在托福备考的过程中，考生一般都会拿TPO来进行托福考试的练习。因为其涵盖了大量托福考试的题型，能够帮助考生快速了解各类题型，从而更有针对性攻克自己的短板。今天小编为大家整理了托福TPO50阅读American Railroads原文及题目，一起来了解一下吧!
　　American Railroads
　　In the United States, railroads spearheaded the second phase of the transportation revolutionby overtaking the previous importance of canals.The mid-1800s saw a great expansion of American railroads. The major cities east of the Mississippi River were linked by a spiderweb of railroad tracks.Chicago's growth illustrates the imPACt of these rail links. In 1849 Chicago was a village of a few hundred people with virtually no rail service. By 1860 it had become a city of 100,000, served by eleven railroads.Farmers to the north and west of Chicago no longer had to ship their grain, livestock, and dairyproducts down the Mississippi River to New Orleans; they could now ship their products directly east.Chicago supplanted New Orleans as the interior of America's main commercial hub.
　　The east-west rail lines stimulated the settlementand agricultural development of the Midwest. By 1860 Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin had replaced Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York as the leadingwheat-growing states. Enabling farmers to speed their products to the East, railroads increased the value of farmland and promoted additionalsettlement. In turn, population growth in agricultural areas triggered industrialdevelopment in cities such as Chicago, Davenport (Iowa), and Minneapolis, for the new settlers needed lumber for fences and houses and mills to grindwheat into flour.
　　Railroads also propelLED the growth of small towns along their routes. The Illinois Central Railroad, which had more track than any other railroad in 1855, made money not only from its traffic but also from real estate speculation. Purchasing land for stations along its path, the Illinois Central then laid out towns around the stations. The selection of Manteno, Illinois, as a stop of the Illinois Central, for example, transformed the site from a crossroads without a single house in 1854 into a bustling town of nearly a thousand in 1860, replete with hotels, lumberyards, grain elevators, and gristmills. By the Civil War (1861-1865), few thought of the railroad-linked Midwest as a frontier region or viewed its inhabitants as pioneers.
　　As the nation's first big business, the railroads transformed the conduct of business. During the early 1830s, railroads, like canals, depended on financial aid from state governments. With the onset of economic depression in the late 1830s, however, state governments scrapped overly ambitious railroad projects. Convinced that railroads burdened them with high taxes and blasted hopes, voters turned against state aid, and in the early 1840s, several states amended their constitutions to bar state funding for railroads and canals. The federal government took up some of the slack, but federal aid did not provide a majorstimulus to railroads before 1860. Rather, part of the burden of finance passed to city and countygovernments in agricultural areas that wanted to attract railroads. Such municipal governments, for example, often gave railroads rights-of-way, grants of land for stations, and public funds.
　　The dramatic expansion of the railroad network in the 1850s, however, strained the financing capacity of local governments and required a turn toward private investment, which had never been absent from the picture. Well aware of the economic benefits of railroads, individuals living near them had long purchased railroad stock issued by governments and had directly bought stock in railroads, often paying by contributing their labor to building the railroads. But the large railroads of the 1850s needed more capital than such small investors could generate. Gradually, the center of railroadfinancing shifted to New York City, and in fact, it was the railroad boom of the 1850s that helped make Wall Street in New York City the nation's greatest capital market. The stocks of all the leadingrailroads were traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the 1850s. In addition, the growth of railroads turned New York City into the center of modern investment firms. The investment firms evaluated the stock of railroads in the smaller American cities and then found purchasers for these stocks in New York City, Philadelphia, Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Hamburg. Controlling the flow of funds to railroads, the investment bankers began to exert influence over the railroads' internalaffairs by supervising administrative reorganizations in times of trouble.
　　考试题目：
　　Question 1 of 14
　　According to paragraph 1, what effect did the expansion of rail links have on Chicago?
　　A. Chicago became the headquarters for eleven new railroads. B. Chicago became the most important city east of the Mississippi River. C. Chicago was transformed from a village into a large city. D. Chicago replaced eastern cities as the main buyer of farm products from the region.
　　Question 2 of 14
　　Paragraph 2 supports the idea that Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin were able to become the leading wheat-growing states by 1860 in large part because
　　A. by 1860 there were more railroads in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin than in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. B. the expansion of east-west rail lines made transporting Midwestern products to East Coast markets relatively fast and easy. C. by 1860 states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York had become more interested in industrial development than in agriculture. D. most of the farmers who had grown wheat in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or New York resettled in the Midwest after the expansion of east-west rail lines.
　　Question 3 of 14
　　The word "promoted" in the passage is closest in meaning to
　　A. encouraged. B. controlled. C. promised. D. predicted.
　　Question 4 of 14
　　According to paragraph 2, one effect of the increased agricultural development in the Midwest was t
　　A. slow the rate at which population grew in many Midwestern cities. B. increase the demand for industrial products from Midwestern cities. C. encourage the extension of east-west rail lines to the Midwest. D. reduce the pressure on Midwestern farmers to get their products to market faster.
　　Question 5 of 14
　　The author mentions "Manteno, Illinois" in order to
　　A. give an example of how railroads decided which small towns would be selected for stations. B. illustrate the power of railroads to determine where towns would come into existence. C. explain how some railroads were able to make more money from real estate speculation than from railroad traffic. D. show how people's view of the Midwest as a frontier region had changed by the Civil War.
　　Question 6 of 14
　　The word "bustling" in the passage is closest in meaning to
　　A. commercial. B. wealthy. C. lively. D. modern.
　　Question 7 of 14 The word "onset" in the passage is closest in meaning to
　　A. possibility. B. fear. C. worsening. D. start.
　　Question 8 of 14
　　According to paragraph 4, how were railroads affected by the economic depression in the late 1830s?
　　A. They lost important funding from state governments. B. They began to realize that some of their projects were overly ambitious. C. They had to comPETe with canals for government support. D. They emerged as the nation's biggest business.