托福TPO6Part2阅读文本及答案解析

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Part2

William Smith

In

1769

in

a

little

town

in

Oxfordshire,

England,

a

child

with the very ordinary name of William Smith was born into

the

poor

family

of

a

village

blacksmith.

He

received

rudimentary

village

schooling,

but

mostly

he

roamed

his

uncles farm collecting the fossils that were so abundant in the

rocks of the Cotswold hills. When he grew older, William Smith

taught himself surveying from books he bought with his small

savings, and at the age of eighteen he was apprenticed to a

surveyor

of

the

local

parish.

He

then

proceeded

to

teach

himself

geology,

and

when

he

was

twenty- four,

he

went

to

work for the company that was excavating the Somerset Coal

Canal in the south of England.

This was before the steam locomotive, and canal building

was

at

its

height.

The

companies

building

the

canals

to

transport

coal

needed

surveyors

to

help

them

find

the

coal

第

1

页

共

17

页

deposits

worth

mining

as

well

as

to

determine

the

best

courses for the canals. This job gave Smith an opportunity to

study the fresh rock outcrops created by the newly dug canal.

He later worked on similar jobs across the length and breadth

of

England,

all

the

while

studying

the

newly

revealed

strata

and

collecting

all

the

fossils

he

could

find.

Smith

used

mail

coaches to travel as much as 10,000 miles per year. In 1815 he

published

the

first

modern

geological

map,

A

Map

of

the

Strata of England and Wales with a Part of Scotland, a map so

meticulously researched that it can still be used today.

In

1831

when

Smith

was

finally

recognized

by

the

Geological Society of London as the father of English geology,

it was not only for his maps but also for something even more

important. Ever since people had begun to catalog the strata

in

particular

outcrops,

there

had

been

the

hope

that

these

could somehow be used to calculate geological time. But as

more

and

more

accumulations

of

strata

were

cataloged

in

more and more places, it became clear that the sequences of

rocks

sometimes differed

from

region

to

region and

that

no

rock

type

was

ever

going

to

become

a

reliable

time

marker

throughout the world. Even without the problem of regional

differences, rocks present a difficulty as unique time markers.

第

2

页

共

17

页

Quartz

is

quartz-a

silicon

ion

surrounded

by

four

oxygen

ions- theres no difference at all between two-million- year-old

Pleistocene

quartz

and

Cambrian

quartz

created

over

500

million years ago.

As

he

collected

fossils

from

strata

throughout

England,

Smith began to see that the fossils told a different story from

the

rocks.

Particularly

in

the

younger

strata,

the

rocks

were

often so similar that he had trouble distinguishing the strata,

but he never had trouble telling the fossils apart. While rock

between two consistent strata might in one place be shale and

in

another

sandstone,

the

fossils

in

that

shale

or

sandstone

were always the same. Some fossils endured through so many

millions of years that they appear in many strata, but others

occur only in a few strata, and a few species had their births

and extinctions within one particular stratum. Fossils are thus

identifying markers for particular periods in Earths history.

Not

only

could

Smith

identify

rock

strata

by

the

fossils

they contained, he could also see a pattern emerging: certain

fossils always appear in more ancient sediments, while others

begin

to

be

seen

as

the

strata

become

more

recent.

By

following

the

fossils,

Smith

was

able

to

put

all

the

strata

of

Englands

earth

into

relative

temporal

sequence.

About

the

第

3

页

共

17

页

same

time,

Georges

Cuvier

made

the

same

discovery

while

studying the rocks around Paris.

Soon it was realized that this principle of faunal (animal)

succession

was

valid

not

only

in

England

or

France

but

virtually

everywhere.

It

was

actually

a

principle

of

floral

succession

as

well,

because

plants

showed

the

same

transformation through time as did fauna. Limestone may be

found in the Cambrian or-300 million years later-in the Jurassic

strata,

but

a

trilobite- the

ubiquitous

marine

arthropod

that

had

its

birth

in the Cambrian-will

never

be found

in Jurassic

strata, nor a dinosaur in the Cambrian.

Paragraph

1:

In

1769

in

a

little

town

in

Oxfordshire,

England, a child with the very ordinary name of William Smith

was

born

into

the

poor

family

of

a

village

blacksmith.

