2013年8月13日模拟托福考试经历.docx

Questions 11-22Humanitys primal efforts to systematize the concepts of size, shapes, and numberare usually regarded as the earliest mathematics. However, the concept of number andthe counting process developed so long before the time of recorded history (there isarchaeological evidence that counting was employed by humans as far back as 50,000(5) years ago) that the manner of this development is largely conjectural. Imaging how itprobably came about is not difficult. The argument that humans, even in prehistorictimes, had some number sense, at least to the extent of recognizing the concepts ofmore and less when some objects were added to or taken away from a small group,seems fair, for studies have shown that some animal possess such a sense.(10) With the gradual evolution of society, simple counting became imperative. A tribehad to know how many members it had and how many enemies, and shepherd neededto know if the flock of sheep was decreasing in size. Probably the earliest way of keepinga count was by some simple tally method, employing the principle of one-to-onecorrespondence. In keeping a count of sheep, for example, one finger per sheep could(15) be turned under. Counts could also be maintained by making scratches in the dirt or ona stone, by cutting notches in a piece of wood, or by tying knots in a string.Then, perhaps later, an assortment of vocal sounds was developed as a word tallyagainst the number of objects in a small group. And still later, with the refinement ofwriting, a set of signs was devised to stand for these numbers. Such an imagined(20) development is supported by reports of anthropologists in their studies of present-daysocieties that are thought to be similar to those of early humans.DDDCC ABBAC DC11.What does the passage mainly discuss?(A) The efforts of early humans to care for herds of animals(B) The development of writing(C) The beginnings of mathematics(D) Similarities in number sense between humans and animals 12.The word conjectural