二、实例分析
u 例一、 阅读材料： Animal Domestication For thousands of years, humans have been able to domesticate, or tame, many large mammals that in the wild live together in herds. Once tamed, these mammals are used for agricultural work and transportation. Yet some herd mammals are not easily domesticated. A good indicator of an animal’s suitability for domestication is how protective the animal is of its territory. Non-territorial animals are more easily domesticated than territorial animals because they can live close together with animals from other herds. A second indicator is that animals with a hierarchical social structure, in which herd members follow a leader, are easy to domesticate, since a human can function as the “leader.”
听力材料： So we’ve been discussing the suitability of animals for domestication . . . particularly animals that live together in herds. Now, if we take horses, for example . . . in the wild, horses live in herds that consist of one male and several females and their young. When a herd moves, the dominant male leads, with the dominant female and her young immediately behind him. The dominant female and her young are then followed immediately by the second most important female and her young, and so on. This is why domesticated horses can be harnessed one after the other in a row. They’re “programmed” to follow the lead of another horse. On top of that, you often find different herds of horses in the wild occupying overlapping areas—they don’t fight off other herds that enter the same territory. But it’s exactly the opposite with an animal like the uh, the antelope . . . which . . . well, antelopes are herd animals too. But unlike horses, a male antelope will fight fiercely to prevent another male from entering its territory during the breeding season, OK—very different from the behavior of horses. Try keeping a couple of male antelopes together in a small space and see what happens. Also, antelopes don’t have a social hierarchy—they don’t instinctively follow any leader. That makes it harder for humans to control their behavior.
问题： The professor describes the behavior of horses and antelope in herds. Explain how their behavior is related to their suitability for domestication.
参考答案： According to the lecture, herd animals can be easily domesticated if they have a hierarchical social structure and are not territorial, and that this is why it is easier to domesticate horses than antelopes. As in the example of horses, their hierarchical social structure makes them willing to follow one another and thus allows a human being to act as their leader. It is also because horses are not territorial that they can be harnessed together without fighting. By comparison, although antelopes are herd animals too, they cannot be easy to domesticate. As a matter of fact, male antelopes fight if they are together, which means they are territorial, and because antelopes do not have a social hierarchy, humans can’t control them by acting as their leader.
第一句话对听力材料主要内容的总结和概括是通过if条件状语从句实现的。条件状语从句常用于开头或结束陈述结论，为的是给结论提供合理的情境支撑。在结论给出之后，便要提供细节作为论证理由。这个时候，又要使用到原因状语从句。事实上，多数考生在口语答题中都没有少用原因状语从句。朗阁海外考试研究中心在对新托福口语样题做测评工作时，发现很多考生的录音中频繁出现because，so等词。似乎已经成为了口头禅，而并非是用得恰到好处。要记住，凡事过犹不及，我们应该在回答中体现的是丰富多样的逻辑关系，而非从头至尾让考官只听到原因，结果，原因，结果。就算要表示因果关系也可以有变化的方法。如第一句中that is why…的使用，实际上等同于“so”，该名词性从句的使用不仅体现了句型的灵活多样，还起到了强调原因的作用。