托福考试模拟试题测试

Reading Comprehension

　　Time: 55 minutes (including the reading of the directions). Now set your clock for 55 minutes.

　　Question 1——10

　　　　　The word laser was coined as an acronym for Light Amplification by the Stimulated

　　Emission of Radiation. Ordinary light, from the Sun or a light bulb, is emitted

　　spontaneously, when atoms or molecules get rid of excess energy by themselves, without

　　any outside intervention . Stimulated emission is different because it occurs when an

　　atom or molecule holding onto excess energy has been stimulated to emit it as light.

　　　　 Albert Einstein was the first to suggest the existence of stimulated emission in a

　　paper published in 1917. However , for many years physicists thought that atoms and

　　molecules always were much more likely to emit light spontaneously and that stimulated

　　emission thus always would be much weaker. It was not until after the Second World

　　War that physicists began trying to make stimulated emission dominate. They sought

　　ways by which one atom or molecule could stimulate many other to emit light ,

　　amplifying it to much higher powers.

　　　　 The first to succeed was Charles H.Townes, then at Colombia University in New

　　York . Instead of working with light , however, he worked with microwaves, which have

　　a much longer wavelength, and built a device he called a "maser" for Microwave

　　Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Although he thought of the

　　key idea in 1951, the first maser was not completed until a couple of years later. Before

　　long, many other physicists were building masers and trying to discover how to produce

　　stimulated emission at even shorter wavelength.

　　　　 The key concepts emerged about 1957. Townes and Arthur Schawlow, then at Bell

　　Telephone Laboratories, wrote a long paper outlining the conditions needed to amplify

　　stimulated emission of visible light waves. At about the same time, similar ideas

　　crystallized in the mind of Gordon Gould, then a 37- year-old graduate student at

　　Columbia, who wrote them down in a series of notebooks. Townes and Schawlow

　　published their ideas in a scientific journal, Physical Review Letter, but Gould filed a

　　patent application. Three decades later, people still argue about who deserves the credit

　　for the concept of the laser.

　　1. The word "coin" in line 1 could be replaced by

　　(A) created

　　(B) mentioned

　　(C) understood

　　(D) discovered

　　2. The word "intervention" in line 4 can best be replaced by

　　(A) need

　　(B) device

　　(C) influence

　　(D) source

　　3. The word "it" in line 5 refers to

　　(A) light bulb

　　(B) energy

　　(C) molecule

　　(D) atom

　　4. Which of the following statements best describes a laser?

　　(A) A device for stimulating atoms and molecules to emit light

　　(B) An atom in a high-energy state

　　(C) A technique for destroying atoms or molecules

　　(D) An instrument for measuring light waves

　　5. Why was Towne’s early work with stimulated emission done with microwaves?

　　(A) He was not concerned with light amplification

　　(B) It was easier to work with longer wavelengths.

　　(C) His partner Schawlow had already begun work on the laser.

(D) The laser had already been developed

6. In his research at Columbia University, Charles Townes worked with all of the following EXCEPT

　　(A) stimulated emission

　　(B) microwaves

　　(C) light amplification

　　(D) a maser

　　7.In approximately what year was the first maser built?

　　(A) 1917

　　(B) 1951

　　(C) 1953

　　(D) 1957

　　8. The word "emerged" in line 20 is closest in meaning to

　　(A) increased

　　(B) concluded

　　(C) succeeded

　　(D) appeared

　　9. The word "outlining" in line 21 is closest in meaning to

　　(A) assigning

　　(B) studying

　　(C) checking

　　(D) summarizing

　　10. Why do people still argue about who deserves the credit for the concept of the laser?

　　(A) The researchers’ notebooks were lost.

　　(B) Several people were developing the idea at the same time.

　　(C) No one claimed credit for the development until recently.

　　(D) The work is still incomplete.

　　Question 11——21

　　　　 Panel painting, common in thirteenth -and fourteenth -century Europe , involved a

　　painstaking , laborious process. Wooden planks were joined, covered with gesso to

　　prepare the surface for painting , and then polished smooth with special tools. On this

　　perfect surface, the artist would sketch a composition with chalk, refine it with inks,

　　and then begin the deliberate process of applying thin layers of egg tempera paint (egg

　　yolk in which pigments are suspended) with small brushes. The successive layering of

　　these meticulously applied paints produced the final, translucent colors.

　　　　Backgrounds of gold were made by carefully applying sheets of gold leaf, and then

　　embellishing of decorating the gold leaf by punching

　　it with a metal rod on which a

　　pattern had been embossed. Every step in the process was slow and deliberate . The

　　quick-drying tempera demanded that the artist know exactly where each stroke be

　　placed before the brush met the panel, and it required the use of fine brushes. It was,

　　therefore , an ideal technique for emphasizing the hard linear edges and pure, fine areas

　　of color that were so much a part of the overall aesthetic of the time. The notion that an

　　artist could or would dash off an idea in a fit of spontaneous inspiration was

　　completely alien to these deliberately produced works.

　　　 Furthermore, making these paintings was so time-consuming tha