出国留学托福（TOEFL）考试阅读模拟试题

大家知道现在有好多的人想要出国留学，那么对于出国留学并不是所有的人都是适合的，除了要满足留学的条件外还需要我们通过一些考试，其中的托福考试是必须的，那么对于托福考试中要想取得高分的话还是需要我们平时的努力多做练习，为了方便大家，校库网特此给大家总结了托福（TOEFL）考试阅读模拟试题以供大家复习参考。

jazz has been called “the art of expression set to music”, and “america’s great contribution to music”. it has functioned as popular art and enjoyed periods of fairly widespread public response, in the “jazz age” of the 1920s, in the “swing era” of the late 1930s and in the peak popularity of modern jazz in the late 1950s. the standard legend about jazz is that it originated around the end of the 19th century in new orleans and moved up the mississippi river to memphis, st. louis, and finally to chicago. it welded together the elements of ragtime, marching band music, and the blues. however, the influences of what led to those early sounds goes back to tribal african drum beats and european musical structures. buddy bolden, a new orleans barber and cornet player, is generally considered to have been the first real jazz musician, around 1891.
what made jazz significantly different from the other earlier forms of music was the use of improvisation. jazz displayed a break from traditional music where a composer wrote an entire piece of music on paper, leaving the musicians to break their backs playing exactly what was written on the score. in a jazz piece, however, the song is simply a starting point, or sort of skeletal guide for the jazz musicians to improvise around. actually, many of the early jazz musicians were bad sight readers and some couldn’t even read music at all. generally speaking, these early musicians couldn’t make very much money and were stuck working menial jobs to make a living. the second wave of new orleans jazz musicians included such memorable players as joe oliver, kid ory, and jelly roll morton. these men formed small bands and took the music of earlier musicians, improved its complexity, and gained greater success. this music is known as “hot jazz” due to the enormously fast speeds and rhythmic drive.
a young cornet player by the name of louis armstrong was discovered by joe oliver in new orleans. he soon grew up to become one of the greatest and most successful musicians of all time, and later one of the biggest stars in the world. the impact of armstrong and other talented early jazz musicians changed the way we look at music.
1. the passage answers which of the following questions?
(a) why did ragtime, marching band music, and the blues lose popularity after about 1900?
(b) what were the origins of jazz and how did it differ from other forms of music?
(c) what has been the greatest contribution of cornet players to music in the twentieth century?
(d) which early jazz musicians most influenced the development of blues music?
2. according to the passage, jazz originated in
(a) chicago
(b) st. louis
(c) along the mississippi river
(d) new orleans
3. the word “welded” in line 6 is closest in meaning to
(a) squeezed
(b) bound
(c) added
(d) stirred
4. which of the following distinguished jazz as a new form of musical expression?
(a) the use of cornets
(b) “hot jazz”
(c) improvisation
(d) new orleans
5. the word “skeletal” in line 15 is closest in meaning to
(a) framework
(b) musical
(c) basic
(d) essential bsp;talented early jazz musicians changed the way we look at music.

the work of the railroad pioneers in america became the basis for a great surge of railroad building halfway through the nineteenth century that linked the nation together as never before. railroads eventually became the nation’s number one transportation system, and remained so until the construction of the interstate highway system halfway through the twentieth century. they were of crucial importance in stimulating economic expansion, but their influence reached beyond the economy and was pervasive in american society at large.
by 1804, english as well as american inventors had experimented with steam engines for moving land vehicles. in 1920, john stevens ran a locomotive and cars around in a circular track on his new jersey estate, which the public saw as an amusing toy. and in 1825, after opening a short length of track, the stockton to darlington railroad in england became the first line to carry general traffic. american businesspeople, especially those in the atlantic coastal region who looked for better communication with the west, quickly became interested in the english experiment. the first company in america to begin actual operations was the baltimore and ohio, which opened a thirteen- mile length of track in 1830. it used a team of horses to pull a train of passenger carriages and freight wagons along the track. steam locomotive power didn’t come into regular service until two years later.
however, for the first decade or more, there was not yet a true railroad system. even the longest of the lines was relatively short in the 1830’s, and most of them served simply to connect water routes to each other, not to link one railroad to another. even when two lines did connect, the tracks often differed in width, so cars from one line couldn’t fit onto tracks of the next line. schedules were unreliable and wrecks were frequent. significantly, however, some important developments during the 1830’s and 1840’s included the introduction of heavier iron rails, more flexible and powerful locomotives, and passenger cars were redesigned to become more stable, comfortable, and larger. by the end of 1830 only 23 miles of track had been laid in the country. but by 1936, more than 1,000 miles of track had been laid in eleven states, and within the decade, almost 3,000 miles had been constructed. by that early age, the united states had already surpassed great britain in railroad construction, and particularly from the mid-1860’s, the late nineteenth century belonged to the railroads.
6、the word “stimulating” in line 5 is closest in meaning to
(a) helping
(b) changing
(c) promoting
(d) influencing
7、the word “their” in line 6 refers to
(a) railroad pioneers
(b) railroads
(c) the interstate highway system
(d) american society
8、which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
(a) the united states regarded great britain as a competitor in developing the most efficient railroad system
(b) steam locomotive power was first used in 1832
(c) american businessmen saw railroads as a threat to established businesses
(d) steam locomotives replaced horses because of the distances across the 9、country the author concludes that for the first decade or more, there was not yet a true railroad system because
(a) passenger cars were not stable, comfortable or large
(b) locomotives were not powerful enough
(c) schedules were unreliable and wrecks were frequent
(d) lines were relatively short and not usually linked

10、the word “schedules” in line 23 is closest in meaning to:
(a) safety procedures
(b) employees
(c) timetables
(d) railroad tracks
11、 which of the following is not true about the 1830’s and 1840’s (line 24)
(a) passenger cars became larger
(b) schedules were reliable
(c) locomotives became more powerful
(d) tracks were heavier
12、the word “stable” in line 26 is closest in meaning to
(a) fixed
(b) supportive
(c) reliable
(d) sound
13、by what time had almost 3,000 miles of track been laid?
(a) 1830
(b) 1836
(c) 1840
(d) mid-1860s
14、the word “surpassed” in line&29is closest in meaning to
(a) exceeded
(b) beaten
(c) overtaken
(d) equaled
15、where in the passage does the author outline the main conclusions about the importance of railroads in america?
(a) lines 3-7
(b) lines 14-18
(c) lines 19-21
(d) lines 29-31
16、why does the author include details about great britain in the passage?
(a) to compare developments in both the united states and great britain
(b) to illustrate the competitiveness between the two countries
(c) to show where americans got their ideas and technology from
(d)to provide a more complete historical context