2016年8月20日的雅思考试已经结束，在这一次的考试中，雅思的考官们又给同学们出了什么样的考题呢?现在小编就为大家整理了2016年8月20日雅思阅读考试真题详细解析，希望能给大家带来帮助。
本次考试的文章是两旧一新,难度中等，分别讲述了中国古代战车，猩猩文化以及英国莱斯特剧院。剑桥系列可以参考C9T1P1 , C7T3P1以及C10T2P3。
具体题目分析
Passage 1 :
题目：中国古代战车
题号：旧题
题型：判断4+填空9+问答3
参考文章(仅供参考)
Ancient Chinese Chariots
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty, according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium Archaeological work at the Ruins of Yin (near modern-day Anyang),which has been identified as the last Shang capital, uncovered eleven major Yin royal tombs and the foundations of palaces and ritual sites, containing weapons of war and remains from both animal and human sacrifices.
The Tomb of Fu Hao is an archaeological siteat Yinxu, the ruins of the ancient Shang Dynasty capital Yin, within the modem city of Anyang in Henan Province, China. Discovered in 1976，it was identified as the final resting place of the queen and military general Fu Hao. The artifacts unearthed within the grave included jade objects, bone objects, bronze objects etc. These grave goods are confirmed by the oracle texts, which constitute almost all of the first hand written record we possess of the Shang Dynasty. Below the corpse was a small pit holding the remains of six sacrificial dogs and along the edge lay the skeletons of human slaves, evidence of human sacrifice.
The Terracotta Army was discovered on 29 March 1974 to the east of Xi, an in Shaanxi. The terracotta soldiers were accidentally discovered when a group of local farmers was digging a well during a drought around 1.6 km (I mile) cast of the Qin Emperors tomb around at MountLi (Lishan), a region riddled with underground springs and water courses. Experts currently place the entire number of soldiers at 8,000 一 with 130 chariots (130 cm long), 530 horses and 150 cavalry horses helping to ward of any dangers in the afterlife. In contrast, the burial of Tutank human yielded six complete but dismantled chariots of unparalleled richness and sophistication. Each was designed for two people (90 cm long) and had its axle sawn through to enable it to be brought along the narrow corridor into the tomb.
Excavation of ancient Chinese chariots has confirmed the descriptions of them in the earliest texts. Wheels were constructed from a variety of woods: elm provided the hub, rose-wood the spokes and oak the felloes. The hub was drilled through to form an empty space into which the tampering axle was fitted, the whole being covered with leather to retain lubricating oil. Though the number of spokes varied, a wheel by the fourth century BC usually had eighteen to thirty-two of them. Records show how elaborate was the testing of each completed wheel: flotation and weighing were regarded as the best measures of balance, but even the empty spaces in the assembly were checked with millet grains. One outstanding constructional asset of the ancient Chinese wheel was dishing. Dishing refers to the dishlike shape of an advanced wooden wheel, which looks rather like a flat cone. On occasion they chose to strengthen a dished wheel with a pair of struts running from rim to rim on each of the hub. As these extra supports were inserted separately into the felloes, they would have added even greater strength to the wheel. Leather wrapped up the edge of the wheel aimed to retain bronze.
Within a millennium, however, Chinese chariot-makers had developed a vehicle with shafts, the precursor of the true carriage or cart. This design did not make its appearance in Europe until the end of the Roman Empire. Because the shafts curved upwards, and the harness pressed against a horse’s shoulders, not his neck, the shaft chariot was incredibly efficient. The halberd was also part of a chariot standard weaponry. This halberd usually measured well over 3 metres in length, which meant that a chariot warrior wielding it sideways could strike down the charioteer in a passing chariot. The speed of chariot which was tested on the sand was quite fast. At speed these passes were very dangerous for the crews of both chariots.
The advantages offered by the new chariots were not entirely missed. They could see how there were literally the warring states, whose conflicts lasted down the Qin unification of China. Qin Shi Huang was buried in the most opulent tomb complex ever constructed in China, as prawling, city-size collection of underground caverns containing everything the emperor would need for the afterlife. Even a collection of terracotta armies called Terra- Cotta Warriors was buried in it. The ancient Chinese, along with many cultures including ancient Egyptians, believed that items and even people buried with a person could be taken with him to the afterlife.
