托福阅读真题(4)

 　　Questions 30-39

　　Tulips are Old World, rather than New World, plants, with the origins of the species

　　lying in Central Asia. They became an integral part of the gardens of the Ottoman Empire

　　from the sixteenth century onward, and, soon after, part of European life as well. Holland,

　　Line in particular, became famous for its cultivation of the flower.

　　(5) A tenuous line marked the advance of the tulip to the New World, where it was

　　unknown in the wild. The first Dutch colonies in North America had been established

　　in New Netherland by the Dutch West India Company in 1624, and one individual who

　　settled in New Amsterdam (today's Manhattan section of New York City) in 1642

　　described the flowers that bravely colonized the settlers' gardens. They were the same

　　(10) flowers seen in Dutch still-life paintings of the time: crown imperials, roses, carnations,

　　and of course tulips. They flourished in Pennsylvania too, where in 1698 William Penn

　　received a report of John Tateham's "Great and Stately Palace," its garden full of tulips.

　　By 1760, Boston newspapers were advertising 50 different kinds of mixed tulip "roots."

　　But the length of the journey between Europe and North America created many

　　(15) difficulties. Thomas Hancock, an English settler, wrote thanking his plant supplier for

　　a gift of some tulip bulbs from England, but his letter the following year grumbled that

　　they were all dead.

　　Tulips arrived in Holland, Michigan, with a later wave of early nineteenth-century

　　Dutch immigrants who quickly colonized the plains of Michigan. Together with many

　　(20) other Dutch settlements, such as the one at Pella. Iowa, they established a regular demand for European plants. The demand was bravely met by a new kind of tulip entrepreneur, the

　　traveling salesperson. One Dutchman, Hendrick van der Schoot, spent six months in 1849

　　traveling through the United States taking orders for tulip bulbs. While tulip bulbs were

　　traveling from Europe to the United States to satisfy the nostalgic longings of homesick

　　(25) English and Dutch settlers, North American plants were traveling in the opposite

　　direction. In England, the enthusiasm for American plants was one reason why tulips

　　dropped out of fashion in the gardens of the rich and famous.

　　30. Which of the following questions does the passage mainly answer?

　　(A) What is the difference between an Old World and a New World plant?

　　(B) Why are tulips grown in many different parts of the world?

　　(C) How did tulips become popular in North America?

　　(D) Where were the first Dutch colonies in North America located?

　　31. The word "integral" in line 2 is closest in meaning to

　　(A) interesting

　　(B) fundamental

　　(C) ornamental

　　(D) overlooked

　　32. The passage mentions that tulips were first found in which of the following

　　regions?

　　(A) Central Asia

　　(B) Western Europe

　　(C) India

　　(D) North America

　　33. The word "flourished" in line 11 is closest in meaning to

　　(A) were discovered

　　(B) were marketed

　　(C) combined

　　(D) thrived