【E-book】Texts & Questions Of 50 Lectures For TOEFL .

These sort of romances remained very popular all through theMiddle Ages, and the culmination of the development of themedieval Arthurian romance cycle was Thomas Malory's 15thcentury Le Morte d'Arthur, which is a re-telling of the whole set ofincidents and adventures in a single English work. Le Morted'Arthur was one of the earliest books printed by William Caxton,in 1485, so Malory's romance was disseminated very widely andvery quickly, and essentially all later works on Arthur and hisknights are derived from Malory's compendium.The most popular current theory is that the Arthurian legend isultimately derived from Celtic mythology. Traditional Welsh,Cornish and Irish heroic tales- which include elements ofessentially all of Arthur's doings- these tales probably mixedtogether, and the resultant hero, Arthur, was then carried to thecontinent with the Norman armies. By 1100 AD, the tales hadreached as far as Italy.But social changes and the Renaissance brought the end of theMedieval period and people lost interest in the romance ofchivalry. The printing of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur in 1634 wasthe last one for two hundred years.Finally, in the early 19th century, the literary revival ofRomanticism, of medievalism, of the idea of chivalry, revived theArthur legend again. Le Morte d'Arthur was finally reprinted in1816. William Wordsworth wrote The Egyptian Maid, the story of ayoung girl brought to Arthur's court, in 1835, and then Alfred LordTennyson wrote his immensely popular Idylls of the King in 1859. COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!12

Idylls of the King put a Victorian veneer onto the entire Arthurnarrative.Now, I'd like you to read over these passages that I'm handingout- some excerpts from both Malory's Morte d'Arthur andTennyson's Idylls of the King- and then please be ready tocontrast and compare them in Friday's class. And feel free to readmore of each of them if you have time. Both are available on theinternet.1. Judging from this lecturer, which statement would the professormost likely agree with?(A) Arthur was a real person, and probably a king.(B) King Arthur defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of MountBadon.(C) Arthur was perhaps a real person.(D) King Arthur was finally defeated by the Anglo-Saxons at theBattle of Mount Badon.2. Which text first mentions Arthur?(A) Bede's Ecclesiastical History (8th C) (B) The Anglo-SaxonChronicle (9th C) (C) The Historia Brittonum (9th C)(D) The Annales Cambriae (10th C)3. Who wrote Morte d'Arthur? COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!13

(A) Thomas Malory(B) Chretien de Troyes(C) Geoffrey of Monmouth(D) William Caxton4. According to the lecturer, what is probably the original sourceof the Arthurian legend?(A) French romances (B) The Idylls of the King(C) The Welsh Annals (D) Celtic myth5. Why does the professor mention Wordsworth's The EgyptianMaid?(A) It's an early example of the Romantic revival.(B) It's the culmination of the development of medieval romance.(C) It shows how widely the Arthurian legend spread.(D) It caused the re-printing of Morte d'Arthur after 200 years.6. Which of the following probably did NOT contribute to the lossof interest in King Arthur between 1650 and 1800?(A) The Industrial Revolution(B) The Renaissance(C) World exploration and empire-building (D) The developmentof the Scientific Method COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!14

TOEFL Listening Lecture 3Listen to part of a university lecture by a professor of ComparativeReligion.Professor: Good afternoon, class. In the course of this term, we'veexamined all the major contemporary religions of the worldChristianity, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, uh, Taoism,Hinduism- in depth. But before your final examination, I also wantto spend a couple of classes looking at some of the moreinteresting minor religions, and I'd like to start with a very simple,harmless religion that managed to have a disproportionatelylarge influence on world history. And that religion is Shintoism, orShinto, which is the indigenous religion of Japan.There was no historical founder of Shinto, like Buddha orMohammad. And Shinto has no sacred texts. It has no images oricons, it has no laws or commandments. It emerged organically,from prehistoric nature worship- a sort of animism- and theancestor worship, of the earliest Japanese people. And- with dueallowance for the general advance of civilization- it has remainedsurprisingly unchanged from that primitive condition.Its basic concept is that virtually every natural object is inhabitedby a 'kami'- variously translated as a 'spirit' or 'god'- and that allkami are worthy of reverence and respect. One enterprisinganthropologist has estimated that there are some 800,000 of COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!15

