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[求助]大全passage74(11/22)第三题

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楼主
发表于 2007-6-2 10:53:00 | 只看该作者

[求助]大全passage74(11/22)第三题

讲agriculture process的一篇文章,答案选择了e,可是我从文章中找不到相关信息阿,是不是文中提到的subsistence level    就暗含了这三项呢?一般gmat题不会这样隐含的阿,即使是推断题,从文中也能找到比较直接的表达,可是这道题,我实在是想不通。

恳请大家帮忙解答。谢谢啦。

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 onlyE

(E) I, II, and III

沙发
 楼主| 发表于 2007-6-2 22:45:00 | 只看该作者

原文

Passage 74 (11/22)

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.

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.

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..., ...生活) the land and impartially burned all the huts and barns on their path consumed considerable resources.

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 statenevertheless, for medieval men and women, supporting commercial development required considerable economic sacrifice.

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