托福阅读修辞目的题是阅读考试中比较常见的一种题型，tpo则是托福阅读备考最权威的材料，所以托福小编综合二者，为大家集中整理了tpo阅读中考察的修辞目的题及其对应的解析，供大家参考使用。本文带来的是TPO33-3的修辞目的题，一起来看看吧。
TPO33-3Extinction Episodes of the Past
【2】Starting about 280 million years ago, reptiles were the dominant large animals in terrestrial environments. In popular language this was the era “when dinosaurs ruled Earth,” when a wide variety of reptile species occupying many ecological niches. However, no group or species can maintain its dominance indefinitely, and when, after over 200 million years, the age of dinosaurs came to a dramatic end about 65 million years ago, mammals began to flourish, evolving from relatively few types of small terrestrial animals into the myriad of diverse species, including bats and whales, that we know today. Paleontologists label this point in Earth’s history as the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary period, often abbreviated as the K-T boundary. This time was also marked by changes in many other types of organisms. Overall, about 38 percent of the families of marine animals were lost, with percentages much higher in some groups Ammonoid mollusks went from being very diverse and abundant to being extinct. An extremely abundant set of planktonic marine animals called foraminifera largely disappeared, although they rebounded later. Among plants, the K-T boundary saw a sharp but brief rise in the abundance of primitive vascular plants such as ferns, club mosses, horsetails, and conifers and other gymnosperms. The number of flowering plants (angiosperms) was reduced at this time, but they then began to increase dramatically.
4. According to paragraph 2, why are dinosaurs popularly said to have “ruled Earth” during the Cretaceous period?
A) Dinosaurs were the only species of reptile that existed during the whole of the Cretaceous period.
B) Dinosaurs won the battle for food resources over mammals during the Cretaceous period.
C) Dinosaurs survived extinction during the Cretaceous period, whereas many other animal species did not.
D) Dinosaurs were the physically and ecologically dominant animals during the Cretaceous period.
答案：D
解析：定位句 Starting about 280 million years ago, reptiles were the dominant large animals in terrestrial environments. In popular language this was the era “when dinosaurs ruled Earth,” when a wide variety of reptile species occupying many ecological niches. 对应D选项。
【3】What caused these changes? For many years scientists assumed that a cooling of the climate was responsible, with dinosaurs being particularly vulnerable because, like modern reptiles, they were ectothermic (dependent on environmental heat, or cold-blooded). It is now widely believed that at least some species of dinosaurs had a metabolic rate high enough for them to be endotherms (animals that maintain a relatively consistent body temperature by generating heat internally). Nevertheless, climatic explanations for the K-T extinction are not really challenged by the ideas that dinosaurs may have been endothermic, because even endotherms can be affected by a significant change in the climate.
6. Why does the author note that “even endotherms can be affected by a significant change in the climate”?
A) To argue that there was a significant climate at the time that endothermic dinosaurs became extinct
B) To argue that climate change caused some dinosaurs to evolve as endotherms
C) To support the view that at least some of the dinosaurs that became extinct were endotherms
D) To defend climate change as possible explanation for the extinction of dinosaurs
答案：D
解析：题干中的even甚至, 表示程度的递进。定位句Nevertheless,climatic explanations for the L-T extinction are not really challenged by the ideas that dinosaurs may have been endothermic。即后半句的原因解释了气候理论为什么不被反驳。
以上就是托福阅读TPO33-3中的修辞目的题及其解析，大家可以在备考的时候参考复习，希望能够帮助大家的考前准备。最后前程百利祝大家都能取得理想的托福考试成绩。
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