He

receivedrudimentary village schooling, but mostly he roamed

his uncles farm collecting the fossils that were so abundant in

the rocks of the Cotswold hills. When he grew older, William

Smith taught himself surveying from books he bought with his

small savings, and at the age of eighteen he was apprenticed

to a surveyor of the local parish. He then proceeded to teach

himself

geology,

and

when

he

was

twenty-four,

he

went

to

work for the company that was excavating the Somerset Coal

第

4

页

共

17

页

Canal in the south of England.

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阅读题目

Part2

1.

The

word

rudimentary

in

the

passage

is

closest

in

meaning to

○

thorough

○

strict

○

basic

○

occasional

2.

According

to

paragraph

1,

which

of

the

following

statements about William Smith is NOT true?

○

Smith learned surveying by reading and by apprenticing

for a local surveyor.

○

Smiths

family

lived

in

a

small

English

town

and

possessed little wealth.

○

Smith

learned

about

fossils

from

books

he

borrowed

from his uncle.

○

Smith

eventually

left

his

village

to

work

on

the

excavation of an English canal.

Paragraph 2: This was before the steam locomotive, and

canal building was at its height. The companies building the

canals to transport coal needed surveyors to help them find

the

coal

deposits

worth

mining

as

well

as

to

determine

the

第

5

页

共

17

页

best

courses

for

the

canals.

This

job

gave

Smith

an

opportunity

to

study

the

fresh

rock

outcrops

created

by

the

newly

dug

canal.

He

later

worked

on

similar

jobs

across

the

length

and

breadth

of

England,

all

the

while

studying

the

newly

revealed

strata

and

collecting

all

the

fossils

he

could

find.

Smith

used

mail

coaches

to

travel

as

much

as

10,000

miles

per

year.

In

1815

he

published

the

first

modern

geological

map,

A

Map

of

the

Strata

of

England

and

Wales

with a Part of Scotland, a map so meticulously researched that

it can still be used today.

3. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph

2 about canal building?

○

Canals

were

built

primarily

in

the

south

of

England

rather than in other regions.

○

Canal

building

decreased

after

the

steam

locomotive

was invented.

○

Canal

building

made

it

difficult

to

study

rock

strata

which often became damaged in the process.

○

Canal

builders

hired

surveyors

like

Smith

to

examine

exposed rock strata.

4. According to paragraph2, which of the following is true

of the map published by William Smith?

第

6

页

共

17

页

○

It indicates the locations of Englands major canals.

○

It

became

most

valuable

when

the

steam

locomotive

made rail travel possible.

○

The data for the map were collected during Smiths work

on canals.

○

It is no longer regarded as a geological masterpiece.

5.

The

word

meticulously

in

the

passage

is

closest

in

meaning to

○

carefully

○

quickly

○

frequently

○

obviously

Paragraph

3: In

1831

when

Smith

was

finally

recognized

by the Geological Society of London as the father of English

geology, it was not only for his maps but also for something

even more important. Ever since people had begun to catalog

the strata in particular outcrops, there had been the hope that

these

could

somehow

be

used

to

calculate

geological

time.

But as more and more accumulations of strata were cataloged

in more and more places, it became clear that the sequences

of rocks sometimes differed from region to region and that no

rock

type

was

ever

going

to

become

a

reliable

time

marker

第

7

页

共

17

页

throughout the world. Even without the problem of regional

differences, rocks present a difficulty as unique time markers.

Quartz

is

quartz-a

silicon

ion

surrounded

by

four

oxygen

ions- theres no difference at all between two-million- year-old

Pleistocene

quartz

and

Cambrian

quartz

created

over

500

million years ago.

6.

Which

of

the

sentences

below

best

expresses

the

essential

information

in

the

highlighted

sentence

in

the

passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important

ways or leave out essential information.

○

The discovery of regional differences in the sequences of

rocks led geologists to believe that rock types could someday

become reliable time markers.

○

Careful

analysis

of

strata

revealed

that

rocks

cannot

establish

geological

time

because

the

pattern

of

rock

layers

varies from place to place.

○

Smiths

catalogs

of

rock

strata

indicated

that

the

sequences of rocks are different from place to place and from

region to region.

○

Because

people

did

not

catalog

regional

differences

in

sequences of rocks, it was believed that rocks could never be

reliable time markers.

第

8

页

共

17

页