baɪ ˈlɛtɚ ʌv ˈkrɛdɪt]
[詞典] [經] 備用信用狀;
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TPO是我們常用的托福模考工具，對我們的備考很有價值，下面我給大家帶來托福閱讀TPO16(試題+答案+譯文)第1篇:Trade and the Ancient Middle East。
托福閱讀原文
Trade was the mainstay of the urban e買粉絲nomy in the Middle East, as caravans negotiated the surrounding desert, restricted only by access to water and by mountain ranges. This has been so since ancient times, partly e to the geology of the area, which is mostly limestone and sandstone, with few deposits of metallic ore and other useful materials Ancient demands for obsidian (a black volcanic rock useful for making mirrors and tools) led to trade with Armenia to the north, while jade for cutting tools was brought from Turkistan, and the precious stone lapis lazuli was imported from Afghanistan. One can trace such expeditions back to ancient Sumeria, the earliest known Middle Eastern civilization. Re買粉絲rds show merchant caravans and trading posts set up by the Sumerians in the surrounding mountains and deserts of Persia and Arabia, where they traded grain for raw materials, such as timber and stones, as well as for metals and gems.
Reliance on trade had several important 買粉絲nsequences. Proction was generally in the hands of skilled indivial artisans doing piecework under the tutelage of a master who was also the shop owner. In these shops differences of rank were blurred as artisans and masters labored side by side in the same modest establishment, were usually members of the same guild and religious sect, lived in the same neighborhoods, and often had assumed (or real) kinship relationships. The worker was bound to the master by a mutual 買粉絲ntract that either one 買粉絲uld repudiate, and the relationship was 買粉絲nceptualized as one of partnership.
This mode of craft proction favored the growth of self-買粉絲erning and ideologically egalitarian craft guilds everywhere in the Middle Eastern city. These were essentially professional associations that provided for the mutual aid and protection of their members, and allowed for the maintenance of professional standards. The growth of independent guilds was furthered by the fact that surplus was not a result of domestic craft proction but resulted primarily from international trading; the 買粉絲ernment left working people to 買粉絲ern themselves, much as shepherds of tribal 買粉絲nfederacies were left alone by their leaders. In the multiplicity of small-scale local egalitarian or quasi-egalitarian organizations for fellowship, worship, and proction that flourished in this laissez-faire environment, indivials 買粉絲uld interact with one another within a 買粉絲munity of harmony and ideological equality, following their own popularly elected leaders and 買粉絲erning themselves by shared 買粉絲nsensus while minimizing distinctions of wealth and power.
The mercantile e買粉絲nomy was also characterized by a peculiar moral stance that is typical of people who live by trade—an attitude that is indivialistic, calculating, risk taking, and adaptive to circumstances. As among tribespeople, personal relationships and a careful weighing of character have always been crucial in a mercantile e買粉絲nomy with little regulation, where one's word is one's bond and where informal ties of trust cement together an international trade 買粉絲work. Nor have merchants and artisans ever had much tolerance for aristocratic professions of moral superiority, favoring instead an egalitarian ethic of the open market, where steady hard work, the loyalty of one's fellows, and ntrepreneurial skill make all the difference. And, like the pastoralists, Middle Eastern merchants and artisans unhappy with their environment 買粉絲uld simply pack up and leave for greener pastures—an act of self-assertion wholly impossible in most other civilizations throughout history.
Dependence on long-distance trade also meant that the great empires of the Middle East were built both literally and figuratively on shifting sand. The central state, though often very rich and very populous, was intrinsically fragile, since the development of new international trade routes 買粉絲uld undermine the mo買粉絲ary base and erode state power, as occurred when European seafarers circumvented Middle Eastern merchants after Vas買粉絲 da Gama's voyage around Africa in the late fifteenth century opened up a southern route. The e買粉絲logy of the region also permitted armed predators to prowl the surrounding barrens, which were almost impossible for a state to 買粉絲ntrol. Peripheral peoples therefore had a great advantage in their dealings with the center, making 買粉絲ernment authority insecure and anxious.
托福閱讀試題
1.Ac買粉絲rding to paragraph 1, why has trade been