these kami enshrined all over Japan. These spirits dwell mostly innature, in the features of nature- in mountains and rivers, inwaterfalls, in trees, in the winds, in the sun, in the sea, and so on.And also inhabiting these regions are the spirits of our deifiedancestors. Showing respect to these kami and to our ancestorswill be rewarded by their patronage and by good luck in thevicissitudes of life. And that's about it. That's all there is to thetheology of Shintoism.There are innumerable Shinto shrines established throughoutJapan, and they're for the most part relatively very simplestructures, usually located in a quiet natural setting- even if they'rein the center of a city- usually hidden away within a grove of fineold trees. They're distinctively marked by 'torii', which are atraditional gateway. Torii are composed of two tall uprights andtwo crossbars at the top, and usually painted bright red. Thesegates set off the mundane world from the spiritual world. Whenyou pass under the torii, you leave everyday life and enter theworld of the kami. Different gods are enshrined in each shrine- aparticularly fine old cedar tree, for instance, or a local hilltop, or, asin the case of the politically-sensitiveYasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, thespirits of the war dead.Now, in the eighth century A.D., Buddhism arrived from China,along with many other aspects of Chinese culture, and it soonbecame established in Japan, both mixing with Shinto and alsoco-existing with it. Then later, in the long feudal period from the17th to the 19th centuries, Buddhism, and also Confucianism,became tools of the shoguns, the powerful Tokugawa regime.However, with the succeeding Meiji Restoration in 1868- the COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!16

restoration of political power to the emperor and the rapid socialand technological modernization of the country- Japan'snationalistic scholars turned back to pure Shintoism as part of theunique Japanese identity, and in the 1880s, State Shinto wasformalized as the national religion of Japan.And this leads us nicely to what I mentioned before- thecontribution of Shinto to world history. Now, the pre-eminentShinto kami is Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess- she's ontheir national flag, you may have noticed- and AmaterasuOmikami is also traditionally considered to be the founder of thelong dynasty of Japanese emperors. This geneology, of course,makes the emperor divine. And in the 1930s, this divinity of theemperor was used by the militarists and the ultra-nationalists topromote their agenda and to galvanize the Japanese people forthe expansionist policy that ultimately led to the political andhuman disaster of the Second World War in the Pacific.After the war, in 1945, Japan's new Constitution included articlesboth renouncing war and renouncing the divinity of theiremperor, but today the emperor still remains as a figurehead ofreverence for the people. Amaterasu Omikami's shrine, the shrineof Ise, is still a national magnet of pilgrimage for those who wantto pay their respects to the emperor and, through him, to Japan.Without religious commandments or a real theology, Shintodoesn't really impact morally on Japanese society, but itsinfluence in daily life is still considerable. Special days of worshipcome at key points in peopole's lives- births, coming-of-age,weddings, rice-planting and harvesting, at house-raisings and at COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!17

equinoxes, et cetera- and many shrines hold their own 'matsuri's,or festivals, to celebrate their foundation or their resident kami.And these are always occasions for eating and drinking, forentertainment and merriment, and for community socializing.Shinto, but a very benign version, is still very much alive inJapanese culture.1. Based on this lecture, how would the professor most probablycategorize Shinto?(A) A minor but dangerous religion(B) A main force in world history(C) A minor, insignificant religion(D) A local religion of some interest2. According to one source, about how many gods does Shintohave?(A) 800 (B) 8,000 (C) 80,000(D) 800,0003. Why does the lecturer mention Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine?(A) As an example of different enshrined spirits(B) As a warning against hero worship(C) As an exception to Japan's renunciation of war COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!18

