『新东方在线托福阅读』为托福考生准备了ETS托福TPO/【学术文章】#10阅读练习：Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.真题题目及答案解析，TPO/【学术文章】#10阅读原文范文音频翻译

托福TPO/【学术文章】#10阅读原文Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.题目答案及解析-新东方托福官方网校手机版

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

What can be inferred from paragraph 1 about Venice and Genoa during the Central Middle Ages?

According to paragraph 2, all of the following are true of the textile industry during most of the Middle Ages EXCEPT:

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

The Economic Rise of Medieval Florence In the Central Middle Ages, starting around 1000 A.D., a number of northern Italian cities, including Venice and Genoa, rode a wave of economic and population growth that saw them become among the most prosperous and powerful cities in Europe. Florence, though a late starter because of its isolation from the sea and the trade opportunities it offered, caught up with and overtook its rivals by engaging in manufacture and commerce, as well as trade. How did it manage to climb to its powerful position by the end of the Middle Ages (ca. 1400 A.D.)? All the cities of Europe were becoming manufacturing centers, but Florence did it better than most. The industry was textiles, or cloth production. During most of the Middle Ages, textile production tasks such as spinning, weaving, and dyeing were carried out in small workshops that combined together in a complex collective organization. Master craftsmen controlled the manufacturing, while the buying and selling was carried on by merchants. This medieval system was transformed in two ways, and Florence took the decisive lead in both. Firstly, the master craftsmen and merchants were replaced by a new breed of entrepreneur who controlled both the trading and manufacture of textiles. From the thirteenth century Florentine merchant entrepreneurs set up offices in cities all over Europe from Edinburgh to Constantinople—the archive of the Datini family shows letters from customers and suppliers from 200 different European towns—while they also bought up workshops in Florence and employed managers to run them.