托福阅读修辞目的题实例解析（七）

在托福阅读的十大题型中，修辞目的题(rhetorical purpose questions)是新托福阅读中难度较大的题型之一。这种题型对于国内考生来说较为陌生，在考场上时间紧张的情况下考生往往不知该在文中什么地方找答案。那么，对于这样一种类型的题目我们究竟该从何入手呢?在以下的一些例题中，我们就为大家进行详细的分析。

托福阅读修辞目的题例题

例题7：

Paragraph 2: If an impact is large enough, it can disturb the environment of the entire Earth and cause an ecological catastrophe. The best-documented such impact took place 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period of geological history. This break in Earth's history is marked by a mass extinction, when as many as half the species on the planet became extinct. While there are a dozen or more mass extinctions in the geological record, the Cretaceous mass extinction has always intrigued paleontologists because it marks the end of the age of the dinosaurs. For tens of millions of years, those great creatures had flourished. Then, suddenly, they disappeared.

Q:In paragraph 2, why does the author include the information that dinosaurs had flourished for tens of millions of years and then suddenly disappeared?

A:To support the claim that the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous is the best-documented of the dozen or so mass extinctions in the geological record

To explain why as many as half of the species on Earth at the time are believed to have become extinct at the end of the Cretaceous

To explain why paleontologists have always been intrigued by the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous

To provide evidence that an impact can be large enough to disturb the environment of the entire planet and cause an ecological disaster

托福阅读修辞目的题练习题答案：3