托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Western European Guilds

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Western European Guilds

Up until 1000 A.D, merchant guilds (associations) were not organized into separate groups according to the merchandise they sold. In time, they did become differentiated by industry. In Florence, the more elite merchants belonged to one of the seven “major” guilds. These included the bankers, cloth merchants, spice dealers, and goldsmiths. Their status was distinct from that of the retailers, who sold cheaper commodities in local markets, and from that of artisans such as bakers, brewers, and blacksmiths. They were called the popolo grasso (the “fat people”) because of their wealth and social prominence.

1. In paragraph 1, it can be inferred that guilds before 1000 A.D. differed from guilds in later times in that earlier guilds

A) included members with different occupations in the same guild

B) sold cheaper commodities in local markets

C) did not include bankers or merchants of wealth and social prominence

D) were generally limited to artisans

2. According to paragraph 1, what was true about the “major” guilds in Florence?

A) Their membership was limited to bankers, spice dealers, cloth merchants, and goldsmiths.

B) Their membership was more varied than that of other guilds.

C) They had higher social standing than other guilds.

D) They had more members than other guilds.

3. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 about retailers?

A) They were members of the same guilds as artisans.

B) They mainly sold products obtained from the major guilds.

C) They belonged to the group referred to as the popolo grasso.

D) They did not have a high social status in Florence.

█The members of merchants’ upper guilds became the city’s governors, constituting a “patriciate” – not a nobility, with its ancestral military associations, but an urban ruling class. █As it assumed near-permanent control of the higher offices and responsibilities of leadership, the patriciate became hereditary and jealous of its authority. █ It rarely permitted new men into its circle. █ These men were also the main patrons of building and the arts.

The lesser traders and artisans who produced what they sold gathered in the craft guilds. Their roster varies from city to city, but bakers, brewers, and barrelmakers generally figured among them, along with makers of purses and hats, and even physicians and notaries (the trained professionals who wrote deeds, contracts, wills, and other important documents). These guild members worked not for a wage but for the profit on the goods they produced. They were both capitalists, who invested in workshops, tools, and materials, and laborers, equipped with special skills. Skill was critical in the medieval industrial system, the success of which rested on the performance of each individual worker. To assure the high quality of the products, the craft guilds insisted on rigorous observance of minimum standards in manufacture.

4. The word “rigorous” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A) frequent

B) proper

C) strict

D) documented

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