作者：北美考试院托福阅读组-何曼
一、一月考情回顾
2020年1月托福考试已经结束，本月托福阅读考试难度中等，依然保持了拼盘出题的特征。1月4号本月首场考试出现了上午场和下午场。以下是本月5场考试的详细内容，请大家结合自身备考需要，进行学习借鉴。由于当前考试阅读涉及篇目众多，笔者很难做到所有篇目完全覆盖，只能给尽力给大家带来全面的回顾内容。
1. 在1月4日上午场的考试中，阅读一共出现了9篇文章，以下是对应的文章话题以及相关考情回顾。
1）从青铜变到铁器时代，一开始讲铁的缺点，后面通过技术的发展使得铁变得便宜质量好高效
2）一种树生长的时候不繁殖（reproduce），繁殖的时候不生长，以及种子会在光变多的时候增加生长的速率
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO45-2 Wind Pollination
3）欧洲十五世纪之后的发展，地主和居民都因为发展而得到了好处
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO51-3 Population Growth in Nineteenth-Century Europe
4）讲一种鸟只在一种很干的树上搭巢，而那个树因为干会发生火灾
5）美国东北部海岸经济贸易的发展，mogolias地区，最后总结是由于其他国家贸易发展导致的
6） 欧洲遭受疾病之后的发展
7） 动物的教学行为
8）人类眼睛和昆虫眼睛的区别
9）生物入侵导致另外的植物死亡
词汇题：
immense =excellent
esteemed =regarded
enduring=lasting
controversial=contentious
degradation=corruption
compromise=damage
provided=on condition
vicinity=proximity
stimulate=energize
terminate=halt
2. 在1月4日下午场的考试中，阅读一共出现了8篇文章，以下是对应的文章回忆。
1）Documenting the Incas
当西班牙人在16世纪遇到印加人时，他们在南美洲西部统治着一个庞大的帝国。印加人没有自己的书写系统，所以有关他们的历史信息都是早期的西班牙人撰写的。但使用这些记录进行研究存在很多缺点。
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO39-1 Early Writing Systems
TPO53-1 Evidence of the Earliest Writing
2）岩石风化
化学和生物方式对岩石的风化（weathering）
3）欧洲的城镇发展
4）人体的热量交换
5）地理隔离和生殖隔离
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO42-1 Geographic Isolation of Species
6）地球大气层组成氧气含量变化
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO42-2 Climate of Venus
7）气候变化对生物区域变化的影响
8）鱼类定位迁徙导航的方式
词汇题：
Sporadic=occasional large
Appliance=use
Profound=complete
Drawback=disadvantage
Gradual=step-by-step
3. 在1月5日的考试中，阅读一共出现了11篇文章，以下是对应的文章回忆。
1）恐龙的消失与小行星撞地球的关系论证。
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO5-3 The Cambrian Explosion
2）中国古代艺术（以瓷器和玉器雕刻为例）。
3）墨西哥一种特殊形式的房子的形成原因。
4）臭氧层的形成，臭氧空洞形成的原因。
5）恒温动物和变温动物，主要说海洋生物。
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO15-1 A Warm-Blooded Turtle
6）罗马的工业化；
7）艺术家与艺术沙龙；
8）美国耕种技术的发展与影响；
9）环境问题并非一定源于明显的原因，过渡放牧和大象不是主要原因，而是土地盐度过好；
10）尼罗河泛滥。埃及分为上埃及和下埃及，上埃及的人主要以放牧为生，游荡在沙漠中。下埃及发展了农业文化，农业起源稍晚一些，原因是埃及有相对充足的资源。最初农业起源种植的谷物和饲养的牲畜都是进口的。埃及农业灌溉主要靠河水，每年有一次可预测的尼罗河泛滥可以润湿土壤，清除堆积的盐从而有利植物生长；
11）海藻的分布Distribution the Seaweeds；
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO44-3 Seagrasses
词汇题：
Mere=bare
Rare=uncommon
Catastrophic=disastrous
Eclectic-=varied
Freestanding=independent
Remanent=remaining
Incident=event
Meager=scant
Rival=battle
Particular=demanding
4.在1月11日的考试中，阅读一共出现了11篇文章，以下是对应的文章回忆。
1）英国的经济起步
