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托福试题_阅读理解模拟题及答案8

中华考试网   2016-12-22   【

  Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in

  three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land

  uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of

  unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter

  (5) trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more

  distant from city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, for example, the

  borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of

  the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who would afford it could live far

  removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and

  (10) entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every

  major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now

  know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new

  residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in

  outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city

  (15) limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities

  of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the

  Chicago region in just thirty years-lots that could have housed five to six million

  people.

  Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of

  (20) subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses

  underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass

  transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by

  thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future

  land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes,

  (25) particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class

  inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it.

  Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded

  much faster than population growth.

  1. With which of the following subjects is the

  passage mainly concerned?

  (A) Types of mass transportation

  (B) Instability of urban life

  (C) How supply and demand determine land use

  (D) The effects of mass transportation on urban

  expansion

  2. The author mentions all of the following as effects

  of mass transportation on cities EXCEPT

  (A) growth in city area

  (B) separation of commercial and residential

  districts

  (C) changes in life in the inner city

  (D) increasing standards of living

  3. The word "vast" in line 3 is closest in meaning to

  (A) large

  (B) basic

  (C) new

  (D) urban

  4. The word "sparked" in line 11 is closest in

  meaning to

  (A) brought about

  (B) surrounded

  (C) sent out

  (D) followed

  5. Why does the author mention both Boston and

  Chicago?

  (A) To demonstrate positive and negative effects

  of growth

  (B) To show that mass transit changed many cities

  (C) To exemplify cities with and without mass

  transportation

  (D) To contrast their rates of growth

  6. The word "potential" in line 16 is closest in

  meaning to

  (A) certain

  (B) popular

  (C) improved

  (D) possible

  7. The word "many" in line 19 refers to

  (A) people

  (B) lots

  (C) years

  (D) developers

  8. According to the passage, what was one

  disadvantage of residential expansion?

  (A) It was expensive.

  (B) It happened too slowly.

  (C) It was unplanned.

  (D) It created a demand for public transportation.

  9. The author mentions Chicago in the second

  paragraph as an example of a city

  (A) that is large

  (B) that is used as a model for land development

  (C) where land development exceeded population

  growth

  (D) with an excellent mass transportation system

  参考答案:

  DDAAB DBCC

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