托福考试辅导：名师阅读讲义(3)

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-14 23:21:39

　　During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, almost nothing was written about the
　　contributions of women during the colonial period and the early history of the newly
　　formed United States. Lacking the right to vote and absent from the seats of power,
　　Line women were not considered an important force in history. Anne Bradstreet wrote some
　　(5)  significant poetry in the seventeenth century, Mercy Otis Warren produced the best
　　contemporary history of the American Revolution, and Abigail Adams penned important
　　letters showing she exercised great political influence over her husband, John, the second
　　President of the United States. But little or no notice was taken of these contributions.
　　During these centuries, women remained invisible in history books.
　　(10)  Throughout the nineteenth century, this lack of visibility continued, despite the efforts
　　of female authors writing about women. These writers, like most of their male
　　counterparts, were amateur historians. Their writings were celebratory in nature, and
　　they were uncritical in their selection and use of sources.
　　During the nineteenth century, however, certain feminists showed a keen sense of
　　(15) history by keeping records of activities in which women were engaged. National,
　　regional, and local women's organizations compiled accounts of their doings. Personal
　　correspondence, newspaper clippings, and souvenirs were saved and stored. These sources
　　form the core of the two greatest collections of women's history in the United States; one
　　at the Elizabeth and Arthur Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and the other the
　　(20) Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Such sources have provided valuable
　　materials for later generations of historians.
　　Despite the gathering of more information about ordinary women during the
　　nineteenth century, most of the writing about women conformed to the "great women"
　　theory of history, just as much of mainstream American history concentrated on "great
　　(25) men." To demonstrate that women were making significant contributions to American
　　life, female authors singled out women leaders and wrote biographies. or else important
　　women produced their autobiographies. Most of these leaders were involved in public
　　life as reformers, activists working for women's right to vote, or authors, and were not
　　representative at all of the great of ordinary woman. The lives of ordinary people
　　(30) continued, generally, to be untold in the American histories being published.
　　9. In the last paragraph, the author mentions all of the following as possible roles of nineteenth-century "great women" EXCEPT
　　(A) authors
　　(B) reformers
　　(C) activists for women's rights
　　(D) politicians
　　答案：D
　　Potash (the old name for potassium carbonate) is one of the two alkalis (the other
　　being soda, sodium carbonate) that were used from remote antiquity in the making of
　　glass, and from the early Middle Ages in the making of soap: the former being the
　　Line product of heating a mixture of alkali and sand, the latter a product of alkali and
　　(5)  vegetable oil. Their importance in the communities of colonial North America need
　　hardly be stressed.

会计考友 · 发表于 2012-8-14 23:21:40

　　Potash and soda are not interchangeable for all purposes, but for glass-or soap-
　　making either would do. Soda was obtained largely from the ashes of certain
　　Mediterranean sea plants, potash from those of inland vegetation. Hence potash was
　　(10) more familiar to the early European settlers of the North American continent.
　　The settlement at Jamestown in Virginia was in many ways a microcosm of the
　　economy of colonial North America, and potash was one of its first concerns. It was
　　required for the glassworks, the first factory in the British colonies, and was produced in
　　sufficient quantity to permit the inclusion of potash in the first cargo shipped out of
　　(15) Jamestown. The second ship to arrive in the settlement from England included among its
　　passengers experts in potash making.
　　The method of making potash was simple enough. Logs were piled up and burned in
　　the open, and the ashes collected. The ashes were placed in a barrel with holes in the
　　bottom, and water was poured over them. The solution draining from the barrel was
　　(20) boiled down in iron kettles. The resulting mass was further heated to fuse the mass into
　　what was called potash.
　　In North America, potash making quickly became an adjunct to the clearing of
　　land for agriculture, for it was estimated that as much as half the cost of clearing land
　　could be recovered by the sale of potash. Some potash was exported from Maine and New
　　(25) Hampshire in the seventeenth century, but the market turned out to be mainly domestic,
　　consisting mostly of shipments from the northern to the southern colonies. For despite
　　the beginning of the trade at Jamestown and such encouragements as a series of acts "to
　　encourage the making of potash," beginning in 1707 in South Carolina, the softwoods
　　in the South proved to be poor sources of the substance.
　　1. What aspect of potash does the passage mainly discuss?
　　(A) How it was made
　　(B) Its value as a product for export
　　(C) How it differs from other alkalis
　　(D) Its importance in colonial North America
　　答案：C
　　2. All of the following statements are true of both potash and soda EXPECT:
　　(A) They are alkalis.
　　(B) They are made from sea plants.
　　(C) They are used in making soap.
　　(D) They are used in making glass.
　　答案：B
　　7. According to paragraph 4, all of following were needed for making potash EXCEPT
　　(A) wood
　　(B) fire
　　(C) sand
　　(D) water
　　答案：C</p>

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[托福阅读] 托福考试辅导：名师阅读讲义(3)

托福考试辅导：名师阅读讲义(3)