『新东方在线托福阅读』为托福考生准备了ETS托福TPO/Official 32 Passage 2阅读练习：The word “severed” in the passage is closest in meaning to真题题目及答案解析，TPO/Official 32 Passage 2阅读原文范文音频翻译

托福TPO/Official 32 Passage 2阅读原文The word “severed” in the passage is closest in meaning to题目答案及解析-新东方托福官方网校手机版

十九世纪末，暹罗(今泰国)的政治和社会变革正迅速发生。

In the late nineteenth century, political and social changes were occurring rapidly in Siam (now Thailand).

不断演变的中央集权政府正在取代旧的统治家族。

The old ruling families were being displaced by an evolving centralized government.

这些家庭要么领了养老金(给了一笔钱生活)，要么收入被剥夺或受到限制；他们的儿子被引诱到地方官员学校上学，后来被派往某个遥远的省份；将当地社会联系在一起的旧的赞助人-客户关系直接解体了。

These families were pensioned off (given a sum of money to live on) or simply had their revenues taken away or restricted; their sons were enticed away to schools for district officers, later to be posted in some faraway province; and the old patron-client relations that had bound together local societies simply disintegrated.

地方统治者在法律案件中不能再保护他们的亲属和随从，随着1905年强迫农民为地方统治者做兼职的做法的结束，统治者不再与农村人口有固定的关系基础。

Local rulers could no longer protect their relatives and attendants in legal cases, and with the ending in 1905 of the practice of forcing peasant farmers to work part-time for local rulers, the rulers no longer had a regular base for relations with rural populations.

于是，旧的地方统治家族就脱离了传统的社会背景。

The old local ruling families, then, were severed from their traditional social context.

从农村人口的角度来看，同样的情况更加复杂。

The same situation viewed from the perspective of the rural population is even more complex.

根据政府在1905年进行的第一次农村人口普查，暹罗大约有3万个村庄。

According to the government’s first census of the rural population, taken in 1905, there were about thirty thousand villages in Siam.

这可能比20或30年前的19世纪末的数字有了很大的增长。

This was probably a large increase over the figure even two or three decades earlier, during the late 1800s.

现在很难想象，但暹罗在19世纪末的中原地区远没有今天这样人口稠密。

It is difficult to imagine it now, but Siam’s Central Plain in the late 1800s was nowhere near as densely settled as it is today.

直到19世纪下半叶，曼谷周围仍然被森林包围着，即使在世纪末，这里也有野生大象和老虎在距离仅二三十英里外的乡间漫步。

There were still forests closely surrounding Bangkok into the last half of the nineteenth century, and even at century’s end there were wild elephants and tigers roaming the countryside only twenty or thirty miles away.

许多人口流动涉及开辟新的水稻种植地。

Much population movement involved the opening up of new lands for rice cultivation.

有两件事使这成为可能，并促进它发生。

Two things made this possible and encouraged it to happen.

首先，《鲍林条约》（1855年）使王国全面开放国际贸易，从而迅速促进了水稻种植的经济专业化，主要是为亚洲（特别是印度和中国）缺米的地区提供粮食。

First, the opening of the kingdom to the full force of international trade by the Bowring Treaty (1855) rapidly encouraged economic specialization in the growing of rice, mainly to feed the rice-deficient portions of Asia (India and China in particular).

暹罗的大米年平均出口量从19世纪50年代末的每年不到6000万公斤增加到世纪之交的6.6亿公斤以上，同期每公斤平均价格翻了一番。

The average annual volume of rice exported from Siam grew from under 60 million kilograms per year in the late 1850s to more than 660 million kilograms per year at the turn of the century; and over the same period the average price per kilogram doubled.

在同一时期，水稻种植面积从大约23万英亩增加到超过35万英亩。

During the same period, the area planted in rice increased from about 230,000 acres to more than 350,000 acres.

数以千计的农民家庭集体决定扩大耕地、清理和种植新的土地，或者采取更集约化的农业方式，这一切使得这种增长得以实现。

This growth was achieved as the result of the collective decisions of thousands of peasant families to expand the amount of land they cultivated, clear and plant new land, or adopt more intensive methods of agriculture.

农民们能够这样做还有第二个原因。

They were able to do so because of our second consideration.

与半个世纪前相比，他们相对更自由了。

They were relatively freer than they had been half a century earlier.

在第五次统治期间(1868-1910年)，将农村人民与贵族和地方统治精英联系在一起的纽带大大减少了。

Over the course of the Fifth Reign (1868–1910), the ties that bound rural people to the aristocracy and local ruling elites were greatly reduced.

农民现在以个人身份缴税，而不是被要求向政府提供劳务。

Peasants now paid a tax on individuals instead of being required to render labor service to the government.

在这种情况下，对于数以千计的农民家庭来说，实际上全职工作是很有意义的，因为他们以前只能做兼职工作，他们必须为政府工作：为市场种植水稻。

Under these conditions, it made good sense to thousands of peasant families to in effect work full-time at what they had been able to do only part-time previously because of the requirement to work for the government: grow rice for the marketplace.

伴随着这些发展而来的是无数的变化。

Numerous changes accompanied these developments.

农村人口既分散又增长，与上一代人相比，可能不那么同质化，流动性更强。

The rural population both dispersed and grew, and was probably less homogeneous and more mobile than it had been a generation earlier.

