今天前程百利小编为大家分享的是托福阅读-好文章精读。大家可以参考一下这些备考经验，看看自己应该如何攻克托福阅读。
The following passage was adapted from a book about the Great Plains, a plateau extending westward from the prairies of central North America to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains.
Before the railroads were built, the way west followed(路的西边是…) the rivers: west(这里指向西，朝西)along the Platte into Wyoming, over South Pass, up the Snake River into the Oregon Territory; or up the Missouri through the Dakotas and into Montana, then west along the Yellowstone. It was the easiest but not the most accurate way to see the country. The country looked better or worse from the prospect of the river(从河上看); I can’t say which, not having gone that way. But the country looked different, certainly, not at all like(一点也不像) the Great Plains.There are many reasons why it could not have seemed the same.A river is an edge, for one thing(首先), and not simply in the cartographer(地图绘制员)’s sense that itdivides one piece of ground from(将…与…分开)another.
It is a biological edge. There worlds collide, strangers meet, and much business, although not of the monetary(n.金钱的) kind, is transacted(交易). Edges in the natural world are like cities in human cultures. They are the cosmopolitan(adj.世界性的) places—(注意破折好，解释说明)populous, noisy, gaudy(花哨的), rich, exciting —where one expects the unexpected and the extraordinary(非凡的) is ordinary. They are altogether unlike the provinces, where the surprises lie not in discovering what is odd or new but in appreciating, at last, what is routine and everyday, a larger accomplishment than(a+比较级than one might…很常用的用法) one might imagine. The rivers of the earliest westward(向西的) travelers passed through(穿过，注意介词的使用)the provinces, but these rivers revealed a world that was not, in itself, characteristic of those regions.
Rivers carry water, for instance, but the region of the Great Plains is by(注意这个介词在此处巧用哈~) its nature arid(干旱的)—not so arid as the deserts, although for a long time the Great Plains were regarded as a desert, but arid enough to inhibit the growth of (抑制) trees, except along rivers. You could no more know theGreat Plains by canoeing up(划独木舟沿着…向上)the Missouri than you could see the Sonoran Desert byrafting down(向下，与上文意思恰好相反，raft 替换canoe) the Colorado. River travelers poled(撑船)or steamed up(制造蒸汽，注意介词) the channels(n.河道) by day and fished for supper by twilight. The Blackfeet, the lords of the Great Plains and the prairie(大草原)’s most serious students, would no sooner have dined on(进食) catfish(鲶鱼) than we would on a dish of fricasseed(fricassee，v.油焖) sewer rat(褐鼠). The mucus-covered(黏液覆盖的)creatures of the muddy(尽是泥的)river bottoms, the Blackfeet thought, were simply not the best the plains had to offer; far from being palatable(美味的), catfish were repulsive(令人反感的), disgusting(恶心的).
The rivers, moreover, seek the level, that is, the low ground, but the plains are the province of the big sky. The rivers are always running away to the sea(奔流到海), but the plains are always rising toward(注意介词) the mountains. They are contrary forces(相反的力) working in contrary directions. The rivers dig in; the plainssurmount(升高). A river closes in(围拢), rounds the bend(曲折), runs between banks, hides shallows and snags(暗礁), tumbles over rapids(急流), skirts islands(环绕岛屿), is forever calling attention to itself, like a trail, which a riverinevitably(不可避免地) becomes. The plains, on the other hand, open out(张开),unfold, beg the long and trackless view. The river draws a line; the plains reveal a space.
It is like the difference between an interstate expressway(洲际高速公路) and a county(县) road. An interstate is broad and swift and, in its own way, keeps to the level. You can drive on an interstate across the most endlessly enchanting of countryside(无尽迷人的乡村) and encounter only an unrelieved monotony(一成不变的单调). The expressway exists in its own world, an unwalled tunnel, and moves at its own urgent pace(快步调). It has a rhythm and a rigidly(严格) regular time quite distinct from(不同于) the landscape it crosses. It would not serve its purposes in any other way. The county road, on the other hand, moves in and through the landscape and exists as one more feature of it(成为其中的一部分).
Where there is a tree and a sun, the road falls under shadow; where there is a stream, the road follows down one bank, across the water, and up the other bank; where a tall hill intervenes, the road goes around rather than through it and the traveler enjoys the sensation of(…的感觉) having moved among hills; at the village, the roadunhesitatingly takes it in, and your own pace slows to accommodate(适应) the taking in, rather than swooping to(俯冲，这里作快速行驶) the right or left around the settlement at a curve calculated for high-speed safety. A stray(走失的) cow might cross in front of you and you will be obliged to(有责任…) stop to let it pass, and so you will chance(这里用作动词~) to hear the song of the meadowlark(草地鹨)on the fence post( 栅栏柱). The hay wagon(干草车)ahead cannot be gotten around; you are forced to reduce your own speed to the local standard, and so you see the marsh hawk circling above a pothole(在坑洞上绕圈).
The best way to go west, therefore, is the slowest way possible and across country rather than along the rivers, avoiding both the old watery rivers and the new ones of asphalt(沥青) and cast concrete(浇注混凝土).
好了，以上就是前程百利小编为大家整理的托福阅读-好文章精读。相信大家一定有所收获，希望能在备考的路上助大家一臂之力。最后，小编祝大家在托福考试中取得好成绩!
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