TOEFL托福阅读理解真题汇总

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托福阅读真题1

The economic depression in the late-nineteenth-century United States contributed significantly to a growing movement in literature toward realism and naturalism. After the 1870's, a number of important authors began to reject the romanticism that had prevailed immediately following the Civil War of 1861-1865 and turned instead to realism. Determined to portray life as it was, with fidelity to real life and accurate representation without idealization, they studied local dialects, wrote stories which focused on life in specific regions of the country, and emphasized the true relationships between people. In doing so, they reflected broader trends in the society, such as industrialization, evolutionary theory which emphasized the effect of the environment on humans, and the influence of science.

Realists such as Joel Chandler Harris and Ellen Glasgow depicted life in the South, Hamlin Garland described life on the Great Plains, and Sarah Orne Jewett wrote about everyday life in rural New England. Another realist, Bret Harte, achieved fame with stories that portrayed local life in the California mining camps. Samuel Clemens, who adopted the pen name Mark Twain, became the country's most outstanding realist author, observing life around him with a humorous and skeptical eye. In his stories and novels, Twain drew on his own experiences and used dialect and common speech instead of literary language, touching off a major change in American prose style.

Other writers became impatient even with realism. Pushing evolutionary theory to its limits, they wrote of a world in which a cruel and merciless environment determined human fate. These writers, called naturalists, often focused on economic hardship, studying people struggling with poverty, and other aspects of urban and industrial life. Naturalists brought to their writing a passion for direct and honest experience.

Theodore Dreiser, the foremost naturalist writer, in novels such as Sister Carrie, grimly portrayed a dark world in which human beings were tossed about by forces beyond their understanding or control. Dreiser thought that writers should tell the truth about human affairs, not fabricate romance, and Sister Carrie, he said, was not intended as a piece of literary craftsmanship, but was a picture of conditions.

1. Which aspect of late-nineteenth-century United States literature does the passage mainly

discuss?

(A) The influence of science on literature

(B) The importance of dialects for realist writers

(C) The emergence of realism and naturalism

(D) The effects of industrialization on romanticism

2. The word prevailed in line 4 is closest in meaning to

(A) dominated

(B) transformed

(C) entered

(D) generalized

3. The word they in line 8 refers to

(A) authors

(B) dialects

(C) stories

(D) relationships

4. According to the passage , a highly significant factor in the development of realist and

naturalist literature was

(A) the Civil War

(B) a recognition that romanticism was unpopular

(C) an increased interest in the study of common speech

(D) an economic depression

5. Realist writers took an interest in all of the following EXCEPT

(A) human relationships

(B) characteristics of different regions

(C) the idealization of life

(D) social and historical theories

6. The word depicted in line 11 is closest in meaning to

(A) emphasized

(B) described

(C) criticized

(D) classified

7. Why does the author mention mining camps in line 14?

(A) To contrast the themes of realist and naturalist writers

(B) To illustrate how Bret Harte differed from other authors

(C) As an example of a topic taken up by realist writers

(D) As an example of how setting can influence literary style

8. Which of the following wrote about life in rural New England?

(A) Ellen Glasgow

(B) Sarah Orne Jewett

(C) Hamlin Garland

(D) Mark Twain

9. Mark Twain is considered an important literary figure because he

(A) was the first realist writer in the United States

(B) rejected romanticism as a literary approach

(C) wrote humorous stories and novels

(D) influenced American prose style through his use of common speech

10. The word foremost in line 25 is closest in meaning to

(A) most difficult

(B) interesting

(C) most focused

(D) leading

11. Which of the following statements about Theodore Dreiser is supported by the passage ?

(A) He mainly wrote about historical subjects such as the Civil War.

(B) His novels often contained elements of humor.

(C) He viewed himself more as a social commentator than as a literary artist.

(D) He believed writers should emphasize the positive aspects of life.

PASSAGE 83 CAADC BCBDD C

托福阅读真题2

The lack of printing regulations and the unenforceability of British copyright law in the American colonies made it possible for colonial printers occasionally to act as publishers. Although they rarely undertook major publishing project because it was difficult to sell books as cheaply as they could be imported from Europe, printers in Philadelphia did publish work that required only small amounts of capital, paper, and type. Broadsides could be published with minimal financial risk. Consisting of only one sheet of paper and requiring small amounts of type, broadsides involved lower investments of capital than longer works. Furthermore, the broadside format lent itself to subjects of high, if temporary, interest, enabling them to meet with ready sale. If the broadside printer miscalculated, however, and produced a sheet that did not sell, it was not likely to be a major loss, and the printer would know this immediately, There would be no agonizing wait with large amounts of capital tied up, books gathering dust on the shelves, and creditors impatient for payment.

In addition to broadsides, books and pamphlets, consisting mainly of political tracts, catechisms, primers, and chapbooks were relatively inexpensive to print and to buy. Chapbooks were pamphlet-sized books, usually containing popular tales, ballads, poems, short plays, and jokes, small, both in formal and number of pages, they were generally bound simply, in boards (a form of cardboard) or merely stitched in paper wrappers (a sewn antecedent of modern-day paperbacks). Pamphlets and chapbooks did not require fine paper or a great deal of type to produce they could thus be printed in large, cost-effective editions and sold cheaply.

By far, the most appealing publishing investments were to be found in small books that had proven to be steady sellers, providing a reasonably reliable source of income for the publisher. They would not, by nature, be highly topical or political, as such publications would prove of fleeting interest. Almanacs, annual publications that contained information on astronomy and weather patterns arranged according to the days, week, and months of a given year, provided the perfect steady seller because their information pertained to the locale in which they would be used.

