『新东方在线托福阅读』为托福考生准备了ETS托福TPO/Official 2 Passage 3阅读练习：The word “assistance” in the passage is closest in meaning to真题题目及答案解析，TPO/Official 2 Passage 3阅读原文范文音频翻译

托福TPO/Official 2 Passage 3阅读原文The word “assistance” in the passage is closest in meaning to题目答案及解析-新东方托福官方网校手机版

电影刚出现时，并非大众消费品。一开始，电影的呈现方式是西洋镜，慢慢演变成在昏暗剧院的屏幕投影的形式，直到这时它才成为大众消费品。

The cinema did not emerge as a form of mass consumption until its technology evolved from the initial “peepshow” format to the point where images were projected on a screen in a darkened theater

西洋镜这种形式的电影，人们是通过机器上的小窗口观看的，这个小窗口是专门为方便观看设计的。

In the peepshow format, a film was viewed through a small opening in a machine that was created for that purpose

托马斯·爱迪生发明的西洋镜设备，也就是活动电影放映机，在1894年走进了公众视野。

Thomas Edison’s peepshow device, the Kinetoscope, was introduced to the public in 1894

活动电影放映机是为了活动电影放映室和游乐中心的放映设计的，放映室里通常有几台机器，每次只允许一名顾客进入观看，一次可以看一部很短，也就是50英尺胶卷的影片。

It was designed for use in Kinetoscope parlors, or arcades, which contained only a few individual machines and permitted only one customer to view a short, 50-foot film at any one time

起初的活动电影放映室有五台放映机。

The first Kinetoscope parlors contained five machines

花上25美分（或者每台设备5美分），顾客可以从一台放映机换到下一台放映机上，总共可以观看5部不同的影片（或者，要是有知名的职业拳击赛，可以一场比赛连续看几轮）。

For the price of 25 cents (or 5 cents per machine), customers moved from machine to machine to watch five different films (or, in the case of famous prizefights, successive rounds of a single fight).

活动电影放映厅模仿了留声机播放厅的设计，爱迪生的留声机播放厅设计在几年前就被证明是成功的。

These Kinetoscope arcades were modeled on phonograph parlors, which had proven successful for Edison several years earlier

在留声机播放厅里，顾客通过单独的耳管听录音，从一台机器换到另一台机器上听不同的演讲录音或者音乐。

In the phonograph parlors, customers listened to recordings through individual ear tubes, moving from one machine to the next to hear different recorded speeches or pieces of music

活动电影放映厅也是以类似方式运作的。

The Kinetoscope parlors functioned in a similar way

爱迪生对卖活动电影放映机（大概一件1000美金一件）给活动电影放映厅的兴趣比卖影片（每部只要10-15美金）给他们放映的兴趣大。

Edison was more interested in the sale of Kinetoscopes (for roughly $1,000 apiece) to these parlors than in the films that would be run in them (which cost approximately $10 to $15 each)

他拒绝研发投影技术，他的推理是如果他制作并售卖投影仪，放映人只会从他这里购买一台机器，也就是一台投影仪，而不是买几台。

He refused to develop projection technology, reasoning that if he made and sold projectors, then exhibitors would purchase only one machine - a projector -from him instead of several.

然而放映人想要最大化利润，要想更轻易地达到这个目标，就必须一次给数百名观众放映几部电影（而不是一次放映一部），每位观众收取入场费25-50美分不等。

Exhibitors, however, wanted to maximize their profits, which they could do more readily by projecting a handful of films to hundreds of customers at a time (rather than one at a time) and by charging 25 to 50 cents admission

1894年第一座活动电影放映厅开门营业，在这之后一年，演出主持人如路易斯，奥古斯特·卢米埃，托马斯·阿尔特，查尔斯·弗兰西斯·詹金斯，奥威尔以及伍德维尔·莱瑟姆，在爱迪生前助手威廉·迪克森的帮助下完善了投影设备。

About a year after the opening of the first Kinetoscope parlor in 1894, showmen such as Louis and Auguste Lumière, Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins, and Orville and Woodville Latham (with the assistance of Edison’s former assistant, William Dickson) perfected projection devices

早期的投影设备在杂耍表演剧院、正统剧剧院、当地市政厅、临时街边剧院、露天游乐园及游乐场都有使用，用来给广大观众播放电影。

These early projection devices were used in vaudeville theaters, legitimate theaters, local town halls, makeshift storefront theaters, fairgrounds, and amusement parks to show films to a mass audience.

