2015年5月24日托福阅读真题+题目+答案解析：Saving Soil and Cropland

2015年5月24日托福阅读真题+题目+答案解析：Saving Soil and Cropland

1. The world's farmers are literally losing ground on two fronts the loss of soil from erosion and the conversion of cropland to nonfarm uses. Both are well-established trends that reduce agricultural output, but since both are gradual processes, they are often not given the attention they deserve.

2. The 1930s that threatened to turn the United States Great Plains into a vast desert was a traumatic experience that led to revolutionary changes in American agricultural practices, such as the planting of tree shelterbeltsrows of trees planted beside fields to slow wind and thus reduce wind erosion. Perhaps the most lasting change is strip cropping, the planting of crops on alternate strips with fallowed (not planted) land each year. This permits soil moisture to accumulate on the fallowed strips, while the planted strips reduce wind speed and hence the wind erosion on the idled strips. The key to controlling wind erosion is to keep the land covered with vegetation as much as possible and to slow wind speed at ground level.

3. One of the time-tested methods of dealing with water erosion is terracingcreating hill-side ridgesto reduce runoff. Another newer, highly effective tool in the soil conservation tool kit is conservation , which includes both no tillage and minimum tillage. In conventional farming, land is plowed, disked, or harrowed to prepare the seedbed, seed is drilled into the soil with a planter, and row crops are cultivated with a mechanical cultivator two or three times to control weeds. With minimum tillage, farmers simply drill seeds directly into the soil. The only tillage is a one-time disturbance in a narrow band of soil where the seeds are inserted, leaving the remainder of the soil undisturbed, covered by crop residues and thus resistant to both water and wind erosion.

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托福阅读真题题目：

1..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.

A. The 1930s Dust Bowl was a revolutionary event that threatened to destroy United States agriculture by turning the Great Plains into a vast desert.

B. The 1930s Dust Bowl in the United States resulted in radical changes in agricultural practices aimed at reducing wind erosion, such as the planting of tree shelterbelts.

C. Tree shelterbelts, which are often used in the Great Plains area, are made up of trees that are planted in long rows beside agricultural fields.

D. Of all the innovative techniques used to control wind erosion after the 1930s Dust Bowl, only tree shelterbelts proved effective.

答案：B

解析：这句话的大意是“1930s对美国来说是一次创伤性的经历，导致了农业的巨大变革，例如为了减少wind erosion来种树”，结合选项，意思表达最贴切的是B选项。

2..The word hence in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. therefore

B. most importantly

C. to a large extent

D. indirectly

答案：A

解析：hence意思是“因此”，结合选项，意思一致的是A选项，B“最重要的是”，C“在很大程度上”，D“间接地”意思在这里都不符合，所以答案选A。

3..According to paragraph 2, which of the following is true about strip cropping

A. It increases crop yields annually.

B. It forces farmers to plant crops that absorb less water and fewer nutrients from the soil.

C. It requires the use of shelterbelts.

D. It prevents wind erosion and allows moisture to collect on sections of land left unplanted.

答案：D

解析：根据strip cropping定位到该段第2句话，这里我们可以结合第1题来看，上一句说到种树来减少wind erosion，紧接着这句说最持久的是strip cropping，所以可以知道strip cropping是可以减少wind erosion的，然后下一句又说到这使得土壤的水分可以聚集到fallowed strips，结合选项，答案应该是D。

4..According to paragraph 3, all of the following are practices involved in minimum tillage EXCEPT

A. using mechanical devices to control weeds

B. leaving unseeded soil undisturbed

C. disturbing the soil only once where the seeds are inserted

D. protecting against water and wind erosion by leaving parts of the soil covered with crop residues

答案：A

解析：根据关键词minimum tillage定位到第三个黑色方框后的句子，后面分别提到了三点，一个是simply drill seeds directly into the soil，也就是不像传统的耕作那样对土地进行各种操作;第二点是只有在播撒种子的地方对土地有唯一的一次disturbance;第三点是用crop residues覆盖土地来抵抗水和wind erosion。结合选项，唯一没有提到的是A，而A刚好是传统耕种所提到的，所以答案是A。

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