托福閱讀真題Official 47 Passage 1（一）

托福閱讀真題Official 47 Passage 1（一）

Roman Cultural Influence on Britain

After the Roman Empire’s conquest of Britain in the first century A.D.,the presence of administrators,merchants,and troops on British soil,along with the natural flow of ideas and goods from the rest of the empire,had an enormous influence on life in the British Isles.Cultural influences were of three types:the bringing of objects,the transfer of craft workers,and the introduction of massive civil architecture.Many objects were not art in even the broadest sense and comprised utilitarian items of clothing,utensils,and equipment.We should not underestimate the social status associated with such mundane possessions which had not previously been available.The flooding of Britain with red-gloss pottery from Gaul(modern-day France),decorated with scenes from Classical mythology,probably brought many into contact with the styles and artistic concepts of the Greco-Roman world for the first time,whether or not the symbolism was understood.Mass-produced goods were accompanied by fewer more aesthetically impressive objects such as statuettes.Such pieces perhaps first came with officials for their own religious worship;others were then acquired by native leaders as diplomatic gifts or by purchase.Once seen by the natives,such objects created a fashion which rapidly spread through the province.

In the most extreme instances,natives literally bought the whole package of Roman culture.The Fishbourne villa,built in the third quarter of the first century A.D.,probably for the native client king Cogidubnus,amply illustrates his Roman pretensions.It was constructed in the latest Italian style with imported marbles and stylish mosaics.It was lavishly furnished with imported sculptures and other Classical objects.A visitor from Rome would have recognized its owner as a participant in the contemporary culture of the empire,not at all provincial in taste.Even if those from the traditional families looked down on him,they would have been unable to dismiss him as uncultured.Although exceptional,this demonstrates how new cultural symbols bound provincials to the identity of the Roman world.

Such examples established a standard to be copied.One result was an influx of craft workers,particularly those skilled in artistic media like stone-carving which had not existed before the conquest.Civilian workers came mostly from Gaul and Germany.The magnificent temple built beside the sacred spring at Bath was constructed only about twenty years after the conquest.Its detail shows that it was carved by artists from northeast Gaul.In the absence of a tradition of Classical stone-carving and building,the desire to develop Roman amenities would have been difficult to fulfill.Administrators thus used their personal contacts to put the Britons in touch with architects and masons.As many of the officials in Britain had strong links with Gaul,it is not surprising that early Roman Britain owes much to craft workers from that area.Local workshops did develop and stylistically similar groups of sculpture show how skills in this new medium became widespread.Likewise skills in the use of mosaic,wall painting,ceramic decoration,and metal-working developed throughout the province with the eventual emergence of characteristically Romano-British styles.

This art had a major impact on the native peoples,and one of the most important factors was a change in the scale of buildings.Pre-Roman Britain was highly localized,with people rarely traveling beyond their own region.On occasion large groups amassed for war or religious festivals,but society remained centered on small communities.Architecture of this era reflected this with even the largest of the fortified towns and hill forts containing no more than clusters of medium-sized structures.The spaces inside even the largest roundhouses were modest,and the use of rounded shapes and organic building materials gave buildings a human scale.But the effect of Roman civil architecture was significant.The sheer size of space enclosed within buildings like the basilica of London must have been astonishing.This was an architecture of dominance in which subject peoples were literally made to feel small by buildings that epitomized imperial power.Supremacy was accentuated by the unyielding straight lines of both individual buildings and planned settlements since these too provided a marked contrast with the natural curvilinear shapes dominant in the native realm.

Question 1 of 14

The word“mundane”in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.material

B.ordinary

C.valued

D.useful

正確答案：B

題目詳解

題型分類(lèi)：詞匯題

選項(xiàng)分析：

原文說(shuō)“我們不應(yīng)低估與這種mundane財(cái)產(chǎn)相關(guān)的社會(huì)地位，而這種財(cái)產(chǎn)以前是不可獲得的”通過(guò)such mundane possessions推測(cè)出前文一定講到一些復(fù)數(shù)名詞，定位前一句Many objects were not art in even the broadest sense and comprised utilitarian items of clothing,utensils,and equipment，即“這些物品從廣泛意義上不是藝術(shù)品，這些物品包括實(shí)用性的衣物、餐具和設(shè)備”。推測(cè)mundane的意思為ordinary：普通的，平凡的。因此，選項(xiàng)B符合題干詞意。

A選項(xiàng)，材料的。

C選項(xiàng)，有價(jià)值的。

D選項(xiàng)，有用的。

帶入原文均不符合語(yǔ)境。

Question 2 of 14

Paragraph 1 suggests that one benefit for British natives in buying such items as red-gloss pottery made in Gaul was

A.improved quality of utilitarian items

B.understanding the symbolism of Classical mythology

C.higher social standing

D.learning to mass-produce pottery for a profit

正確答案：C

題目詳解

題型分類(lèi)：推論題

原文定位：根據(jù)題干red-gloss pottery定位到We should not underestimate the social status associated with such mundane possessions which had not previously been available.The flooding of Britain with red-gloss pottery form Gaul...。

選項(xiàng)分析：

原文說(shuō)我們不能低估這些物品的社會(huì)地位，可以推測(cè)英國(guó)當(dāng)?shù)厝速?gòu)買(mǎi)紅色陶器是為了彰顯更高的社會(huì)地位的。因此選C。

A選項(xiàng)，提高實(shí)用物品的質(zhì)量，原文沒(méi)有提到提高質(zhì)量，與原文無(wú)關(guān)。

B選項(xiàng)，理解古典神話(huà)的象征意義，本句中指的是紅色陶器上刻著Classical mythology，而不是去理解古典神話(huà)，與原文無(wú)關(guān)。

D選項(xiàng)，本句中沒(méi)有提到英國(guó)人學(xué)習(xí)陶器是為了賺錢(qián)，無(wú)中生有。

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