做题是越做越有意思，越学越多，就越有动力。看着自己的词汇量日渐上涨，也是一种很大的成就。下面接着看今天的20道托福词汇题。北京新航道托福小编倾情为您奉献。Let's go !

　　121. Local crafts people-sign, coach, and house painters-began to paint portraits as a profitable sideline; sometimes a talented man or woman who began by sketching family members gained a local reputation and was besieged with requests for portraits; artists found it worth their while to pack their paints, canvases, and brushes and to travel the countryside, often combining house decorating with portrait painting.

　　The word "sketching" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) drawing

　　(B) hiring

　　(C) helping

　　(D) discussing

　　122. Both the number and the percentage of people in the United States involved in nonagricultural pursuits expanded rapidly during the half century following the Civil War, with some of the most dramatic increases occurring in the domains of transportation, manufacturing, and trade and distribution.

　　The word "domains" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) fields

　　(B) locations

　　(C) organizations

　　(D) occupations

　　123. The development of the railroad and telegraph systems during the middle third of the nineteenth century led to significant improvements in the speed, volume, and regularity of shipments and communications, making possible a fundamental transformation in the production and distribution of goods.

　　The word "fundamental" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) possible

　　(B) basic

　　(C) gradual

　　(D) unique

　　124. To be sure, there were still small workshops, where skilled craftspeople manufactured products ranging from newspapers to cabinets to plumbing fixtures.

　　The word "skilled" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) hardworking

　　(B) expert

　　(C) well-paid

　　(D) industrial

　　125. And there were factories in occupations such as metalwork where individual contractors presided over what were essentially handicraft proprietorships that coexisted within a single building.

　　The words "presided over" in line 20 are closest in meaning to

　　(A) managed

　　(B) led to

　　(C) worked in

　　(D) produced

　　126. Objects in the universe show a variety of shapes: round planets (some with rings) , tailed comets, wispy cosmic gas and dust clouds, ringed nebulae, pinwheel-shaped spiral galaxies, and so on. But none of the shapes on this list describes the largest single entities in the universe.

　　The word "entities" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) factors

　　(B) processes

　　(C) objects

　　(D) puzzles

　　127. Stone carvers engraved their motifs of skulls and crossbones and other religious icons of death into the gray slabs that we still see standing today in old burial grounds.

　　The word "motifs" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) tools

　　(B) prints

　　(C) signatures

　　(D) designs

　　128. Although they often achieved expression and formal excellence in their generally primitive style, they remained artisans skilled in the craft of carving and constituted a group distinct from what we normally think of as "sculptors" in today's use of the word.

　　The word "distinct" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) separate

　　(B) assembled

　　(C) notable

　　(D) inferior

　　129. On the rare occasion when a fine piece of sculpture was desired, Americans turned to foreign sculptors, as in the 1770's when the cities of New York and Charleston, South Carolina, commissioned the Englishman Joseph Wilton to make marble statues of William Pill.

　　The word "rare" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) festive

　　(B) infrequent

　　(C) delightful

　　(D) unexpected

　　130. Desert mammals also depart from the normal mammalian practice of maintaining a constant body temperature. Instead of trying to keep down the body temperature deep inside the body, which would involve the expenditure of water and energy, desert mammals allow their temperatures to rise to what would normally be fever height, and temperatures as high as 46 degrees Celsius have been measured in Grant's gazelles.来源：北京新航道托福培训

　　The word "maintaining" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) measuring

　　(B) inheriting

　　(C) preserving

　　(D) delaying

　　131. Another strategy of large desert animals is to tolerate the loss of body water to a point that would be fatal for nonadapted animals. The camel can lose up to 30 percent of its body weight as water without harm to itself, whereas human beings die after losing only 12 to 13 percent of their body weight.

　　The word "tolerate" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) endure

　　(B) replace

　　(C) compensate

　　(D) reduce

　　132. The tolerance of water loss is of obvious advantage in the desert, as animals do not have to remain near a water hole but can obtain food from grazing sparse and far-flung pastures.

　　The word "obtain" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) digest

　　(B) carry

　　(C) save

　　(D) get

　　133. In 1979 Santa Monica's municipal government ordered landlords to roll back their rents to the levels charged in 1978. Future rents could only go up by two thirds as much as any increase in the overall price level.

　　The phrase "roll back" in lines 11-12 is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) credit

　　(B) measure

　　(C) vary

　　(D) reduce

　　134. In any housing market, rental prices perform three functions: (1) promoting the efficient maintenance of existing housing and stimulating the construction of new housing.

　　The word "stimulating" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) experimenting with

　　(B) identifying

　　(C) estimating

　　(D) encouraging

　　135. One result of rent control is a decrease in the construction of new rental units. Rent Controls have artificially depressed the most important long-term determinant of profitability-rents.

　　The word "depressed" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) saddened

　　(B) created

　　(C) lowered

　　(D) defeated

　　136. In the same year, in San Francisco, California, only 2,000 units were built. San Francisco has only a 1. 6 percent vacancy rate but stringent rent control laws.

　　The word "stringent" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) straightforward

　　(B) strict

　　(C) expanded

　　(D) efficient

　　137. For example, sometimes the shape or veining in a piece of stone or wood suggests, perhaps even dictates, not only the ultimate form, but even the subject matter.

　　The word "dictates" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) reads aloud

　　(B) determines

　　(C) includes

　　(D) records

　　138. In 1905 he was sent to Paris as an apprentice to an art dealer, and in the years that followed he witnessed the birth of Cubism, discovered primitive art, and learned the techniques of woodcarving from a frame maker.

　　The word "witnessed" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) influenced

　　(B) studied

　　(C) validated

　　(D) observed

　　139. The plank's form dictated the rigidly frontal view and the low relief. Even its irregular shape must have appealed to Laurent as a break with a long-standing tradition that required a sculptor to work within a perfect rectangle or square.

　　The phrase "a break with" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) a destruction of

　　(B) a departure from

　　(C) a collapse of

　　(D) a solution to

　　140. In winter especially, it is important for birds to keep warm at night and conserve precious food reserves.

　　The word "conserve" is closest in meaning to which of following?

　　(A) retain

　　(B) watch

　　(C) locate

　　(D) share

　　上面是今天的20道托福词汇题，考生自己先做，随后将会给大家答案，大家对照更正，好好研究。再记住单词的同时，了解他们的应用。

　　了解托福培训信息