托福阅读真题Official 51 Passage 3（七）

托福阅读真题Official 51 Passage 3（七）

Population Growth in Nineteenth-Century Europe

Because of industrialization,but also because of a vast increase in agricultural output without which industrialization would have been impossible,Western Europeans by the latter half of the nineteenth century enjoyed higher standards of living and longer,healthier lives than most of the world’s peoples.In Europe as a whole,the population rose from 188 million in 1800 to 400 million in 1900.By 1900,virtually every area of Europe had contributed to the tremendous surge of population,but each major region was at a different stage of demographic change.

Improvements in the food supply continued trends that had started in the late seventeenth century.New lands were put under cultivation,while the use of crops of American origin,particularly the potato,continued to expand.Setbacks did occur.Regional agricultural failures were the most common cause of economic recessions until 1850,and they could lead to localized famine as well.A major potato blight(disease)in 1846-1847 led to the deaths of at least one million persons in Ireland and the emigration of another million,and Ireland never recovered the population levels the potato had sustained to that point.Bad grain harvests at the same time led to increased hardship throughout much of Europe.

After 1850,however,the expansion of foods more regularly kept pace with population growth,though the poorer classes remained malnourished.Two developments were crucial.First,the application of science and new technology to agriculture increased.Led by German universities,increasing research was devoted to improving seeds,developing chemical fertilizers,and advancing livestock.After 1861,with the development of land-grant universities in the United States that had huge agricultural programs,American crop-production research added to this mix.Mechanization included the use of horse-drawn harvesters and seed drills,many developed initially in the United States.It also included mechanical cream separators and other food-processing devices that improved supply.

The second development involved industrially based transportation.With trains and steam shipping,it became possible to move foods to needy regions within Western Europe quickly.Famine(as opposed to malnutrition)became a thing of the past.Many Western European countries,headed by Britain,began also to import increasing amounts of food,not only from Eastern Europe,a traditional source,but also from the Americas,Australia,and New Zealand.Steam shipping,which improved speed and capacity,as well as new procedures for canning and refrigerating foods(particularly after 1870),was fundamental to these developments.

Europe’s population growth included one additional innovation by the nineteenth century:it combined with rapid urbanization.More and more Western Europeans moved from countryside to city,and big cities grew most rapidly of all.By 1850,over half of all the people in England lived in cities,a first in human history.In one sense,this pattern seems inevitable:growing numbers of people pressed available resources on the land,even when farmwork was combined with a bit of manufacturing,so people crowded into cities seeking work or other resources.Traditionally,however,death rates in cities surpassed those in the countryside by a large margin;cities had maintained population only through steady in-migration.Thus rapid urbanization should have reduced overall population growth,but by the middle of the nineteenth century this was no longer the case.Urban death rates remained high,particularly in the lower-class slums,but they began to decline rapidly.

The greater reliability of food supplies was a factor in the decline of urban death rates.Even more important were the gains in urban sanitation,as well as measures such as inspection of housing.Reformers,including enlightened doctors,began to study the causes of high death rates and to urge remediation.Even before the discovery of germs,beliefs that disease spread by“miasmas”(noxious forms of bad air)prompted attention to sewers and open garbage;Edwin Chadwick led an exemplary urban crusade for underground sewers in England in the 1830s.Gradually,public health provisions began to cut into customary urban mortality rates.By 1900,in some parts of Western Europe life expectancy in the cities began to surpass that of the rural areas.Industrial societies had figured out ways to combine large and growing cities with population growth,a development that would soon spread to other parts of the world.

Question 13 of 14

Look at the four squares[■]that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.Such individual efforts had substantial,concrete effects on society.Where would the sentence best fit?Click on a square[■]to add the sentence to the passage.

正确答案：C

题目详解

题型分类：插入句子题

题干分析：考察句子和句子之间的衔接判断，插入句中的such individual efforts，预测前面会提到个人努力，had substantial,concrete effects on society，预测后面可能会讲到影响是什么。

选项分析：

C选项前面讲Edwin Chadwick领导了一场地下下水道改革运动，呼应individual efforts，后方讲到公共卫生规定开始降低传统的城市死亡率，呼应had substantial和concrete effects on society，可知C选项正确。

A选项，没讲到individual efforts。

B选项，没讲到individual efforts。

D选项，前方已经在讲改革带来的积极影响，而且后一句话也再讲影响，这些信息应该放在带插入句后面。

Question 14 of 14

Directions:An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below.Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage.Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage.This question is worth 2 points.

Western Europe experienced a tremendous growth in population in the nineteenth century.

Answer Choices:

A.

Agricultural failures became less damaging after 1850 because of advances in science and technology as well as improvements in the transportation and preservation of foods.

B.

Although agricultural failures led to deaths and emigration,population levels were restored within a short time.

C.

The development of better food-processing technologies allowed many Western European countries to grow their own food without having to import it from other countries.

D.

As the population in the countryside began increasing faster than the supply of food and living space,people began moving to the cities in search of jobs and other resources.

E.

High death rates in the cities began to decline as food supplies became more reliable and as reformers prompted improvements in sanitation and housing.

F.

The improvements in crop-growing methods created new jobs on the farms,causing people from the overcrowded cities to move to the countryside to fill those jobs.

正确答案：ADE

题目详解

题型分类：文章总结题

题干分析：选择概括性的正确选项。

选项分析：

A选项，对应第三和第四段的内容，科学技术进步对应第三段第二句话开始，交通进步对应第四段第一句话开始。

D选项，对应文章第五段内容，尤其是第二句话。

E选项，对应第六段前两句。

B选项，对应第二段倒数第二句，与原文反向，文章说never recovered the population levels。

C选项，对应到第三段结尾句，选项中to grow their own food without having to import it from other countries原文未提及。

F选项，对应第五段第二句，与原文反向，原文moved from countryside to city，选项people from the overcrowded cities to move to the countryside。