字神帝國英語天地

來說說12/05今天閱讀三篇文章分別是：
1. Towns in the High Middle Ages(中世紀的城鎮)
2. Early Photograph in the United States(美國的早期攝影)
3. The Neolithic Revolution Begins(新石器革命開始了)。
全為新題，且全為文科話題，難度極高。

新題標誌著接下來的考試難度，會被ETS重複考查，價值極高。在此為考生奉上第一篇新題文章解析，讓我們好好見識一下新題的姿勢。

1. 詞彙量加大，抽象詞增多，並且出現詞組的考查
以下考句，考生可自查，是否認識單詞，並能理解真實含義(去抽象)，進而讀懂句子。

考句1
Some scholars would supplement the foregoing list of characteristics, for towns often had mints for making money, special legal status and modes of landholding for the inhabitants, as well as autonomous criminal and civil court systems.

考句2
Central Europe, which had only the thinnest sprinkling of settlements that might be deemed urban in the year 1000, witnessed the creation of 1,500 new towns from the eleventh century up until 1250 and 1,500 more in the 50 years or so after that.

2. 長難句難點增多，比例增大，且成必考出題句
長難句，即又長又難考生難以理解的句子。之所以難，是因為它是一種英文邏輯的呈現，與我們的母語中文有很大差異。考生需熟練掌握英文邏輯的順延，一次性順讀成功，方能滿足托福這門語言考試的要求。

考句1
According to paragraph 2, all of the following were more typical of towns than of villages in the High Middle Ages EXCEPT
對應考句：Paragraph 2 To be called a town, a settlement with a relatively high density of population and specialization of labor also requires an economy based on money as opposed to barter (the simple exchange of goods) and one in which a sizable proportion of income, again speaking relatively, comes from trade.

解析：此句順讀，最大的思維斷點出現於「and one in which…」，這是英文中常見的and引發的並列中，對重複內容的省略，此處重複內容的省略以one代替，關鍵在於找出one究竟代替前文哪個名詞，根 據並列省略的對等性，one代替前面的單數名詞an economy。至此，本句最大的困頓已解；順延句子，又出現「in which」，這是英文中極其常見的一種邏輯，即介詞加which，引出整句話，修飾前面的名詞，which指代該名詞，所以in which=in one=in an economy。

整句話意為：要稱之為城鎮，一個擁有相對較高人口密度和勞動力分工的人類定居點，還需要擁有一個建立在貨幣基礎上而不是易貨貿易基礎上的經濟，在該經濟中，一定比例的收入相對來說是來自貿易的收入。

同理，以下考句仍然考查one引發的省略，大家自查看能否領略一二，順讀成功。

考句2
The presence of a regulated periodic market (meeting every week, for example) did not define a town, for many a village had one, too.

新題文章，長難句遍佈，下面再給一句，即句子簡化題出題句，供考生解讀。檢驗自己考場上能否順讀成功！

考句3
Because what distinguished towns from villages was not so much size as the density of economic and social activities, one writer has argued that an important criterion for a town is the existence of traffic jams — the hustle and bustle of oxcarts; long lines of wagons bringing fruits and vegetables, raw materials, and finished goods to markets; and the parade of men and women coming to ship, visit, or attend meetings.