Zone files are the way that name servers store information about the domains they know about. Every domain that a name server knows about is stored in a zone file. Most requests coming to the average name server are not something that the server will have zone files for.
If it is configured to handle recursive queries, like a resolving name server, it will find out the answer and return it. Otherwise, it will tell the requesting party where to look next.
The more zone files that a name server has, the more requests it will be able to answer authoritatively.
A zone file describes a DNS "zone", which is basically a subset of the entire DNS naming system. It generally is used to configure just a single domain. It can contain a number of records which define where resources are for the domain in question.
The zone's $ORIGIN is a parameter equal to the zone's highest level of authority by default.
So if a zone file is used to configure the "example.com." domain, the $ORIGIN would be set to example.com..
This is either configured at the top of the zone file or it can be defined in the DNS server's configuration file that references the zone file. Either way, this parameter describes what the zone is going to be authoritative for.
Similarly, the $TTL configures the "time to live" of the information it provides. It is basically a timer. A caching name server can use previously queried results to answer questions until the TTL value runs out.
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