随着投影在1895-1896年出现，电影成为大众消费的最终形式。

With the advent of projection in 1895-1896, motion pictures became the ultimate form of mass consumption

在此之前，很多观众已经在剧院观看过各种表演。在剧院上演着杂耍表演、话剧、歌舞表演与经典剧集，有时还有讲座与幻灯胶片秀，一次可以容纳几百名观众观看。

Previously, large audiences had viewed spectacles at the theater, where vaudeville, popular dramas, musical and minstrel shows, classical plays, lectures, and slide-and-lantern shows had been presented to several hundred spectators at a time

但是电影跟其他娱乐方式有很大不同，它既不取决于现场表演，也不依赖（在幻灯胶片放映的情况下）串场主持人的积极参与。

But the movies differed significantly from these other forms of entertainment, which depended on either live performance or (in the case of the slide-and-lantern shows) the active involvement of a master of ceremonies who assembled the final program.

通常早期电影放映者都会给影片配上现场表演，但是影片的内容是规模生产的，是提前录制好的内容，这使得影院很容易再现影片，以至于完全不需要或者很少需要表演者的参与。

Although early exhibitors regularly accompanied movies with live acts, the substance of the movies themselves is mass-produced, prerecorded material that can easily be reproduced by theaters with little or no active participation by the exhibitor

尽管早期的电影放映者塑造了影片，要么用他们能想到的最有吸引力的方式编辑影片，要么给影片配上演说，他们可创造的手段仍然是有限的。

Even though early exhibitors shaped their film programs by editing them together in whichever way they thought would be most attractive to audiences or by accompanying them with lectures, their creative control remained limited

观众到这里看到的是电影科技的奇迹，它让再寻常不过的场景真实再现：行驶中的火车，拍打着沙滩的海浪，以及街上行走的人们。 这些都可以通过特技摄影以及对镜头的操控实现。

What audiences came to see was the technological marvel of the movies; the lifelike reproduction of the commonplace motion of trains, of waves striking the shore, and of people walking in the street; and the magic made possible by trick photography and the manipulation of the camera.

随着投影的到来，观看者与画面的关系不再是个体的，这与西洋镜设备如活动电影播放机和早期电影播放机所产生的观看体验不同。早期电影播放机跟活动电影播放机类似，它是通过连续播放的摄影卡形成影像的，没有用胶卷。

With the advent of projection, the viewer’s relationship with the image was no longer private, as it had been with earlier peepshow devices such as the Kinetoscope and the Mutoscope, which was a similar machine that reproduced motion by means of successive images on individual photographic cards instead of on strips of celluloid

投影突然变得大众，这意味着十几、二十甚至上百人可以一起观影分享此体验。

It suddenly became public – an experience that the viewer shared with dozens, scores, and even hundreds of others

与此同时，观众观看的图像尺寸，从西洋镜里非常小的1-2英寸高扩展到了实物大小的6-9英尺高。

At the same time, the image that the spectator looked at expanded from the minuscule peepshow dimensions of 1 or 2 inches (in height) to the life-size proportions of 6 or 9 feet.

半干旱地区的自然植被类型主要是草，在这一地区，主要经济活动是家畜养殖。

The raising of livestock is a major economic activity in semiarid lands, where grasses are generally the dominant type of natural vegetation.

在一个地区过量饲养家畜会导致植被覆盖面积减少，土地被大量践踏和碾碎。

The consequences of an excessive number of livestock grazing in an area are the reduction of the vegetation cover and the trampling and pulverization of the soil.

随之而来的就是土壤干旱与侵蚀加剧。

This is usually followed by the drying of the soil and accelerated erosion.

在很多国家木柴是做饭与供暖的主要燃料。

Firewood is the chief fuel used for cooking and heating in many countries.

人口增长带来的压力与日俱增，导致木本植物被砍伐，因此很多城市城镇被大片完全没有树木灌木的土地包围。

The increased pressures of expanding populations have led to the removal of woody plants so that many cities and towns are surrounded by large areas completely lacking in trees and shrubs.

人们越来越多的使用干动物粪便作为替代燃料，这种做法也破坏了土壤，因为干动物粪便是宝贵的土壤成分调节器，也是植物的营养来源，它却不能再回到土壤里。

The increasing use of dried animal waste as a substitute fuel has also hurt the soil because this valuable soil conditioner and source of plant nutrients is no longer being returned to the land.

最后一个导致沙漠化的人为原因是过度灌溉而引起的土壤盐渍化。

The final major human cause of desertification is soil salinization resulting from overirrigation.

灌溉中的多余的水会下沉到地下水中。

Excess water from irrigation sinks down into the water table.

如果没有排水系统，地下水位会上升，把溶解盐带到土壤表面。

If no drainage system exists, the water table rises, bringing dissolved salts to the surface.

水分蒸发，盐分留了下来并形成白色的结晶层，阻挡空气与水分进入到下面的土壤里。

The water evaporates and the salts are left behind, creating a white crustal layer that prevents air and water from reaching the underlying soil.

沙漠化问题如此严重主要是因为它影响的区域很广泛、影响的人数很多以及扭转或者延缓这一进程特别难。

The extreme seriousness of desertification results from the vast areas of land and the tremendous numbers of people affected, as well as from the great difficulty of reversing or even slowing the process.

