2014年4月托福考试模拟试卷及答案(第二套)_第5页

　Questions 44-50

　　As the twentieth century began, the importance of formal education in the United

　　States increased The frontier had mostly disappeared and by 1910 most Americans

　　lived in towns and cities. Industrialization and the bureaucratization of economic

　　line life combined with a new emphasis upon credentials and expertise to make schooling

　　(5) increasingly important for economic and social mobility. Increasingly, too, schools

　　were viewed as the most important means of integrating immigrants into American

　　society.

　　The arrival of a great wave of southern and eastern European immigrants at the turn

　　of the century coincided with and contributed to an enormous expansion of formal

　　(10) schooling. By 1920 schooling to age fourteen or beyond was compulsory in most

　　states, and the school year was greatly lengthened. Kindergartens, vacation schools,

　　extracurricular activities, and vocational education and counseling extended the

　　influence of public schools over the lives of students, many of whom in the larger

　　industrial cities were the children of immigrants. Classes for adult immigrants were

　　(15) sponsored by public schools, corporations, unions, churches, settlement houses, and

　　other agencies.

　　Reformers early in the twentieth century suggested that education programs should

　　suit the needs of specific populations. Immigrant women were one such population.

　　Schools tried to educate young women so they could occupy productive places in the

　　(20) urban industrial economy, and one place many educators considered appropriate for

　　women was the home.

　　Although looking after the house and family was familiar to immigrant women,

　　American education gave homemaking a new definition. In preindustrial economies,

　　homemaking had meant the production as well as the consumption of goods, and it

　　(25) commonly included income-producing activities both inside and outside the home,

　　in the highly industrialized early-twentieth-century United States, however,

　　overproduction rather than scarcity was becoming a problem. Thus, the ideal American

　　homemaker was viewed as a consumer rather than a producer. Schools trained women

　　to be consumer homemakers cooking, shopping, decorating, and caring for children

　　(30) "efficiently" in their own homes, or if economic necessity demanded, as employees

　　in the homes of others. Subsequent reforms have made these notions seem quite

　　out-of-date.

　　44. It can be inferred from paragraph 1 that one

　　important factor in the increasing importance

　　of education in the United States was

　　(A) the growing number of schools in frontier

　　communities

　　(B) an increase in the number of trained

　　teachers

　　(C) the expanding economic problems of

　　schools

　　(D) the increased urbanization of the entire

　　country

　　45. The word "means" in line 6 is closest in

　　meaning to

　　(A) advantages

　　(B) probability

　　(C) method

　　(D) qualifications

　　46. The phrase "coincided with" in line 9 is

　　closest in meaning to

　　(A) was influenced by

　　(B) happened at the same time as

　　(C) began to grow rapidly

　　(D) ensured the success of

　　47. According to the passage, one important

　　change in United States education by the

　　1920's was that

　　(A) most places required children to attend

　　school

　　(B) the amount of time spent on formal

　　education was limited

　　(C) new regulations were imposed on

　　nontraditional education

　　(D) adults and children studied in the same

　　classes

　　48. Vacation schools and extracurricular activities

　　are mentioned in lines 11-12 to illustrate

　　(A) alternatives to formal education

　　provided by public schools

　　(B) the importance of educational changes

　　(C) activities that competed to attract new

　　immigrants to their programs.

　　(D) the increased impact of public schools on

　　students.

　　49. According to the passage, early-twentiethcentury

　　education reformers believed that

　　(A) different groups needed different kinds of

　　education

　　(B) special programs should be set up in

　　frontier communities to modernize them

　　(C) corporations and other organizations

　　damaged educational progress

　　(D) more women should be involved in

　　education and industry

　　50. The word "it" in line 24 refers to

　　(A) consumption

　　(B) production

　　(C) homemaking

　　(D) education