对于大部分备考GRE考试的考生来说，如果对GRE机经有很好的把握，那么在今后的考试中考生能够更加轻而易举的获得不错的成绩。以下是2015年10月GRE阅读预测机经首发版之长阅读，主要适用于2015年10月GRE考试，稍后有细致版推出。
20150906
长 阅 读
Originally, scientists predicted small asteroids to be hard and rocky, as any loose surface material (called regolith) generated by impacts was expected to escape their weak gravity. Aggregate small bodies were not thought to exist, because the slightest sustained relative motion would cause them to separate. But observations and computer modeling are proving otherwise. Most asteroids larger than a kilometer are now believed to be composites of smaller pieces. Those imaged at high-resolution show evidence for copious regolith despite the weak gravity. Most of them have one or more extraordinarily large craters, some of which are wider than the mean radius of the whole body. Such colossal impacts would not just gouge out a crater—they would break any monolithic body into pieces. In short, asteroids larger than a kilometer across may look like nuggets of hard rock but are more likely to be aggregate ssemblages—or even plies of loose rubble so pervasively fragmented that no solid bedrock is left.
The rubble hypothesis, proposed decades ago by scientists, lacked evidence, until the planetologist Shoemaker realized that the huge craters on the asteroid Mathilde and its very low density could only make sense together: a porous body such as a rubble pile can withstand a battering much better than an integral object. It will absorb and dissipate a large fraction of the energy of an impact; the far side might hardly feel a thing. At first, the rubble hypothesis may appear conceptually troublesome. The material strength of an asteroid is nearly zero, and the gravity is so low one is tempted to neglect that too. The truth is neither strength nor gravity can be ignored. Paltr though it may be, gravity binds a rubble pile together. And anybody who builds sandcastles knows that even loose debris can cohere. Oft-ignored details of motion begin to matter: sliding friction, chemical bonding, damping of kinetic energy, etc. We are just beginning to fathom the subtle interplay of these minuscule forces.
The size of an asteroid should determine which force dominates. One indication is the observed pattern of asteroidal rotation rates. Some collisions cause an asteroid to spin faster; others slow it down. If asteroids are monolithic rocks undergoing random collisions, a graph of their rotation rates should show a bell-shaped distribution with a statistical "tail" of very fast rotators. If nearly all asteroids are rubble piles, however, this tail would be missing, because any rubble pile spinning faster than once every two or three hours would fly apart. Recently, several astronomers discovered that all but five observed asteroids obey a strict rotation limit. The exceptions are all smaller than about 150 meters in diameter, with an abrupt cutoff for asteroids larger than 200 meters.
The evident conclusion—that asteroids larger than 200 meters across are rubble piles—agrees with recent computer modeling of collisions. A collision can blast a large asteroid to bits, but those bits will usually be moving slower than their mutual escape velocity (the lowest velocity that a body must have in order to escape the orbit of a planet). Over several hours, gravity will reassemble all but the fastest pieces into a rubble pile.
1. According to the rubble-pile hypothesis, an advantage conferred on an asteroid held together by weak forces is that it is
(A) unlikely to fall apart over a long period of time
(B) more amenable to computer modeling
(C) less susceptible to powerful impacts
(D) not likely to collide with another object
(E) more readily observed by astronomers
答案：D
2. The primary purpose of the passage is to
(A) refute an unconventional theory regarding asteroid collisions
(B) express doubt regarding the validity of evidence offered up by several notable
astronomers
(C) explain how earlier evidence used to describe an aspect of asteroids was misleading
(D) explore common features of an asteroid in order to provide support for a theory
(E) discuss how one explanation of an astronomical phenomenon is most likely correct
答案：D
3. The reason that graphs of asteroid rotation rates lack the expected statistical tail
associated with high rotational rates is that
(A) the greater the speed in which an asteroid spins the more likely it is to cohere
(B) the weak forces in asteroids displaying such a high rotational rate would not be able to
prevent the asteroid from falling apart
(C) asteroids are not being subjected to a uniform distribution of random collisions
(D) most monolithic asteroids, upon colliding with other asteroids, are able to sustain such a
high rate of rotation
(E) for the most part, the asteroids surveyed were less than 150 meters in diameter and
thus far less likely to be rubble-piles, which are better able to sustain the impact from
collisions
答案：B
20150829
长阅读
As to when the first people populated the American subcontinent is hotly debated.
