托福阅读真题Official 46 Passage 2（六）

托福阅读真题Official 46 Passage 2（六）

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 11 of 14

According to paragraph 5,the most important result of the commercial revolution was to

A.simplify the organization of European society

B.provide employment to agricultural workers

C.encourage merchants to become community leaders

D.change Europe from a rural to a more urban society

正确答案：D

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：定位词most important result，commercial revolution。

选项分析：

首先根据题干中的最高级most为切入点，找到段落中所对应的最高级表达，找到句子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在该句子中greatest effect就是most important result的改写。那么原文的意思是说：欧洲社会缓慢而稳定的转变——从几乎是农村的、孤立的，到相对更加城市化——构成了十一世纪开始的最大的商业革命效应。

D选项是原文中第2句的同义表述，正确。

A选项与原文中欧洲社会的变化相矛盾。

B选项文中提到commerical revolution使得农民提高其社会地位social position但并没有说增加了他们的就业employment，属于无中生有。

C选项与原文Even so,merchants and business people did not run medieval communities相矛盾。

Question 12 of 14

Paragraph 5 supports which of the following inferences about the commercial revolution between A.D.1000 and 1300?

A.It had very little impact on social attitudes and values.

B.It brought about major political changes throughout Europe.

C.It lessened the influence of the church.

D.It increased the population of small towns.

正确答案：A

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：根据题干，定位到最后一段。

选项分析：

第五段作为结尾段陈述了3个主要信息点：1.commerical revolution使得agricultural workers提高了社会地位，且欧洲社会从11世纪开始逐步从完全孤立的农村走向相对的城市化（第1，2句）；2.然而，商人并没有主导社会，依然是贵族和宗教人士掌握着社会的态度和价值（第3，4，5句）；3.commerical revolution的确是城市化生活发展的重要经济基石。

A选项符合文章第2个信息点的表述，答案正确。

B,C选项均与文章的第2个信息点表述相矛盾。

D选项为无中生有。