Reading 37

        

  The agricultural revolution in the nineteenth century involved two things: the invention of labor-saving machinery and. the development of scientific agriculture. Labor - saying machinery, naturally appeared, first where labor was 8carce. "In Europe," said, Thomas Jefferson, the object is to make the most of: their land, labor being abundant;. here it, is to make the most of our labor, land being abundant. It was in America, therefore, that the great advances in nineteenth - century agricultural machinery first came.

          At the opening of the century, with the exception of a crude plow farmers could have carried practically all of the existing agricultural implement on their backs; by 1860, most of the machinery in use today had been designed in an early form. The most important of the early inventions was the iron plow. As early as 1790 Charies Newbold of New Jersey had been working on the of a cast – iron  plow  and spent his entire fortune in introducing his invention. The farmers, however, would have none of it, claiming that the iron poisoned the soil and made the weeds grow. Nevertheless, many people devoted their attention to the plow, until in 1869 James Oliver of South Bend, Indiana, turned out the first chilled-steel plow.

1. What is the main topic of the passage?

(A) The need for agricultural advances to help feed a growing population

(B) The development of safer machines demanded by the labor movement

(C) Machinery that contributed to the agricultural revolution

(D) New Jersey as a leader in the agricultural revolution

2. The word "naturally" as used in line 3 is closest in meaning to which of the following?

(A) Gradually                   (B) Unsurprisingly            (C) Apparently                 (D) Safely

3. The expression "make the most of" in line 4 is closest in meaning to which of the following?

(A) Get the best yield from                                    (B) Raise the price of

(C) Exaggerate the worth of                                   (D) Earn a living on

4. Which of the following can be inferred from what Thomas Jefferson said?

(A) Europe was changing more quickly than America.

(B) Europe had greater need of farm machinery than America did.

(C) America was finally running out of good farmland.

(D) There was a shortage of workers on American farms.

5. It can be inferred that the word "here' in line 4 refers to

(A) Europe                      (B) America                     (C) New Jersey                (D) Indiana

6. What point is the author making by stating that farmers could carry nearly all their tools On their backs?

(A) Farmers had few tools before the agricultural revolution.

(B) Americans were traditionally self - reliant.

(C) Life on the farm was extremely difficult.

(D) New tools were designed to be portable.

7. Why did farmers reject Newbold's plow?

(A) Their horses were frightened by it.                    (B) They preferred lighter tools.

(C) It was too expensive.                                       (D) They thought it would ruin the land.

kunci jawaban:

1)C 2) B 3) A 4) D 5) B 6) A 7) D