Until recently, the Clovis people, based on evidence found in New Mexico, were
thought to have been the first to have arrived, some 13,000 years ago. Yet evidence
gathered from other sites suggest the Americas had been settled at least 1,000 years
prior to the Clovis. The "Clovis first" Idea, nonetheless, was treated as gospel, backed
by supporters who, at least initially, outright discounted any claims that suggested
precedence by non-Clovis people. While such a stance smacked of fanaticism,
proponents did have a solid claim: if the Clovis peoples crossed the Bering Strait
13,000 years ago, only after it had become ice-free, how would a people have been
able to make a similar trip but over ice?
A recent school of thought, backed by Weber, provides the following answer: pre-
Clovis people reached the Americas by relying on a sophisticated maritime culture,
which allowed them to take advantage of refugia, or small areas in which aquatic life
flourished. Thus they were able to make the long journey by hugging the coast as far
south as to what is today British Columbia. Additionally, they were believed to have
fashioned a primitive form of crampon so that they would be able to dock in these
refugia and avail themselves of the microfauna. Still, such a theory begs the question
as to how such a culture developed.
The Solutrean theory has been influential in answering this question, a fact that may
seem paradoxical--and startling—to those familiar with its line of reasoning: the
Clovis people were actually Solutreans, an ancient seafaring culture along the Iberian
peninsula, who had--astoundingly given the time period--crossed into the Americas
via the Atlantic ocean.
Could not a similar Siberian culture, If not the pre-Clovis themselves, have displayed
equal nautical sophistication?
Even if one subscribes to this line of reasoning, the “Clovis first” school still have an
objection: proponents of a pre-Clovis people rely solely on the Monte Verde site in
Chile, a site so far south that its location begs yet another question: What of the
6,000 miles of coastline between the ice corridor and Monte Verde? Besides remains
found in network of caves in Oregon, there has been scant evidence of a pre-Clovis
peoples. Nonetheless, Meade and Pizlnsky claim that a propitious geologic accident
could account for this discrepancy: Monte Verde was located near a peat bog that
essentially fossilized the village. Archaeologists uncovered two wooden stakes,
which, at one time, were used in twelve huts. Furthermore plant species associated
with areas 150 miles away were found, suggesting a trade network. These findings
indicate that the Clovis may not have been the first to people the Americas, yet more
excavation, both in Monte Verde and along the coast, must be conducted in order to
determine the extent of pre-Clovis settlements in the Americas.
It can be inferred from the passage that the reason the author finds the Solutrean hypothesis both startling and paradoxical is that
(A) ancient cultures were in most likelihood unable to develop such a sophisticated form of maritime transport that they were able to cross the Atlantic
(B) it supports the Clovis school of thought, and posits the existence of a capacity not commonly associated with ancient people
(C) the Clovis people had crossed from Siberia navigating across a difficult ice corridor, whereas the pre-Clovis people had sailed, with far less difficulty, across the Atlantic ocean
(D) it suggests that the pre-Clovis people had a way to circumvent the ice-corridor, yet were unlikely to have traveled as far south as modem day Chile
(E) it runs counter to one of the chief tenets of the "Clovis first" school of thought It can be most reasonably inferred from the passage that in regard to the manner in
which the Monte Verde village was preserved that
(A) unless evidence of other pre-Clovis people was fossilized the same way it was in Monte Verde, archaeologists will be unable to determine the extent of the settlement of pre-Clovis people
(B) major discoveries can sometimes result from random processes in the environment
(C) plant species can offer valuable dues into the origin of other pre-Clovis settlements
(D) sites dated from slightly after the period of the Clovis people did not offer archaeologists such a trove of information
(E) archaeologists are unlikely to find any other significant evidence of pre-Clovis people unless they venture as much as 150 miles from the site
If it is true that a trade network between pre-Clovis people had been established, then which of the following could be expected to be found at settlements near Monte Verde?
(A) Other villages that have been preserved in a peat bog
(B) Plants species similar to those uncovered at Monte Verde
(C) The same number of wooden stakes for supporting dwelling
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