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Agricultural progress provided the stimulus necessary to set off (set off: v.引起, 使爆发) economic expansion in medieval France. As long as those who worked the land were barely able to ensure their own subsistence (the minimum (as of food and shelter) necessary to support life) and that of their landlords, all other activities had to be minimal, but when food surpluses increased, it became possible to release more people for governmental, commercial, religious and cultural pursuits. (历史背景＋经济原理：物质超出基本生计要求，人们可以从事其它行业) (这是T6的隐含：即农业过剩可以生成funds资金，才会有文章后面的发展-6-C)ffice ffice" />
However, not all the funds from the agricultural surplus were actually available for commercial investment. Much of the surplus, in the form of food increases, probably went to raise the subsistence level; an additional amount, in the form of currency gained from the sale of food, went into the royal treasury to be used in waging war. Although Louis VII of France levied a less crushing tax burden on his subjects than did England’s Henry II, Louis VII did spend great sums on an unsuccessful crusade, and his vassals—both lay and ecclesiastic—took over spending where their sovereign stopped. Surplus funds were claimed both by the Church and by feudal landholders, whereupon (1: on which; 2: closely following and in consequence of which) cathedrals and castles mushroomed throughout France. （马后炮，偶也错了：这是3的关键, 举出和商业竞争资金的地方：1.提高生计（对应3-II）２．战争资助（对应3-III; 3. 税少花销大；4.建教堂（对应3-I估计这个大家肯定读的最明白）
The simultaneous progress of cathedral building and, for instance, vineyard expansion in Bordeaux (Bordeaux: n.波尔多葡萄酒) illustrates the very real competition for available capital between the Church and commercial interests; the former produced inestimable moral and artistic riches, but the latter had a stronger immediate impact upon gross national product. Moreover, though all wars by definition are defensive, the frequent crossings of armies that lived off (live off: v.住在...外, 靠...生活) the land and impartially burned all the huts and barns on their path consumed considerable resources.(详细描述教堂和商业竞争资金，即各自的作用；战争消耗了大量的资源（对应8-A）)
Since demands on the agricultural surplus would have varied from year to year (from year to year: adv.年年), we cannot precisely calculate their impact on the commercial growth of medieval France. But we must bear that impact in mind when estimating the assets that were likely to have been available for investment. No doubt castle and cathedral building was not totally barren of profit (for the builders, that is), and it produced intangible dividends of material and moral satisfaction for the community. Even wars handed back (hand back: 退还) a fragment of what they took, at least to a few. Still, we cannot place on the same plane a primarily destructive activity and a constructive one, nor expect the same results from a new bell tower as from a new water mill (water mill: n.水磨, 水力磨粉机). Above all, medieval France had little room for investment over and above the preservation of life. Granted that war cost much less than it does today, that the Church rendered all sorts of educational and recreational services that were unobtainable elsewhere, and that government was far less demanding than is the modern state—nevertheless, for medieval men and women, supporting commercial development required considerable economic sacrifice. (说明农业过剩和商业的不确定关系；以及对教堂文化的肯定（物质，精神方面）)
3. The passage suggests that which of the following would have reduced the assets immediately available for commercial investment in medieval France?
I. Renovation of a large cathedral
II. A sharp increase in the birth rate
III. An invasion of France by Henry II
(A) III only
(B) I and II only
(C) I and III only
(D) II and III only（E）
(E) I, II, and III
6. The author of the passage most probably bases his central argument on which of the following theoretical assumptions often made by economists?
(A) Different people should be taxed in proportion to the benefit they can expect to receive from public activity.
(B) Perfect competition exists only in the case where no farmer, merchant, or laborer controls a large enough share of the total market to influence market price.
(C) A population wealthy enough to cut back its rate of consumption can funnel the resulting savings into the creation of capital.
(D) A full-employment economy must always, to produce one good, give up producing another good.（C）
(E) There is a universal tendency for population, unless checked by food supply, to increase in a geometric progression.
胡说一通，请指正；另外本文我问过，PumpkinMM对本文的理解非常好。你可以看看她的讲解 | 
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发表于 2004-4-18 08:58:00
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