参考答案：
1. TRUE
2. FALSE
3 TRUE
4 NOT GIVEN
5. elm
6. lubricating oil
7. 18 to 32
8. dish
9. struts
10. bronze
11. neck
12. sand
13. tombcomplex
Passage 2 ：
题目：猩猩文化
题型：配对5+判断5+问答4
题目：旧题
参考文韋：
The culture of Chimpanzee
The similarities between chimpanzees and humans have been studied for years, but in the past decade researchers have determined that these resemblances run much deeper than anyone first thought. For instance, the nut cracking observed in the Tai Forest is far from a simple chimpanzee behavior; rather it is a singular adaptation found only in that particular part of Africa and a trait that biologists consider to be an expression of chimpanzee culture.
Scientists frequently use the term "culture" to describe elementary animal behaviors-such as the regional dialects of different populations of songbirds-but as it turns out, the rich and varied cultural traditions found among chimpanzees are second in complexity only to human traditions.
During the past two years, an unprecedented scientific collaboration, involving every major research group studying chimpanzees, has documented a multitude of distinct cultural patterns extending across Africa, in actions ranging from the animals' use of tools to their forms of communication and social customs. This emerging picture of chimpanzees not only affects how we think of these amazing creatures but also alters human beings conception of our own uniqueness and hints at ancient foundations for extraordinary capacity for culture.
Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes have coexisted for hundreds of millennia and share more than 98 percent of their genetic material, yet only 40 years ago we still knew next to nothing about chimpanzee behavior in the wild. That began to change in the 1960s, when Toshisada Nishida of Kyoto University in Japan and Jane Goodall began their studies of wild chimpanzees at two field sites in Tanzania. (Goodall's research station at Gombe — the first of its kind — is more famous, but Nishida’s siteat Mahale is the second oldest chimpanzee research site in the world.)
In these initial studies, as the chimpanzees became accustomed to close observation, the remarkable discoveries began. Researchers witnessed a range of unexpected behaviors, including fashioning and using tools, hunting, meat eating, food sharing and lethal fights between members of neighboring communities. In the years that followed, other primatologists set up camp elsewhere, and, despite all the financial, political and logistical problems that can beset African fieldwork, several of these out-posts became truly long-term projects. As a result, we live in an unprecedented time, when an intimate and comprehensive scientific record of chimpanzees 'lives at last exists not just for one but for several communities spread across Africa.
As early as 1973, Goodall recorded 13 forms of tool use as well as eight social activities that appeared to differ between the Gombe chimpanzees and chimpanzee populations elsewhere. She ventured that some variations had what she termed a cultural origin. But what exactly saying how common they are; with- out this information, we can't determine whether a particular action was a once-in-a-lifetime aberration or a routine event that should be considered part of the animals’ culture. Finally, researchers' descriptions of potentially significant chimpanzee behaviors frequently lack sufficient detail, making it difficult for scientists working at other spots to record the presence or absence of the activities.
To remedy these problems, the two of us decided to take a new approach. We asked field researchers at each site for a list of all the behaviors they suspected were local traditions. With this information in hand, we pulled together a comprehensive list of 65 candidates for cultural behaviors.
Then we distributed our list to the learn leaders at each site. In consultation with their colleagues, they classified each behavior in terms of its occurrence or absence in the chimpanzee community studied. The key categories were customary behavior (occurs in most or all of the able-bodied members of at least one age or sex class, such as all adult males), habitual (less common than customary but occurs repeatedly in several individuals present (seen at the site but not habitual), absent (never seen),and unknown.
Passage 3 ：
题目：英国莱斯特剧院
题型：选择3+判断5+填空6
文章大意：
莱斯特是个小城市，但是它的音乐剧很有名。文章介绍了它的设计者以及他是如何设计这个剧院。此外文章还介绍了这个建筑的各种设计特征。
参考答案(仅供参考)：
28. 挑战了传统
29. 巧妙的取名
30. 暂无
31. YES
32. NO
33. NOT GIVEN
34. YES
35. NO
36. on-view
37 behind the scene
38. performance
39 curtain
40. huge