2017年11月11日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Impact of Railroad Transportation in the United States

2017年11月11日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Impact of Railroad Transportation in the United States

Both the steamboat and the railroad system with its steam- powered trains revolutionized transport in the United States in the nineteenth century. Entire regions that would hardly have been touched, especially in the West, were opened up to settlement and exploitation. In a geographic sense, the impact of the steamboat and railroad was simply immense. Some historians have argued further that they were the key to the rapid economic growth experienced by the United states in the middle decades of the century. the railroad, especially, not only lowered transport costs but caused a surge in the output of the iron, coal, and engineering sectors. It thus was a driving force in economic development

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

A.remarkable

B.huge

C.beyond doubt

D.unmatched

2.The word “surge” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.gradual change

B.new distribution

C.quality improvement

D.sudden increase

In recent decades economic historians have attempted to quantify the economic impact of railroads. Both Robert Fogel and Albert Fishlow found that, with appropriate investments in canals and roads, the total of railroad services for a typical year in the late nineteenth century could have been provided by other means, at a cost of just a couple years worth of economic growth. Moreover, the effect of railroads on the iron and coal industries had been greatly exaggerated.

3.Paragraph 2 suggests that, according to Robert Fogel and Albert Fishlow. if the railroads had not existed

A.economic growth would have been almost the same, assuming that roads and canals were developed instead

B.there would have been no way to provide equivalent transportation services by roads or canals

C.the cost of providing transportation by other means would have significantly slowed the nation’s economic growth

D.the amount of iron and coal produced in a typical year would have satisfied industry demand for only a couple of years

。。。。。余下托福阅读真题原文及题目答案省略！

2017年11月11日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Impact of Railroad Transportation in the United States完整版下载，10元有偿！