[求助]PP阅读, 疑难问题(1-4)

mikelyung

Clocks were made in the United States

long before entrepreneurs began to produce

them in large numbers in factories.  From the early

eighteenth century, skilled craftspeople, many

of them immigrants from England, made tall clocks with

long cases.  Clockmakers used many tools, among

them hand-powered wheelcutting engines

to cut gear wheels from imported cast brass.  

Cabinetmakers applied their skill to clock cases.  

Clockmakers, working in small shops, produced

small numbers of timepieces; their clocks were works

of art.  They were expensive, usually more than fifty

dollars without a case.  Like many products of craft

shops, clocks were often the work of more than one

set of hands.  American clockmakers bought parts

from one another, and imported parts and sometimes

whole mechanisms from Europe to take advantage of

the benefits of the division of labor.

    The cost and scarcity of brass encouraged the

production of clocks with wood mechanisms.  By 1800

wood clocks accounted for the majority of American

clock production.  Many of the same techniques used

in making brass clocks were modified and used for

producing wood clocks.  Their gears were cut on

hand engines; their parts turned on foot-powered

lathes. Their form, too, imitated brass clocks; most

were long-case clocks.  Clocks with wooden gears

cost less than half the price of clocks with brass

gears.  Like their brass counterparts, these wooden

clocks were made one at a time, by hand.  Making

clocks this way was a slow process.  Daniel Burnap,

one of the best-known makers, produced an average

of only four clock mechanisms per year from 1787

to 1805.

    In the eighteenth century, timepieces were

expensive and few in number.  One historian has

calculated that there were about 42,500 clocks in

the United States in 1800, and about 64,000 watches.  

Approximately one American adult in fifty had a

clock, one in thirty-two a watch.  The vast majority

of the population depended on other means of telling

the time.  City dwellers could rely on “public time”:

tower clocks, church bells, and town criers.  In the

countryside, sundials and “noon marks” were

common.

220. What can be inferred from the

    passage about clock factories

    in North America?

    AThey produced more

       expensive clocks than

       those made by hand.  

  BThey did not produce any

       tall clocks.  

  CThey used imported clock

       cases for the clocks they

       made.  

  DThey did not exist until after the

       early nineteenth century.

答案是D, 可我看不出来为什么? A好象对,  请帮忙解答.

chiuchiu

   The cost and scarcity of brass encouraged the production of clocks with wood mechanisms.  By 1800 wood clocks accounted for the majority of American clock production.  Many of the same techniques used in making brass clocks were modified and used for producing wood clocks.  Their gears were cut on hand engines; their parts turned on foot-powered lathes. Like their brass counterparts, these wooden clocks were made one at a time, by hand.  Making clocks this way was a slow process.  Daniel Burnap, one of the best-known makers, produced an average of only four clock mechanisms per year from 1787 to 1805.

In the eighteenth century, timepieces were expensive and few in number.  One historian has calculated that there were about 42,500 clocks in the LACE>United StatesLACE> in 1800, and about 64,000 watches.  

以上这些话都可以推断出 答案DThe clock factories in LACE>North AmericaLACE> did not exist until after the early nineteenth century.

chiuchiu

而 A The clock factories in LACE>North AmericaLACE> produced more expensive clocks than those made by hand.  文章通篇都在讲手工制CLOCK呀,没讲工厂制造吧!就算工厂制造,我们都知道,手工的东西要比那种BULK PRODUCTION的东西贵多了!!一看这句就不对!!

mikelyung

   谢谢CHIUCHIU同学的回答!长见识.