巧用托福阅读文章中的解题暗示

　　本期南京托福封闭班老师为大家讲解的题目来自TPO54-Passage1。这篇文章的标题是The Commercialization of Lumber，讲的是在十九世纪的美国，木材实现商业化的过程。

　　我们知道托福阅读的很多题目在原文中是可以找到解题的暗示点的，比如在这篇阅读里就有几个有意思的题。

　　8.The word "facilitate" in the passage is closest in meaning to

　　A. expand

　　B. ease

　　C. transform

　　D. permit

　　第8题是一个词汇题，让考生选一个与"facilitate"在语境中意思最为接近的单词。了解托福的考生们都知道，托福阅读的词汇题都是要结合语境做题的，那我们就来先看看这里的语境吧。

　　Paragraph 4: For industrial lumbering to succeed, a way had to be found to neutralize the effects of the seasons on production. Traditionally, cutting took place in the winter, when snow and ice made it easier to drag logs on sleds or sleighs to the banks of streams. Once the streams and lakes thawed, workers rafted the logs to mills, where they were cut into lumber in the summer. If nature did not cooperate—if the winter proved dry and warm, if the spring thaw was delayed—production would suffer. To counter the effects of climate on lumber production, loggers experimented with a variety of techniques for transporting trees out of the woods. In the 1870s, loggers in the Great Lakes states began sprinkling water on sleigh roads, giving them an artificial ice coating to facilitate travel. The ice reduced the friction and allowed workers to move larger and heavier loads.

　　本段主要讲的是季节与木材生产之间的关系，原文中提到了三个季节，“Traditionally, cutting took place in the winter, when snow and ice made it easier to drag logs on sleds or sleighs to the banks of streams. Once the streams and lakes thawed, workers rafted the logs to mills, where they were cut into lumber in the summer.”，其中正常情况下，伐木会在冬天进行，因为雪和冰可以使得用雪橇更容易将原木拖到河流岸边，这里需要注意关键词“snow and ice made it easier to drag”。

　　但如果大自然不配合的话，“If nature did not cooperate—if the winter proved dry and warm, if the spring thaw was delayed—production would suffer.”比如冬天如果又干燥又暖和，那就不好拖了。这里其实是在提出问题，下文需要解决问题，解决问题的一种方法就是“sprinkling water on sleigh roads, giving them an artificial ice coating to facilitate travel”，即“在雪道上洒水，铺上一层人造冰”。这里的关键词是“an artificial ice coating to facilitate travel”，而上文的关键词是“snow and ice made it easier to drag”，解决问题的原理都是要利用ice，所以我们可以知道，“facilitate”就是“made it easier”的意思，故第8题词汇题答案选B. ease。

　　另外，本段还出了一个句子插入题。

　　13.Look at the four squares [■]to add the sentence to the passage.

　　Some sleighs were capable of carrying over 100 tons worth of timber.

　　Where would the sentence best fit?

　　Paragraph 4: For industrial lumbering to succeed, a way had to be found to neutralize the effects of the seasons on production. Traditionally, cutting took place in the winter, when snow and ice made it easier to drag logs on sleds or sleighs to the banks of streams. Once the streams and lakes thawed, workers rafted the logs to mills, where they were cut into lumber in the summer. ■ If nature did not cooperate—if the winter proved dry and warm, if the spring thaw was delayed—production would suffer. To counter the effects of climate on lumber production, loggers experimented with a variety of techniques for transporting trees out of the woods. ■ In the 1870s, loggers in the Great Lakes states began sprinkling water on sleigh roads, giving them an artificial ice coating to facilitate travel. ■ The ice reduced the friction and allowed workers to move larger and heavier loads. ■

　　做题之前我们先来看看作者在前文使用的一种表达方法吧。

　　Paragraph 1: In nineteenth-century America, practically everything that was built involved wood. Pine was especially attractive for building purposes. It is durable and strong, yet soft enough to be easily worked with even the simplest of hand tools. It also floats nicely on water, which allowed it to be transported to distant markets across the nation. The central and northern reaches of the Great Lakes states—Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota—all contained extensive pine forests as well as many large rivers for floating logs into the Great Lakes, from where they were transported nationwide.

