2017年6月3日托福考试阅读机经预测

　2017年6月3日托福考试阅读机经之真题测练(部分内容)：

　　20150110 Artisans in Sixteenth-Century Europe

　　For centuries European artisans had operated in small, autonomous handcraft businesses, but by the sixteenth century an evolving economic system—moving toward modern capitalism, with its free-market pricing, new organization of production, investments, and so on—had started to erode their stable and relatively prosperous position. What forces contributed to the decline of the artisan?

　　In a few industries there appeared technological innovations that cost more to install and operate than artisans—even associations of artisans— could afford. For example, in iron production, such specialized equipment as blast furnaces, tilt hammers, wire-drawing machines, and stamping, rolling, and slitting mills became more familiar components of the industry. Thus the need for fixed capital (equipment and buildings used in production) soared. Besides these items, expensive in their own right, facilities for water, storage, and deliveries were needed. In addition, pig (raw) iron turned out by blast furnaces could not be forged until refined further in a new intermediate stage. In late sixteenth-century Antwerp, where a skilled worker earned 125 to 250 guilders a year, a large blast furnace alone cost 3,000 guilders, and other industrial equipment was equally or more expensive.

　　Raw materials, not equipment, constituted artisans' major expense in most traders, however. Whereas in 1583 an Antwerp silk weaver paid 12 guilders for a loom (and made small payments over many years to pay off the debt for purchasing the loom), every six weeks he or she had to lay out 24 guilders for the 2 pounds of raw silk required to make a piece of cloth. Thus access to cheap and plentiful primary materials was a constant preoccupation for independent producers. Using local materials might allow even the poorest among them to avoid reliance on merchant suppliers. The loss of nearby sources could therefore be devastating. As silk cultivation waned around the Spanish cities of Cordoba and Toledo, weavers in these cities were forced to become employees of merchants who put out raw silk from Valencia and Murcia provinces. In the Dutch Republic, merchants who imported unprocessed salt from France, Portugal, and Spain gained control of the salt-refining industry once exploitation of local salt marshes was halted for fear that dikes (which held back the sea from the low-lying Dutch land) would be undermined.

　　Credit was necessary for production but created additional vulnerabilities for artisans. Prices for industrial products lagged behind those of raw materials and foodstuffs, and this, coupled with rising taxes, made it difficult for many producers to repay their creditors. Periodic downturns, when food prices shot up and demand for manufactures fell off, drove them further into debt or even into bankruptcy, from which they might emerge only by agreeing to sell their products exclusively to merchants or fellow artisans who extended them loans. Frequent enough during periods of growth, such credit crises became deeper and lasted longer after about 1570, as did war-related disruptions of raw-material supplies and markets.

　　Artisans' autonomy was imperiled, too, by restrictions on their access to markets. During the sixteenth century, a situation like this often resulted from the concentration of export trade in a few great storage and distribution centers. The disappearance of regional markets where weavers in Flanders (what is now northern Belgium) had previously bought flax and sold linen left them at the mercy of big-city middlemen, who quickly turned them into domestic workers. In a similar fashion, formerly independent producers in southern Wiltshire in England, who had bought yarn from spinners or local brokers and sold their cloth to merchants in nearby Salisbury, became subject to London merchants who monopolized both wool supplies and woolens exports.

　　With good reason, finally, urban artisans feared the growth of industries in the countryside. For one thing, they worried that the spread of village crafts would reduce their supply of raw materials, driving up prices. City producers also knew that rural locations enjoyed lower living costs, wages, and taxes, and often employed fewer or simplified processes. These advantages became a major preoccupation as competition intensified in the 1570s and 1580s

　　Paragraph 1

　　For centuries European artisans had operated in small, autonomous handcraft businesses, but by the sixteenth century an evolving economic system—moving toward modern capitalism, with its free-market pricing, new organization of production, investments, and so on—had started to erode their stable and relatively prosperous position. What forces contributed to the decline of the artisan?

