Login form
TOEFL Readings 34
By the mid-nineteenth century, the term "icebox" had entered the American
language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the
United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels,
Line taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh
(5) fish, and butter. After the Civil War(1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight
cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York,
Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to
families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household
convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had been invented.
(10) Making an efficient ice box was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early
nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a
science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best
icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was
the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to
(15) economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its
job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate
balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on
the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for
(20) which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his
own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the
rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his
butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox,
Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in
(25) order to keep their produce cool.
11. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) The influence of ice on the diet
(B) The development of refrigeration
(C) The transportation of goods to market
(D) Sources of ice in the nineteenth century
12. According to the passage, when did the word "icebox" become part of
the language of the United States?
(A) In 1803
(B) Sometime before 1850
(C) During the Civil War
(D) Near the end of the nineteenth century
13. The phrase "forward-looking" in line 4 is closest in meaning to
(A) progressive (B) popular
(C) thrifty (D) well-established
14. The author mentions fish in line 5 because
(A) many fish dealers also sold ice
(B) fish was shipped in refrigerated freight cars
(C) fish dealers were among the early commercial users of ice
(D) fish was not part of the ordinary person's diet before the invention
of the icebox
15. The word "it" in line 6 refers to
(A) fresh meat
(B) the Civil War
(C) ice
(D) a refrigerator
16. According to the passage, which of the following was an obstacle to the
development of the icebox?
(A) Competition among the owners of refrigerated freight cars
(B) The lack of a network for the distribution of ice
(C) The use of insufficient insulation
(D) Inadequate understanding of physics
17. The word "rudimentary" in line 12 is closest in meaning to
(A) growing
(B) undeveloped
(C) necessary
(D) uninteresting
18. According to the information in the second paragraph, an ideal
icebox would
(A) completely prevent ice from melting
(B) stop air from circulating
(C) allow ice to melt slowly
(D) use blankets to conserve ice
19. The author describes Thomas Moore as having been "on the right
track" (line18 -19) to indicate that
(A) the road to the market passed close to Moore's farm
(B) Moore was an honest merchant
(C) Moore was a prosperous farmer
(D) Moore's design was fairly successful
20. According to the passage, Moore's icebox allowed him to
(A) charge more for his butter
(B) travel to market at night
(C) manufacture butter more quickly
(D) produce ice all year round
21. The "produce" mentioned in line 25 could include
(A) iceboxes
(B) butter
(C) ice
(D) markets