed, its presence was much more influential. The imposition of a military base involved the requisition of native lands for both the fort and the territory needed to feed and exercise the soldiers' animals. The imposition of military rule also robbed local leaders of opportunities to participate in local government, so social development was stunted and the seeds of disaffection sown. This then meant that the military had to remain to suppress rebellion and organize government. Economic exchange was clearly very important as the Roman army brought with it very substantial spending power. Locally a fort had two kinds of impact. Its large population needed food and other supplies. Some of these were certainly brought from long distances, but demands were inevitably placed on the local area. Although goods could be requisitioned, they were usually paid for, and this probably stimulated changes in the local economy. When not campaigning, soldiers needed to be occupied; otherwise they represented a potentially dangerous source of friction and disloyalty. Hence a writing tablet dated 25 April tells of 343 men at one fort engaged on tasks like shoemaking, building a bathhouse, operating kilns, digging clay, and working lead. Such activities had a major effect on the local area, in particular with the construction of infrastructure such as roads, which improved access to remote areas. Each soldier received his pay, but in regions without a developed economy there was initially little on which it could be spent. The pool of excess cash rapidly stimulated a thriving economy outside fort gates. Some of the demand for the services

托福TPO52 三篇阅读翻译!!倒序!!

3.Early Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa 在更新世末期（大约公元前10000年），食品生产的技术可能已经在非洲西部和中部 的热带雨林的边缘地区使用，在那里非洲山药等根茎型植物的普遍使用，使人们认识到自己种植食物的好处。这种原始形式的“蔬菜栽培”（块根植物和树本作物的种植）可 能已经成为了一种经济传统，基于这种传统，夏季降水谷类作物的种植也采用嫁接的办法，这种种植技术已经在撒哈拉沙漠南部边界地区的草原南部被使用。随着撒哈拉 沙漠在公元前5000年之后干涸，游牧民族（牧民）向南沿着主要河道迁移到了西非和苏丹的热带草原地带。 直到公元前3000年，正如埃及文明发源于尼罗河流域一样，这些游牧民族定居在了离南部很远的东非高原地区的中心。东非高原是理想的养牛场所，如今也是像马赛人（肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚的游牧狩猎民族）这样的有名的牧牛民族的家园。直到大约公元前3300 年，第一批牧牛人出现时，高地上居住着狩猎采集者，他们居住在平原附近的山区。和其他地方的情况一样，在非洲，牛是饲养起来很费劲的动物。如果要饲养各种规模 的牛群的话，这些牛至少每24小时就需要喝一次水，而且需要大片的牧场。饲养的秘 诀在于仔细挑选放牧场地，尤其是在季节性降雨会导致全年牧草质量有明显差异的环境中。即使是规模适中的牛群也需要大片的土地和相当大的可移动性。为了获得这样的土地，经常需要牛群移动相当远的距离，甚至是从夏季牧场移动到冬季牧场。同时，放牧人不得不让牲畜在有舌蝇出没的地带吃草。唯一能够保护人类和牲畜，不患上昏 睡病（一种由舌蝇传播的疾病）的办法，就是避免在这些地区定居或者放牧——对非 洲东部和中部地区的牧民来说，这个办法严重地限制了他们的迁移。结果是，小牛群迅速地向南部地区迁移，在那里人们可以放牧。在谷类农业占领最南部的撒哈拉沙漠之前，非洲东部和南部稀树草原地区的一些依靠狩猎和采集生活的人可能已经饲养了牛群和其他家养动物，他们将牲畜作为礼物交换，或者通过劫掠放牧的邻居，来获得这些牲畜。 和主流观点相反：没有所谓的“纯粹”的牧民，即只依靠牧群生存的社会。撒哈拉沙漠地 区为了躲避干旱而向南迁移的牧民，几乎肯定的是他们也在种植高粱、小米和其他热带降雨作物。到公元前1500年，谷类作物已经广泛分布于整个撒哈拉沙漠南部的稀树 草原带。小型农业社区遍布在草原和西非东部森林的边界处，这些小型农业社区都依赖于所谓的轮耕法。这种形式的农业包括清理林地，焚烧清理过的地块上的那些被砍倒的灌木丛，将灰烬混合在土壤中，然后在这些制备好的土地上耕种。几年后，土地耗尽了养分，于是农民们继续前进，开辟新的林地，让原来的荒地休耕。轮耕法，也 被称为“刀耕火种”，高度适用于没有犁的稀树草原地区的农民，因为这种方法能够消耗 最少的能量。

新托福TPO26阅读原文及译文(一)

新托福TPO26阅读原文(一)：能源与工业革命 TPO26-1：nergy and the Industrial Revolution For years historians have sought to identify crucial elements in the eighteenth-century rise in industry, technology, and economic power known as the Industrial Revolution, and many give prominence to the problem of energy. Until the eighteenth century, people relied on energy derived from plants as well as animal and human muscle to provide power. Increased efficiency in the use of water and wind helped with such tasks as pumping, milling, or sailing. However, by the eighteenth century, Great Britain in particular was experiencing an energy shortage. Wood, the primary source of heat for homes and industries and also used in the iron industry as processed charcoal, was diminishing in supply. Great Britain had large amounts of coal; however, there were not yet efficient means by which to produce mechanical energy or to power machinery. This was to occur with progress in the development of the steam engine. In the late 1700s James Watt designed an efficient and commercially viable steam engine that was soon applied to a variety of industrial uses as it became cheaper to use. The engine helped solve the problem of draining coal mines of groundwater and increased the production of coal needed to power steam engines elsewhere. A rotary engine attached to the steam engine enabled shafts to be turned and machines to be driven, resulting in mills using steam power to spin and weave cotton. Since the steam engine was fired by coal, the large mills did not need to be located by rivers, as had mills that used water- driven machines. The shift to increased mechanization in cotton production is apparent in the import of raw cotton and the sale of cotton goods. Between 1760 and 1850, the amount of raw cotton imported increased 230 times. Production of British cotton goods increased sixtyfold, and cotton cloth became Great Britain’s most important product, accounting for one-half of all exports. The success of the steam engine resulted in increased demands for coal, and the consequent increase in coal production was made possible as the steam-powered pumps drained water from the ever-deeper coal seams found below the water table.