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TOEFL Directory > TOEFL writing > TOEFL Reading Class Unit 1_Passage 20_Question 210-220
TOEFL Reading Class Unit 1_Passage 20_Question 210-220
You have about 15 minutes to finish this passage.
First,use about 3-4 minutes to read the passage, try to understand the main idea of this passage.
Don't read it so slowly or try to remember all details.You need to do "fast reading",and "scan" the passage.
Second, read questions 1-11, and with questions you go back the passage again and look for correct answers.
Questions 210-220
Passage 20
Clocks were made in the United States long before entrepreneurs began to produce them in large numbers in factories. From the early eighteenth century, skilled craftspeople, many of them immigrants from England, made tall clocks with long cases. Clockmakers used many tools, among them hand-powered wheelcutting engines to cut gear wheels from imported cast brass. Cabinetmakers applied their skill to clock cases. Clockmakers, working in small shops, produced small numbers of timepieces; their clocks were works of art. They were expensive, usually more than fifty dollars without a case. Like many products of craft shops, clocks were often the work of more than one set of hands. American clockmakers bought parts from one another, and imported parts and sometimes whole mechanisms from Europe to take advantage of the benefits of the division of labor.
The cost and scarcity of brass encouraged the production of clocks with wood mechanisms. By 1800 wood clocks accounted for the majority of American clock production. Many of the same techniques used in making brass clocks were modified and used for producing wood clocks. Their gears were cut on hand engines; their parts turned on foot-powered lathes. Their form, too, imitated brass clocks; most were long-case clocks. Clocks with wooden gears cost less than half the price of clocks with brass gears. Like their brass counterparts, these wooden clocks were made one at a time, by hand. Making clocks this way was a slow process. Daniel Burnap, one of the best-known makers, produced an average of only four clock mechanisms per year from 1787 to 1805.
In the eighteenth century, timepieces were expensive and few in number. One historian has calculated that there were about 42,500 clocks in the United States in 1800, and about 64,000 watches. Approximately one American adult in fifty had a clock, one in thirty-two a watch. The vast majority of the population depended on other means of telling the time. City dwellers could rely on "public time? tower clocks, church bells, and town criers. In the countryside, sundials and "noon marks?were common.
210. What is the passage mainly about?
a) The contributions of clockmakers to the economic development of North America
b) The history of the clockmaking industry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
c) The artistic value of clocks made in North America
d) Factors that influenced the materials used in clockmaking
211. The word them in the passage refers to
a) tall clocks
b) clockmakers
c) tools
d) engines
212. In stating that clocks were often the work of more than one set of hands the author means that
a) a variety of tools were needed to make clocks
b) most clockmakers worked in factories
c) each clock was produced by several workers
d) many clockmakers developed unusual techniques
213. The word scarcity in the passage is closest in meaning to
b) complexity
c) attractiveness
d) familiarity
e) shortage
214. The word encouraged in the passage is closest in meaning to
a) improved
b) guaranteed
c) promoted
d) completed
215. Why were clocks with wood mechanisms produced in greater numbers than clocks with brass movements?
a) Wood mechanisms allowed for greater variety of design.
b) Wood mechanisms combined size with precision.
c) Wood mechanisms were less expensive to produce.
d) It was possible to make several wood mechanisms at one time.
216. According to the passage, wood and brass clocks were similar in their
b) appearance
c) value
d) durability
e) popularity
217. Daniel Burnap is mentioned in the passage to
a) illustrate how rapidly the clock industry grew in North America
b) describe an original technique of clockmaking
c) describe the variety in quality of clocks made during the late eighteenth century
d) illustrate how long it took to make clocks at the time
218. The word vast in the passage is closest in meaning to
b) interested
c) accepted
d) great
e) simple
219. Why were tower clocks, church bells, and town criers needed?
a) People who lived in the country found them more reliable than wooden clocks.
b) They made it possible for everyone in the city to know the time.
c) Most people used them to set the time on their watches.
d) They were used to introduce the work of clockmakers to the public.
220. What can be inferred from the passage about clock factories in North America?
b) They produced more expensive clocks than those made by hand.
c) They did not produce any tall clocks.
d) They used imported clock cases for the clocks they made.
e) They did not exist until after the early nineteenth century.
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