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO10-3 Seventeenth-Century European Economic Growth
2）氧气在海洋里的作用
3）与希腊相关的神圣场所
4）两种地貌形成的原因
5）植物如何获得氮元素
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO53-2 Rain Forest Soils
6）更新世冰川形成
7）玻利维亚附近某地的农业
8）Biofeedback（用精神控制心跳和血压，尿等等）
9）考古学家通过洞穴里发现的动物骨头去定位气候以及环境的变化
10）丝绸之路
11）一种鱼的身材和产子
词汇题
Integrity=completeness
Meticulous=careful
manipulation=skilled handling
impressive=impactful
plausible=possible
concur with=agree
manufacture=construct
renown=fame
autonomous=independent
5. 在1月12日的考试中，阅读一共出现了9篇文章，以下是对应的文章回忆。
1）森林的扩张
2）钻石的地位发展，欧洲和印度的钻石贸易
3）动物繁殖方式，一种是胎生，一种是卵生，下蛋然后再进行孵化
4）研究某动物是捕食者还是拾荒者
5）工业污染与黑蛾的自然选择
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO36-3 Industrial Melanism: The Case of the Peppered Moth
6）Gilding animals in South Asia forests
7）Geography of Nile 讲尼罗河对古埃及农业的影响
8）蝙蝠的回声定位
9）文字起源，从象形文字到锲形文字再到声音文字。
推荐TPO相似篇目：
TPO39-1 Early Writing Systems
TPO53-1 Evidence of the Earliest Writing
就本月的考试情况来看，虽然目前阅读考试话题涉及越来越多，但总的来说所有真题都能够找到TPO上的对应文章，考生可以根据自身情况，针对薄弱话题进行加强训练。此外，词汇题考察基本无新词，都可以在TPO中遇到，所有一定在日常训练的时候做好积累复习，争取考试时在词汇这一题型上不丢分。平日注意词汇和长难句的积累，大量阅读以便备考。
二、背景补充-文字类话题
1. 相似文章和考频统计
相似文章推荐
TPO39-1 Early Writing Systems
TPO46-1 The Origins of Writing
TPO49-2 Movable Type
TPO53-1 Evidence of the Earliest Writing
文字类文章考频
文字类文章在TPO阅读中所占比例并不算很高，但是作为一个难点话题，涉及知识点又比较集中，非常适合进行集中突破。
2. 文字起源基本信息
大多数学者认为，文字起源于美索不达米亚地区（今伊拉克）。称之为楔形文字。最早刻在泥板上，可以追溯到公元前3000年，被苏美尔人使用。当时的粘土板子通常不用火进行烘烤，而是放在太阳下自然晒干进行保存。
也有学者认为文字起源于埃及的象形文字，写在纸草（纸的前身）上，这是由一种湿地植物制作而成了，尼罗河两岸有大量的该类植物。纸草有优点，质量较好，但是又有缺点，不便于留存。
但是现在关于文字起源的证据都是来自于美索不达米亚地区的楔形文字，因为写在草纸上的象形文字不容易保存，战争中的一场大火可以让纸化为灰烬。而写在粘土板子上的象形文字反而被火烧过之后变得更加坚固，从而得以保存。
3. 相关文章补充：
TPO53-1 Evidence of the Earliest Writing
Although literacy appeared independently in several parts of the prehistoric world, the earliest evidence of writing is the cuneiform Sumerian script on the clay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia, which, archaeological detective work has revealed, had its origins in the accounting practices of commercial activity. Researchers demonstrated that preliterate people, to keep track of the goods they produced and exchanged, created a system of accounting using clay tokens as symbolic representations of their products. Over many thousands of years, the symbols evolved through several stages of abstraction until they became wedge- shaped (cuneiform) signs on clay tablets, recognizable as writing.
