该文章的第一段偶始终没看懂,主要是有两个句子(红色部分),请赐教。
For over 300 years, one of the most enduring beliefs among historians of England has been that the character of English society has been shaped by the unique openness of its ruling elite to entry by self-made entrepreneurs (especially newly wealthy merchants) able to buy their way into the ranks of elite society. This upward mobility , historians have argued, allowed England to escape the clash between those with social/political power and those with economic power, a conflict that beset the rest of Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Upward mobility was also used to explain England’s exceptional stability since the late seventeenth century (no revolutions, for example), as well as such major events as the development of the most efficient agricultural system in Europe, the making of the first industrial revolution, and the onset of severe economic decline.
1、第一句的to entry by...... 看不懂
2、第二句such major events 是指什么?
谢谢!
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