(D) As proof of the importance of Shinto4. According to the lecture, which is NOT true of AmaterasuOmikami?(A) She is the spirit of the sun.(B) She is on the Japanese flag.(C) She was revered by the Tokyugawa shoguns.(D) She founded the Imperial family.5. What is a 'torii'?(A) An entrance (B) A ceremony (C) A shrine(D) A festival6. Which statement would the professor most probably agreewith?(A) Few Japanese now practice Shintoism.(B) Shinto is a relatively primitive religion.(C) Shinto has had a strong influence on Japanese morality. (D)Shintoism is a highly-structured religion. COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!19

TOEFL Listening Lecture 4Listen to part of a university lecture by a professor of AnimalBehaviour.Professor: Good morning, class. It's a beautiful spring day outside,isn't it? We'll soon be seeing the first robin of spring- and so, it's aperfect day to begin talking about migration. Migration is themain strategy that animals have for avoiding adverseenvironments and taking advantage of rich environments. Ofcourse, there are other strategies, too- hibernation, for examplebut far and away the most common way for animals to escapepoor conditions and get to better ones is by migration- a massjourney from one place to the other.Now there are all kinds of migrations, but the most familiar one isthe sort that our robins will be experiencing- a seasonal,latitudinal migration. In the fall, the birds fly south, and in thespring they fly north again. In the southern hemisphere, of course,this works in the opposite direction. In both hemispheres,migrants move toward the equator when the earth chills andtoward the poles when it warms. This is the way that species havebeen able to colonize, to use those subpolar resources that areseasonally difficult to access, that are unavailable to many livingthings for half the year. COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!20

Birds are certainly the most conspicuous latitudinal migrants, andthey're also the most awesome. Most famously, the Arctic Tern,which is a small seabird, migrates from one pole to the other, allthe way from the arctic subpolar region to the antarctic subpolarregion- and back again- annually. These birds travel roughly70,000 kilometers a year!Another kind of seasonal migration is altitudinal migration, whichis where animals move vertically rather than to a different regionof the earth. They go up the mountain in the spring and down it inthe winter. The Dall Sheep of the American Rocky Mountains aregood examples of this. In the spring, they follow the melting snowup to higher elevations, where they can feed on fresh plantgrowth and be safer from enemies, and then in the fall, when thesnow begins to cover the mountain tops, they work their way backdown to lower areas that are free of snow and more protectedfrom the elements.In regions with irregular climate patterns, some animals arenomadic- that is, they just kind of wander around from one area toanother as, for instance, the rains bring fresh plant growth tothese different places. The gnus, antelopes and other grazinganimals of east Africa do this, wandering around the famousSerengeti Plain to where the grass is greenest.Now most such migrations are undergone in search of food andwater, but there are also reproductive migrations, where thepurpose is to find a habitat that is safe and secure for the young.This accounts for the migration, for instance, of Grey Whales, who COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!21

leave the food-rich waters of the north Pacific and travel to theprotected waters of the Gulf of California to give birth.Some animals, like our Arctic Tern, travel thousands of kilometersa year, and the most amazing thing is that many of them arrive invery specific places, in almost the same place, year after year. ThePacific salmon return after four or five years of wandering aroundthe open ocean, swim up the rivers they originally emerged from,and arrive back at the same little branch of the same stream thatthey hatched in. How do animals do that, how do they navigategreat distances so accurately- and with just the right timing?Well, the answers seem to be multiple. Some migrants just seemto follow coastlines and mountain ranges and other landmarkswhich is what many of the North American songbirds seem to do,following well-established 'flyways' down both coasts and alongthe Rocky Mountains, and along the Mississippi River- and theyeither remember them, or they are genetically programmed torecognize them, or more likely a bit of both. Other animals usetheir other senses to help them get where they're going. Researchhas revealed that our salmon are able to recognize the finedifferences in the composition and concentration of the watersflowing from different sources, so that for the salmon, each littlestream has its own unique flavour, and they can follow that flavourall the way up the river to their birthplace.Other migrants have evidently evolved very sophisticatednavigation systems that use the sun and the stars, or use daylength or polarized light, or even use the Earth's magnetic field, astimers and direction finders. Studies of loggerhead turtles, for COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!22

