2004年5月份托福阅读真题及其答案

 
 
Question 32-40:
Overland transport in the United States was still extremely primitive in 1790. Roads were few and short, usually extending from inland communities to the nearest river town or seaport. Nearly all interstate commerce was carried out by sailing ships that served the bays and harbors of the seaboard. Yet, in 1790 the nation was on the threshold of a new era of road development. Unable to finance road construction, states turned for help to private companies, organized by merchants and land speculators who had a personal interest in improved communications with the interior. The pioneer in this move was the state of Pennsylvania, which chartered a company in 1792 to construct a turnpike, a road for the use of which a toll, or payment, is collected, from Philadelphia to Lancaster. The legislature gave the company the authority to erect tollgates at points along the road where payment would be collected, though it carefully regulated the rates. (The states had unquestioned authority to regulate private business in this period.)
 
The company built a gravel road within two years, and the success of the Lancaster Pike encouraged imitation. Northern states generally relied on private companies to build their toll roads, but Virginia constructed a network at public expense. Such was the road building fever that by 1810 New York alone had some 1,500 miles of turnpikes extending from the Atlantic to Lake Erie.
 
Transportation on these early turnpikes consisted of freight carrier wagons and passenger stagecoaches. The most common road freight carrier was the Conestoga wagon, a vehicle developed in the mid-eighteenth century by German immigrants in the area around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It featured large, broad wheels able to negotiate all but the deepest ruts and holes, and its round bottom prevented the freight from shifting on a hill. Covered with canvas and drawn by four to six horses, the Conestoga wagon rivaled the log cabin as the primary symbol of the frontier. Passengers traveled in a variety of stagecoaches, the most common of which had four benches, each holding three persons. It was only a platform on wheels, with no springs; slender poles held up the top, and leather curtains kept out dust and rain.
 
32. Paragraph 1 discusses early road building in the United States mainly in terms of the
A. popularity of turnpikes
B. financing of new roads
C. development of the interior
D. laws governing road use
 
33. The word "primitive" in line 1 is closest in meaning to
A. unsafe
B. unknown
C. inexpensive
D. undeveloped
 
34. In 1790 most roads connected towns in the interior of the country with
A. other inland communities
B. towns in other states
C. river towns or seaports
D. construction sites
 
35. The phrase "on the threshold of" in line 4 and 5 is closest in meaning to
A. in need of
B. in place of
C. at the start of
D. with the purpose of
 
36. According to the passage, why did states want private companies to help with road building?
A. The states could not afford to build roads themselves.
B. The states were not as well equipped as private companies.
C. Private companies could complete roads faster than the states.
D. Private companies had greater knowledge of the interior.
37. The word "it" in line 11 refers to
A. legislature
B. company
C. authority
D. payment
 
38. The word "imitation" in line 14 is closest in meaning to
A. investment
B. suggestion
C. increasing
D. copying
 
39. Virginia is mentioned as an example of a state that
A. built roads without tollgates
B. built roads with government money
C. completed 1,500 miles of turnpikes in one year
D. introduced new law restricting road use
 
40. The "large, broad wheels" of the Conestoga wagon are mentioned in line 21 as an example of a feature of wagons that was
A. unusual in mid-eighteenth century vehicles
B. first found in Germany
C. effective on roads with uneven surfaces
D. responsible for frequent damage to freight