2020TOEFL新托福閱讀背景知識精選篇(2)

The first aim of the American army led by George .ashington was to force the British, called .edcoats because of the colour of their uniform, to leave Boston. On 17 June 1775 the British fought and won the Battle of .unker Hill, but they lost so many soldiers that their position in Boston was weak and in March 1776 they were forced to leave. The Continental Congress suggested that Britain and America should make an agreement, but Britain refused and so, on 4 July 1776, members of the Congress signed the .eclaration of Independence. This document, written by the future President Thomas .efferson, gave the Americans' reasons for wanting to be independent. It included ideas that were rather new, e.g. that ordinary people had certain rights that governments should respect. Since the British king .eorge III refused to accept this, Americans had the right, and the duty, to form their own government.

Later in the same year the British took control of .ew York and .hode Island, and Washington's army moved away into .ennsylvania. The defeats discouraged many Americans, but at Christmas, when soldiers were not expecting an attack, Washington surprised the British by taking his army across the Delaware River to Trenton, .ew Jersey, and defeating the Hessians, German soldiers paid by the British to fight for them. A story often told is that, before crossing the river, Washington threw down a silver dollar, thinking that if any guards were near they would hear the noise and come. Since nobody came, he knew it was safe to attack.

Washington's army spent the winter at .alley Forge, Pennsylvania. It was very cold and the new government of the United States did not have money to provide soldiers with warm clothes and food. Many became ill, and many more lost their enthusiasm for the war. But in the spring of 1777 they received help from two different sources. A German, General von Steuben, came to train the American soldiers, and the Marquis de .afayette brought French soldiers to fight on the American side. With this help, the Americans won a victory at .arat.a, New York. France and also Spain supported the United States because they thought that if Britain became weaker in North America, it would also be weaker in Europe.

Over the next few years, neither side was strong enough to defeat the other completely. But in 1781 Washington saw a perfect opportunity to win. The British General .ornwallis had taken his army to .orktown, Virginia, where he was too far away to get supplies or help. Washington marched south to meet him, while French ships made sure that the British could not receive help by sea. Cornwallis realized how bad his position was and surrendered.

In 1783, after a period of talks, Britain rec.nized the United States of America, making the US completely independent and giving it the western parts of North America.

新托福閱讀背景知識：小說《海狼》

The Sea-Wolf/海狼

體裁：長篇小說

寫作時間：1903年

人物介紹：Wolf Larsen/海狼拉爾森，the schooner Ghost/魔鬼號船長;Humphrey Van Weyden/亨甫萊 凡 衛(wèi)登，文學批評家;Maud Brewster/默德 布利斯特，女詩人

全文閱讀：The Sea-Wolf/海狼

內容簡介：一艘渡船在舊金山灣失事，三十五歲的文學評論家Humphrey被捕海豹船"魔鬼號"船長海狼Larsen救起。由于船上大副的死亡，缺少人手的Larsen強迫Humphrey在船上做茶房。Humphrey目睹了水手和獵人們的爭斗，Larsen的冷酷無情。比一般水手都強壯的Larsen以自己的鐵拳統(tǒng)治著這名符其實的"魔鬼號"。然而Humphrey也發(fā)現，Larsen也并非全無頭腦，只是他那拋開任何微小的利他行為，只想到像酵母一樣，大的吞掉小的，強的吞掉弱的，以獲得個人的持續(xù)生存的人生理論是Humphrey這樣滿腦子理想、情操一類事物的文明人所無法接受的。Humphrey在船上學到了航海知識，身體也強壯起來。

魔鬼號偶然救起了在輪船失事中幸存的Maud Brewster。Humphrey心中燃起了愛的火花，他終于和Maud找機會逃走，由于偏離了航線，不得不在一個海豹聚集的小島上暫時安頓下來，過了一段艱苦的努力生存的日子。眾叛親離的Larsen和魔鬼號也撞上了這個小島。船上的水手和獵人不堪Larsen的壓迫，又禁不住有人故意的金錢誘惑，全部拋開魔鬼號去為Larsen的敵人工作。Larsen也不再是那個身體強壯，堅不可摧的樣子了，經常的頭痛，可能是頭部的瘤造成了他的迅速虛弱甚至失明。Humphrey和Maud努力將魔鬼號修好，其間受到Larsen多次阻撓。船終于修好了，Larsen則出現了偏癱，生命之火慢慢地熄滅了。 Humphrey與Maud將Larsen海葬，不久之后，他們獲救了。

