为什么TOEFL阅读的文章相比于GRE阅读的长文章还要长很多呢？
有三个原因导致TOEFL阅读变长：列举细节、出现机理、进行对比。
本文探讨TOEFL段落长的第1个原因：列举细节
请看下面这篇文章:
How did it come about that farming developed independently in a number of world centers at more or less the same time?
It seems unlikely that agriculture emerged in response to a food shortage brought on by a worldwide population crisis that developed once the whole world was occupied.
The origins of agriculture maybe linked to climate change at the end of the last ice age, but this does not explain why earlier climatic instability had not led to agriculture.
One recent theory suggests that the invention of agriculture was made possible by the integration of various mental capacities in the human mind.
乍看之下，上文读起来非常接近GRE阅读的短文章，但是其实上文是TPO21-Reading-The Origins of Agriculture的最后一道六选三题的三个正确选项加上文章的开头句拼成的。
TOEFL阅读的六选三题是对文章内容的概括，The Origins of Agriculture原文678个字，其核心内容就只是上文的103个字，那为什么103个字就可以说完的事情，会变成678个字呢？
我们来看一下原文的第5段是如何行文的：
It is archaeologist Steven Mithen's thesis, …that approximately 40,000 years ago the human mind developed cognitive fluidity, that is, the integration of the specializations of the mind: technical, natural history…, social intelligence, and the linguistic capacity…Mithen proposes the existence of four mental elements to account for the emergence of farming:
(1) the ability to develop tools that could be used intensively to harvest and process plant resources;
(2) the tendency to use plants and animals as the medium to acquire social prestige and power;
(3) the tendency to develop "social relationships" with animals structurally similar to those developed with people—specifically, the ability to think of animals as people (anthropomorphism) and of people as animals (totemism);
and (4) the tendency to manipulate plants and animals.
从这个段落内容可以看出，作者围绕主旨，列举了4个因素，陈述人类认知的4个方面的发展促成了农业的产生。
因此，TOEFL阅读的段落长的一个原因是列举相关细节或举例，对段落主旨进行充分展开。
而作为语言能力测试，TOEFL阅读会考察同学们对细节信息的把握，比如上面的这个段落就针对4个方面的细节信息出了一道排除题。
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