一旦土壤因为侵蚀而消失，只有历经几世纪甚至一千年新土壤才会形成。

Once the soil has been removed by erosion, only the passage of centuries or millennia will enable new soil to form.

在那些仍有大量土壤的地方，严格执行的土壤保护计划与植被保护计划还有可能扭转现在土壤表层恶化情况的趋势。

In areas where considerable soil still remains, though, a rigorously enforced program of land protection and cover-crop planting may make it possible to reverse the present deterioration of the surface.

According to paragraph 1, all of the following were true of viewing films in Kinetoscope parlors EXCEPT

The author discusses phonograph parlors in paragraph 2 in order to

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

The word “readily” in the passage is closest in meaning to

The word “assistance” in the passage is closest in meaning to

According to paragraph 4, how did early movies differ from previous spectacles that were presented to large audiences?

According to paragraph 5, what role did early exhibitors play in the presentation of movies in theaters?

Which of the following is mentioned in paragraph 6 as one of the ways the Mutoscope differed from the Kinetoscope?

The word “It” in the passage refers to

According to paragraph 6, the images seen by viewers in the earlier peepshows, compared to the images projected on the large screen, were relatively

The word “expanded” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Look at the four squares  that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. When this widespread use of projection technology began to hurt his Kinetoscope business, Edison acquired a projector developed by Armat and introduced it as “Edison’s latest marvel, the Vitascope.”  Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square  to add the sentence to the passage.

Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

Early Cinema The cinema did not emerge as a form of mass consumption until its technology evolved from the initial “peepshow” format to the point where images were projected on a screen in a darkened theater. In the peepshow format, a film was viewed through a small opening in a machine that was created for that purpose. Thomas Edison’s peepshow device, the Kinetoscope, was introduced to the public in 1894. It was designed for use in Kinetoscope parlors, or arcades, which contained only a few individual machines and permitted only one customer to view a short, 50-foot film at any one time. The first Kinetoscope parlors contained five machines. For the price of 25 cents (or 5 cents per machine), customers moved from machine to machine to watch five different films (or, in the case of famous prizefights, successive rounds of a single fight). These Kinetoscope arcades were modeled on phonograph parlors, which had proven successful for Edison several years earlier. In the phonograph parlors, customers listened to recordings through individual ear tubes, moving from one machine to the next to hear different recorded speeches or pieces of music. The Kinetoscope parlors functioned in a similar way. Edison was more interested in the sale of Kinetoscopes (for roughly $1,000 apiece) to these parlors than in the films that would be run in them (which cost approximately $10 to $15 each). He refused to develop projection technology, reasoning that if he made and sold projectors, then exhibitors would purchase only one machine - a projector -from him instead of several. Exhibitors, however, wanted to maximize their profits, which they could do more readily by projecting a handful of films to hundreds of customers at a time (rather than one at a time) and by charging 25 to 50 cents admission.  About a year after the opening of the first Kinetoscope parlor in 1894, showmen such as Louis and Auguste Lumière, Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins, and Orville and Woodville Latham (with the assistance of Edison’s former assistant, William Dickson) perfected projection devices.  These early projection devices were used in vaudeville theaters, legitimate theaters, local town halls, makeshift storefront theaters, fairgrounds, and amusement parks to show films to a mass audience.  With the advent of projection in 1895-1896, motion pictures became the ultimate form of mass consumption. Previously, large audiences had viewed spectacles at the theater, where vaudeville, popular dramas, musical and minstrel shows, classical plays, lectures, and slide-and-lantern shows had been presented to several hundred spectators at a time. But the movies differed significantly from these other forms of entertainment, which depended on either live performance or (in the case of the slide-and-lantern shows) the active involvement of a master of ceremonies who assembled the final program. Although early exhibitors regularly accompanied movies with live acts, the substance of the movies themselves is mass-produced, prerecorded material that can easily be reproduced by theaters with little or no active participation by the exhibitor. Even though early exhibitors shaped their film programs by editing them together in whichever way they thought would be most attractive to audiences or by accompanying them with lectures, their creative control remained limited. What audiences came to see was the technological marvel of the movies; the lifelike reproduction of the commonplace motion of trains, of waves striking the shore, and of people walking in the street; and the magic made possible by trick photography and the manipulation of the camera. With the advent of projection, the viewer’s relationship with the image was no longer private, as it had been with earlier peepshow devices such as the Kinetoscope and the Mutoscope, which was a similar machine that reproduced motion by means of successive images on individual photographic cards instead of on strips of celluloid. It suddenly became public – an experience that the viewer shared with dozens, scores, and even hundreds of others. At the same time, the image that the spectator looked at expanded from the minuscule peepshow dimensions of 1 or 2 inches (in height) to the life-size proportions of 6 or 9 feet.