托福阅读真题Official 48 Passage 1（二）

托福阅读真题Official 48 Passage 1（二）

Chinese Population Growth

Increases in population have usually been accompanied(indeed facilitated)by an increase in trade.In the Western experience,commerce provided the conditions that allowed industrialization to get started,which in turn led to growth in science,technology,industry,transport,communications,social change,and the like that we group under the broad term of“development.”However,the massive increase in population that in Europe was at first attributed to industrialization starting in the eighteenth century occurred also and at the same period in China,even though there was no comparable industrialization.

It is estimated that the Chinese population by 1600 was close to 150 million.The transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties(the seventeenth century)may have seen a decline,but from 1741 to 1851 the annual figures rose steadily and spectacularly,perhaps beginning with 143 million and ending with 432 million.If we accept these totals,we are confronted with a situation in which the Chinese population doubled in the 50 years from 1790 to 1840.If,with greater caution,we assume lower totals in the early eighteenth century and only 400 million in 1850,we still face a startling fact:something like a doubling of the vast Chinese population in the century before Western contact,foreign trade,and industrialization could have had much effect.

To explain this sudden increase we cannot point to factors constant in Chinese society but must find conditions or a combination of factors that were newly effective in this period.Among these is the almost complete internal peace maintained under Manchu rule during the eighteenth century.There was also an increase in foreign trade through Guangzhou(southern China)and some improvement of transportation within the empire.Control of disease,like the checking of smallpox by variolation may have been important.But of most critical importance was the food supply.

Confronted with a multitude of unreliable figures,economists have compared the population records with the aggregate data for cultivated land area and grain production in the six centuries since 1368.Assuming that China’s population in 1400 was about 80 million,the economist Dwight Perkins concludes that its growth to 700 million or more in the 1960s was made possible by a steady increase in the grain supply,which evidently grew five or six times between 1400 and 1800 and rose another 50 percent between 1800 and 1965.This increase of food supply was due perhaps half to the increase of cultivated area,particularly by migration and settlement in the central and western provinces,and half to greater productivity—the farmers’success in raising more crops per unit of land.

This technological advance took many forms:one was the continual introduction from the south of earlier-ripening varieties of rice,which made possible double-cropping(the production of two harvests per year from one field).New crops such as corn(maize)and sweet potatoes as well as peanuts and tobacco were introduced from the Americas.Corn,for instance,can be grown on the dry soil and marginal hill land of North China,where it is used for food,fuel,and fodder and provides something like one-seventh of the food energy available in the area.The sweet potato,growing in sandy soil and providing more food energy per unit of land than other crops,became the main food of the poor in much of the South China rice area.

Productivity in agriculture was also improved by capital investments,first of all in irrigation.From 1400 to 1900 the total of irrigated land seems to have increased almost three times.There was also a gain in farm tools,draft animals,and fertilizer,to say nothing of the population growth itself,which increased half again as fast as cultivated land area and so increased the ratio of human hands available per unit of land.Thus the rising population was fed by a more intensive agriculture,applying more labor and fertilizer to the land.

Question 3 of 14

According to paragraphs 1 and 2,which of the following is true of Chinese population growth between 1741 and 1851?

A.It coincided with the beginning of industrialization in China.

B.It prompted speculation about the actual number of people living in China in previous centuries.

C.It continued the steady growth in population of previous centuries.

D.It occurred in the absence of certain conditions generally associated with population growth.

正确答案：D

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：定位到第二段第一、二句It is estimated that the Chinese population by 1600 was close to 150 million.The transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties(the seventeenth century)may have seen a decline,but from 1741 to 1851 the annual figures rose steadily and spectacularly,perhaps beginning with 143 million and ending with 432 million此两句交代背景，第一句先说中国人口增加，第二句说情况有变（decline下降了），但是又回升。无法答题，继续往后读直到这句something like a doubling of the vast Chinese population in the century before Western contact,foreign trade,and industrialization could have had much effect描述中国人口翻倍是在和西方接触之前。

选项分析：。

D选项对应的原句应该在第一段第二句，直接用1741和1851不能定位到第一段；中国人口增长原因与其他地方的工业化原因不同，condition即指工业化，正确。

A选项文中明确说明中国人口增长和工业化无关，错。

B选项speculation这个概念在文中没有提到，错。

C选项文中说previously经历过decline，和选项中steady growth不符，错。

Question 4 of 14

According to paragraph 2,the estimated population of China in the mid 1700s was around

A.143 million

B.150 million

C.400 million

D.432 million

正确答案：A

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

题干分析：关键词mid 1700s

原文定位：The transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties(the seventeenth century)may have seen a decline,but from 1741 to 1851 the annual figures rose steadily and spectacularly,perhaps beginning with 143 million and ending with 432 million.文中描述的时间起始点是1741年对应的人口数字是143 million，1851年对应的数字是432 million。

选项分析

A选项文中说1741年是143 million，正是mid 1700s的情况，mid 1700s指的是19世纪40年代到19世纪50年代，因此此题选A。

B选项150 million按照原文1741年是143 million且数字稳定增加，那么150million这个数字肯定1741年之后的事情，故错。

C选项400 million是1850的事情，错。

D选项432 million是1851的事情，错。