2017年5月20日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Electric Lighting and the American Home

2017年5月20日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Electric Lighting and the American Home

The introduction of home lighting substantially altered domestic life in the United States. ■ Industry and street railway use of electricity peaked during the day, encouraging power suppliers to seek off-hours customers. ■ Meanwhile the spread of transmission lines for industrial and transportation purposes made residential connections less expensive. ■ After 1910 falling prices helped home electrification to spread rapidly beyond the small proportion of homes, mainly residences of the urban wealthy class, which had enjoyed it for some time. ■

1. Paragraph 1 supports which of the following about electrical power before 1910?

A) The peak production time for electrical energy was at night.

B) Customers feared the changes that electricity would create in their domestic lives.

C) The primary uses of electrical power were for industry and transportation.

D) Increased demand for residential power was just starting to drive up prices.

American home design was transformed as architects and builders came to appreciate the possibilities of electricity. Late nineteenth-century gas-equipped Victorian[The elaborate style of architecture popular in Britain and the United States during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 to 1901)] homes tended to be dark and divided into many rooms. Gas burned oxygen, produced odors and soot (black dust), and required gas jets that could ignite fires or, if snuffed out, release poisonous fumes and cause explosions. Gas-fueled houses were most functional, appealing, and safe if individual rooms could be shut off for airing out and minimizing drafts (air currents in an enclosed area). Interiors decorated in deep reds, blues, greens, and browns were preferred for their capacity to conceal soot.

3. According to paragraph 2, which of the following was a practice used in gas-fueled houses?

A) Keeping windows closed to prevent drafts from blowing out lights

B) Ensuring that air circulated freely throughout the house

C) Using colors that made soot less visible

D) Making larger rooms with exposure to light in order to reduce the need for gas

Around the turn of the century a few architects, the best known of whom today is Frank Lloyd Wright, began to recognize the superior properties of electricity and take advantage of its adaptability and relative safety. They started designing houses with open interior plans in which living rooms, dining rooms, and kitchens flowed together. The only isolated and private spaces in these designs were bedrooms and bathrooms, the latter newly developed as piped water and sanitary-waste disposal sewers made practical and appealing the consolidation in one room of sinks, toilets, and bathtubs previously placed in different locations inside and outside the house. Houses illuminated by electricity could have more numerous and flexible light sources, thus more freedom in furniture arrangement. Also, since electric lights did not product soot, electrified homes could also have lighter-colored carpets, walls, and ceilings, making their interiors much brighter than before.

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

A) contributions

B) characteristics

C) possibilities

D) advantages

.......余下托福阅读真题省略！

2017年5月20日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Electric Lighting and the American Home，完整版下载，5元有偿！