　　1. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

　　A. In the sixteenth century, the European economy moved toward a system of free-market pricing, new ways of production, and investments.

　　B. Before the sixteenth century, European makers of handcrafts enjoyed stability, autonomy, and relative prosperity.

　　C. By the sixteenth century, the rise of capitalism began to weaken the autonomy and relative prosperity of European artisans.

　　D. European artisans operated small, autonomous businesses before modern capitalism emerged in the sixteenth century.

　　Paragraph 2

　　In a few industries there appeared technological innovations that cost more to install and operate than artisans—even associations of artisans— could afford. For example, in iron production, such specialized equipment as blast furnaces, tilt hammers, wire-drawing machines, and stamping, rolling, and slitting mills became more familiar components of the industry. Thus the need for fixed capital (equipment and buildings used in production) soared. Besides these items, expensive in their own right, facilities for water, storage, and deliveries were needed. In addition, pig (raw) iron turned out by blast furnaces could not be forged until refined further in a new intermediate stage. In late sixteenth-century Antwerp, where a skilled worker earned 125 to 250 guilders a year, a large blast furnace alone cost 3,000 guilders, and other industrial equipment was equally or more expensive.

　　2. The word “Besides” in the passage is closet in meaning to

　　A. In addition to

　　B. More important than

　　C. Different from

　　D. Together with

　　3. According to paragraph 2, how did technological advances contribute to the economic decline of artisans?

　　A. Artisans had no place to store or use the new machines.

　　B. Goods produced by the new technology were cheaper than those produced by artisans.

　　C. The fixed costs of remaining in business became very high.

　　D. Artisans did not know how to use the new machines.

　　2017年6月3日托福考试阅读机经之经典加试(部分内容)：

　　鸟鸣

　　本文主要讨论鸟叫这种本领究竟是先天遗传的还是后天习得的，并为此做了三个实验，得出了不同的结论。

　　1. 概述：虽然鸟类都会唱歌，但它们唱歌的旋律、调调是各有差异的。为了研究它们唱歌的技能是a先天遗传(基因)?b还是后天习得(外界因素)的?researchers 做了很多实验。

　　2. 试验一中研究人员如何对待小chaffinch? Researchers 首先把刚出生的一只小chaffinch 带离**，放在另外一个地方单独养，与其他大chaffinch 隔离isolate，不让它听到大鸟唱歌song。

　　3. 试验一的结果如何?结果显示该chaffinch 还是会唱这种歌，只是调子有方言(variation)、很简单、不连续(disconnected)。这就证明了chaffinch 先天就有唱歌的本领的。

　　4. 试验二中white necked crow是否被隔离?Researchers 首先把刚出生的一只小white necked crow与其它大鸟隔离，不让它听到大鸟的歌。

　　5. White necked crow学习唱歌的过程?在刚开始的3 个月，还没有形成自己的歌声前，给小鸟听其它鸟唱歌的磁带recording。它很快就学会了recording 里的鸟的叫声(dialect)。

　　6. 试验二的结果是?White necked crow的dialect 不是由基因决定，而是与环境有很大关系。研究还发现4 个月以后，它都只会唱自己的调调，再给它听别的recording，它也学不会了。说明后天学习也有时间限制。

　　7. 词汇：unreceptive无法接受的。

　　8. 试验三的内容?另一种鸟，F 开头的。说这种鸟，如果不让它们听到自己的声音，它们就只能形成破碎的音节而已，连不成歌。一定要让它们听见自己在发什么音，才能让它们唱好。

　　9. 词汇：ultimately最后 最终—finally。

　　10. 词汇：reinforce增强加强—intensify strengthen。

　　11. 词汇：proliferate激增 迅速繁殖-reproduce rapidly。

　　12. 词汇：superb出色的极好的—excellent grandiose。

　　13. 词汇：optimal最佳的 最优的—best。

　　14. 词汇：blur模糊，使…变模糊—cloud dim。

　　2017年6月3日托福考试阅读机经之词汇汇总(部分内容)：