托福考试辅导：名师阅读讲义(3)

　　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.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