从托福阅读玩转“米国的人文自然地理”

从托福阅读了解“米国的人文自然地理”

托福的阅读很多时候考生抱怨地名太多，各种现象太多，原理太多，不方便做题。由于是米国人出题，自然他们会迫不及待地宣传自己。

但是，TPO也有很多好玩的东西，不妨和少年们分享一下，这样考试会轻松些：

先普及2张地图：

比如TPO3有个《奥加拉拉蓄水层》，里面提到了Great Plains大平原，semi-arid climate 半干旱气候, aquifer 蓄水层, water-table fall drastically 水位急剧下降, conserve water by irrigating less 减少灌溉来保护水资源, transport vast quantity of water by pipeline from Mississippi 从密西西比河通过管道来输送水, 这些概念考生如果有直观的图片来帮助理解，那么将迅速了解其原理。

我们可以发现，上图体现了aquifer的位置，下图通过对比，明显可以发现该区域被洛基山脉Rocky Mountains自北向南一口气和太平洋的水汽阻隔，而此地区离大西洋更远，因此我们也就不难理解为何是半干旱semi-arid了，而由于是平

原，农业肯定比山区发达，考虑到干旱，所以自然就water-table fall drastically。至于从密西西比河通过管道来输送水为何需要pipelines，大家也可以发现水系发达的Mississippi根本就是鞭长莫及，地理差距长达hundreds of miles，可以说没有这个aquifer，米国农业和各大农场早就完蛋了，从此英语字典里farmer只能被无奈地抠掉，留下一个可怜巴巴的peasant.

有异曲同工作用的还有TPO4的《普吉特海湾的鹿群》，这篇文章和上面大相径庭，讲到了华盛顿州Washington State（该地区有著名的NBA西雅图超音速队Seattle Supersonics和少年们垂涎三尺的华盛顿大学University of Washington，全美排名52）位于Pacific Northwest，参照下面的地图我们瞬间可以发现该区位在图中左上角，恰好在臭名昭著的（notorious）洛基山脉西面，和太平洋的水汽热情相拥。各种植物不想繁茂都很难！所以在TPO4的这篇里面，出现了cedar 雪松，red alder红桤木，hemlock铁杉。至于大平原，永远就是干巴巴的prairie，prairie以及prairie，令人怜悯。最多加上几个令人感觉鸡肋一般的西伯利亚平原steppe，让你觉得草原也是种类丰富的，再憋出几个屈指可数的植物（确切说是农作物），比如燕麦oats, 大麦barley, 玉米maize, 向日葵sunflower等等让你感觉草原环境也挺牛逼的么，然后在TPO里多弄几篇农业话题，让你顿时觉得这东西不看不行。事实上现代社会人们不太喜欢农业，比如广告，尤其是汽车广告，米国通用汽车公司（General Motors）生产的雪弗兰Chevrolet品牌迈瑞宝Malibu喊了梁朝伟激情代言，结果广告里风景是很美，只不过不是大平原，而是加州沿海公路，路边都是TPO4里面那种雪松啊，杉树啊这种帅帅的冷酷的植物，阳光洒下来，影帝一副陶醉样，这就是差距。

也正是沿海地区风调雨顺，这篇文章才提及到人们对于大自然的大肆破坏，连小学生看了都把持不住，比如A worsening of the plight of deer is expected as settlers encroached on the land, logging, burning and clearing, eventually replacing a wilderness landscape with roads, cities, towns and factories.

(鹿群的处境plight正在恶化，能期待的却是殖民者入侵encroach它们的领地，在它们的王国里采伐logging、焚烧burning、清除障碍clearing，将荒原风景wilderness landscape变成公路、城市、城镇和工厂)。

我们再次把目光转移到online test上面的一篇文章《风能发电》（顺便吐槽下，米国人对于能源的渴求各种手段用尽，在TPO里这种念头通过话题频率暴露无遗），注意下文的下划线：Some companies in the power industry are aware of this wider possibility and are planning sizable wind-farm projects in states other than California. In principle, all the power needs of the United States could be provided by exploiting the wind potential of just three states—North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas.

各种地名令人眼花缭乱，还和风能、发电扯在了一起，要把这篇文章迅速记下，其实看上面第三张地图就很方便了，我们可以发现，除了California，其他三个州North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas都在一条直线上，而这个位置正好是TPO3里面大平原的位置，没有错！你没有看走眼，出题者坏就坏在这里，地图放出来，就可以知道他们的喜好了！这种地方一马平川，风不大才怪，新闻里面经常有龙卷风tornado，正是在这些地方很常见，所以出现大风，风能发电也就很正常了。

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