2016年6月18日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Industrial Decline in Seventeenth-century Italy

2016年6月18日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Industrial Decline in Seventeenth-century Italy

The seventeenth century was not a good time for Italian industry. Production of cloth fell drastically in Venice, Florence, Milan, Naples, and other cities; papermaking and other crafts declined, banking and shipping suffered in their wake. At the time, the argument was made in document after document that heavy taxation was to blame for industry’s woes, and that only a measure of tax relief could reverse the trend by making goods more competitive. At first sight the argument seems to have a good deal of merit, for we know that in the course of the seventeenth century the burden of taxation increased in most Italian states. ▋A closer look, however, ought to make us hesitant to accept the loud complaints of merchants and artisans and their plans for relief at face value because what few data are available on the incidence of taxation on the price of manufactured goods suggest that the taxes were rather modest.▋ In the Genoa silk industry, for example, taxes accounted for a mere 5 percent to 6 percent of total costs; in Florence the government apparently taxed the price of woolen cloth at only 1 percent, in Milan at perhaps 2 percent. ▋Only in the case of Venice, where taxes represented a staggering 42 percent of the price of high-quality cloth, can we say with confidence that drastically slashing taxes would have made the industry more competitive.▋

1.The word “modest” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.variable

B.reasonable

C.ineffective

D.controversial

2.According to paragraph 1, all of the following were true of the Italian economy in the seventeenth century EXCEPT:

A.Prices of manufactured goods were very competitive.

B.Fewer crafts and paper were produced.

C.Cloth production decreased in many cities.

D.Most states raised their taxes.

3.In paragraph 1, why does the author provide the percentage of taxes imposed on the price of cloth in Genoa, Florence, Milan, and Venice?

A.To explain the effects of taxation on the price of manufactured goods

B.To show that the tax rates in the cloth industry were lower than those in other manufacturing industries

C.To compare tax rates on the price of cloth in different Italian cities

D.To demonstrate that taxation was not a significant cause of industrial decline

But, Venice excepted, there are other reasons for believing that taxes were not a decisive factor in undermining the competitiveness of Italian goods. The case of Milan is revealing on this point. There the government did from time to time grant tax reduction, and yet textile production failed to recover. Moreover, even the strongest advocates of tax relief as the panacea for industrial recovery also urged the government to impose a total ban on imported goods, thus implying that tax relief, however desirable, was no cure-all.

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