2014年6月28日托福阅读真题P3+题目+答案：Earth’s Energy Cycle

2014年6月28日托福阅读真题P3+题目+答案：Earth’s Energy Cycle

To understand most of the processes at work on Earth, it is useful to envisage interactions within the Earth system as a series of interrelated cycles. One of these is the energy cycle, which encompasses the great "engines"—the external and internal energy sources—that drive the Earth system and all its cycles. We can think of Earth’s energy cycle as a "budget": energy may be added to or subtracted from the budget and may be transferred from one storage place to another, but overall the additions and subtractions and transfers must balance each other. If a balance did not exist, Earth would either heat up or cool down until a balance was reached.

1. The word ―encompasses‖ in the passage is closet in meaning to

A.explains

B.includes

C.combines

D.creates

2. In paragraph 1, the author introduces the concept of a budget in order to

A.indicate how different cycles in the Earth system relate to each other

B.illustrate how Earth’s energy cycle must maintain an overall balance

C.show that Earth gains energy from both external and internal sources

D.explain how energy is transferred from one storage place to another

The total amount of energy flowing into Earth’s energy budget is more than 174,000 terawatts (or 174,000 ×10¹² watts). This quantity completely dwarfs the 10 terawatts of energy that humans use per year. There are three main sources from which energy flows into the Earth system.

3. Why does the author include information about the "energy that humans useper year" in the discussion?

A.To call into question the idea that humans can use up all the energy available in Earth’s energy budget

B.To provide a comparison that established how huge the amount of energy flowing  into Earth’s energy budget is

C.To explain why there must be more than one source of energy for the Earth system

D.To argue that the use of energy by humans amounts to such a small part of Earth’s energy budget that it cannot have significant effects

Incoming short-wavelength solar radiation overwhelmingly dominates the flow of energy in Earth’s energy budget, accounting for about 99.986 percent of the total. An estimated 174,000 terawatts of solar radiation is intercepted by Earth. Some of this vast influx powers the winds, rainfall, ocean currents, waves, and other processes in the hydrologic (or water) cycle. Some is used for photosynthesis and is temporarily stored in the biosphere in the form of plant and animal life. When plants die and are buried, some of the solar energy is stored in rocks, when we burn coal, oil, or natural gas, we release stored solar energy.

4. 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 of leave out essential information.

A.Almost all of the short-wavelength energy in Earth’s energy budget comes from solar radiation.

B.Short-wavelength radiation is by far the largest part of the total energy that the Sun radiates to Earth.

C.The amount of short-wavelength radiation received from the Sun is huge by comparison to Earth’s own energy production.

D.Almost the entire amount of energy that flows into Earth’s energy budget is short-wavelength radiation from the Sun.

5. According to paragraph 3, solar radiation powers all of the following EXCEPT

A.photosynthesis in plants

B.winds

C.formation of rocks

D.processes in the hydrologic cycle

。。。。。余下原文及题目省略！

2014年6月28日托福阅读真题P3+题目+答案：Earth’s Energy Cycle，完整版下载，10元有偿！