托福阅读真题Official 50 Passage 1（五）

托福阅读真题Official 50 Passage 1（五）

American Railroads

In the United States,railroads spearheaded the second phase of the transportation revolution by overtaking the previous importance of canals.The mid-1800s saw a great expansion of American railroads.The major cities east of the Mississippi River were linked by a spiderweb of railroad tracks.Chicago’s growth illustrates the impact of these rail links.In 1849 Chicago was a village of a few hundred people with virtually no rail service.By 1860 it had become a city of 100,000,served by eleven railroads.Farmers to the north and west of Chicago no longer had to ship their grain,livestock,and dairy products down the Mississippi River to New Orleans;they could now ship their products directly east.Chicago supplanted New Orleans as the interior of America’s main commercial hub.

The east-west rail lines stimulated the settlement and agricultural development of the Midwest.By 1860 Illinois,Indiana,and Wisconsin had replaced Ohio,Pennsylvania,and New York as the leading wheat-growing states.Enabling farmers to speed their products to the East,railroads increased the value of farmland and promoted additional settlement.In turn,population growth in agricultural areas triggered industrial development in cities such as Chicago,Davenport(Iowa),and Minneapolis,for the new settlers needed lumber for fences and houses and mills to grind wheat into flour.

Railroads also propelled the growth of small towns along their routes.The Illinois Central Railroad,which had more track than any other railroad in 1855,made money not only from its traffic but also from real estate speculation.Purchasing land for stations along its path,the Illinois Central then laid out towns around the stations.The selection of Manteno,Illinois,as a stop of the Illinois Central,for example,transformed the site from a crossroads without a single house in 1854 into a bustling town of nearly a thousand in 1860,replete with hotels,lumberyards,grain elevators,and gristmills.By the Civil War(1861–1865),few thought of the railroad-linked Midwest as a frontier region or viewed its inhabitants as pioneers.

As the nation’s first big business,the railroads transformed the conduct of business.During the early 1830s,railroads,like canals,depended on financial aid from state governments.With the onset of economic depression in the late 1830s,however,state governments scrapped overly ambitious railroad projects.Convinced that railroads burdened them with high taxes and blasted hopes,voters turned against state aid,and in the early 1840s,several states amended their constitutions to bar state funding for railroads and canals.The federal government took up some of the slack,but federal aid did not provide a major stimulus to railroads before 1860.Rather,part of the burden of finance passed to city and county governments in agricultural areas that wanted to attract railroads.Such municipal governments,for example,often gave railroads rights-of-way,grants of land for stations,and public funds.

The dramatic expansion of the railroad network in the 1850s,however,strained the financing capacity of local governments and required a turn toward private investment,which had never been absent from the picture.Well aware of the economic benefits of railroads,individuals living near them had long purchased railroad stock issued by governments and had directly bought stock in railroads,often paying by contributing their labor to building the railroads.But the large railroads of the 1850s needed more capital than such small investors could generate.Gradually,the center of railroad financing shifted to New York City,and in fact,it was the railroad boom of the 1850s that helped make Wall Street in New York City the nation’s greatest capital market.The stocks of all the leading railroads were traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the 1850s.In addition,the growth of railroads turned New York City into the center of modern investment firms.The investment firms evaluated the stock of railroads in the smaller American cities and then found purchasers for these stocks in New York City,Philadelphia,Paris,London,Amsterdam,and Hamburg.Controlling the flow of funds to railroads,the investment bankers began to exert influence over the railroads’internal affairs by supervising administrative reorganizations in times of trouble.

Question 9 of 14

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage?Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A.Private investment in railroads began in the 1850s following the dramatic expansion of the railroad network,which had been financed by local governments.

B.Railroads’relations with local governments became strained in the 1850s,when railroads turned to private investors for financing to expand their capacity.

C.Local governments’limited capacity to finance railroad expansion was a long-standing problem that railroads solved in the 1850s by turning toward private investment.

D.When local governments could not adequately finance the railroads’dramatic expansion in the 1850s,private investment became increasingly important.

正确答案：D

题目详解

题型分类：简化句子题

原文分析：简化题考察找主干和逻辑的能力，注意原文逻辑词however。原句核心内容为The dramatic expansion of the railroad network,however,strained the financing capacity of local governments and required a turn toward private investment中文大意：铁路的不断扩张，然而，加剧了当地政府的财政压力并且要求转向个人投资（而私人投资一直以来都是铁路资金来源的一部分）。

选项分析：

D选项意为当政府不可以在19世纪50年代足够地资助铁路的极速扩张时，私人投资变得越来越重要，与原文重点一致，也满足转折关系。

A选项，没有出现转折关系。

B选项Railroads’relations with local governments原句没有出现，无中生有。

C选项a long-standing problem原句没有出现，无中生有。

Question 10 of 14

Paragraph 5 supports which of the following ideas about people who held railroad stock?

A.Many of them were not particularly wealthy.

B.Many of them overestimated the economic benefits of railroads.

C.Most of them bought their stock for less than it was worth.

D.Most of them had been employed by a railroad.

正确答案：A

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：根据railroad stock定位到第一次出现railroad stock的第五段第二句。

选项分析：

原文说个人通过给建造铁路做工来支付买股票的钱，由此可有推测这些人没有闲钱，只能付出劳动力。原文paying by contributing their labor对应A选项not particularly wealthy。

B选项，overestimated（高估）无中生有。

C选项，less than it was worth无中生有。

D选项，大多数人被铁路公司雇佣，这里的most过于极端。后文也提到了在华尔街交易的铁路股票。