Gre阅读真题200篇 brief contents

By the time the American

Many Americans besides Abigail Adams were struck by the inconsistency of their stand during the War of Independence, and they were not averse to making moves to emancipate the slaves. Quakers and other religious groups organized antislavery societies, while numerous individuals manumitted their slaves. In fact, within several years of the end of the War of Independence, most of the Eastern states had made provisions for the gradual emancipation of slaves.

17. Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?

(A) The War of Independence produced among many Black Americans a heightened consciousness of the inequities in American society.

(B) The War of Independence strengthened the bonds of slavery of many Black Americans while intensifying their desire to be free.

(C) The War of Independence exposed to many Americans the contradiction of slavery in a country seeking its freedom and resulted in efforts to resolve that contradiction.

(D) The War of Independence provoked strong criticisms by many Americans of the institution of slavery, but produced little substantive action against it.（C）

(E) The War of Independence renewed the efforts of many American groups toward achieving Black emancipation.

18. The passage contains information that would support which of the following statements about the colonies before the War of Independence?

(A) They contained organized antislavery societies.

(B) They allowed individuals to own slaves.

(C) They prohibited religious groups from political action.

(D) They were inconsistent in their legal definitions of slave status.（B）

(E) They encouraged abolitionist societies to expand their influence.

19. According to the passage, the War of Independence was embarrassing to some Americans for which of the following reasons?

I. It involved a struggle for many of the same liberties that Americans were denying to others.

II. It involved a struggle for independence from the very nation that had founded the colonies.

III. It involved a struggle based on inconsistencies in the participants’ conceptions of freedom.

(A) I only

(B) II only

(C) I and II only

(D) I and III only（A）

(E) I, II, and III

20. Which of the following statements regarding American society in the years immediately following the War of Independence is best supported by the passage?

(A) The unexpected successes of the antislavery societies led to their gradual demise in the Eastern states.

(B) Some of the newly independent American states had begun to make progress toward abolishing slavery.

(C) Americans like Abigail Adams became disillusioned with the slow progress of emancipation and gradually abandoned the cause.

(D) Emancipated slaves gradually were accepted in the Eastern states as equal members of American society.（B）

(E) The abolition of slavery in many Eastern states was the result of close cooperation between religious groups and free Blacks.

16. Tocqueville, apparently, was wrong.

Pessen does present a quantity of (a quantity of: 一些) examples, together with some refreshingly intelligible statistics, to establish the existence of an inordinately wealthy class. Though active in commerce or the professions, most of the wealthy were not self-made, but had inherited family fortunes. In no sense mercurial, these great fortunes survived the financial panics that destroyed lesser ones. Indeed, in several cities the wealthiest one percent constantly increased its share until by 1850 it owned half of the community’s wealth. Although these observations are true, Pessen overestimates their importance by concluding from them that the undoubted progress toward inequality in the late eighteenth century continued in the Jacksonian period and that the United States was a class-ridden, plutocratic society even before industrialization.

25. According to the passage, Pessen indicates that all of the following were true of the very wealthy in the United States between 1825 and 1850 EXCEPT:

(A) They formed a distinct upper class.

(B) Many of them were able to increase their holdings.

(C) Some of them worked as professionals or in business.

(D) Most of them accumulated their own fortunes.（D）

(E) Many of them retained their wealth in spite of financial upheavals.

26. The author’s attitude toward Pessen’s presentation of statistics can be best described as

(A) disapproving

(B) shocked

(C) suspicious

(D) amused（E）

(E) laudatory

27. Which of the following best states the author’s main point?

(A) Pessen’s study has overturned the previously established view of the social and economic structure of early nineteenth-century America.

(B) Tocqueville’s analysis of the United States in the Jacksonian era remains the definitive account of this period.

(C) Pessen’s study is valuable primarily because it shows the continuity of the social system in the United States throughout the nineteenth century.

(D) The social patterns and political power of the extremely wealthy in the United States between 1825 and 1850 are well documented.（E）

(E) Pessen challenges a view of the social and economic system in the United States from 1825 to 1850, but he draws conclusions that are incorrect.