2020年1月5日托福阅读真题+题目+答案+译文：The Western Roman Empire in the Fifth Century

2020年1月5日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Western Roman Empire in the Fifth Century

1. Shortly after the death of emperor Theodosius in 395 A.D., the Roman Empire was permanently divided into Eastern and Western empires. By the fifth century A.D., the power of the Western Roman Empire had declined considerably, though the Eastern Roman Empire centered in Byzantium continued to flourish. Various problems contributed to this undermining of the West.

在罗马皇帝狄奥多西( Theodosius )于公元395年死后不久，罗马帝国永久地分裂为东罗马帝国和西罗马帝国。到了15世纪，西罗马帝国的力量明显减弱， 而以拜占庭(Byzantium )为中心的东罗马帝国仍然繁荣发展。各种问题蚕食着西罗马帝国，造成了它的衰微。

2. The accessions of Arcadius and Honorius, sons of Theodosius, as emperors in the East and West, respectively, illustrate the unfortunate pattern of child heirs that had unfavorable effects for both empires. When Arcadius died in 408, he was succeeded by his seven-year-old son, Theodosius II. Reigning until 423, Honorius was succeeded by his nephew Valentinian III, who was only five. Because of their young ages, Theodosius' sons and grandsons could not rule without older advisors and supervising regents upon whom they naturally became dependent and from whom they were unable to break away after reaching maturity. As powerful individuals vied for influence and dominance at court, the general welfare was often sacrificed to private rivalries and ambitions. Moreover, it was the women of thedynasty who were the more capable and interesting characters. Holding the keys to succession through birth and inheritance, they became active players in the political arena.

狄奥多西的儿子，阿卡狄奥斯(Arcadius)和荷诺里(Honorius)分别继位为东罗马帝国和西罗马帝国皇帝，这种皇家子嗣继承皇位的糟糕模式给两个帝国都带来了不利的影响。在阿卡狄奥斯于公元408年去世后，他的皇位由其7岁的儿子——狄奥多西二世(Theodosius II)继承;而荷诺里的统治延续到423年就结束了，他年仅5岁的侄子瓦伦提尼安三世( Valentinian III,)继承了他的皇位。由于继承皇位时年龄太小，狄奥多西的儿子和孙子们无法独立统治国家，需要接受年长大臣的建议和监督评议，并自然而然依靠他们统治国家，在他们成年以后也无法摆脱这种依赖关系。这些人权倾朝野，以至于公众的福利常常让位于私人的争斗和野心。更糟糕的是，王朝中的女人才是更有趣、能力更强的人物。由于手中掌握着生出子嗣并让其继承皇位的大权，她们成为政治舞台上的活跃角色。

3. Compared with the East, however, the West faced a greater number of external threats along more permeable frontiers. Whereas the East could pursue war and diplomacy more effectively with their enemies on the long eastern frontier, the West was exposed to the more volatile tribal Germanic peoples on a frontier that stretched along the Rhine and Danube rivers for 1,000 miles. The East, however, only had to guard the last 500 miles of the Danube. In addition, the East had many more human and material resources with which to pursue its military and diplomatic objectives. The East also had a more deeply rooted unity in the Greek culture of the numerous Greek and Near Eastern cities that Rome had inherited from earlier Grecian empires. Latin culture had not achieved comparable penetration of the less urbanized West outside of Italy. The penetration of Germanic culture from the north had been so extensive along the permeable Rhine-Danube frontier that it was often difficult to distinguish between barbarians (speakers of German and other languages unrelated to Latin) and Romans in those regions by the fifth century anyway.

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托福阅读真题题目：

1..The word unfavorable in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. negative

B. uncontrollable

C. unexpected

D. long lasting

2..According to paragraph 2, which of the following was one result of the pattern of rule by child emperors

A. The common people lost respect for the position of emperor.

B. Regents and advisors attempted to put an end to traditional rivalries for dominance within the court.

C. Women within the dynasty gained increased influence and power.

D. Traditional rules of succession by inheritance were changed.

3..Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A. As young rulers, the sons and grandsons of Theodosius necessarily depended on older advisors, and as adults, they were unable to rule independently of these advisors.

B. The sons and grandsons of Theodosius were too young when they came to power to rule without the assistance of older advisors.

C. On reaching maturity, the sons and grandsons of Theodosius attempted to break away from the older officials who had advised them since childhood.

D. Because the sons and grandsons of Theodosius were young when they became rulers, older advisors were able to prevent them from breaking away.

4..In describing the frontiers of the Western Empire as more permeable the author means that these frontiers

A. had more places where crossings could occur

B. were more distant from the center

C. were more likely to be changed

D. were more poorly equipped

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