《海狼》在直到1999年的八十多年間中，曾十幾次被搬上銀幕，杰克倫敦在1913年的版本中，出演一位水手。

讀書筆記：

《海狼》從純文學的角度來講，并不是一部非常成功的作品，海狼拉爾森是一個怪人，有強壯的身體和靈活的頭腦，以野蠻人的方式與野蠻人歐斗，又以文明人的方式與文明人交談。他的頭腦中滿是野蠻的思想，他讀文明書只是為了從中找出可以支持自己觀點的論據。情節(jié)上，幾乎沒有什么波動，只是講船上爭來斗去的瑣事，尤其后期愛情的出現是那么突兀，與書前半部硬冷的基調完全不同。亨甫萊對拉爾森態(tài)度的變化也很奇怪，而且沒有預兆，完全為愛情而愛情，使亨甫萊十足像個傻瓜。還有那莫名其妙的頭疼加失明，為無堅可摧的拉爾森的失敗找到了借口。

JL大多并不以情節(jié)取勝，他更善于細致刻劃某一場景、畫面或短小的一串動作，而不是錯綜復雜的人物關系和立體豐滿的人物形象。

此書有諸多不足，但仍然值得一讀。它談到那永遠無人可解的難題："人為什么要活著?"按拉爾森的說法，"生命像是酵母，酶，一種活動的東西......大吞小才可以維持他們的活動，強食弱才能保持他們的力量。""(水手)為了要吃要喝而活動，因為可以繼續(xù)活動，就是這么樣。他們?yōu)槎亲佣?，為生活而吃飽肚子，這是一個循環(huán)。"

拉爾森有一套很奇怪的理論，亨甫萊稱他為唯物主義者，而拉爾森的唯物主義不僅不相信上帝、永生的存在，甚至不相信人的精神。在他的眼里，人與世界上千千萬萬動物一樣，純粹是為生存而生存，什么理想、道德，一切不能用來補充力量的空談都是屁話。

對于生與死，拉爾森秉持著JL一貫的態(tài)度，只不過表達方式有所變化："蠕動是卑劣的，但是停止蠕動，像是泥土頑石，是不堪設想的......生命本身就是不如意，但是向前望到死亡，更是不如意。"--說句題外話，我無法相信持此種觀點的JL會自殺，當然人的觀點是可能變化的。

對拉爾森最好的總結是書中這句原話，"我相信他十足是個原人，生晚了幾千年，或者說許多代，在這文明達到高峰的世紀，是一種時代錯誤。

不知不覺由拉爾森想到原始與文明的對立。文明使我們大多數人在作為一個自然人的層面上，變得柔弱，隨著大腦的高度發(fā)達，與工具的不斷發(fā)展，人類已經很退化了。而且文明不可避免地夾雜著虛偽、欺詐。原始與文明，到底怎樣是進化，怎樣是退化呢?

新托福閱讀背景知識：吉他簡史(英文版)

A Brief History of the Guitar

There is evidence that a four string, guitar-like instrument was played by the Hittites (who occupied a region now known as Asia Minor and Syria) around 1400 BC. It had characteristically soft, curved sides--one of the primary features of anything identifiable as a guitar or predecessor. The Greeks also produced a similar instrument which was later modified by the Romans, though both versions appear to have lacked the curved sides. What is interesting here is that it seems this Roman cithara appeared in Hispania (now known as Spain) centuries before the Moorish invasion.

It had long been assumed that it was only after this invasion and the introduction of the Arabic due in the South that a guitar-like instrument first appeared in Spain. But with the Roman cithara arriving centuries prior, we might say that although the due influenced the development of the guitar it is not the true ancestor. According to this theory, the Spanish guitar derived from the tan bur of the Hittites, kithara with a "k" of the Greeks and then the cithara with a "c" of the Romans.

However, following the arrival of the Moors, the Roman cithara and the Arabic due must have mixed and exerted mutual influences on one another for many centuries. Although there is no specific documentation, it is likely that makers of us and cithara’s would have seen each other's work, if only through presentation by traveling troubadours. By 1200 AD, the four string guitar had evolved into two types: the guitars maraca (Moorish guitar) which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard and several sound holes, and the guitars Latina (Latin guitar) which resembled the modern guitar with one sound hole and a narrower neck.

