一.总述：

这是托福阅读这个系列的第一篇，在这里我会总结做题技巧，包括高频词汇，长难句，文章结构等等，但是更重要的是我将从我自己做题的角度记录我自己做题的心理活动，记录下来题目是怎么做错的，然后怎样用正确的思路把题目做对，希望能和单纯的从老师讲课的角度做出一些差异化的内容。

二.TPO21--The Origins of Agriculture

1.词汇积累：

    (1)glacial    adj.冰的

    (2)oscillate    vt./vi.使振荡，使振动/振荡，振动

    (3)brusquely  adv.唐突地，直率地

    (4)contention    n.争论

    (5)domesticate    vt./vi.驯养，教化

    (6)literate    adj.受过教育的/n.学者

    (7)nomadic    adj.游牧的，流浪的

    (8)integration    n.集成，综合

2.错题回顾：

(1)第6题:

6

重点在于这句话：There were, however, fluctuations in the climatic conditions, with the consequences that wet conditions were followed by dry ones, so that the availability of plants and animals oscillated brusquely. （正确答案D）

我一开始做的时候错选C，对原文的理解其实没有问题，气候的变化导致了干旱与超市状况的交替，所以动植物的资源就会有很突然的变化。而C选项different types of plants and animals became available as the climate changed错在它在强调different types of plants中的这个types是有所变化的，而原文中没有提到types,况且问题问的是the abundance fluctuated sharply after the end of the glacial period because ,  C选项某种意义上还在重述问题，没有回答问题,而D选项则回答了问题，就是下雨的情况的变化是非常剧烈的。

由此一定要注意问题问的是什么，不要加入自己的主观想法。

（2）第11题

11

机经词汇 contention      n. 争论，论点，竞争，争论 

                记法: con~:together，ten~:stretch out （to different direction with others）

contention

(3)第12题

12

重点在这句话：The fact that some societies domesticated animals and plants, discovered the use of metal tools, became literate, and developed a state should not make us forget that others developed pastoralism or horticulture (vegetable gardening) but remained illiterate and at low levels of productivity; a few entered the modern period as hunting and gathering societies.

这一段一开始就写The fact that, 感觉上就是要转折了，这也是对上文中M这个人理论不对的地方推翻的依据，错选D的原因在于最后时间不够就没有彻底的把这段读明白到底是怎么回事，仔细分析上面那句话想表达的也就是有些社会在同样的条件下发展了农业而有些地方没有，这也就是M这个人没有讲明的地方

(4)第14题

14

A. One obstacle to the transition from a nomadic lifestyle to the sedentary lifestyle required by agriculture was that hunter-gatherers had not developed storage techniques

A对应的原文Changing from hunting and gathering to agriculture had no immediate advantages. To start with, it forced the population to abandon the nomad's life and become sedentary, to develop methods of storage and, often, systems of irrigation. While hunter-gatherers always had the option of moving elsewhere when the resources were exhausted, this became more difficult with farming. 这里说发展农业没有即刻的优势，比如发展农业强迫人们发展存储方法。而选项中说这是一个从游牧转向农业的一个障碍，表述与原文不符。

B. It seems unlikely that agriculture emerged in response to a food shortage brought on by a worldwide population crisis that developed once the whole world was occupied.

B对应原文We know, however, that contemporary hunter-gatherer societies control their population in a variety of ways. The idea of a world population crisis is therefore unlikely, although population pressure might have arisen in some areas.正确

C. The origins of agriculture maybe linked to climate change at the end of the last ice age, but this does not explain why earlier climatic instability had not led to agriculture.

C对应原文Climatic changes at the end of the glacial period 13,000 years ago have been proposed to account for the emergence of farming. The temperature increased dramatically in a short period of time (years rather than centuries), allowing for a growth of the hunting-gathering population due to the abundance of resources. There were, however, fluctuations in the climatic conditions, with the consequences that wet conditions were followed by dry ones, so that the availability of plants and animals oscillated brusquely.正确

D. The only available means of understanding the social organization and technical abilities of ancient hunter-gatherer societies is the study of contemporary hunter-gatherers.

原文中对于研究方法没有具体说明，而且The Only这种非常绝对的词一旦看到必须在原文中找到确定的说法，原文中没有这种说法，错误

E.  One recent theory suggests that the invention of agriculture was made possible by the integration of various mental capacities in the human mind.

对应原文 It is archaeologist Steven Mithen's thesis, brilliantly developed in his book The Prehistory of the Mind (1996), that approximately 40,000 years ago the human mind developed cognitive fluidity, that is, the integration of the specializations of the mind: technical, natural history (geared to understanding the behavior and distribution of natural resources), social intelligence, and the linguistic capacity. Cognitive fluidity explains the appearance of art, religion, and sophisticated speech. Once humans possessed such a mind, they were able to find an imaginative solution to a situation of severe economic crisis such as the farming dilemma described earlier. Mithen proposes the existence of four mental elements to account for the emergence of farming.表述正确

F.  Little is known about why only some societies that adopted agriculture rapidly progressed to using metal tools, becoming literate, and developing a state.

对应原文 It is anthropologically important to inquire into the conditions that made some societies adopt agriculture while others remained hunter-gatherers or horticulturalists. However, it should be kept in mind that many societies that knew of agriculture more or less consciously avoided it. Whether Mithen's explanation is satisfactory is open to contention, and some authors have recently emphasized the importance of other factors.原文中说我们对于目前M这个人的理论为什么不能解释有些人发展农业有些人不发展知之甚少，而选项中的工具的使用，受教育，建立领地等等我们是有很多的研究的（M这个人研究的就是这个东西）