托福阅读真题Official 46 Passage 2（五）

托福阅读真题Official 46 Passage 2（五）

The Commercial Revolution in Medieval Europe

Beginning in the 1160s,the opening of new silver mines in northern Europe led to the minting and circulation of vast quantities of silver coins.The widespread use of cash greatly increased the volume of international trade.Business procedures changed radically.The individual traveling merchant who alone handled virtually all aspects of exchange evolved into an operation involving three separate types of merchants:the sedentary merchant who ran the“home office,”financing and organizing the firm’s entire export-import trade;the carriers who transported goods by land and sea;and the company agents resident in cities abroad who,on the advice of the home office,looked after sales and procurements.

Commercial correspondence,unnecessary when one businessperson oversaw everything and made direct bargains with buyers and sellers,multiplied.Regular courier service among commercial cities began.Commercial accounting became more complex when firms had to deal with shareholders,manufacturers,customers,branch offices,employees,and competing firms.Tolls on roads became high enough to finance what has been called a road revolution,involving new surfaces and bridges,new passes through the Alps,and new inns and hospices for travelers.The growth of mutual trust among merchants facilitated the growth of sales on credit and led to new developments in finance,such as the bill of exchange,a device that made the long,slow,and very dangerous shipment of coins unnecessary.

The ventures of the German Hanseatic League illustrate these advancements.The Hanseatic League was a mercantile association of European towns dating from 1159.The league grew by the end of the fourteenth century to include about 200 cities from Holland to Poland.Across regular,well-defined trade routes along the Baltic and North seas,the ships of league cities carried furs,wax,copper,fish,grain,timber,and wine.These goods were exchanged for finished products,mainly cloth and salt,from western cities.At cities such as Bruges and London,Hanseatic merchants secured special trading concessions,exempting them from all tolls and allowing them to trade at local fairs.Hanseatic merchants established foreign trading centers,the most famous of which was the London Steelyard,a walled community with warehouses,offices,a church,and residential quarters for company representatives.By the late thirteenth century,Hanseatic merchants had developed an important business technique,the business register.Merchants publicly recorded their debts and contracts and received a league guarantee for them.This device proved a decisive factor in the later development of credit and commerce in northern Europe.

These developments added up to what one modern scholar has called“a commercial revolution.”In the long run,the commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages(A.D.1000–1300)brought about radical change in European society.One remarkable aspect of this change was that the commercial classes constituted a small part of the total population—never more than 10 percent.They exercised an influence far in excess of their numbers.The commercial revolution created a great deal of new wealth,which meant a higher standard of living.The existence of wealth did not escape the attention of kings and other rulers.Wealth could be taxed,and through taxation,kings could create strong and centralized states.In the years to come,alliances with the middle classes were to enable kings to weaken aristocratic interests and build the states that came to be called modern.

The commercial revolution also provided the opportunity for thousands of agricultural workers to improve their social position.The slow but steady transformation of European society from almost completely rural and isolated to relatively more urban constituted the greatest effect of the commercial revolution that began in the eleventh century.Even so,merchants and business people did not run medieval communities,except in central and northern Italy and in the county of Flanders.Most towns remained small.The nobility and churchmen determined the predominant social attitudes,values,and patterns of thought and behavior.The commercial changes of the eleventh through fourteenth centuries did,however,lay the economic foundation for the development of urban life and culture.

Question 9 of 14

According to paragraph 4,which of the following was associated with the rise of modern states?

A.Increased wealth for the ruling classes

B.The weakening of the aristocracy

C.The decline of the middle class

D.A reduction in taxes

正确答案：B

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：根据题干找到定位词the rise of modern states，全段中出现和modern有关的句子是该段的最后一句In the years to come,alliances with the middle classes were to enable kings to weaken aristocratic interests and build the states that came to be called modern.即：在后面几年里，中产阶级联盟使国王能够削弱贵族的利益，并建立了所谓的“现代”的国家。

选项分析：

B选项是最后一句话的简述改写，答案正确。

A选项文中所涉及的ruling class来自原文中的The existence of wealth did not escape the attention of kings and other rulers一句，财富的增长和统治阶级并没有直接关系，属于张冠李戴。

C选项无中生有，全段为未提及“中产阶级”的衰落。

D选项与原文矛盾，原文说“新贵”new wealth的出现得到了国王和统治阶级的关注，国王为了建造更大的集权国家，征税是必须存在的。文章出处为Wealth could be taxed,and through taxation,kings could create strong and centralized states。

Question 10 of 14

The word“alliances”in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.transactions

B.communications

C.partnerships

D.conflicts

正确答案：C

题目详解

题型分类：词汇题

选项分析：

词汇所在的句子是In the years to come,alliances with the middle classes were to enable kings to weaken aristocratic interests and build the states that came to be called modern在该句中middle classes充当alliance的定语，意思是“中产阶级的联盟”，那么原句的意思是：在后面几年里，中产阶级的联盟使国王能够削弱贵族的利益，并建立了所谓的现代的国家。其中alliance的意思是“联盟，联合”。

C选项：partnership合伙、合伙关系；和alliance意义相同，为正确答案。

A选项：transactions交易，不符合文意。

B选项：communications交流，通信，传播；不符合文意。

D选项：conflicts矛盾、冲突；不符合文意。