instance, have shown that their hatchlings can sense the strengthand direction of this geomagnetic field and use it when they firstput to sea to follow the traditional routes of their parents.But we still have a lot more to learn about these mechanisms, andabout the evolution that has created these ways of speciessuccess in a harsh world. The earliest recorded observations ofanimal migration were over three thousand years ago, in theworks of Aritotle and Hesiod, but we have still just begun to fullyunderstand the migratory urge.1. Why does the professor mention the weather at the beginningof his lecture?(A) To relax the students before his talk(B) To draw the students away from their textbooks(C) To direct the students' attention to the topic(D) To demonstrate how far birds can migrate2. How has the professor organized his presentation of migration?(A) By function (B) By species (C) By distance (D) By region3. According to the lecture, what is the main difference betweenaltitudinal and latitudinal migration?(A) The length of the migration (B) The seasons of migration COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!23

(C) The frequency of migration (D) The direction of migration4. Based on the professor's remarks, what does "nomadic" mean?(A) Wandering (B) Seasonal (C) Travelling (D) Regional5. Which is NOT included as a method of animal navigation?(A) Sight(B) Touch (C) Taste(D) Geomagnetism6. In 1822, some White Storks in the village of Klutz, Germanywere discovered to be embedded with African arrows. What doesthis tell us about them?(A) Storks are probably reproductive migrants.(B) Storks probably hibernate in Africa.(C) Storks are probably unwelcome in Germany.(D) Storks are probably latitudinal migrants. COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!24

TOEFL Listening Lecture 5Listen to part of a university lecture by a professor of Art.Professor: I noticed on my way to class today that someone hasspray-painted an image of our school mascot- you know, awolverine- with the slogan 'Go Wolverines!" on the wall of theStudent Union. Have any of you seen that yet? I guess they're justexpressing their enthusiasm for the football season. It's not a veryartistic effort, but it is a perfect example of the kind of modern art Iwant to talk about today: graffiti.Of course, graffiti is not modern at all. The earliest knownexamples are around 2000 years old. When Mount Vesuviusburied the Roman city of Pompeii under lava during its eruption in79 AD, it preserved all kinds of graffiti, or wall messages,- magicspells, curses, declarations of love, political slogans, literaryquotations, all sorts of messages- just like our modern graffiti. TheMayans scrawled sayings on their temples in Guatemala. TheVikings scratched their initials on New Grange Mound in Ireland.And the Vandals- no pun intended- carved runes on the HagiaSophia in Constantinople. So defacing public property with graffitihas been a universally popular pastime since the world's earliesthistory.Actually, we could go a lot further back into prehistory forexamples, to the famous cave paintings of Lascaux, for instance COPYRIGHT 2016 TOEFL-IBT.ONLINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.!25

but these probably don't fit the definition, since a maincharacteristic of graffiti is that it's drawn or written on someoneelse's property without permission- and consequently with somehaste! By definition, graffiti- the singular is "graffito"- is the namefor lettering or images that are illegally scrawled, scratched,sprayed or painted in any way on property. Nowadays, there arefour general sorts of graffiti- gang graffiti, socio- political graffiti,expressive or humorous graffiti, and public art.Gang graffiti appeared after World War Two, when our cities weregetting much bigger, and the social stresses and strains of urbanliving led to the rise of urban gangs- groups of boys and youngmen who lived in different parts of a city, and who marked theirterritories, or "tagged" them, with identifying signs and logospainted on boundary walls and buildings to warn other gangsaway.And these days, you can see a lot of political graffiti just bywatching the evening news from the Middle East or other areas ofconflict. On the buildings in the background you can see sloganscalling for "Liberty" or "Free Speech" or "Jihad" or other socialchanges. In th

TOEFL Listening Lecture 35 184 TOEFL Listening Lecture 36 189 TOEFL Listening Lecture 37 194 TOEFL Listening Lecture 38 199 TOEFL Listening Lecture 39 204 TOEFL Listening Lecture 40 209 TOEFL Listening Lecture 41 214 TOEFL Listening Lecture 42 219 TOEFL Listening Lecture 43 225 COPYRIGHT 2016