2017年4月1日托福阅读难题解析

　　考题1

　　The phrase "this respect" in the passage refers to

　　A. enormous variations

　　B. being smaller

　　C. number of inhabitants

　　D. shared characteristics

　　解析：

　　难点一，很多考生误以为这是词汇题，而词汇题的通常问法是：The word/phrase "…" is closest in meaning to。这道题题干中的“refers to”表明这是代词指代题，需要读懂句子找清前后指代关系;

　　难点二，很多人不知道respect有名词用法，=aspect，表“方面”;

　　难点三，回到原文读考句，读不懂。该句为： One may call them towns because even though they varied enormously in numbers of inhabitants, and some were smaller than large villages in this respect, they shared certain characteristics that set them off from rural settlements. 表明从居民数量的方面来看，一些城镇比大村庄的居民数量还少，但它们仍然是城镇，共享着区别于村庄的某些特征。所以此题正确答案是C。

　　考题2

　　Because what distinguished towns from villages was not so much size as the density of economic and social activities, one writer has argued that an important criterion for town is the existence of traffic jams—the hustle and bustle of oxcarts, long lines of wagons bringing fruits and vegetables, raw materials, and finished goods to markets, and the parade of men and women coming to shop, visit, or attend meetings.

　　解析：

　　这是句子简化题所在考句，最大考点在于“not so much A…as B”句式真正意义的考查。在这里，否定A，而肯定B。即城镇区别于村庄的特征并不是其规模大小，而是其经济活动和社会活动的密集度。同样的句式表达还有less A than B。反过来，more A than B，就是肯定A而否定B了。这一考点在同一篇文章中又再次考到，看下题。

　　考题3

　　考句：In southern Europe there was more continuity from earlier settlement patterns. Growth came less from the creation of new towns than from the flow of immigrants to old settlements.

　　It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that urban growth in southern Europe was marked by

　　A. more people in a greater number of towns

　　B. more people in the same number of towns

　　C. development of new settlement patterns

　　D. movement of people into newly created towns

　　解析：

　　第一句话“In southern Europe there was more continuity from earlier settlement patterns.”属于抽象语言，对抽象语言的理解，一靠大量阅读的积淀，二靠向下文寻找具体对应。此句中的抽象概念“more continuity from earlier settlement patterns”，具体对应到下句的“the flow of immigrants to old settlements”。因为“less A than B”中，A是否定内容，B才是作者重点叙述的肯定内容。

　　所以综合两句信息来看，南欧地区城镇的增长是来自于移民涌入原有的老的定居点，而不是去建造新的定居点/新城镇。所以正确答案选B。