托福阅读题目范围广泛，大家可以先了解相应的知识内容，考到相关题目避免出现“完全不懂”的状况。比如与美国有关的，可以考自由女神像、美国历史、常青藤联校等等内容。因此，小编整理了几份与美国有关的题目，大家不妨先做个基础了解。
托福阅读文本之雕塑
The sculptural legacy that the new United States inherited from its colonial predecessors was far from a rich one, and in fact, in 1776 sculpture as an art form was still in the hands of artisans and craftspeople. Stone carvers engraved their motifs of skulls and crossbones and other religious icons of death into the gray slabs that we still see standing today in old burial grounds. Some skilled craftspeople made intricately carved wooden ornamentations for furniture or architectural decorations, while others caved wooden shop signs and ships' figureheads. Although they often achieved expression and formal excellence in their generally primitive style, they remained artisans skilled in the craft of carving and constituted a group distinct from what we normally think of as "sculptors" in today's use of the word.
On the rare occasion when a fine piece of sculpture was desired, Americans turned to foreign sculptors, as in the 1770's when the cities of New York and Charleston, South Carolina, commissioned the Englishman Joseph Wilton to make marble statues of William Pitt. Wilton also made a lead equestrian image of King George III that was created in New York in 1770 and torn down by zealous patriots six years later.A few marble memorials with carved busts, urns, or other decorations were produced in England and brought to the colonies to be set in the walls of churches - as in King's Chapel in Boston. But sculpture as a high art, practiced by artists who knew both the artistic theory of their Renaissance-Baroque-Rococo predecessors and the various technical procedures of modeling, casting, and carving rich three-dimensional forms, was not known among Americans in 1776. Indeed, for many years thereafter, the United States had two groups from which to choose - either the local craftspeople or the imported talent of European sculptors.
The eighteenth century was not one in which powered sculptural conceptions were developed.
Add to this the timidity with which unschooled artisans - originally trained as stonemasons, carpenters, or cabinetmakers - attacked the medium from which they sculpture made in the United States in the late eighteenth century.
托福阅读题目：
1. What is the main idea of the passage ?
(A) There was great demand for the work of eighteenth-century artisans.
(B) Skilled sculptors did not exist in the United States in the 1770's.
(C) Many foreign sculptors worked in the United States after 1776.
(D)American sculptors were hampered by a lack of tools and materials.
2. The word "motifs" in line 3 is closest in meaning <http://top.zhan.com/cihui/ielts-meaning.html> to
(A) tools
(B) prints
(C) signatures
(D) designs
3. The work of which of the following could be seen in burial grounds?
(A) European sculptors
(B) Carpenters
(C) Stone carves
(D) Cabinetmakers
4. The word "others" in line 6 refers to
(A) craftspeople
(B) decorations
(C) ornamentations
(D) shop signs
5. The word "distinct" in line 9 is closest in meaning to
(A) separate
(B) assembled
(C) notable
(D) inferior
6. The word "rare" in line 11 is closest in meaning to
(A) festive
(B) infrequent
(C) delightful
(D) unexpected
7. Why does the author mention Joseph Wilton in line 13?
(A) He was an English sculptor who did work in the United States.
(B) He was well known for his wood carvings
(C) He produced sculpture for churches.
(D) He settled in the United States in 1776.
8. What can be inferred about the importation of marble memorials from England?
(A) Such sculpture was less expensive to produce locally than to import
(B) Such sculpture was not available in the United States.
(C) Such sculpture was as prestigious as those made locally.
(D) The materials found abroad were superior.
9. How did the work of American carvers in 1776 differ from that of contemporary sculptors?
(A) It was less time-consuming
(B) It was more dangerous.
(C) It was more expensive.
(D) It was less refined.
托福阅读答案：
BDCAABABD
托福阅读文本之北美殖民时期：
The principal difference between urban growth in Europe and in the North American colonies was the slow evolution of cities in the former and their rapid growth in the latter. In Europe they grew over a period of centuries from town economies to their present urban structure. In North America, they started as wilderness communities and developed to mature urbanism in little more than a century.
In the early colonial days in North America, small cities sprang up along theAtlantic Coastline,mostly in what are now New England and Middle Atlantic states in the United States and in the lower Saint Lawrence valley in Canada. This was natural because these areas were nearest to England and France, particularly England, from which most capital goods (assets such as equipment) and many consumer goods were imported. Merchandising establishments were,accordingly, advantageously located in port cities from which goods could be readily distributed to interior settlements. Here, too, were the favored locations for processing raw materials prior to export. Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, and other cities flourished, and, as the colonies grew, these cities increased in importance.
This was less true in the colonial South, where life centered around large farms, known as plantations, rather than around towns, as was the case in the areas further north along the Atlantic coastline. The local isolation and the economic self-sufficiency of the plantations were antagonistic to the development of the towns. The plantations maintained their independence because they were located on navigable streams and each had a wharf accessible to the small shipping of that day. In fact, one of the strongest factors in the selection of plantation land was the desire to have its front on a water highway.
When the United States became an independent nation in 1776, it did not have a single city as large as 50,000 inhabitants, but by 1820 it had a city of more than 10,000 people, and by 1880 it had recorded a city of over one million. It was not until after 1823, after the mechanization of the spinning had weaving industries, that cities started drawing young people away from farms. Such migration was particularly rapid following the Civil War (1861-1865).
托福阅读题目：
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) Factors that slowed the growth of cities in Europe.
(B) The evolution of cities in North America
(C) Trade between North American and European cities
(D) The effects of the United Sates' independence on urban growth in New England.
2. The word "they" in line 4 refers to
(A) NorthAmerican colonies
(B) cities
(C) centuries
(D) town economies
3. The passage compares early European and North American cities on the basis of which of the
following?
