2025年10月25日上午场托福写作完整版答案及解析（含范文）

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　主题：relocating rhinos

　　First, the process of relocating rhinos is difficult and risky. In fact, the process has a 2-5 percent mortality rate, which means that as many as five rhinos may die during the course of the relocation. The total population of rhinos on the African continent has fallen dramatically over the years and is now considered to be critically low. Extinction is a real possibility, so every rhino is important. Losing even five is too big a risk. The relocation plan may do more harm than good.

　　First, it's true that a very small number of rhinos could be lost in the process of relocation, but you have to compare the relatively minor short-term risks of relocation to the significant long-term danger the rhinos will face if they continue to be exposed to high rates of poaching. Right now, rhinos in South Africa are being poached at a very high rate, and this rate is expected to increase in future years. If left in South Africa, many of the rhinos that could have been relocated are likely to be killed by poachers over the years.

　　Second, because the population of rhinos is so small, each rhino could potentially play an important role reproductively or socially. Relocating some individuals could harm the population left behind. For example, male rhinos can take up to twelve years to mature before reproducing. If too many males of reproductive age are relocated, the rate of reproduction among rhinos left behind may decrease significantly. Furthermore, female rhinos and their calves (young rhinos) sometimes travel in groups and can form strong social bonds with one another. Separating them could have unforeseen negative effects.

　　Second, regarding the effects on rhinos left behind. The relocation plan involves carefully identifying and selecting the rhinos that will be moved before relocation. The group of rhinos chosen for relocation will have a well-balanced mix of different ages. This will ensure that enough males of reproductive age are left behind, so reproduction will not be affected. Furthermore, the project will not separate animals with strong social bonds. You see, the strongest bonds in rhino groups are between mothers and their calves. For this reason, no mothers with calves will be relocated.

　　Third, the relocation plan may not actually stop poaching; instead, it may simply change where poaching happens. In other words, it is possible that the rhinos will be poached in Botswana. Rhino horn is worth $65,000 per kilogram, so poaching is very profitable despite its dangers. Poachers will not stop just because some of the rhinos are moved to a different country.

　　Third, Botswana is a safe destination for the rhinos. In Botswana, it's the country's army that enforces anti-poaching laws, which means enforcement is better organized and more effective than in some other countries. Poaching is also more difficult in Botswana because the country's wilderness areas are very large, so rhinos there can spread out over vast areas of wilderness, much of which isn't even accessible by road. As a result, poachers in Botswana have a much harder time finding rhinos than they do in South Africa, where rhinos often gather in small areas and are easy to find.

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　主题：purpose of "lrish round towers"

　　One possibility is that the towers were built as forts to protect against foreign invaders such as the Vikings of Scandinavia. Local people could hide themselves and their valuables inside the towers and wait for an attack to end. This theory is supported by the fact that the doors are located in an unusual place. Instead of being placed at ground level, the doors are located several meters above the ground. Local people would have been able to enter a tower only by climbing a ladder that could then be pulled up into the tower. This unusual design would have allowed them to keep invaders out in the event of an attack.

　　First, recent discoveries suggest that the towers probably were not forts. Turns out that the high placement of the doors was structurally necessary. You see, all tall buildings need a strong foundation to support the heavy weight above them. Modern tall buildings usually have deep, thick underground walls as foundations, but Irish round towers lack underground foundations. Instead, their builders made the tower stable by filling the lower part of the building with soil and stones. Several meters of soil and stones were usually piled inside the bottom of the towers. And this meant the doors had to be placed several meters above ground level. But this had nothing to do with defense.

　　Another possibility is that the towers once housed metal bells that could be rung loudly to send messages to the local population. At that time, many European towns had bell towers, which were used for communication, so it is possible that the round towers served the same purpose In fact, in the Irish language, the traditional name for the towers sounds exactly like an lrish word that literally means "bell house". This strongly suggests that the round towers indeed functioned as bell towers.

　　Second, it's true that the Irish word for bell house sounds like the traditional name for round towers, but the name for the towers also sounds very similar to the Irish word for stone house. The round towers were the only significant stone buildings in Ireland at the time. So it actually makes sense that they would have been called stone houses. Because both words sound nearly the same. It's difficult to know which word was the original name for the towers. Additionally, there is no archaeological evidence that the towers originally had bells in them.

　　A third possibility is that the towers functioned as watchtowers. Historians have pointed out that watchtowers were usually high structures built to allow for observations of the surrounding areas. Since all lrish towers are tall buildings, it is possible that they were built to provide a high place from which guards or watchmen could see enemies, local inhabitants, or visitors approaching from afar.

　　Finally, watch towers were usually constructed so that guards could see far in all directions. But the Irish round towers were not generally built this way. For instance, one tower stands at the bottom of a narrow valley, where it's mostly surrounded by hills much taller than the tower itself. This location makes it difficult to see for any distance, because the nearby hills block the view. Another indication that the round towers were not watch towers is that each tower has only a few small windows that provide views in certain directions, but not others.