托福閱讀真題Official 43 Passage 1（七）

托福閱讀真題Official 43 Passage 1（七）

The Empire of Alexander the Great

In 334 B.C.Alexander the Great took his Greek armies to the east and in only a few years completed his creation of an empire out of much of southwest Asia.In the new empire,barriers to trade and the movement of peoples were removed;markets were put in touch with one another.In the next generation thousands of Greek traders and artisans would enter this wider world to seek their fortunes.Alexander’s actions had several important consequences for the region occupied by the empire.

The first of these was the expansion of Greek civilization throughout the Middle East.Greek became the great international language.Towns and cities were established not only as garrisons(military posts)but as centers for the diffusion of Greek language,literature,and thought,particularly through libraries,as at Antioch(in modern Turkey)and the most famous of all,at Alexandria in Egypt,which would be the finest in the world for the next thousand years.

Second,this internationalism spelled the end of the classical Greek city-state—the unit of government in ancient Greece—and everything it stood for.Most city-states had been quite small in terms of citizenry,and this was considered to be a good thing.The focus of life was the agora,the open marketplace where assemblies could be held and where issues of the day,as well as more fundamental topics such as the purpose of government or the relationship between law and freedom,could be discussed and decisions made by individuals in person.The philosopher Plato(428–348 B.C.)felt that the ideal city-state should have about 5,000 citizens,because to the Greeks it was important that everyone in the community should know each other.In decision making,the whole body of citizens together would have the necessary knowledge in order generally to reach the right decision,even though the individual might not be particularly qualified to decide.The philosopher Aristotle(384–322 B.C.),who lived at a time when the city-state system was declining,believed that a political entity of 100,000 simply would not be able to govern itself.

This implied that the city-state was based on the idea that citizens were not specialists but had multiple interests and talents—each a so-called jack-of-all-trades who could engage in many areas of life and politics.It implied a respect for the wholeness of life and a consequent dislike of specialization.It implied economic and military self-sufficiency.But with the development of trade and commerce in Alexander’s empire came the growth of cities;it was no longer possible to be a jack-of-all-trades.One now had to specialize,and with specialization came professionalism.There were getting to be too many persons to know;an easily observable community of interests was being replaced by a multiplicity of interests.The city-state was simply too“small-time.”

Third,Greek philosophy was opened up to the philosophy and religion of the East.At the peak of the Greek city-state,religion played an important part.Its gods—such as Zeus,father of the gods,and his wife Hera—were thought of very much as being like human beings but with superhuman abilities.Their worship was linked to the rituals connected with one’s progress through life—birth,marriage,and death—and with invoking protection against danger,making prophecies,and promoting healing,rather than to any code of behavior.Nor was there much of a theory of afterlife.

Even before Alexander’s time,a life spent in the service of their city-state no longer seemed ideal to Greeks.The Athenian philosopher Socrates(470–399 B.C.)was the first person in Greece to propose a morality based on individual conscience rather than the demands of the state,and for this he was accused of not believing in the city’s gods and so corrupting the youth,and he was condemned to death.Greek philosophy—or even a focus on conscience—might complement religion but was no substitute for it,and this made Greeks receptive to the religious systems of the Middle East,even if they never adopted them completely.The combination of the religious instinct of Asia with the philosophic spirit of Greece spread across the world in the era after Alexander’s death,blending the culture of the Middle East with the culture of Greece.

Question 13 of 14

Look at the four squares[■]that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.Likewise,the collective decision-making process of the open marketplace was no longer practical.Where would the sentence best fit?Click on a square[■]to add the sentence to the passage.

正確答案：D

題目詳解

題型分類：插入句子題

題干分析：這句話意思為同樣，開放市場的集體決策過程也不再實際，考察句子之間的邏輯。

選項分析：

D選項：根據(jù)likewise可以得知，上文已經(jīng)提出了與開放市場的集體決策過程也不再實際類似的情況。故最后一空最為合適，因為前文第三空前講到了一種變化，且第三空之后的句子與上一個變化之間邏輯密切，所以最后一空D為正確答案。

A選項：第一個空格前后句子邏輯密切，故不缺信息。

B選項：第二空之后為but轉(zhuǎn)折，與插入句子語境不符，插入句子不需要轉(zhuǎn)折。

C選項：第三空之后的句子與上一個變化之間邏輯密切，故不缺信息。

Question 14 of 14

Directions:An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below.Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage.Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage.This question is worth 2 points.

Alexander the Great’s creation of a vast empire had important consequences for Greece and the conquered areas of southwest Asia.

Answer Choices:

A.

Scholars from Antioch,Alexandria,and other Middle Eastern cultural centers came to Greece to study the Greek language and culture.

B.

The expansion of Alexander’s empire led to the diffusion of Greek language,literature,and thought throughout the Middle East.

C.

Increasing urbanization and the elimination of trade barriers meant the end of the Greek city state and the creation of a much larger political and economic body.

D.

The empire saw the birth of a new culture,merging Greek philosophical ideas with the religious spirit of Asia.

E.

The professionalism and specialization so prized by the ancient Greeks were replaced by a more generalized philosophy of education in the empire.

F.

Religion played an important part in the expansion of the empire,as Alexander introduced Zeus and the other Greek gods to Asia.

正確答案：BCD

題目詳解

題型分類：文章總結(jié)題

題干分析：選擇概括性的正確選項。

選項分析：

B選項：與第二段的大意相近。第二段講了希臘文明在整個中東的擴張。

C選項：提到了不斷增加的城市化和貿(mào)易壁壘的消除和更大的政治和經(jīng)濟機構(gòu)的建立。這是對前四段的總結(jié)。第一段講了亞歷山大的舉動對帝國占領(lǐng)的地區(qū)產(chǎn)生了重要的影響。第二段為首先是希臘文明在整個中東的擴張。第三四段則講了公民參與到經(jīng)濟和政治中來，故C選項正確。

D選項：是第五段的總結(jié)。第五段講了希臘哲學向東方的哲學和宗教開放。

A選項：意思為來自安提阿、亞歷山大和其他中東文化中心的學者來到希臘學習希臘語言和文化。但根據(jù)語言和文學可以定位到第二段，可以得出是希臘文明在整個中東的擴張，而不是其他國家的學者主動來學習。與原文相反。

E選項：文中并沒有提到專業(yè)精神和專業(yè)化被取代。與原文無關(guān)。

F選項：意思為隨著亞歷山大將宙斯和其他希臘眾神引入亞洲，宗教在帝國的擴張中扮演了重要的角色。前一句話正確，但后一句，亞歷山大并沒有引入亞洲，只是開放。

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