托福阅读真题Official 49 Passage 1（四）

托福阅读真题Official 49 Passage 1（四）

Ancient Coastlines

Information on past climates is primarily of relevance to archaeology because of what it tells us about the effects on the land and on the resources that people needed to survive.The most crucial effect of climate was on the sheer quantity of land available in each period,measurable by studying ancient coastlines.These have changed constantly through time,even in relatively recent periods,as can be seen from the Neolithic stone circle of Er Lannic,in Brittany,France(once inland but now half submerged on an island)or medieval villages in east Yorkshire,England,that have tumbled into the sea in the last few centuries as the North Sea gnaws its way westward and erodes the cliffs.Conversely,silts deposited by rivers sometimes push the sea farther back,creating new land,as at Ephesus in western Turkey,a port on the coast in Roman times but today some five kilometers inland.

Nevertheless,for archaeologists concerned with the long periods of time of the Paleolithic period there are variations in coastlines of much greater magnitude to consider.The expansion and contraction of the continental glaciers caused huge and uneven rises and falls in sea levels worldwide.When the ice sheets grew,the sea level would drop as water became locked up in the glaciers;when the ice melted,the sea level would rise again.Falls in sea level often exposed a number of important land bridges,such as those linking Alaska to northeast Asia and Britain to northwest Europe,a phenomenon with far-reaching effects not only on human colonization of the globe but also on the environment as a whole—the flora and fauna of isolated or insular areas were radically and often irreversibly affected.Between Alaska and Asia today lies the Bering Strait,which is so shallow that a fall in sea level of only four meters would turn it into a land bridge.When the ice sheets were at their greatest extent some 18,000 years ago(the glacial maximum),it is thought that the fall was about 120 meters,which therefore created not merely a bridge but a vast plain,1,000 kilometers from the north to the south,which has been called Beringia.The existence of Beringia(and the extent to which it could have supported human life)is one of the crucial pieces of evidence in the continuing debate about the likely route and date of human colonization of the New World.

The assessment of past rises and falls in sea level requires study of submerged land surfaces off the coast and of raised or elevated beaches on land.Raised beaches are remnants of former coastlines at higher levels relative to the present shoreline and visible,for instance,along the Californian coast north of San Francisco.The height of a raised beach above the present shoreline,however,does not generally give a straightforward indication of the height of a former sea level.In the majority of cases,the beaches lie at a higher level because the land has been raised up through isostatic uplift or tectonic movements.Isostatic uplift of the land occurs when the weight of ice is removed as temperatures rise,as at the end of an ice age;it has affected coastlines,for example,in Scandinavia,Scotland,Alaska,and Newfoundland during the postglacial period.Tectonic movements involve displacements in the plates that make up Earth’s crust;Middle and Late Pleistocene raised beaches in the Mediterranean are one instance of such movements.

Raised beaches often consist of areas of sand,pebbles,or dunes,sometimes containing seashells or piles of debris comprising shells and bones of marine animals used by humans.In Tokyo Bay,for example,shell mounds of the Jomon period(about 10,000 to 300 B.C.E.)mark the position of the shoreline at a time of maximum inundation by the sea(6,500–5,500 years ago),when,through tectonic movement,the sea was three to five meters higher in relation to the contemporary landmass of Japan than at present.Analysis of the shells themselves has confirmed the changes in marine topography,for it is only during the maximum phase that subtropical species of mollusc are present,indicating a higher water temperature.

Question 7 of 14

What purpose does the discussion about the Bering Strait in paragraph 2 serve in the passage?

A.It explains the idea that changes in coastlines do not necessarily result in significant alterations to existing marine life.

B.It illustrates the kind of impact that variations in land availability caused by climate change can have.

C.It provides a large amount of archaeological evidence that casts doubt on changes in sea level during the Paleolithic period.

D.It shows how ancient coastlines can serve as useful models in understanding recent changes in coastlines.

正确答案：B

题目详解

题型分类：修辞目的题

选项分析：考查段落主旨。第二段主要讲了冰川的融化和冻结带来了海平面的升降，而海平面的升降又带来的土地的出现和被淹没。Berling的例子对应的是巨大的海平面变化导致巨大的土地被创造出来。

选项分析：

B选项：阐明了气候变化对土地可用性的影响，符合该段段意。

A选项：全段没有提到对海洋生物的影响，属于无中生有。

C选项：并不是质疑P阶段的海平面变化，属于张冠李戴。

D选项：没有提及海岸线最近的变化，属于无中生有。

Question 8 of 14

The word“remnants”in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.remains

B.regions

C.points

D.origins

正确答案：A

题目详解

题型分类：词汇题

选项分析：

词汇位于第三段第二句，原句说上升海滩是前海岸线的remnants，由后文at higher levels处于较高位置、visible明显的以及加州海岸上升沙滩的例子可知，上升海滩现在存在并且可以看见。

A选项：剩余物，与原文语境相符。

B选项：地区；

C选项：地点；

D选项：起源，带入原文均不符合语境。