托福听力中“研究、实验”的考点思路怎么解

　　在托福听力考试中，Lecture往往是同学们最大的痛。所谓的Lecture其实就是Professor上课内容的一个片段——涉及的学科往往分以下四类：

　　艺术

　　自然科学

　　生命科学

　　社会科学

　　从这四个分类我们可以看出Lecture具有极强的学术性，这也是为什么学生感到头疼的重大原因。不过，其实Lecture并没有大家想象的那么难，Lecture的整体结构和出题思路还是有很强的规律性的，今天Ted就主要和大家探讨一下关于Lecture(以及部分学术类Conversation)中出现研究、实验内容时常见的考点思路。

　　首先，我们先来看一组选自托福线上练习中涉及到研究、实验类的题目：

　　What surprising information did a recent experiment reveal about lesser spear-nosed bats?

　　The woman mentions a research study of milk packaging. What was thefinding of the study?

　　What was demonstrated by the study on perception that the professor mentions?

　　What does the professor say about the results of the brain research?

　　What is the significance of the evidence found on the ocean floor?

　　What did calcite deposits from Devils Hole reveal?

　　The professor discusses a study on the relationship between brain growth and play. What does that study conclude?

　　What did researchers conclude from their study of sauropods and gastroliths?

　　According to the professor, what were the results of Goeth's experiments with color?

　　What did researchers conclude after analyzing fossilized dinosaur bones found near nests?

　　According to the professor, what did researchers find at an archaeological site in Turkey?

　　What did researchers discover about the planet Gliese 581d when they reexamined it?

　　What did researchers observe in the study of fourteen-year-old children?

　　这些题目都是问到了关于Lecture中提及的experiment, research, study…

　　但从题干中的其他关键词：reveal, demonstrate, conclude, find, discover, observe, finding, result, evidence，我们还可以总结出，这些关于研究、实验类的题目问的都是研究者发现了什么，研究揭露、表明了什么，研究结论是什么。

　　所以总而言之，当Lecture中提及研究、实验时，我们需要听懂并记录的常见考点就是——研究的结论!

　　例如：

　　Yeah, and I read a study that showed how light can give milk a funny flavor and decrease its nutritional value.

　　Again, studies have shown that people will fill in information that they thought they perceived even when they didn't.

　　Gliese 581d had actually been discovered a couple of years earlier, and when its orbit was originally calculated it was thought to be too far away from its hosts star to be warm enough to support a liquid ocean, let alone, carbon-based life. But then its orbit was recalculated, and nowwe see that Gliese 581 D is within its host’s habitable zone.

　　为大家罗列一些听力中研究结论的常见信号词：

　　第一步：先听到professor提及“研究”

　　study，research，experiment，article，journal…

　　scientist，researcher，archaeologist，geologist，biologist…

　　科学家人名 e.g. Galileo

　　第二步：听到“结论”并记录

　　show，indicate，suggest，turn out…

　　find，discover，observe，we learnt，we see…

　　result，conclusion，finding，evidence…

　　in the end，finally，and get this…

　　接下来，我们再来看另外一组选自托福线上练习的有关研究、实验的题目：

　　The professor mentions experiments on the wind speed necessary to move rocks. What is the professor’s attitude toward the experiments?

　　What is the professor’s opinion about the conclusions of the recent study of the limestone formations in the Empty Quarter?

　　What is the professor’s opinion of a recent study of prairie dogs?

　　What is the professor's opinion about recent genetic studies relating to whale evolution?

　　The professor discusses research about the percentage of a chromosome’s DNA that contains genetic information. How did she feel about this research?

　　What is the professor's attitude toward the results from medical research on snake venom proteins?

　　What is the professor's attitude toward the study on pigeons and mirror self-recognition?

　　这些题目同样都是问到了关于Lecture中提及的experiment, research, study…但从题干中的其他关键词：professor’s opinion, professor’s attitude, how did she feel about… 我们还可以总结出，这些关于题目问的教授对于提及的研究的态度，且通常是对于研究结论给出的态度。

　　所以，这些态度的表达往往出现在老师提及研究，并将研究结论告知学生之后。

　　例如：

　　One team of scientists flooded an area of the desert with water, then try to establish how much wind force would be necessary to move the rocks. And get this, you need winds of at least five hundred miles an hour to move just the smallest rocks. And winds that strong have never been recorded. Ever! Not on this planet. So I think it’s safe to say that that issue’s been settled.

　　The DNA suggests that whales are descendants of the hippopotamus. Yes, the hippopotamus! Well, it came as a bit of a shock. I mean, that a four-legged land and river dweller could be the evolutionary source of a completely aquatic creature up to 25 times its size? Unfortunately, this revelation about the hippopotamus apparently contradicts the fossil record, which suggests that the hippopotamus is only a very distant relative of the whale, not an ancestor. And of course as I mentioned, that whales are descended not from hippos but from that distant wolf-like creatures. So we have contradictory evidence. And more research might just raise more questions and create more controversies. At any rate, we have a choice. We can believe the molecular data, the DNA, or we can believe the skeleton trail, but unfortunately, not both.

　　Well, not that we know of. There was a study using pigeons, where researchers attempted to reduce MSR to a matter of conditioning, that is, they claimed that the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror could be learned. So these researchers basically trained some pigeons to pass the mirror mark test. But two things are noteworthy here. One, no one’s ever replicated the study. But more importantly, it misses the point. The issue isn’t whether some behavior can be learned. It’s whether a species has developed this ability spontaneously.

　　常见态度信号词

　　第一人称：

　　I think，I believe，I mean，I hope，in my opinion…etc.

　　we’ll，we can，we are…etc.

　　转折词：

　　but，however，on the other hand…etc.

　　以上为Ted对Lecture中研究、实验相关题目出题思路的浅析，希望能够帮助到同学们。以后在Lecture听到professor讲研究了，记得要把握两个特别重要的信息：1. 研究结论是什么? 2. 研究后面是否出现了professor的态度观点。