Indiana, turned out the first chilled-steel plow.
[文章大意及重要词汇]
19世纪的农业（agriculture）革命（revolution）包括两个部分：省力农业机械（machinery）的发明（invention）和科学农业的发展。省力机械通常在劳动力缺乏的地方首先出现。托马斯·杰弗逊说过“在欧洲是为了充分利用土地，那里劳动力非常充足（sufficient）；而这里则是为了充分利用劳动力，土地非常充足”。因此，19世纪农业机械首先在美国取得了巨大进步（advances）。19世纪处了粗糙的犁以外，农民几乎可以肩背所有存在的农具。到1860年人们就已经设计出许多今天仍在使用的机器的雏形。铁犁是早期发明中最重要的。早在1980年新泽西州的查尔斯· 纽波特已经开始致力于锻铁犁的研究，并把他的全部财富投入到其他发明的推广应用。但是，当时的农民都拒绝采用，他们认为铁会毒害（poison）土壤和导致杂草丛生。尽管如此（nevertheless），许多人仍然花大量的精力（attention）致力于研究，直到1869年，印第安纳州南本德市的詹姆斯·奥利弗研制出第一用冷却钢制造的犁。
11. The word "here" (Para. 1, Line 6) refers to__________.
A. Europe B. America
C. New Jersey D. Indiana
答案：B语义题。根据上下文，这里的“here”指的是美国。
12. Which of the following statement is NOT true?
A. The need for labor helped the invention of machinery in America.
B. The farmer rejected Charles Newbolt's plow for fear of ruin of their fields.
C. Both Europe and America had great need for farm machinery.
D. It was in Indiana that the first chilled-steel plow was produced.
答案：C判断题。可采用逐项排除法，首先B和D比较容易定位，阅读原文后，肯定这两个选项是正确，接着排除A和C中的一个，根据题意可知A是正确的，C是错误的。
13. The passage is mainly about__________.
A. the agriculture revolution
B. the invention of labor-saving machinery
C. the development of scientific agriculture
D. the farming machinery in America
答案：B主旨题。文章的中心思想应当是：“节省劳动力的机器的发明”。
14. At the opening of the nineteenth-century, farmers in America__________.
A. preferred light tools
B. were extremely self-reliant (自给的)
C. had many tools
D. had very few tools
答案：D推断题。根据题意“At the opening of the century, with the exception of a crude(粗糙的) plow, farmers could have carried practically all of the existing agricultural tools on their backs.可见他们的农具很多”。
15. It is implied but not stated in the passage that __________.
A. there was a shortage of workers on American farms
B. the most important of the early invention was the iron plow
C. after 1869, many people devoted their attention to the plow
D. Charles Newbolt had made a fortune by his cast-iron plow
答案：A推断题。文章暗含的内容：“美国缺乏劳动力”。
Part II Vocabulary and Structure
