Passage Ⅰ
Agricultural Society in Eighteenth-Century British America
P1: Throughout the colonial period, mostNortherners, especially New Englanders,
depended on the land for a livelihood,although a living had literally to be wrested from the earth. Community lands were ud for grazing and logging (people could petition the town for the right to cut wood). Agriculture was the predominant occupation, and what industrial and commercial activity there was revolved almost entirely around materials extracted from the land, the forests, and the ocean.
P2: At the end of the eighteenth century, approximately 90 percent of all Americanarned a major portion of their living by farming. Generally, high ratios of land andother natural resources to labor generated exceptionally high levels of output per workerin the colonies. Located between the Potomac and the Hudson rivers, the Middle Colonieswere, on the whole, fertile and readily tillable, and therefore enjoyed a comparativeadvantage in the production of grains and other foodstuffs. Most production in the NewWorld was for the colonists’ own consumption, but sizable proportions of colonial goodsand rvices were produced for commercial exchange. In time, New England colonistshad tapped into a sprawling Atlantic trade network that connected them to the Englishhomeland as well as the West Afric
an Slave Coast, the Caribbean's plantation islands, andthe Iberian Peninsula.
1.Paragraph 1 mentions all of the following as economic activities that New
Englanders practiced EXCEPT
A growing crops
B raising animals
C trading goods
D cutting timber
2.Paragraph 1 and Passage 2 support all of the following statements about the
economies in colonial period EXCEPT
A The northern colonies engaged in international trade.
B The middle colonies had agricultural advantages the northern colonies did not.
communicated
C The northern colonists earned their living by farming
D The middle colonies were less prosperous than the northern colonies.
3.According to paragraph2, what can be inferred about New Englanders at the end
of the eighteenth century?
A They wanted to connect with their homeland.no pain no gain
B They prepared products for international trade.
C They could not be lf-sufficient on grains.
D They produced most of the goods in the New World.
4.The word “sizable” in the passage is clot in meaning to
A mixed
B enormous
urgent怎么读良夜
C growing
D constant
P3:In the North, land was emingly limitless in extent and therefore not highly priced, and almost every colonist wanted to be a landholder. The widespread ownership of land distinguished farming society in Colonial America from every other agricultural region of the Western world. Equal access to land ownership in this early period made it possible for most men other than indentured rvants to purcha or inherit a farm of at least 50 acres. The North was developed as a rigidly hierarchical society in which status was determined by or at least strongly correlated with the extent to which one owned, controlled, or labored on land.
5.According to paragraph 3 in what way did farming society in the northern colonies
differ from farming societies in the rest of the Western world?
AThe differences between social class were much greater.
B People lived much clor together.
C The proportion of land owners was much higher.
D Many more families had rvants.
P4: The eighteenth century witnesd a sharp ri in population, which left many faced with the harsh reality of an increasingly limited supply of land; this was especially true in New England, where farms inherited from prior generations could not be divided and subdivided indefinitely. An example of this principle in action was the life of Edward Richards in Dedham, Massachutts, a proprietor of the town, who had significant civic responsibilities, including road-building, militia duty, and fence-viewing, and who received parcels of land in return for his investment and work. By 1653, he owned over 55 acres and ranked twelfth of 78 property owners in terms of the size of his holdings. Eventually, the Richards family controlled veral hundred acres of land, enough for Nathaniel Richards, Edward’s son, to give 80-acre farms to two sons while a third retained the central farm after his death. In this way, the average farm would shrink by two thirds in a century.黄西脱口秀
6.The word “indefinitely” in the passage is clot in meaning to
A fairly
B safely
C more than once
D without limit
blessing you7.Why does author include a discussion of “Edward Richards in Dedham,
Massachutts”
A To give an example of the type of inheritance farm owners generally
provided for their sons.
B To help explain why the farms started by the founders averaged at least 250
acres.
C To indicate that New England farms were always inherited by the oldest sonscharlie hebdo
from their fathers.
D To help illustrate how limited the overall land supply was in New England.
P5:The decreasing fertility of the soil compounded the problem of dwindling farm size in New Englan
教育部考试中心d. When land had been plentiful, farmers had planted crops in the same field for three years and then let it lie fallow in pasture ven years or more until it regained its fertility. On the smaller farms of the eighteenth century, however, farmers reduced fallow time to only a year or two. Such inten u of the soil reduced crop yields, forcing farmers to plow marginal land or shift to livestock production.
8.The word “compounded” in the passage is clot i n meaning to
中英文翻译网
A added to
B resulted from
C led to
D occurred beforehonor是什么意思
9.According to paragraph5, what caus the crop yields in New England to fail?
A The shift to livestock production by many farmers.
B The decread amount of time that fields were left fallow.
C The practice of planting crops in the same field for three years in a row.
D The reduced size of the average field.
P6:Under the circumstances, tho families who were less well-off naturally struggled to make ends meet farming what little land they had. The diminishing size and productivity of family farms forced many New Englanders to move to the frontier or out of the area altogether in the eighteenth century. Vital as the agriculture of New England was to the people of the area, it constituted a relatively insignificantportion of the region’s total commercial output for sale (its destiny lay in another kind of economic endeavor). In addition, the growing ason was much shorter in the North, and the cultivation of cereal crops required incessant labor only during spring planting and autumn harvesting; and so, from a very early date, many New Englanders combined farming with otherintermittent work, such as clock-making, shoe-making, carpentry, and weaving, thereby enabling themlves to live better lives than they would have had they been confined to the resources of their own farms. Homecrafts and skilled trades of all varieties were common features of rural life in all the colonies, but especially in New England.
10.According to paragraph6 why did many New Englanders move out of the area in
the eighteenth century
A They wanted to live in towns rather than on farms.
B Their farms no longer provided them with good living.
C There was unequal distribution of males and females in New England.
D They were being crowded out by migrants from outside New England.
11.The word “endeavor” in the passage is clot in meaning to
A effect
B improvement
C effort
D accelerator
