托福阅读真题Official 49 Passage 3（六）

托福阅读真题Official 49 Passage 3（六）

Background for the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution had several roots,one of which was a commercial revolution that,beginning as far back as the sixteenth century,accompanied Europe’s expansion overseas.Both exports and imports showed spectacular growth,particularly in England and France.An increasingly larger portion of the stepped-up commercial activity was the result of trade with overseas colonies.Imports included a variety of new beverages,spices,and foodstuffs.At the same time,a growing export market took European textiles,hardware,firearms,ships,and ships’goods around the world and brought money flowing back.Europe’s economic institutions,particularly those in England,were strong,had wealth available for new investment,and seemed almost to be waiting for some technological breakthrough that would expand their profit-making potential even more.

That breakthrough came in Great Britain,where several economic advantages created a climate especially favorable to the encouragement of new technology.One was its geographic location at the crossroads of international trade.Internally,Britain was endowed with easily navigable natural waterways,which helped its trade and communication with the world.Beginning in the 1770’s,it enjoyed a boom in canal building,which helped make its domestic markets more accessible.Because water transportation was the cheapest means of carrying goods to market,canals reduced prices and thus increased consumer demand.Great Britain also had rich deposits of coal that fed the factories springing up in industrial areas and iron ore that provided the raw material for the manufacture of railroad equipment,tools,and a variety of industrial and consumer goods.

Another advantage was Britain’s large population of rural,agricultural wage earners,as well as cottage workers1,who had the potential of being more mobile than peasants of some other countries.Eventually they found their way to the cities or mining communities and provided the human power upon which the Industrial Revolution was built.The British people were also consumers;the absence of internal tariffs,such as those that existed in France or Italy or between the German states,made Britain the largest free-trade area in Europe.Britain’s relatively stable government also helped create an atmosphere conducive to industrial progress.

Great Britain’s better-developed banking and credit system also helped speed the industrial process,as did the fact that it was the home of an impressive array of entrepreneurs and inventors.Among them were a large number of nonconformists whose religious principles encouraged thrift and industry rather than luxurious living and who tended to pour their profits back into their businesses,thus providing the basis for continued expansion.

A precursor to the Industrial Revolution was a revolution in agricultural techniques.Ideas about agricultural reform developed first in Holland,where as early as the mid-seventeenth century,such modern methods as crop rotation,heavy fertilization,and diversification were all in use.Dutch peasant farmers were known throughout Europe for their agricultural innovations,but as British markets and opportunities grew,the English quickly learned from them.As early as the seventeenth century the Dutch were helping them drain marshes and fens where,with the help of advanced techniques,they grew new crops.By the mid-eighteenth century new agricultural methods as well as selective breeding of livestock had caught on throughout the country.

Much of the increased production was consumed by Great Britain`s burgeoning population.At the same time,people were moving to the city,partly because of the enclosure movement;that is,the fencing of common fields and pastures in order to provide more compact,efficient privately held agricultural parcels that would produce more goods and greater profits.In the sixteenth century enclosures were usually used for creating sheep pastures,but by the eighteenth century new farming techniques made it advantageous for large landowners to seek enclosures in order to improve agricultural production.Between 1714 and 1820 over 6 million acres of English land were enclosed.As a result,many small,independent farmers were forced to sell out simply because they could not compete.Non-landholding peasants and cottage workers,who worked for wages and grazed cows or pigs on the village common,were also hurt when the common was no longer available.It was such people who began to flock to the cities seeking employment and who found work in the factories that would transform the nation and,the world.

Question 11 of 14

According to paragraph 6,the growth of the workforce in British factories was influenced by

A.the competition for jobs between established and new city inhabitants

B.a decrease in the farming profits of large landowners

C.the failure of small independent farms

D.an attempt by large landowners to take control of the cities

正确答案：C

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：关键词：factories；根据关键词可以定位到第六段最后一句：“It was such people who began to flock to the cities seeking employment and who found work in the factories that would transform the nation and,the world.”往回阅读两句可以知道这里的such people指的是那些由于圈地而失业的农民。

选项分析：

C选项：和画线句对应，那些失败的农民进入城市成为了工厂工人。

A选项：原文未提到新的城市居住地，属于无中生有。

B选项：和原文“As a result,many small,independent farmers were forced to sell out simply because they could not compete.”相悖，原文说的是小农场的农民失业了。

D选项：原文未提及控制城市，属于无中生有。

Question 12 of 14

The author presents information in the passage mainly by

A.contrasting the development of industrialism in different countries

B.explaining a new theory about the origins of the Industrial Revolution

C.analyzing the consequences of European industrialism

D.explaining the reasons why industrialism began in Great Britain

正确答案：D

题目详解

题型分类：修辞目的题

题干分析：本题考查段落之间的关系，题干问作者通过什么方式来提供信息，是对全文的行文方式的一个总结。大致总结一下每段的段意，尤其是第一段，可以看出，文章是在说工业革命发生在英国的多个因素。

选项分析：

D选项：解释工业主义发生在英国的原因，正确。

A选项：文中并没有比较多个国家，只是提到了英国从德国学习，属于无中生有。

B选项：原文未提到新的理论，属于无中生有。

C选项：原文没有分析结果，是在说产生的原因。