这些村庄变得更容易受到政府官僚的专断对待，因为当地精英现在对它们的控制较少。

The villages became more vulnerable to arbitrary treatment by government bureaucrats as local elites now had less control over them.

到20世纪初，随着某种程度上政府的现代化赶上了自1870年代以来农村的发展，政府官僚主义越来越多地介入乡村生活。

By the early twentieth century, as government modernization in a sense caught up with what had been happening in the countryside since the 1870s, the government bureaucracy intruded more and more into village life.

省级警察开始出现，还有地区官员和牲畜登记以及土地契约和义务兵役登记也一同出现。

Provincial police began to appear, along with district officers and cattle registration and land deeds and registration for compulsory military service.

由于人们购买进口消费品，如布料和工具，而不是自己制作，乡村手工艺品逐渐减少或完全消失。

Village handicrafts diminished or died out completely as people bought imported consumer goods, like cloth and tools, instead of making them themselves.

更多的经济差异在农村形成，一些人靠务农致富，而另一些人则没有。

More economic variation took shape in rural villages, as some grew prosperous from farming while others did not.

可以衡量的是，农村的生活水平在第五个统治时期得到了改善。

As well as can be measured, rural standards of living improved in the Fifth Reign.

但是，与农民生活的严酷现实相比，统计上的平均值的意义不大。

But the statistical averages mean little when measured against the harsh realities of peasant life.

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

According to paragraph 1, the situation for Siam's old ruling families changed in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

According to paragraph 2, which of the following was true of Siam in 1905?

According to paragraph 3, farming families increased the amount of rice they grew in part by

According to paragraph 4, what happened after the government ended the practice of requiring rural people to perform labor for it?

Which of the following best describes the relationship between paragraphs 3 and 4 in the passage?

According to paragraph 5, which of the following was true of Siam’s rural people during the Fifth Reign?

According to paragraph 5, the government bureaucracy intruded in village life by

Look at the four squares  that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. And yet, how is it that the peasants were able to choose to expand their economic activity in response to the market opportunities?  Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square  to add the sentence to the passage.

Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

Siam, 1851-1910 In the late nineteenth century, political and social changes were occurring rapidly in Siam (now Thailand). The old ruling families were being displaced by an evolving centralized government. These families were pensioned off (given a sum of money to live on) or simply had their revenues taken away or restricted; their sons were enticed away to schools for district officers, later to be posted in some faraway province; and the old patron-client relations that had bound together local societies simply disintegrated. Local rulers could no longer protect their relatives and attendants in legal cases, and with the ending in 1905 of the practice of forcing peasant farmers to work part-time for local rulers, the rulers no longer had a regular base for relations with rural populations. The old local ruling families, then, were severed from their traditional social context. The same situation viewed from the perspective of the rural population is even more complex. According to the government’s first census of the rural population, taken in 1905, there were about thirty thousand villages in Siam. This was probably a large increase over the figure even two or three decades earlier, during the late 1800s. It is difficult to imagine it now, but Siam’s Central Plain in the late 1800s was nowhere near as densely settled as it is today. There were still forests closely surrounding Bangkok into the last half of the nineteenth century, and even at century’s end there were wild elephants and tigers roaming the countryside only twenty or thirty miles away. Much population movement involved the opening up of new lands for rice cultivation. Two things made this possible and encouraged it to happen. First, the opening of the kingdom to the full force of international trade by the Bowring Treaty (1855) rapidly encouraged economic specialization in the growing of rice, mainly to feed the rice-deficient portions of Asia (India and China in particular). The average annual volume of rice exported from Siam grew from under 60 million kilograms per year in the late 1850s to more than 660 million kilograms per year at the turn of the century; and over the same period the average price per kilogram doubled. During the same period, the area planted in rice increased from about 230,000 acres to more than 350,000 acres. This growth was achieved as the result of the collective decisions of thousands of peasant families to expand the amount of land they cultivated, clear and plant new land, or adopt more intensive methods of agriculture.  They were able to do so because of our second consideration.  They were relatively freer than they had been half a century earlier.  Over the course of the Fifth Reign (1868–1910), the ties that bound rural people to the aristocracy and local ruling elites were greatly reduced. Peasants now paid a tax on individuals instead of being required to render labor service to the government.  Under these conditions, it made good sense to thousands of peasant families to in effect work full-time at what they had been able to do only part-time previously because of the requirement to work for the government: grow rice for the marketplace. Numerous changes accompanied these developments. The rural population both dispersed and grew, and was probably less homogeneous and more mobile than it had been a generation earlier. The villages became more vulnerable to arbitrary treatment by government bureaucrats as local elites now had less control over them. By the early twentieth century, as government modernization in a sense caught up with what had been happening in the countryside since the 1870s, the government bureaucracy intruded more and more into village life. Provincial police began to appear, along with district officers and cattle registration and land deeds and registration for compulsory military service. Village handicrafts diminished or died out completely as people bought imported consumer goods, like cloth and tools, instead of making them themselves. More economic variation took shape in rural villages, as some grew prosperous from farming while others did not. As well as can be measured, rural standards of living improved in the Fifth Reign. But the statistical averages mean little when measured against the harsh realities of peasant life.