托福阅读真题及答案
发布时间：2015/4/26 19:19:30 来源：城市网学院 编辑：ida
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 life #bined with a new emphasis upon credentials and expertise to make schooling 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 schooling. By 1920 schooling to age fourteen or beyond was #pulsory 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 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 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 #monly included in#e-producing activities both inside and outside the home, in the highly industrialized early-twentieth-century United States, however, overproduction rather than scarcity was be#ing 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 "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 Subsequent reforms have made these notions seem quite out-of-date.
1. 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 #munities
(B) an increase in the number of trained teachers
(C) the expanding economic problems of schools
(D) the increased urbanization of the entire country
2. The word "means" in line 6 is closest in meaning to
(A) advantages
(B) probability
(C) method
(D) qualifications
3. The phrase "coincided with" in line 8 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
4. 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
5. Vacation schools and extracurricular activities are mentioned in lines 10-11 to illustrate
(A) alternatives to formal education provided by public schools
(B) the importance of educational changes
(C) activities that #peted to attract new immigrants to their programs.
(D) the increased impact of public schools on students.
6. According to the passage , early-twentieth century education reformers believed that
(A) different groups needed different kinds of education
(B) special programs should be set up in frontier #munities to modernize them
(C) corporations and other organizations damaged educational progress
(D) more women should be involved in education and industry
7. The word "it" in line 22 refers to
(A) consumption
(B) production
(C) homemaking
(D) education
正确答案： DCBAD AC
