托福阅读真题Official 47 Passage 1（五）

托福阅读真题Official 47 Passage 1（五）

Roman Cultural Influence on Britain

After the Roman Empire’s conquest of Britain in the first century A.D.,the presence of administrators,merchants,and troops on British soil,along with the natural flow of ideas and goods from the rest of the empire,had an enormous influence on life in the British Isles.Cultural influences were of three types:the bringing of objects,the transfer of craft workers,and the introduction of massive civil architecture.Many objects were not art in even the broadest sense and comprised utilitarian items of clothing,utensils,and equipment.We should not underestimate the social status associated with such mundane possessions which had not previously been available.The flooding of Britain with red-gloss pottery from Gaul(modern-day France),decorated with scenes from Classical mythology,probably brought many into contact with the styles and artistic concepts of the Greco-Roman world for the first time,whether or not the symbolism was understood.Mass-produced goods were accompanied by fewer more aesthetically impressive objects such as statuettes.Such pieces perhaps first came with officials for their own religious worship;others were then acquired by native leaders as diplomatic gifts or by purchase.Once seen by the natives,such objects created a fashion which rapidly spread through the province.

In the most extreme instances,natives literally bought the whole package of Roman culture.The Fishbourne villa,built in the third quarter of the first century A.D.,probably for the native client king Cogidubnus,amply illustrates his Roman pretensions.It was constructed in the latest Italian style with imported marbles and stylish mosaics.It was lavishly furnished with imported sculptures and other Classical objects.A visitor from Rome would have recognized its owner as a participant in the contemporary culture of the empire,not at all provincial in taste.Even if those from the traditional families looked down on him,they would have been unable to dismiss him as uncultured.Although exceptional,this demonstrates how new cultural symbols bound provincials to the identity of the Roman world.

Such examples established a standard to be copied.One result was an influx of craft workers,particularly those skilled in artistic media like stone-carving which had not existed before the conquest.Civilian workers came mostly from Gaul and Germany.The magnificent temple built beside the sacred spring at Bath was constructed only about twenty years after the conquest.Its detail shows that it was carved by artists from northeast Gaul.In the absence of a tradition of Classical stone-carving and building,the desire to develop Roman amenities would have been difficult to fulfill.Administrators thus used their personal contacts to put the Britons in touch with architects and masons.As many of the officials in Britain had strong links with Gaul,it is not surprising that early Roman Britain owes much to craft workers from that area.Local workshops did develop and stylistically similar groups of sculpture show how skills in this new medium became widespread.Likewise skills in the use of mosaic,wall painting,ceramic decoration,and metal-working developed throughout the province with the eventual emergence of characteristically Romano-British styles.

This art had a major impact on the native peoples,and one of the most important factors was a change in the scale of buildings.Pre-Roman Britain was highly localized,with people rarely traveling beyond their own region.On occasion large groups amassed for war or religious festivals,but society remained centered on small communities.Architecture of this era reflected this with even the largest of the fortified towns and hill forts containing no more than clusters of medium-sized structures.The spaces inside even the largest roundhouses were modest,and the use of rounded shapes and organic building materials gave buildings a human scale.But the effect of Roman civil architecture was significant.The sheer size of space enclosed within buildings like the basilica of London must have been astonishing.This was an architecture of dominance in which subject peoples were literally made to feel small by buildings that epitomized imperial power.Supremacy was accentuated by the unyielding straight lines of both individual buildings and planned settlements since these too provided a marked contrast with the natural curvilinear shapes dominant in the native realm.

Question 9 of 14

The word“modest”in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.comfortable

B.limited in number

C.poorly lit

D.not large

正确答案：D

题目详解

题型分类：词汇题

选项分析：

原句意思是“即使是最大的圆屋内部空间也很modest，使用圆形形状和有机建筑材料使建筑具有了人类的规模”，even表示让步，通过largest“最大的”推测modest意思是“小的或者不大的”因此D正确。

A选项，舒适的。

B选项，数量有限的。

C选项，昏暗的。

带入原文均不符合语境。

Question 10 of 14

According to paragraph 4,people in pre-Roman Britain lived,for the most part,in

A.architecture that seemed imperial in size

B.small communities

C.large roundhouses

D.fortified towns

正确答案：B

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：根据pre-Roman定位到第2、3句，“Pre-Roman Britain was highly localized,with people rarely traveling beyond their own region.On occasion large groups amassed for war or religious festivals,but society remained centered on small communities.”。

选项分析：

原文说前罗马时期的英国是高度本土化的，很少出游。为了战争或者宗教会聚集，但社会以小社会为中心。说明罗马征服英国之前，人们都住在小的社区里，与选项B对应。

A原文说的是建筑物很小，基本上human scale，而不是in size，与原文不符。

C原文第一句说的是人们大部分以on small communities住在而不是roundhouses，与原文不符。

D防御工事城镇，同C选项，与原文不符。

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