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  3. Writing Based on Reading and Listening Directions: For this task, you will read a passage about an academic topic and yo

Writing Based on Reading and Listening Directions: For this task, you will read a passage about an academic topic and yo

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问题     Writing Based on Reading and Listening
    Directions:
    For this task, you will read a passage about an academic topic and you will listen to a lecture about the same topic. You may take notes while you read and listen.
    Then you will write a response to a question that asks you about the relationship between the lecture you heard and the reading passage. Try to answer the question as completely as possible using information from the reading passage and the lecture. The question does not ask you to express your personal opinion. You may refer to the reading passage again when you write. You may use your notes to help you answer the question.
    Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words. Your response will be judged on the quality of your writing and on the completeness and accuracy of the content.
    You should allow 3 minutes to read the passage. Then listen to the lecture. Then allow 20 minutes to plan and write your response.
    Write your response in the space provided.
    Reading
    You will have 3 minutes to read the passage.
    Researcher Catherine McCartney wrote in the journal Discovery that mankind’s brain has been getting smaller for 20,000 years. "In the past 20,000 years," said Catherine, "the male brain capacity shrunk from 1500 cubic centimeters to 1350 cubic centimeters, a reduction the size of one tennis ball; the female brain capacity reduced a similar amount." There are three reasons for this phenomenon.
    First, with the warming climate, people’s body sizes have become smaller, which has also led to a change in the size of their brains. Humans with larger bodies are better adapted to storing heat and surviving in a cold environment. On the contrary, a smaller body dissipates heat more easily and is thus more suitable for living in a warmer environment. As the climate gradually warmed, people’s body sizes, and thus also their brains, became smaller.
    Second, the agricultural revolution changed the food supply. Less nutritious food led to a decrease in brain size. Although the emergence of agriculture freed humans from the hard work of hunting, it also brought a decrease in vitamins and other nutrients, which are important for the human body and brain growth.
    Finally, a decrease in muscle mass is also responsible for the shrinking size of the brain. For 20,000 years, human outdoor activities have gradually decreased and food has become easier to digest. This has led to a decrease in brain size.
    Then you will hear:
    Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.
    Lecture
   
    Question
    Summarize the points made in the lecture you just heard, explaining how they cast doubt on points made in the reading passage.
The first thing I want to say is that human evolution is a long, complicated process. So what we are focusing on this week is that mankind’s brain has been getting smaller since 200,000 years ago. It is easy to misinterpret the aspects of evolution on the human brain. The reading is one such example of this type of misinterpretation.
    The reading claims that the warming climate is responsible for the shrinking size of man’s brain. I do not believe this is reasonable because the temperature in the past has continuously fluctuated, and yet we have not seen a corresponding fluctuation in people’s brain sizes.
    Secondly, the agricultural revolution didn’t take place in some places such as Africa. Vitamins and other nutrients consumed by people here changed little. However, the brain size of Africans became smaller all the same. This shows that the agricultural revolution has had little effect on people’s brain sizes.
    Finally, a muscular man’s brain is not bigger than any other ordinary person. Human muscle mass might have changed since 20,000 years ago, but this has nothing to do with the size of people’s brains.
选项
答案 The reading gives three reasons to explain the shrinking size of the human brain over the past 20,000 years. The professor then explains why the reasons given in the reading are not convincing. The first reason the reading presents is that smaller people do better in a warmer climate and smaller people have smaller brains. The professor is not impressed by this argument because the climate has often fluctuated over the past 20,000 years, and yet we do not see a corresponding fluctuation in human brain size. Secondly, the reading suggests that a change in diet due to the agricultural revolution has led to a decline in brain size. However, the professor explains that the agricultural revolution did not take place in places such as Africa and yet there those places have also experienced a reduction in human brain size. The reading’s final explanation for why human brain size has decreased is a reduction in human muscle mass. The professor rebuts this by saying that if greater muscle mass led to bigger brains, people with more muscles should have bigger brains and this is not the case.
解析     面对人类大脑缩小的现象，阅读文章认为这是由三点原因造成的：首先，气候变暖的情况下，大脑缩小更适应生存；其次，农业革命导致了饮食结构变化，这使得人类大脑缩小；最后，人类肌肉块的缩小也是原因之一。然而，听力文章认为这三点原因都缺乏说服力。
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