段：最早的文字起源于苏美尔人的楔形文字，与商业活动相关，并且经过了很多阶段的演变进化。
The original tokens (circa 8500 B.C.E.) were three-dimensional solid shapes—tiny spheres, cones, disks, and cylinders. A debt of six units of grain and eight head of livestock, for example might have been represented by six conical and eight cylindrical tokens. To keep batches of tokens together, an innovation was introduced (circa 3250 B. C. E.) whereby they were sealed inside clay envelopes that could be broken open and counted when it came time for a debt to be repaid. But because the contents of the envelopes could easily be forgotten, two-dimensional representations of the three-dimensional tokens were impressed into the surface of the envelopes before they were sealed. Eventually, having two sets of equivalent symbols—the internal tokens and external markings—came to seem redundant, so the tokens were eliminated (circa 3250-3100 B.C.E.), and only solid clay tablets with two-dimensional symbols were retained. Over time, the symbols became more numerous, varied, and abstract and came to represent more than trade commodities, evolving eventually into cuneiform writing.
第二段：原始的符号是三维的，用来记录债务，逐步被二维符号取代。
The evolution of the symbolism is reflected in the archaeological record first of all by the increasing complexity of the tokens themselves. The earliest tokens, dating from about 10,000 to 6,000 years ago, were of only the simplest geometric shapes. But about 3500 B.C.E., more complex tokens came into common usage, including many naturalistic forms shaped like miniature tools, furniture, fruit, and humans. The earlier, plain tokens were counters for agricultural products, whereas the complex ones stood for finished products, such as bread, oil, perfume, wool, and rope, and for items produced in workshops, such as metal, bracelets, types of cloth, garments, mats, pieces of furniture, tools, and a variety of stone and pottery vessels. The signs marked on clay tablets likewise evolved from simple wedges, circles, ovals, and triangles based on the plain tokens to pictographs derived from the complex tokens.
第三段：符号的演变变得逐步复杂，最开始是简单的几何形状，然后变成物品缩影。
Before this evidence came to light, the inventors of writing were assumed by researchers to have been an intellectual elite. Some, for example, hypothesized that writing emerged when members of the priestly caste agreed among themselves on written signs. But the association of the plain tokens with the first farmers and of the complex tokens with the first artisans—and the fact that the token-and-envelope accounting system invariably represented only small-scale transactions—testifies to the relatively modest social status of the creators of writing.
第四段：最开始认为文字是上层社会发明的，但随着证据出现，发现文字的起源跟农民以及工匠相关。
And not only of literacy, but numeracy (the representation of quantitative concepts) as well. The evidence of the tokens provides further confirmation that mathematics originated in people’s desire to keep records of flocks and other goods. Another immensely significant step occurred around 3100 B.C.E., when Sumerian accountants extended the token-based signs to include the first real numerals. Previously, units of grain had been represented by direct one-to-one correspondence―by repeating the token or symbol for a unit of grain the required number of times. The accountants, however, devised numeral signs distinct from commodity signs, so that eighteen units of grain could be indicated by preceding a single grain symbol with a symbol denoting “18.” Their invention of abstract numerals and abstract counting was one of the most revolutionary advances in the history of mathematics.
第五段：数字也在同时发展。最开始计数是通过一一对应的方式来表示，随后有了数字符号，可以用商品符号加上数字符号来计数。
What was the social status of the anonymous accountants who produced this breakthrough? The immense volume of clay tablets unearthed in the ruins of the Sumerian temples where the accounts were kept suggests a social differentiation within the scribal class, with a virtual army of lower-ranking tabulators performing the monotonous job of tallying commodities. We can only speculate as to how high or low the inventors of true numerals were in the scribal hierarchy, but it stands to reason that this laborsaving innovation would have been the brainchild of the lower-ranking types whose drudgery is eased.
第六段：数字的发明者应该也是社会地位比较低的人，用来减轻他们劳动的繁重。
4. 词汇补充
Cuneiform n.楔形文字
Tablet n.板子
Livestock n.家禽
Batch n.批
Seal v.密封
Equivalent adj.对等的
Geometric adj.几何的
Garment n.外衣
Plain adj.简单的
Elite n.精英
Priestly adj.祭祀的
Caste n.特权阶级
Artisan n.工匠
Transaction n.交易
Testify v.证实
Anonymous adj.匿名的
Unearth v.挖掘
Speculate v.猜测
Hierarchy n.等级
Drudgery n.苦工
