老托福阅读真题及答案：PASSAGE 47

　　老托福阅读100篇,初期托福阅读训练者可以拿练手找感觉的好材料。

　　老托福阅读试题的核心价值，在于老托阅读是最贴进去真题的阅读思维方式。

　　而托福阅读的思维方式就是托福阅读的出题方式，只有掌握了这种思维方式，才有可能在做题之前，预测到新托福阅读题的出题形式和特点，为找答案节省时间。

　　而且老托福阅读真题比新托福IBT阅读文章要短，比较容易适应。这也是大家在复习准备托福阅读的时候非常重要的一点。因为前期的入手如果能从容易的开始，就会形成一个循序渐进的过程方式，让大家的练习有一个提高的过程，给大家时间。

　　既然老托福阅读试题有这样的效果，那我们如何利用那有限的真题来达到锻炼自己的目的呢?事实上这就一个办法，就是坚持。

　　和谐英语网每日推荐一篇老托福阅读的真题，附有原文及答案，本期：PASSAGE 47，希望对托福考生备考有所帮助。

　　As the twentieth century began, the importance of formal education in the United States increased. The frontier had mostly disappeared and by 1910 most Americans lived in towns and cities. Industrialization and the bureaucratization of economic life combined with a new emphasis upon credentials and expertise to make schooling increasingly important for economic and social mobility. Increasingly, too, schools were viewed as the most important means of integrating immigrants into American society.

　　The arrival of a great wave of southern and eastern European immigrants at the turn of the century coincided with and contributed to an enormous expansion of formal schooling. By 1920 schooling to age fourteen or beyond was compulsory in most states, and the school year was greatly lengthened. Kindergartens, vacation schools, extracurricular activities, and vocational education and counseling extended the influence of public schools over the lives of students, many of whom in the larger industrial cities were the children of immigrants. Classes for adult immigrants were sponsored by public schools, corporations, unions, churches, settlement houses, and other agencies.

　　Reformers early in the twentieth century suggested that education programs should suit the needs of specific populations. Immigrant women were one such population. Schools tried to educate young women so they could occupy productive places in the urban industrial economy, and one place many educators considered appropriate for women was the home.

　　Although looking after the house and family was familiar to immigrant women, American education gave homemaking a new definition. In preindustrial economies, homemaking had meant the production as well as the consumption of goods, and it commonly included income-producing activities both inside and outside the home, in the highly industrialized early-twentieth-century United States, however, overproduction rather than scarcity was becoming a problem. Thus, the ideal American homemaker was viewed as a consumer rather than a producer. Schools trained women to be consumer homemakers cooking, shopping, decorating, and caring for children "efficiently" in their own homes, or if economic necessity demanded, as employees in the homes of others. Subsequent reforms have made these notions seem quite out-of-date.

　　1. It can be inferred from paragraph 1 that one important factor in the increasing importance of education in the United States was

　　(A) the growing number of schools in frontier communities

　　(B) an increase in the number of trained teachers

　　(C) the expanding economic problems of schools

　　(D) the increased urbanization of the entire country

　　2. The word "means" in line 6 is closest in meaning to

　　(A) advantages

　　(B) probability

　　(C) method

　　(D) qualifications

　　3. The phrase "coincided with" in line 8 is closest in meaning to

　　(A) was influenced by

　　(B) happened at the same time as

　　(C) began to grow rapidly

　　(D) ensured the success of

　　4. According to the passage , one important change in United States education by the 1920's was that

　　(A) most places required children to attend school

　　(B) the amount of time spent on formal education was limited

　　(C) new regulations were imposed on nontraditional education

　　(D) adults and children studied in the same classes

　　5. Vacation schools and extracurricular activities are mentioned in lines 10-11 to illustrate

　　(A) alternatives to formal education provided by public schools

　　(B) the importance of educational changes

　　(C) activities that competed to attract new immigrants to their programs.

　　(D) the increased impact of public schools on students.

　　6. According to the passage , early-twentieth century education reformers believed that

　　(A) different groups needed different kinds of education

　　(B) special programs should be set up in frontier communities to modernize them

　　(C) corporations and other organizations damaged educational progress

　　(D) more women should be involved in education and industry

　　7. The word "it" in line 22 refers to

　　(A) consumption

　　(B) production

　　(C) homemaking

　　(D) education

　　正确答案： DCBAD AC