In the late 1400's, the visual was born by adding doubled strings and increasing its size. It was a large plucked instrument with a long neck (vibrating string length: 72 to 79 cm) with ten or eleven frets and six courses. It was the visual which became the preferred instrument of the Spanish and Portuguese courts and remained so until the late 1600's when orchestral and keyboard instruments became more prominent.

Although the guitar existed concurrently during this period, the visual and lute had overshadowed it until the end of the 17th century when the lute had acquired too many strings, was too hard to play and tune, and the visual was slowly replaced by the four and five course guitars (which had seven and nine strings respectively: one single high string, and three or four remaining courses--or pairs--of strings). It was perhaps the addition of the fifth course in the late 16th century that gave the guitar more flexibility and range and thus improved the potential of the repertoire that led to its ascent.

By the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, some guitars already used six single strings and employed fan struts under the soundboard. These struts were added for structural support to allow thinning of the top for greater resonance and for better distribution of sound across the board. Other contemporaneous developments included the use of a reinforced, raised neck using ebony or rosewood for the fingerboard, and the appearance of machine tuners in place of the wooden pegs. (It is noteworthy that the raised fingerboard had a great impact on the technique of the instrument since the strings were then too far from the soundboard to rest one's finger on the face for support.) These guitars would be unmistakably recognized by us as early classical guitars.

Beginning with the early 19th century, in the works of Agustin Caro, Manuel Gonzalez, Antonio de Lorca, Manuel Gutierrez from Spain and other European makers including Rene Lakota, and Johann Stauffer, we find the direct predecessors of the modern classical guitar. By 1850, the guitar was prepared for its most important breakthrough since its inception, the work of Antonio Torres Jordon. With the encouragement of Julian Arcos and his own brilliant intuitions, Torres refined the strutting of the guitar to include as many as seven struts spread out like a fan under the soundboard. He increased the body size and the width of the neck considerably. These improvements allowed for greater volume and bass response as well as the development of a left hand technique for richer repertoire. The guitar was now prepared for the demands of the solo performer and the concert stage.

Although there have been continued developments since the middle 1800's, our modern guitar retains most of what was developed nearly 150 years ago. No one can say if we have reached the end of the evolution of the guitar, but until now, many of the best guitars from the point of view of volume, projection and sheer beauty of tone were made by the great makers, Torres, Ramirez and Arias from the second half of the last century!

新托福閱讀背景知識：植物適應沙漠

Plant adaptation to the desert(背景材料)

Cactus adaptations.

The secret to the superior endurance of cacti lies in their adaptations. Over millions of years, through natural selection, only the strongest and best adapted species survived.

As you know, it is very dry in the desert. Plants that adapt to this are known as xerophytes (from zeros, dry and python, plant). There are plants that avoid the dry season by sprouting from seed just after the spring rain and growing very fast so that by the time the dry season comes, they have already produced a lot of seeds and died. These seeds lie on the soil for the dry season and sprout again in spring and the cycle repeats. Other xerophytes simply drop their leaves and stay dormant for the winter. But there is another special type of xerophytes which stores water in its fleshy tissues. Such plants are called succulents (from success, juicy). The cactus is a typical example of a succulent.

If you cut a cactus open, you see a juicy, slimy tissue. This is where the moisture is stored for the dry season. The part between the middle circle (and pith) and just under the very green part of the plant (or palisade parenchyma) just under the skin is allocated for the storage of water and food for the plant. This is a type of spongy parenchyma and can take up to 85% of the plant's volume. This is a major adaptation in the desert. Because the plant remains completely alive during the dry season and there is no need for it to dry up and lose everything, makes it possible for the plant to grow to large sizes. Another advantage is that the plant retains supplies (in the form of starch) for the winter so that it can flower right away in spring without accumulating more supplies (as most plants need to do in spring). The whole purpose of storing supplies for the winter is mostly to energize flowering in spring but it also lets the cactus start growing much sooner.

