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美国农业发展英语阅读理解
During the cond half of the nineteenth century, the production of food and feed crops in the United States ro at an extraordinarily rapid rate. Corn production incread by four and a half times, hay by five times, oats and wheat by ven times. The most crucial factor behind this phenomenal upsurge in productivity was the widespread adoption of labor-saving machinery by northern farmers. By 1850 hor-drawn reaping machines that cut grain were being introduced into the major grain-growing regions of the country. Hor-powered threshing machines to parate the eds from the plants were already in general u. However, it was the ont of the Civil War in 1861 that provided the great stimulus for the mechanization of northern agriculture.
足背屈受限With much of the labor force inducted into the army and with grain prices on the ri, northern farmers rushed to avail themlves of the new labor-saving equipment. In 1860 there were approximately 80,000 reapers in the country; five years later there were 350,000.
After the clo of the war in 1865, machinery became ever more important in northern agriculture, and improved equipment was continually introduced. By 1880 a lf-binding reaper had been perfected that not only cut the grain, but also gathered the stalks and bound them with twine. Threshing machines were also being improved and enlarged, and after 1870 they were increasingly powered by steam engines rather than by hors. Since steam-powered threshing machines were costly items — running from $ 1,000 to $4,000 — they were usually owned by custom thresher owners who then worked their way from farm to farm during the harvest ason. "Combines" were also coming into u on the great wheat ranches in California and the Pacific Northwest. The ponderous machines — sometimes pulled by as many as 40 hors — reaped the grain, threshed it, and bagged it, all in one simultaneous operation.
1. What aspect of farming in the United States in the nineteenth century does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) How labor-saving machinery incread crop Production
(B) Why southern farms were not as successful as Successful as northern farms
(C) Farming practices before the Civil War
(D) The increa in the number of people farming
2. The word "crucial" in line 4 is clost in meaning to
(A) obvious
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(C) important
(D) desirable
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3. The phra "avail themlves" in line 11 is clost in meaning to
(A) take care
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(C) get rid
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(D) do more
4.According to the passage , why was the Civil War a stimulus for mechanization?
(A) The army needed more grain in order to feed the soldiers.
(B) Technology developed for the war could also the ud by farmers.
(C) It was hoped that harvesting more grain would lower the price of grain.
(D) Machines were needed to replace a disappearing labor force.
答案
ACBD
