Against this tragic backdrop, the Virginia Company of London gave a patent to some merchants headed by Thomas Weston for a settlement.

The $70 billion Japanese trade surplus with the U.S. is dwarfed by China’s $379 billion surplus, and the trade tensions between Washington and Tokyo are far less contentious than the tariffs war with Beijing.

When the core of a giant star whose mass surpasses 1.4 times the present mass of our Sun exhausts its nuclear fuel, it is unable to support its own weight and collapses into a tiny neutron star.

They constructed terraced irrigation systems for watering crops on mountainous terrain, perfected freeze-drying and other preservation techniques, built large store-houses, and constructed a vast network of roads and bridges.

With Xi, a senior administration official said, Trump’s top aim will be rebooting trade negotiations between the two countries after they collapsed earlier this year.

Combining ivory, bone, and other materials, they fashioned harpoons and spears for the pursuit of sea mammals and—in the case of the Inuits—caribou.

A father’s authority over his family supposedly mirrored God’s rule over Creation and the king’s over his subjects.

After finding that both the land and inhabitants in Nova Scotia were inhospitable, many blacks moved from there to the new British colony of Sierra Leone in West Africa.

While denouncing Protestants, the council reformed Church administration to combat corruption and broaden public participation in religious observances.

When the pope censured him, Luther broadened his criticism to encompass the Mass, purgatory, priests, and the papacy.

二、TOEFL iBT基础测试之「句子」作答说明

Politicians might even learn from Amazon, whose search for a home for a second headquarters has set off a scramble among cities hoping to lure the giant retailer.

The airline’s board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than it did in the past.

At their best, adverse book reviews are written in defense of value and in the tacit hope that the author might secretly agree that the book could be improved.

Early studies often concluded that the public was susceptible to the propagandistic influence of mass communications, but one recent study indicates that mass communications seldom produce marked changes in social attitudes or actions.

While some protective measures, such as the establishment of national forests and wildlife sanctuaries, were taken decades ago, great increases in population and in the intensity of industrialization are causing a worldwide ecological crisis.

The government predicts that the Federal Communications Commission’s recent telephone rate cuts will greatly reduce costs, though some consumer groups disagree with the government’s estimates, suggesting they are too optimistic.

Transplanting gut microbes from the twins into lab mice that develop MS, they found that more of the mice receiving the MS micro-biome developed a mouse version of MS than did mice receiving transplants from the healthy twin.

The delinquency rates on mortgages for office buildings, hotels, shopping malls, and other commercial properties held by the nation’s insurance companies have increased sharply in recent months, leading to predictions that foreclosures on these types of loans could double over the next three years.

Many researchers attribute the large number of physiological and behavioral similarities between birds and mammals, which have separate evolutionary histories, to endothermy—a thermoregulatory strategy whereby warm body temperature is maintained through internal heat sources.

Alternatively, probiotics that preferentially nourish bacteria that compete with the MS-causing kinds might keep the latter in check, Baranzini said, though he cautioned that probiotics have not yet been shown to cause the wholesale micro-biome changes that might be needed to prevent or cure disease.

三、TOEFL iBT基础测试之「听力」作答说明

四、TOEFL iBT基础测试之「口语」作答说明

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It is better to use printed material such as books and articles to do research than it is to use the internet. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.