　　首先在第 一段中，作者提到“Pine was especially attractive for building purposes.” 意思是“松木在建筑用途中尤为受欢迎。”句中的“attractive”是一个评价性词汇，意思是“有吸引力的”，我们把形容词转换成名词“attractiveness”，即“吸引力”，这是一个抽象名词，于是作者在下文就集中列举写了松木在哪些具体方面有“吸引力”，如“It is durable and strong, yet soft enough to be easily worked with even the simplest of hand tools. It also floats nicely on water, which allowed it to be transported to distant markets across the nation.”

　　Paragraph 3: The commercialization of lumbering was in part the product of technological change. The early, thick saw blades tended to waste a large quantity of wood, with perhaps as much as a third of the log left behind on the floor as sawdust or scrap. In the 1870s, however, the British-invented band saw, with its thinner blade, became standard issue in the Great Lakes states' lumber factories. Meanwhile, the rise of steam-powered mills streamlined production by allowing for the more efficient, centralized, and continuous cutting of lumber. Steam helped to automate a variety of tasks, from cutting to the carrying away of waste. Mills also employed steam to heat log ponds, preventing them from freezing and making possible year-round lumber production.

　　在第三段中，作者提到“The early, thick saw blades tended to waste a large quantity of wood, with perhaps as much as a third of the log left behind on the floor as sawdust or scrap.”，前半句意思是“早先的粗锯条容易浪费大量的木头”，其中“quantity” 又是一个抽象名词，意思是“数量”，浪费了大量的木头到底是浪费多少呢，后半句接着说“as much as a third of the log…”，即大约有三分之一的原木变成了锯末或碎片。

　　后面还有一句，“Steam helped to automate a variety of tasks, from cutting to the carrying away of waste.”意思是“蒸汽帮助许多任务实现自动化，从伐木到带走废料。”句中的“variety”也是抽象名词，意思是“种类”，蒸汽实现了各项任务的自动化，具体是哪些任务呢?后半句提到的伐木和运走废料就是任务的具体内容了。

　　从以上这些地方我们可以看出，阅读文章的作者在好几处都使用了从抽象到具体的表达手法，这也可以看成是对做句子插入题的一个小提示吧。那接下来我们再回到句子插入题。

　　13.Look at the four squares [■]to add the sentence to the passage.

　　Some sleighs were capable of carrying over 100 tons worth of timber.

　　Where would the sentence best fit?

　　Paragraph 4: For industrial lumbering to succeed, a way had to be found to neutralize the effects of the seasons on production. Traditionally, cutting took place in the winter, when snow and ice made it easier to drag logs on sleds or sleighs to the banks of streams. Once the streams and lakes thawed, workers rafted the logs to mills, where they were cut into lumber in the summer. ■ If nature did not cooperate—if the winter proved dry and warm, if the spring thaw was delayed—production would suffer. To counter the effects of climate on lumber production, loggers experimented with a variety of techniques for transporting trees out of the woods. ■ In the 1870s, loggers in the Great Lakes states began sprinkling water on sleigh roads, giving them an artificial ice coating to facilitate travel. ■ The ice reduced the friction and allowed workers to move larger and heavier loads. ■

　　在已知句“Some sleighs were capable of carrying over 100 tons worth of timber.”中，解题的信号词是“100 tons”。刚才我们做词汇题的时候读到过，冬天干燥温暖时，木材生产就会遭殃。这里依旧是先提出问题，下一句解决问题。“To counter the effects of climate on lumber production, loggers experimented with a variety of techniques for transporting trees out of the woods.”， 为了对抗气候在原木生产中的影响，伐木工人尝试了很多不同的方法来将树木运送出树林。“a variety of techniques”，各种各样的方法是抽象信息，具体方法就是下一句提到的“sprinkling water on sleigh roads, giving them an artificial ice coating”，即洒水、铺一层人造冰。

　　下一句进一步解释，“The ice reduced the friction and allowed workers to move larger and heavier loads.”冰减轻了摩擦，让运输变得便利，并使工人能移动更大更重的货物。“larger and heavier loads”，“更大更重”是抽象信息，到底是多大多重呢，这里正好可以衔接题目里的“100 tons”，即100吨那么重，故句子插入题的最 佳位置是第四个■。考生们在做题过程中也要善于发现上下文的提示哦～

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