Flowering plants breathe and transpire (evaporate water from their surface) through closeable microscopic pores called stoats on the leaves or stems. To do this, their pores have to be open. In most plants these are open all day and on warm nights. But for cacti this is inconvenient as in daytime it is very hot and thus the plant would lose a lot of water through evaporation. So the cactus must close them in the daytime. But then it cannot breathe or photosynthesize (the process where sugars are made from carbon dioxide and water and releasing oxygen using the sun's energy). Succulents have an adaptation to that. Their stoats are closed during the day and are open at night, when it is not that hot and store carbon dioxide in its tissues as crass lean acid and then turn it back to carbon dioxide in the daytime. This process is called crass lean acid metabolism or CAM and it is a very smart way of respiring in the desert.

If we look at the outside of the plant, we notice that there is a tough leathery skin covering the plant, we can also notice the presence of ribs and spines and sometimes fur. These are all very smart adaptations. They serve mainly for surviving heat but are also used as defense.

The tough leathery skin is very impermeable to water, thus reducing evaporation from the surface of the plant. This skin often has a layer of plant wax on it which is often lightly colored (Pilosocereus azures is an example of a plant with such wax), white or blue. This reflects light and also reduces evaporation from the inside.

新托福閱讀背景知識：馬斯洛需要層次理論

馬斯洛的需要層次理論

馬斯洛認為，人類的需要是分層次的，由低到高。它們是：

自我實現的需要

尊重 的 需 要

社交 的 需 要

安全 的 需 要

生理 的 需 要

生理上的需要是人們最原始、最基本的需要，如吃飯、穿衣、住宅、醫(yī)療等等。若不滿足，則有生命危險。這就是說，它是最強烈的不可避免的最底層需要，也是推動人們行動的強大動力。顯然，這種生理需要具有自我和種族保護的意義，以饑渴為主，是人類個體為了生存而必不可少的需要。當一個人存在多種需要時，例如同時缺乏食物、安全和愛情，總是缺乏食物的饑餓需要占有最大的優(yōu)勢，這說明當一個人為生理需要所控制時，那么其他一切需要都被推到幕后。

安全的需要要求勞動安全、職業(yè)安全、生活穩(wěn)定、希望免于災難、希望未來有保障等，具體表現在：①物質上的：如操作安全、勞動保護和保健待遇等②經濟上的：如失業(yè)、意外事故、養(yǎng)老等③心理上的：希望解除嚴酷監(jiān)督的威脅、希望免受不公正待遇，工作有應付能力和信心。安全需要比生理需要較高一級，當生理需要得到滿足以后就要保障這種需要。每一個在現實中生活的人，都會產生安全感的欲望、自由的欲望、防御的實力的欲望。

社交的需要也叫歸屬與愛的需要，是指個人渴望得到家庭、團體、朋友、同事的關懷愛護理解，是對友情、信任、溫暖、愛情的需要。社交的需要生理和安全需要更細微、更難捉摸。它包括：①社交欲。希望和同事保持友誼與忠誠的伙伴關系，希望得到互愛等②歸屬感。希望有所歸屬，成為團體的一員，在個人有困難時能互相幫助，希望有熟識的友人能傾吐心里話、說說意見，甚至發(fā)發(fā)牢騷。而愛不單是指兩性間的愛，而是廣義的，體現在互相信任、深深理解和相互給予上，包括給予和接受愛。社交的需要與個人性格、經歷、生活區(qū)域、民族、生活習慣、宗教信仰等都有關系，這種需要是難以察悟，無法度量的。

尊重的需要可分為自尊、他尊和權力欲三類，包括自我尊重、自我評價以及尊重別人。與自尊有關的，如自尊心、自信心，對獨立、知識、成就、能力的需要等。尊重的需要也可以如此劃分：①渴望實力、成就、適應性和面向世界的自信心、以及渴望獨立與自由;②渴望名譽與聲望。聲望為來自別人的尊重、受人賞識、注意或欣賞。滿足自我尊重的需要導致自信、價值與能力體驗、力量及適應性增強等多方面的感覺，而阻撓這些需要將產生自卑感、虛弱感和無能感?；谶@種需要，愿意把工作做得更好，希望受到別人重視，借以自我炫耀，指望有成長的機會、有出頭的可能。顯然，尊重的需要很少能夠得到完全的滿足，但基本上的滿足就可產生推動力。這種需要一旦成為推動力，就將會令人具有持久的干勁。

