戴爾美語練功坊 托福閱讀解題技巧(04/10) - 英檢

戴爾美語練功坊 托福閱讀解題技巧(04/10)

TOEFL Reading


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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