托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Commercialization of Agriculture in the United States

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Commercialization of Agriculture in the United States

Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father of the United States, believed that farmers were the foundation of American democracy. ⬛ To execute his plan for democracy, Jefferson proposed the United States Rectangular Land Survey- -familiarly known as the grid. ⬛ Under the plan, surveyors were first sent to eastern Ohio with instructions to divide the land into boxes that would measure six miles square. ⬛ Then they were instructed to divide these larger boxes into smaller ones, one-mile square, which were divided yet again into quarter sections measuring 160 acres each, considered to be the appropriate size for a single farm. ⬛ In 1785 Congress passed the grid into law, and from that point on the same checkerboard pattern was etched across the West- -one of the most far-reaching attempts at rationalizing a landscape in world history.

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

O promote

O strengthen

O accomplish

O design

The grid was the outward expression of a culture wedded not simply to democracy but to markets and exchange as well. It would aid in the rapid settlement of the country, turning millions of Americans into independent landowners, while at the same time transforming the land itself- its varied topography, soil, and water conditions- into a commodity, a uniform set of boxes easily bought and sold. But the grid was only the first step in the commercialization of Western farmlands.

2.According to paragraphs 1 and 2, all of the following are true about the grid EXCEPT:

O It was conceived to pursue a Founding Father's beliefs about the role of farmers in democracy.

O It included only those land areas that had favorable conditions for farming.

O It involved dividing up very large pieces of land into sizes that could be used for single farms.

O It made it easy to buy and sell land.

Once farmers purchased land they needed to plow up the existing vegetation. The grasses that thrived on the organically rich, deep soil laid down by the glaciers thousands of years earlier were at first a challenge to cut. Wooden plows with edges made of iron proved virtually useless. The development and spread of the steel plow-invented in 1837 by John Deere, an llinois blacksmith- -made plowing successful. In place of the native vegetation, farmers planted corn and wheat, domesticated species of grass that grow best in a monocultural environment, that is, in fields by themselves. These crops tend to grow quickly, storing carbohydrates in their seeds. With bread constituting a major component of the American diet, wheat would eventually emerge as the West's major cash crop; acres and acres of some of the world's best agricultural land in states such as Ohio, Indiana, llinois, lowa, and Kansas were plowed up and given over to the plant.

3.According to paragraph 3, what problem did farmers initially face when developing their land for agriculture?

O The soil was not rich enough to support farming.

O The domesticated species of typical crops were not suited to the land.

O It was difficult to clear the thick vegetation from the land.

O They did not have plows with metal edges.

4.Paragraph 3 mentions all of the following as reasons why corn and wheat became important crops in the Western United States EXCEPT:

O They already grew natively in the region.

O They did not take long to grow.

O They grew well in fields that had no other crops.

O They had carbohydrates in their seeds.

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