??辛达托福代报考位：到2015年1月2日上午托福官网没有释放考位，在此提醒广大考生抓紧时间报名，注意自己的考试时间，如对托福报名有任何疑问，欢迎咨询在线客服。

　　TPO25: The Surface of Mars

　　1. It is no accident that Maxwell Mons on Venus and the Hawaiian shield volcanoes on　Earth rise to about the same height (about 10 kilometers) above their respective　bases-Earth and Venus have similar surface gravity.

　　2. Scientists have no direct evidence for recent or ongoing eruptions, but if these volcanoes　　were active as recently as 100 million years ago (an estimate of the time of last eruption　based on the extent of impact cratering on their slopes), some of them may still be at leastintermittently active.

　　TPO25: The Decline of Venetian Shipping

　　1. In the fifteenth century there was little problem recruiting sailors to row the galleys　(large ships propelled by oars): guilds (business associations) were required to provide　rowers, and through a draft system free citizens served compulsorily when called for.

　　2. The step from buying foreign timber to buying foreign ships was regarded as a short one,　especially when complaints were heard in the latter sixteenth century that the standards　and traditions of the Arsenale were running down.

　　3. Historian Frederic Lane observes that after the loss of ships in battle in the late　sixteenth century, the shipbuilding industry no long had the capacity to recover that it had　displayed at the start of the century.

　　4. The conventional explanation for the loss of Venetian dominance in trade is　establishment of the Portuguese direct sea route to the East, replacing the overland Silk　Road from the Black sea and the highly profitable Indian Ocean-caravan-eastern　Mediterranean route to Venice.

　　5. Prices of spices delivered by ship from the eastern Mediterranean came to equal those of　spices transported by Paortuguese vessels, but the increase in quantity with both routes in　operation drove the price far down. 

??