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2016年12月3日托福阅读真题词汇题：
| Optimal=ideal | Consistent=unvarying | Compound=add to | Indefinitely=endless |
| Obstruction=barrier | Exclusively=solely | Predominantly=mainly | Consensus=widely agree |
| compensate for=make up for | robust=health | accessible=available |
2016年12月3日托福阅读真题第一篇：
题材划分：社科类文章
主要内容：
具体讨论的是sleep对于人的影响，一开始有人做了个实验，然后发现短期的缺觉对人的部分行为没啥影响，但对一些简单行为影响很大，还提到了缺觉对depression的正面作用。然后接着扯到了动物头上。动物会在它们最容易暴露在predator面前的时间睡觉。这个睡觉有着一系列的regulate sth的作用，而且还有着一定的规律，由光照控制但也能在缺光环境下保持。还有什么动物睡眠时间长短和predator以及food 有关。
最后提到了睡眠对learning的影响，婴儿学的多所以睡得多
相似TPO练习推荐：
TPO24- Breathing During Sleep
相关文章：
But that is not all that changes. During all phases of sleep, several changes in the air passages have been observed. It takes twice as much effort to breathe during sleep because of greater resistance to airflow in the airways and changes in the efficiency of the muscles used for breathing. Some of the muscles that help keep the upper airway open when breathing tend to become more relaxed during sleep, especially during REM (the phase of sleep in which there is rapid eye movement). Without this muscular action, inhaling is like sucking air out of a balloon—the narrow passages tend to collapse. Also there is a regular cycle of change in resistance between the two sides of the nose. If something blocks the "good" side, such as congestion from allergies or a cold, then resistance increases dramatically. Coupled with these factors is the loss of the complex interactions among the muscles that can change the route of airflow from nose to mouth.
Other respiratory regulating mechanisms apparently cease functioning during sleep. For example, during wakefulness there is an immediate, automatic, adaptive increase in breathing effort when inhaling is made more difficult (such as breathing through a restrictive face mask). This reflexive adjustment is totally absent during NREM sleep. Only after several inadequate breaths under such conditions, resulting in the considerable elevation of carbon dioxide and reduction of oxygen in the blood, is breathing effort adjusted. Finally, the coughing reflex in reaction to irritants in the airway produces not a cough during sleep but a cessation of breathing. If the irritation is severe enough, a sleeping person will arouse, clear the airway, then resume breathing and likely return to sleep.
2016年12月3日托福阅读真题第二篇
题材划分：历史类文章
主要内容：
主要是说玛雅文明是如何衰败下去的。
一些自然灾害会导致文明的衰败，但灾害都很local，所以还有其他因素。干旱，一个湖证明了干旱的存在，但只能代表一个地区的情况，另一边尚不清楚。刀耕火种的农业模式导致了deforestation这个可以从湖的sediment里发现的erosion来证明，玛雅人因此用光了资源。
还有就是 不会计划生育，人口太多超过土地承载能力，结果就玩完了。以及经济中心的变更，导致了人们背井离乡依附新的中心。
相似TPO练习推荐：
TPO26- Sumer and the First Cities of the Ancient Near East
相关文章：
The earliest of the city states of the ancient Near East appeared at the southern end of the Mesopotamian plain, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. It was here that the civilization known as Sumer emerged in its earliest form in the fifth millennium. At first sight, the plain did not appear to be a likely home for a civilization. There were few natural resources, no timber, stone, or metals. Rainfall was limited, and what water there was rushed across the plain in the annual flood of melted snow. As the plain fell only 20 meters in 500 kilometers, the beds of the rivers shifted constantly. It was this that made the organization of irrigation, particularly the building of canals to channel and preserve the water, essential. Once this was done and the silt carried down by the rivers was planted, the rewards were rich: four to five times what rain-fed earth would produce. It was these conditions that allowed an elite to emerge, probably as an organizing class, and to sustain itself through the control of surplus crops.
It is difficult to isolate the factors that led to the next development—the emergence of urban settlements. The earliest, that of Eridu, about 4500 B.C.E., and Uruk, a thousand years later, center on impressive temple complexes built of mud brick. In some way, the elite had associated themselves with the power of the gods. Uruk, for instance, had two patron gods—Anu, the god of the sky and sovereign of all other gods, and Inanna, a goddess of love and war—and there were others, patrons of different cities. Human beings were at their mercy. The biblical story of the Flood may originate in Sumer. In the earliest version, the gods destroy the human race because its clamor had been so disturbing to them.
2016年12月3日托福阅读真题第三篇
题材划分： 生物类文章
主要内容：
美国很多河里都有很多trout，这些河在不同的环境所以文章要讨论让trout生存的共同因素。一个是水温，trout喜欢凉凉的水温，而且种类和life stage的不同会导致不同的optima。
他们还喜欢各种cover，为了躲避天敌和其他blabla，也是按照年龄和其他原因会萝卜青菜各有所爱。
然后他们喜欢躲在石头后面，因为既能节省能量又方便捕食。他们喜欢吃虫子，各种虫子。还有一些大鱼会吃小鱼。
然后他们还会产卵在某种地方，然后好处多多。
相似TPO练习推荐：
TPO22—Spartina
相关文章：
Spartina alterniflora, known as cordgrass, is a deciduous, perennial flowering plant native to the Atlantic coast and the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is the dominant native species of the lower salt marshes along these coasts, where it grows in the intertidal zone (the area covered by water some parts of the day and exposed others).
These natural salt marshes are among the most productive habitats in the marine environment. Nutrient-rich water is brought to the wetlands during each high tide, making a high rate of food production possible. As the seaweed and marsh grass leaves die, bacteria break down the plant material, and insects, small shrimplike organisms, fiddler crabs, and marsh snails eat the decaying plant tissue, digest it, and excrete wastes high in nutrients. Numerous insects occupy the marsh, feeding on living or dead cordgrass tissue, and redwing blackbirds, sparrows, rodents, rabbits, and deer feed directly on the cordgrass. Each tidal cycle carries plant material into the offshore water to be used by the subtidal organisms.