托福閱讀真題Official 51 Passage 3（六）

托福閱讀真題Official 51 Passage 3（六）

Population Growth in Nineteenth-Century Europe

Because of industrialization,but also because of a vast increase in agricultural output without which industrialization would have been impossible,Western Europeans by the latter half of the nineteenth century enjoyed higher standards of living and longer,healthier lives than most of the world’s peoples.In Europe as a whole,the population rose from 188 million in 1800 to 400 million in 1900.By 1900,virtually every area of Europe had contributed to the tremendous surge of population,but each major region was at a different stage of demographic change.

Improvements in the food supply continued trends that had started in the late seventeenth century.New lands were put under cultivation,while the use of crops of American origin,particularly the potato,continued to expand.Setbacks did occur.Regional agricultural failures were the most common cause of economic recessions until 1850,and they could lead to localized famine as well.A major potato blight(disease)in 1846-1847 led to the deaths of at least one million persons in Ireland and the emigration of another million,and Ireland never recovered the population levels the potato had sustained to that point.Bad grain harvests at the same time led to increased hardship throughout much of Europe.

After 1850,however,the expansion of foods more regularly kept pace with population growth,though the poorer classes remained malnourished.Two developments were crucial.First,the application of science and new technology to agriculture increased.Led by German universities,increasing research was devoted to improving seeds,developing chemical fertilizers,and advancing livestock.After 1861,with the development of land-grant universities in the United States that had huge agricultural programs,American crop-production research added to this mix.Mechanization included the use of horse-drawn harvesters and seed drills,many developed initially in the United States.It also included mechanical cream separators and other food-processing devices that improved supply.

The second development involved industrially based transportation.With trains and steam shipping,it became possible to move foods to needy regions within Western Europe quickly.Famine(as opposed to malnutrition)became a thing of the past.Many Western European countries,headed by Britain,began also to import increasing amounts of food,not only from Eastern Europe,a traditional source,but also from the Americas,Australia,and New Zealand.Steam shipping,which improved speed and capacity,as well as new procedures for canning and refrigerating foods(particularly after 1870),was fundamental to these developments.

Europe’s population growth included one additional innovation by the nineteenth century:it combined with rapid urbanization.More and more Western Europeans moved from countryside to city,and big cities grew most rapidly of all.By 1850,over half of all the people in England lived in cities,a first in human history.In one sense,this pattern seems inevitable:growing numbers of people pressed available resources on the land,even when farmwork was combined with a bit of manufacturing,so people crowded into cities seeking work or other resources.Traditionally,however,death rates in cities surpassed those in the countryside by a large margin;cities had maintained population only through steady in-migration.Thus rapid urbanization should have reduced overall population growth,but by the middle of the nineteenth century this was no longer the case.Urban death rates remained high,particularly in the lower-class slums,but they began to decline rapidly.

The greater reliability of food supplies was a factor in the decline of urban death rates.Even more important were the gains in urban sanitation,as well as measures such as inspection of housing.Reformers,including enlightened doctors,began to study the causes of high death rates and to urge remediation.Even before the discovery of germs,beliefs that disease spread by“miasmas”(noxious forms of bad air)prompted attention to sewers and open garbage;Edwin Chadwick led an exemplary urban crusade for underground sewers in England in the 1830s.Gradually,public health provisions began to cut into customary urban mortality rates.By 1900,in some parts of Western Europe life expectancy in the cities began to surpass that of the rural areas.Industrial societies had figured out ways to combine large and growing cities with population growth,a development that would soon spread to other parts of the world.

Question 11 of 14

Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 6 about underground sewers?

A.They became common in most of Western Europe in the 1830s.

B.They helped reduce deaths caused by disease in cities.

C.They led to the discovery that disease could be caused by germs.

D.They encouraged people to leave rural areas and move to the cities.

正確答案：B

題目詳解

題型分類：推論題

原文定位：根據定位詞underground sewers，定位到第四句。

選項分析：

定位句：Even before the discovery of germs,beliefs that disease spread by"miasmas"(noxious forms of bad air)prompted attention to sewers and open garbage.細菌被發(fā)現(xiàn)之前，人們也已經意識到下水道的清潔和垃圾清理很重要，下一句：Edwin Chadwick led an exemplary urban crusade for underground sewers in England in the1830s.說明Edwin Chadwick引領了模范性的城市運動，要求對城市下水道進行改革。再結合段落主題句講死亡率下降的原因，所以underground sewers是提高城市衛(wèi)生設施的一個范例，從而降低人口死亡率，B選項正確。

A選項，與原文相反，became common用的不好，1830s應該是進行了改革，變少了才對。

C選項，未提及，只是說在細菌被發(fā)現(xiàn)之前，人們已經開始注重下水道的清潔了。

D選項，未提及，鼓勵人們離開農村遷往城市。

Question 12 of 14

Paragraph 6 mentions all of the following as factors that contributed to the rapid decline of urban death rates EXCEPT

A.the greater reliability of food supplies

B.improvements in sanitation

C.advances in the treatment of disease

D.provisions for inspecting houses

正確答案：C

題目詳解

題型分類：否定事實信息題

原文定位：整個段落都在討論這個內容，可直接通過選項定位。

選項分析：

C選項，對應到第三句Reformers,including enlightened doctors,began to study the causes of high death rates and to urge remediation.但是只是說一些革新者開始研究死亡率增加的原因，沒提治療提升。

A選項，對應第一句The greater reliability of food supplies was a factor in the decline of urban death rates。

B選項，對應第二句前半句Even more important were the gains in urban sanitation...。

D選項，對應第二句后半句...as well as measures such as inspection of housing。

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