1. Which aspect of colonial printing does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) Laws governing the printing industry.

(B) Competition among printers

(C) Types of publications produced

(D) Advances in printing technology

2. According to the passage , why did colonial printers avoid major publishing projects?

(A) Few colonial printers owned printing machinery that was large enough to handle major

projects.

(B) There was inadequate shipping available in the colonies.

(C) Colonial printers could not sell their work for a competitive price.

(D) Colonial printers did not have the skills necessary to undertake large publishing projects.

3. Broadsides could be published with little risk to colonial printers because they

(A) required a small financial investment and sold quickly

(B) were in great demand in European markets

(C) were more popular with colonists than chapbooks and pamphlets

(D) generally dealt with topics of long-term interest to many colonists

4. The word they in line 17 refers to

(A) chapbooks

(B) tales

(C) jokes

(D) pages

5. The word antecedent in line 19 is closest in meaning to

(A) predecessor

(B) format

(C) imitation

(D) component

6. Chapbooks produced in colonial America were characterized by

(A) fine paper

(B) cardboard covers

(C) elaborate decoration

(D) a large number of pages

7. The word appealing in line 22 is closest in meaning to

(A) dependable

(B) respectable

(C) enduring

(D) attractive

8. What were steady sellers (line 23)?

(A) Printers whose incomes were quite large

(B) People who traveled from town to town selling Books and pamphlets

(C) Investors who provided reliable financial Support for new printers

(D) Publications whose sales were usually consistent from year to year

9. The word locale in line 28 is closest in meaning to

(A) topic

(B) season

(C) interest

(D) place

10. All of the following are defined in the passage EXCEPT

(A) Broadsides (line 6)

(B) catechisms (line 15)

(C) chapbooks (line l6)

(D) Almanacs (line 25)

PASSAGE 84 CCAAA BDDDB

托福阅读真题3

Tulips are Old World, rather than New World, plants, with the origins of the species lying in Central Asia. They became an integral part of the gardens of the Ottoman Empire from the sixteenth century onward, and, soon after, part of European life as well. Holland, in particular, became famous for its cultivation of the flower.

A tenuous line marked the advance of the tulip to the New World, where it was unknown in the wild. The first Dutch colonies in North America had been established in New Netherlands by the Dutch West India Company in 1624, and one individual who settled in New Amsterdam (today's Manhattan section of New York City) in 1642 described the flowers that bravely colonized the settlers' gardens. They were the same flowers seen in Dutch still-life paintings of the time: crown imperials, roses, carnations, and of course tulips. They flourished in Pennsylvania too, where in 1698 William Penn received a report of John Tateham's Great and Stately Palace, its garden full of tulips. By 1760, Boston newspapers were advertising 50 different kinds of mixed tulip roots. But the length of the journey between Europe and North America created many difficulties. Thomas Hancock, an English settler, wrote thanking his plant supplier for a gift of some tulip bulbs from England, but his letter the following year grumbled that they were all dead.

Tulips arrived in Holland, Michigan, with a later wave of early nineteenth-century Dutch immigrants who quickly colonized the plains of Michigan. Together with many other Dutch settlements, such as the one at Pella, Iowa, they established a regular demand for European plants. The demand was bravely met by a new kind of tulip entrepreneur, the traveling salesperson. One Dutchman, Hendrick van der Schoot, spent six months in 1849 traveling through the United States taking orders for tulip bulbs. While tulip bulbs were traveling from Europe to the United States to satisfy the nostalgic longings of homesick English and Dutch settlers, North American plants were traveling in the opposite direction. In England, the enthusiasm for American plants was one reason why tulips dropped out of fashion in the gardens of the rich and famous.

1. Which of the following questions does the passage mainly answer?

(A) What is the difference between an Old World and a New World plant?

(B) Why are tulips grown in many different parts of the world?

(C) How did tulips become popular in North America?

(D) Where were the first Dutch colonies in North America located?

2. The word integral in line 2 is closest in meaning to

(A) interesting

(B) fundamental

(C) ornamental

(D) overlooked

3. The passage mentions that tulips were first found in which of the following regions?

(A) Central Asia

(B) Western Europe

(C) India

(D) North America

4. The word flourished in line 11 is closest in meaning to

(A) were discovered

(B) were marketed

(C) combined

(D) thrived

5. The author mentions tulip growing in New Netherlands, Pennsylvania. and Michigan in order to

illustrate how

(A) imported tulips were considered more valuable than locally grown tulips

(B) tulips were commonly passed as gifts from one family to another

(C) tulips grew progressively more popular in North America

(D) attitudes toward tulips varied from one location to another

6. The word grumbled in line 16 is closest in meaning to

(A) denied

(B) warned

(C) complained

(D) explained

7. The passage mentions that one reason English and Dutch settlers planted tulips in their

gardens was that tulips

(A) were easy to grow

(B) had become readily available

(C) made them appear fashionable

(D) reminded them of home

8. The word they in line 20 refers to

(A) tulips

(B) plains

(C) immigrants

(D) plants

9. According to the passage , which of the following changes occurred in English gardens during

the European settlement of North America?

(A) They grew in size in order to provide enough plants to export to the New World.

(B) They contained a wider variety of tulips than ever before.

(C) They contained many new types of North American plants.

(D) They decreased in size on the estates of wealthy people.

10. The passage mentions which of the following as a problem associated with the importation of

tulips into North America?

(A) They were no longer fashionable by the time they arrived.

(B) They often failed to survive the journey.

(C) Orders often took six months or longer to fill.

(D) Settlers knew little about how to cultivate them.

PASSAGE 85 CBADC CDCCB