(A) Their economic success
(B) The type of merchandise they exported
(C) Their ability to distribute goods to interior settlements
(D) The pace of their development
4. The word "accordingly" in line 11 is closest in meaning to
(A) as usual
(B) in contrast
(C) to some degree
(D) for that reason
5. According to the passage , early colonial cities were established along the Atlantic coastline of
NorthAmerica due to
(A) an abundance of natural resources
(B) financial support from colonial governments
(C) proximity to parts of Europe
(D) a favorable climate
6. The passage indicates that during colonial times, the Atlantic coastline cities prepared which of
the following for shipment to Europe?
(A) Manufacturing equipment
(B) Capital goods
(C) Consumer goods
(D) Raw materials
7. According to the passage , all of the following aspects of the plantation system influenced the
growth of southern cities EXCEPT the
(A) location of the plantations
(B) access of plantation owners to shipping
(C) relationships between plantation residents and city residents
(D) economic self-sufficiency of the plantations
8. It can be inferred from the passage that, in comparison with northern cities, most southern cities
were
(A) more prosperous
(B) smaller
(C) less economical <http://top.zhan.com/cihui/ielts-economical.html>ly self-sufficient <http://top.zhan.com/cihui/ielts-sufficient.html>
(D) tied less closely to England than to France
9. The word "recorded" in line 26 is closest in meaning to
(A) imagined
(B) discovered
(C) documented
(D) planned
10. The word "drawing" in line 28 is closest in meaning to
(A) attracting
(B) employing
(C) instructing
(D) representing
11. The passage mentions the period following the Civil War (line 29) because it was a time of
(A) significant obstacles to industrial growth
(B) decreased dependence on foreign trade
(C) increased numbers of people leaving employment on farms
(D) increased migration from northern states to southern states
托福阅读答案：
BBDDC DCBCAC
托福阅读文本之美国农业：
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the production of food and feed crops in the United States rose at an extraordinarily rapid rate. Corn production increased by four and a half times, hay by five times, oats and wheat by seven times. The most crucial factor behind this phenomenal upsurge in productivity was the widespread adoption of labor-saving machinery by northern farmers. By 1850 horse-drawn reaping machines that cut grain were being introduced into the major grain-growing regions of the country. Horse-powered threshing machines to separate the seeds from the plants were already in general use. However, it was the onset of the Civil War in 1861 that provided the great stimulus for the mechanization of northern agriculture.
With much of the labor force inducted into the army and with grain prices on the rise, northern farmers rushed to avail themselves of the new labor-saving equipment <http://top.zhan.com/cihui/ielts-equipment.html>. In 1860 there were approximately 80,000 reapers in the country; five years later there were 350,000.
After the close of the war in 1865, machinery became ever more important in northern agriculture, and improved equipment was continually introduced. By 1880 a self-binding reaper had been perfected that not only cut the grain, but also gathered the stalks and bound them with twine. Threshing machines were also being improved and enlarged, and after 1870 they were increasingly powered by steam engines rather than by horses. Since steam-powered threshing machines were costly items - running from $ 1,000 to $4,000 - they were usually owned by custom thresher owners who then worked their way from farm to farm during the harvest season. "Combines" were also coming into use on the great wheat ranches in California and the Pacific Northwest. These ponderous machines - sometimes pulled by as many as 40 horses - reaped the grain, threshed it, and bagged it, all in one simultaneous operation.
The adoption of labor-saving machinery had a profound effect upon the sale of agricultural operations in the northern states - allowing farmers to increase vastly their crop acreage. By the end of century, a farmer employing the new machinery could plant and harvest two and half times as much corn as a farmer had using hand methods 50 years before.
托福阅读题目：
1. What aspect of farming in the United States in the nineteenth century does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) How labor-saving machinery increased crop Production
(B) Why southern farms were not as successful as Successful as northern farms
(C) Farming practices before the Civil War
(D) The increase in the number of people farming
2. The word "crucial" in line 4 is closest in meaning to
(A) obvious
(B) unbelievable
(C) important
(D) desirable
3. The phrase "avail themselves" in line 11 is closest in meaning to
(A) take care
(B) make use
(C) get rid
(D) do more
4.According to the passage , why was the Civil War a stimulus for mechanization?
(A) The army needed more grain in order to feed the soldiers.
(B) Technology developed for the war could also the used by farmers.
(C) It was hoped that harvesting more grain would lower the price of grain.
(D) Machines were needed to replace a disappearing labor force.
5. The passage supports which of the following statements about machinery after the Civil War?
(A) Many farmers preferred not to use the new machinery.
(B) Returning laborers replaced the use of machinery.
(C) The use of farm machinery continue <http://top.zhan.com/cihui/ielts-continue.html>d to increase.
(D) Poor-quality machinery slowed the pace of crop production.
6. Combines and self-binding reapers were similar because each
(A) could perform more than one function
(B) required relatively little power to operate
(C) was utilized mainly in California
(D) required two people to operate
7. The word "they" in line 19 refers to
(A) grain stalks
(B) threshing machines
(C) steam engines
(D) horses
8. It can be inferred from the passage that most farmers did not own threshing machines because
(A) farmers did not know how to use the new machines
(B) farmers had no space to keep the machines
(C) thresher owner had chance to buy the machines before farmers did
(D) the machines were too expensive for every farmer to own
9. The word "ponderous" in line 21 is closest in meaning to
(A) advanced
(B) heavy
(C) complex
(D) rapid
托福阅读答案：
ACBDCABDB
托福阅读文本之雕塑、托福阅读文本之北美殖民时期、托福阅读文本之美国农业这三个话题是比较有可能出现的题目类型，大家除了做题，也可以上网做个了解。
