2020年1月5日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Industry during the Roman Empire

2020年1月5日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Industry during the Roman Empire

Although agriculture was the economic mainstay of the Roman Empire, the development of industry under the Empire also made a significant contribution to its centuries of power and stability in Europe. The growth of industry was largely the result of economic and social factors. It grew because its markets increased with a rising population and the urbanization of the western provinces, such as Gaul (modern France) and Spain. Nevertheless, with only a handful of exceptions, it was usually concerned with supplying local requirements. To take one example, the products of even the more successful coarse pottery industries rarely traveled more than fifty or sixty kilometers from the production sites, and this was probably true of other industries as well. The main exporting industries were those that provided the raw materials without which Roman civilization could not have survived, such as foodstuffs, metals, timber, and cloth; or, much more rarely, were monopolies, in the way that the papyrus (paper) industry was a state monopoly in Egypt. Other exporting industries were largely dependent on being able to send their goods along routes and in ships that existed primarily to carry food and raw materials. It was for this reason that so many of the industrial centers of the Roman world lay on the coast or by one of the great navigable rivers.

The advantages of Roman manufacturers were immense when compared with those of their predecessors and successors. They worked within an efficient financial system, often in periods of prolonged peace when trade could flourish unhindered; they traded in what was probably the largest common market the world had ever seen, with only a few minor taxes to pay on crossing boundaries between provinces (i.e., between different territories of the Roman Empire); communications by both land and sea were better than they had ever been before or were to be again for many centuries; and they sold their goods in a world in which there was immense public and private wealth.

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1. The word "mainstay" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. power

B. tradition

C. preference

D. foundation

2. What is the author's purpose in discussing "the more successful coarse pottery industries"?

A. To provide an exception to the rule that goods produced in the Empire almost always supplied local requirements

B. To give an example of a type of industry that was common in the western provinces of Gaul and Spain

C. To support the claim that Roman industrial products mostly served the local surrounding area

D. To establish the importance of location to achieving industrial success

3. According to paragraph 1, which of the following does NOT correctly describe industry in the Roman Empire?

A. Most goods were sold within 50 or 60 kilometers of where they were produced.

B. The main exports were essentials, such as food, metals, timber, and cloth.

C. Finished products, such as pottery or paper, were often transported long distances via ships.

D. There were few monopolies similar to the papyrus industry of Egypt.

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