单选题 The agricultural revolution in the nineteenth century involved two things, the invention of labor-saving machinery and the development of scientific agriculture. Labor-saving machinery naturally appeared first where labor was scarce. "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 implements 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 Charles Newbold of New Jersey had been working on the idea of a castiron 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.

单选题 The word "naturally" as used in the second sentence is closest in meaning to which of the fol-lowing?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】本题是一道词语含义题。问第二句话中naturally一词与下面所给的四个选项哪个意思最接近。根据文章上下文，19世纪的农业革命涉及两个方面：一是节省劳动力的机器的发明；二是科技农业的发展。节省劳力的机器自然先从那些劳动力缺乏的地区出现。由此我们可以推知此词的含义是表示“自然而然地，自然地”。所以，本题的正确答案应是A“丝毫不令人惊讶地，理所当然地”。

单选题 Which of the following can be inferred from what Thomas Jefferson said?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】本题是一道引申推断类题目。而题干中又有提示信息托马斯·杰弗逊，所以，我们可以利用查阅式阅读法，在文章第一段第三句话和第四句话中找到相关的信息。这两句话指出，托马斯·杰弗逊说过：“在欧洲由于劳动力过剩，其目的是实现土地的最大产出；而我们的目的是充分利用我们的劳力，因为我们有丰富的土地资源。”由此，我们可以推断出本题的正确答案应是B“美国农场土地资源丰富，但是缺少劳动力”。

单选题 What point is the author making by stating that farmers could carry nearly all their tools on their backs?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】本题是一道具体细节题。问作者讲农民们实际上几乎可以把当时所有的农具都背在肩上这句话的含义是什么。利用查阅式阅读法，我们可以在第二段前半部分中找到与答案相关的内容。这部分指出，在19世纪初，除了木犁之外，农民们实际上可以把当时所有的农具都背在肩上。到1860年，迄今仍在使用的大多数机械的早期形式都已经设计出来。由此我们可以推知，本题的正确答案应是D“在农业革命之前，农民们没有多少农具”。

单选题 Why did farmers reject Newbold"s plow?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】本题仍是一道具体细节题。问农民们为什么不接受纽波德发明的铁犁。利用查阅式阅读法，我们可以很快在文章的第二段后半部分找到相关信息。这部分指出，早在1790年，新泽西州的查尔斯·纽波德便搞起了铸铁犁的研制，并把其所有财产都用于推广他的发明上。然而，农民们并未把他的发明当做一回事，他们声称铁犁毒害土壤，增生杂草。由此我们可以推断出本题的正确答案应是C“因为他们认为铁犁会毁坏土地”。