2006年考试新辅导之托福写作题库新增试题十六(1)

Question 32-38

If you look closely at some of the early copies of the Declaration of Independence,beyond the flourished signature of John Hancock and the other 55men who signed it,you will also find the name of one woman,Mary Katherine Goddard.It was she,a Baltimore printer,who published the first official copies of the Declaration,the first copies that included the names of its signers and therefore heralded¹ the support of all thirteen colonies.

Mary Goddard first got into printing at the age of twenty-four when her brother opened a printing shop in Providence²,Rhode Island,in 1762.When he proceeded to get into trouble with his partners and creditors,it was Mary Goddard and her mother who were left to run the shop.In 1765they began publishing the Providence Gazette,a weekly newspaper.Similar problems seemed to follow her brother as he opened businesses in Philadelphia and again in Baltimore.Each time Ms.Goddard was brought in to run the newspapers.After starting Baltimore's first newspaper,The Maryland Journal,in 1773,her brother went broke trying to organize a colonial postal³ service.While he was in debtor's prison.Mary Katherine Goddard's name appeared on the newspaper's masthead for the first time.

When the Continental⁴ Congress fled there from Philadelphia in 1776,it commissioned Ms.Goddard to print the first official version of the Declaration of Independence in January 1777.After printing the documents,she herself paid the post riders to deliver the Declaration throughout the colonies.

During the American Revolution,Mary Goddard continued to publish Baltimore's only newspaper,which one historian claimed was "second to none among the colonies".She was also the city's postmaster from 1775to 1789-appointed by Benjamin Franklin -and is considered to be the first woman to hold a federal position.

32.With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?

(A)The accomplishments⁵ of a female publisher

(B)The weakness of the newspaper industry

(C)The rights of a female publisher

(D)The publishing system in colonial America

33.Mary Goddard's name appears on the Declaration of Independence because

(A)she helped write the original document

(B)she published the document

(C)she paid to have the document printed

(D)her brother was in prison

34.The word "heralded"in line 5is closest in meaning to

(A)influenced

(B)announced

(C)rejected

(D)ignored

35.According to the passage,Mary Goddard first became involved in publishing when she

(A)was appointed by Benjamin Franklin

(B)signed the Declaration of Independence.

(C)took over her brother's printing shop

(D)moved to Baltimore

36.The word "there"in line 17refers to

(A)the colonies

(B)the print shop

(C)Baltimore

(D)Providence

37.It can be inferred from the passage that Mary Goddard was

(A)an accomplished⁶ businesswoman

(B)extremely wealthy

(C)a member of the Continental Congress

(D)a famous writer

38.The word "position"in line 24is closest in meaning to

(A)job

(B)election

(C)document

(D)location

Question 39-50

Measurement in space is quite different from measurement on Earth.Some terrestrial distances can be expressed as intervals⁷ of time,the time to fly from one continent to another or the time it takes to drive to work,for example.By comparison with these familiar yardsticks,the distances to the galaxies⁸ are incomprehensibly large,but they too are made more manageable by using a time calibration,in this case the distance that light travels in one year.On such a scale the nearest giant spiral galaxy⁹,the Andromeda galaxy,is two million light years away.The most distant luminous¹⁰ objects seen by telescopes are probably ten thousand million light years away.Their light was already halfway¹¹ here before the Earth even formed.The light from the nearby Virgo galaxy set out when reptiles¹² still dominated the animal world.

39.The word "major"in line 1is closest in meaning to

(A)intense

(B)principal

(C)huge

(D)unique