自我實現的需要是最高等級的需要。滿足這種需要就要求完成與自己能力相稱的工作，最充分地發(fā)揮自己的潛在能力，成為所期望的人物。這是一種創(chuàng)造的需要。有自我實現需要的人，似乎在竭盡所能，使自己趨于完美。自我實現意味著充分地、活躍地、忘我地、集中全力全神貫注地體驗生活。成就感與成長欲不同，成就感追求一定的理想，往往廢寢忘食地工作，把工作當是一種創(chuàng)作活動，希望為人們解決重大課題，從而完全實現自己的抱負。

在馬斯洛看來，人類價值體系存在兩類不同的需要，一類是沿生物譜系上升方向逐漸變弱的本能或沖動，稱為低級需要和生理需要。一類是隨生物進化而逐漸顯現的潛能或需要，稱為高級需要。

人都潛藏著這五種不同層次的需要，但在不同的時期表現出來的各種需要的迫切程度是不同的。人的最迫切的需要才是激勵人行動的主要原因和動力。人的需要是從外部得來的滿足逐漸向內在得到的滿足轉化。

在高層次的需要充分出現之前，低層次的需要必須得到適當的滿足。

低層次的需要基本得到滿足以后，它的激勵作用就會降低，其優(yōu)勢地位將不再保持下去，高層次的需要會取代它成為推動行為的主要原因。有的需要一經滿足，便不能成為激發(fā)人們行為的起因，于是被其他需要取而代之。

這五種需要不可能完全滿足，愈到上層，滿足的百分比愈少。

任何一種需要并不因為下一個高層次需要的發(fā)展而告消失，各層次的需要相互依賴與重疊，高層次的需要發(fā)展后，低層次的需要仍然存在，只是對行為影響的比重減輕而已。

高層次的需要比低層次的需要具有更大的價值。熱情是由高層次的需要激發(fā)。人的最高需要即自我實現就是以最有效和最完整的方式表現他自己的潛力，惟此才能使人得到高峰體驗。

人的五種基本需要在一般人身上往往是無意識的。對于個體來說，無意識的動機比有意識的動機更重要。對于有豐富經驗的人，通過適當的技巧，可以把無意識的需要轉變?yōu)橛幸庾R的需要。

馬斯洛還認為：在人自我實現的創(chuàng)造性過程中，產生出一種所謂的“高峰體驗”的情感，這個時候是人處于最激蕩人心的時刻，是人的存在的最高、最完美、最和諧的狀態(tài)，這時的人具有一種欣喜若狂、如醉如癡、銷魂的感覺。

試驗證明，當人呆在漂亮的房間里面就顯得比在簡陋的房間里更富有生氣、更活潑、更健康;一個善良、真誠、美好的人比其他人更能體會到存在于外界中的真善美。當人們在外界發(fā)現了最高價值時，就可能同時在自己的內心中產生或加強這種價值。總之，較好的人和處于較好環(huán)境的人更容易產生高峰體驗。

馬斯洛(Abraham Harold Maslow, 1908-1970)是一位美國心理學家，早期曾經從事動物社會心理學的研究，1940年在美國社會心理學雜志上發(fā)表《靈長類優(yōu)勢品質和社會行為》一文。之后轉入人類的社會心理學研究。1943年出版了《人類動機的理論》，1954年出版《動機與人格》，1962年出版了《存在心理學導言》一書。馬斯洛的觀點屬于人本主義心理學，其哲學基礎是存在主義。

評：由于我對需要的看法是來自存在需求和發(fā)展需求，劃分的方法不同，導致我對馬斯洛的需要層次理論有不同的看法和意見?？偟膩碚f，劃分為生物、安全、社交、尊重、自我實現五個層次也是可以的，有其科學性。而且其精髓在于激勵人們的主動性創(chuàng)造性，這是相當進步的。我所不贊成的主要來自這幾個方面：

1、低級需要與高級需要的劃分。我認為，作為生物的本能的需要是低級需要，這是在自然界中生存選擇形成的;作為人的需要是高級需要，這是在人類社會中形成發(fā)展或被強化的，通?？梢栽诮逃挠绊懴掳l(fā)展。

2、各種層次之間的相互關系。事實上，信念可以超越各種包括生理、安全、社交、他尊等需要，這是自我實現、自尊、自我評價等需要帶來的。愛的需要同樣可以克服包括生理、安全、尊重的需要等。

3、有很多需要不會被滿足，會縱深發(fā)展。比如愛無止境。

4、需要并不是按級發(fā)展的，會產生越級現象。但這不是例外，而是很正常的，常發(fā)性的。