戴爾美語練功坊 托福閱讀測驗試題(09/30) - 英檢

戴爾美語練功坊 托福閱讀實力測驗試題(09/30)

In a sense, the Industrial Revolution, in the United States as
in Europe, was merely an acceleration of technological changes
that had no clear beginning. It involved the development and
increasing use of power-driven machines in industrial production,
the location of those machines in factories that tended to grow
in size and complexity, and, with the decline of transportation costs,
the distribution of products in ever widening mass markets.
As the domestic market expanded, manufacturing enterprises
became increasingly specialized. The early textile mills, for example,
marketed their own products and constructed their own machinery;
but eventually they concentrated on spinning and weaving, selling
their products to wholesalers and buying their machinery from
independent machine shops. The essential features of the Industrial
Revolution, then, were mechanization, specialization, and a trend
from local to regional and national distribution.

United States industrial technology was in part copied from
Europe, especially England, and was in part an outgrowth of the
efforts of American inventors, skilled mechanics, and entrepreneurs.
Manufacturers found an impelling incentive for mechanization in the
relative scarcity and high cost of domestic labor. The high cost of
labor was the direct result of the high productivity of American
agriculture, which forced industry to pay wages comparable to what
could be earned on the land. Another incentive was the presence of
cheap waterpower to which machinery could easily be harnessed.
Moreover, optimistic American entrepreneurs, anticipating continued
technological advances, usually built cheaper machines that wore
out quickly, thus making it relatively inexpensive to retool, that is,
adapt machines for different uses. In the United States, such
conditions provided many inducements for mechanical innovation.
In addition, the relative youth of the society meant that there were few
established political and social structures that would be likely to
impede technological change.

1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) Similarities between the Industrial Revolution in Europe and
the United States
(B) The complexity of new factories in the United States
(C) The effects of industrialization on society in the United States
(D) Features of the Industrial Revolution in the United States

2. The word acceleration in the passage is closest in meaning to
(A) crossing over
(B) speeding up
(C) acceptance
(D) construction

3. The word It in the passage refers to
(A) sense
(B) the Industrial Revolution
(C) acceleration
(D) beginning

4. Which of the following is mentioned as a reason for the expansion
of markets?
(A) The availability of natural resources
(B) Highly effective salespeople
(C) Inexpensive transportation
(D) The location of factories

5. The author mentions textile mills in the passage in order
to focus on the
(A) size of factories
(B) power of newly developed machines
(C) cost of textile manufacturing
(D) growing specialization in industry
　
6. All of the following are mentioned as being features of the
Industrial Revolution EXCEPT
(A) a decrease in the cost of labor
(B) an increase in regional distribution of goods
(C) more use of machines in factories
(D) the specialization of work in factories

7. The word outgrowth in the passage is closest in meaning to
(A) cause
(B) assumption
(C) description
(D) result

8. The word incentive in the passage is closest in meaning to
(A) explanation
(B) motive
(C) request
(D) activity

　
9. The word impede in the passage is closest in meaning to
(A) obstruct
(B) precede
(C) measure
(D) connect

　　
10. All of the following contributed to the industrialization of
the United States economy EXCEPT
(A) the availability of water as a source of power
(B) new inventions the ability to change industrial
(C) machinery without great expense
(D) traditional social and political structures

　


Answers:
1.D 2.B 3.B 4.C 5.D 6.A 7.D 8.B 9.A 10.D




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