托福阅读真题Official 49 Passage 3（七）

托福阅读真题Official 49 Passage 3（七）

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 13 of 14

Look at the four squares[■]that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.Cities would not only provide job opportunities but also profoundly affect social patterns,standards of living,political movements,and ideologies.Where would the sentence best fit?Click on a square[■]to add the sentence to the passage.

正确答案：D

题目详解

题型分类：插入句子题

题干分析：待插入句子中提到了not only provide job opportunities，说明前文提到了job opportunities，可以定位到最后一句“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,eventually,the world.”这里提到了给失业农民提供了工厂中的工作机会。

选项分析：

D选项：待插入句中的job opportunities和前一句对应，逻辑上和内容上均正确。

A选项：后一句的as a result不能和前一句隔开，所以放在这里会有逻辑错误。

B选项：前文未提到cities也没提到工作机会，故错误。

C选项：it was such people和前文有指代关系，不能被隔开，故错误。

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.

The Industrial Revolution was the result of far-reaching economic changes in Great Britain and Europe.

Answer Choices:

A.

The expansion of international trade from the sixteenth century on greatly stabilized the European economy.

B.

Canals in eighteenth-century Great Britain played a more important role than did railroads in increasing internal trade.

C.

Intense consumer activity and sound government institutions enabled mechanized labor to develop in Great Britain.

D.

British entrepreneurs invented a new system of banking that led to rapid economic growth.

E.

A thriving cottage industry was able to successfully compete with the factory system.

F.

An increasingly efficient agricultural industry freed British workers for factory employment.

正确答案：ACF

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：16世纪国际贸易的扩张稳定了欧洲经济，是对第一段前半部分的概括。

C选项：消费者的活动以及政府机构的合理性让英国的机械化劳动发展，是对第一段后半部分内容的概括。

F选项：农业工业的效率增长让英国农民前往工厂工作。是对最后一段的概括。

B选项：原文未提到运河和铁路的比较，属于无中生有。

D选项：原文未提及新的银行系统，属于无中生有。

E选项：原文未提及这两者的竞争，属于无中生有。