2015年7月5日托福阅读真题+题目+答案+译文：Agriculture in the Late Ottoman Empire

2015年7月5日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Agriculture in the Late Ottoman Empire

1. Throughout its history, agriculture was the economic mainstay of the Ottoman Empire, which dominated North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, and southeastern Europe for over 600 years until the early twentieth century. Most cultivators possessed small landholdings, engaging in a host of tasks, with their crops and animal products mainly dedicated to self-consumption. But enormous changes over time prevailed in the agrarian sector. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, agriculture became more and more commercialized, with increasing amounts of produce going to sale to domestic and international consumers.

在其历史上，农业是奥斯曼帝国的经济支柱，当时，奥斯曼帝国统治着北非、中东、土耳其及欧洲东南部，长达600多年，直到20世纪早期，大多数耕种者开始拥有少量土地，从事大量劳作，其生产的农作物和畜产品主要用于自用。但随着时间的推移，农业部门也在发生着巨大的变化。从18世纪末期开始，农业越来越商业化，越来越多的产品销往国内外。

2. At least three major engines increased this agricultural production devoted to the market, the first being rising demand, both international and domestic. Abroad, especially after 1840, the living standards and buying power of many Europeans improved substantially, permitting them to buy a wider choice and quantity of goods. Rising domestic markets within the empire were also important, thanks to increased urbanization as well as mounting personal consumption. In the late nineteenth century, newly opened railroad districts brought a flow of domestic wheat and other cereals to major coastal cities. Railroads also attracted market gardeners who now could grow and ship fruits and vegetables to the expanding and newly accessible markets of these cities.

至少有三大引擎增加了投入市场的农业产量，首先是国际和国内需求的增长。在国外，尤其是1840年后，许多欧洲人的生活水平与购买力大大提高，因此，他们可以有更多的选择，买到更多的商品。由于城市化程度的提高和个人消费的增加，国内市场的增长也很重要。19世纪后期，新铁路区域的开放使大量国内的小麦等谷物流入主要沿海城市。铁路也吸引了商品菜园经营者，他们现在可以种植水果、蔬菜，并运输到这些城市不断扩张的、新建市场。

3. The second engine driving agricultural output concerns cultivators' increasing payment of their taxes in cash rather than in kind (that is, in agricultural or other products). Some historians have asserted that the increasing commitment to market agriculture was a product both of a mounting per capita tax burden and the state's growing preference for tax payments in cash rather than in kind. In this view, such government decisions forced cultivators to grow crops for sale in order to pay their taxes. Thus, state policy is seen as the most important factor influencing the cultivators' shift from subsistence farming to market agriculture.

推动农业产量的第二大引擎则是耕作者越来越多得以现金支付税款，而非实物(即农业或其他产品)。一些历史学家认为，对市场农业投入增加是人均赋税负担增加与国民偏爱以现金而非实物支付税收的结果。如此看来，政府的这一决定迫使耕作者种植农作物，然后出售，以支付税款。因此，国家政策被认为是影响耕作者从自给农业转向市场农业的最重要因素。

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托福阅读真题题目：

1..According to paragraph 1, in which of the following ways did agricultural production in the Ottoman empire begin to change at end of the eighteenth century

A. Agricultural products no longer contributed as much to the Ottoman economy.

B. Agricultural workers left their farms to work in commercial industries in the cities.

C. Farmers with small landholdings began to focus on a single task rather than on many tasks.

D. Farm products were sold commercially instead of being kept for personal use.

2..The word substantially in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. without interruption

B. significantly

C. rapidly

D. unexpectedly

3..The word accessible in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. profitable

B. competitive

C. created

D. reachable

4..According to paragraph 2, all of the following contributed to a rising demand for the agricultural products of the Ottoman empire during the nineteenth century EXCEPT

A. the sale of domestic wheat in place of other cereals in coastal cities

B. the development of railroad systems leading to coastal cities

C. the rise in living standards and buying power among Europeans

D. the emergence of new domestic markets in the Ottoman Empire

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