托福阅读常考话题及练习题推荐五：工业革命（3）

1托福阅读常考话题：工业革命练习题

Paragraph 6: 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.

11.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.

12.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

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.

13.Look at the four squares [[■]] to add the sentence to the passage.

Such individual efforts had substantial, concrete effects on society.

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. Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong. To remove an answer choice, click on it. To review the passage, click VIEW TEXT.

Western Europe experienced a tremendous growth in population in the nineteenth century.

Answer Choices

A.Agricultural failures became less damaging after 1850 because of advances in science and technology as well as improvements in the transportation and preservation of foods.

B.The development of better food-processing technologies allowed many Western European countries to grow their own food without having to import it from other countries.

C.High death rates in the cities began to decline as food supplies became more reliable and as reformers prompted improvements in sanitation and housing.

D.Although agricultural failures led to deaths and emigration population levels were restored within a short time.

E.As the population in the countryside began increasing faster than the supply of food and living space, people began moving to the cities in search of jobs and other resources.

F.The improvements in crop-growing methods created new jobs on the farms, causing people from the overcrowded cities to move to the countryside to fill those jobs.