IELTS Reading 練習 工業革命與城市（含題目+詳解）

The Industrial Revolution and Cities

The Industrial Revolution that began in northern England in the late eighteenth century did more than introduce new machines. It produced the first societies in human history in which most people lived in towns. In 1750, fewer than fifteen per cent of the British population lived in places of more than 10,000 inhabitants; by 1850, the figure was over fifty per cent, and by 1900 close to eighty. Comparable shifts soon followed in Belgium, Germany and the north-eastern United States.

The growth of particular industrial centres was extraordinarily fast. Manchester, a market town of around 25,000 in 1772, had passed 300,000 by 1850, almost entirely through migration from the surrounding countryside and from Ireland. Liverpool grew at a similar pace, driven by the Atlantic cotton and slave trades that fed the Lancashire textile mills. Such expansion outran the housing, sanitation and water supply that any of these towns had originally provided for a much smaller population.

The consequences were grim. The German social investigator Friedrich Engels, observing Manchester in 1844, described streets so narrow that air did not circulate, courtyards shared by hundreds of families and a single privy, and a death rate among children that, in the worst districts, exceeded that of rural villages by a factor of three. Cholera epidemics, unknown in Britain before 1831, swept through industrial towns repeatedly during the 1830s and 1840s, killing tens of thousands. The waterborne origin of the disease was not understood until Dr John Snow's investigation of a Soho outbreak in 1854.

Public-health reform followed reluctantly. Edwin Chadwick's 1842 Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population shocked Parliament with its evidence that filth, not vice, drove urban mortality. The 1848 Public Health Act allowed local boards to be set up where mortality exceeded a national threshold, and large cities began the slow business of building sewers, paving streets and supplying piped water. By 1880 the death rate in major British cities had fallen substantially, although it would not match the rural rate until well into the twentieth century.

The pattern that began in Lancashire — rapid migration, overwhelmed infrastructure, public-health crisis, eventual reform — has repeated, with local variations, in newly industrialising regions ever since.

1. By 1850, more than half the British population lived in towns of over 10,000 people.
2. Manchester's growth came mainly from a high local birth rate.
3. John Snow's 1854 investigation showed that cholera was waterborne.
4. The 1848 Public Health Act required all local councils to build sewers immediately.

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. According to Engels's 1844 observations of Manchester, the child death rate in the worst districts was:

- A. about the same as in rural villages - B. roughly three times that of rural villages - C. lower than in rural villages - D. lower than in other industrial towns

1. Edwin Chadwick's 1842 report argued that the main cause of urban mortality was:

- A. moral failings of the poor - B. unhealthy environmental conditions - C. cholera imported from abroad - D. inadequate medical training

Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

Cholera, previously unknown in Britain before (7) ______, killed tens of thousands during the 1830s and 1840s. The 1848 Public Health Act allowed boards to be created where mortality exceeded a national (8) ______. By 1880 city death rates had fallen substantially but had not yet matched the (9) ______ rate.

1. TRUE Supporting sentence: "by 1850, the figure was over fifty per cent". "Over fifty per cent" matches "more than half".

2. FALSE Supporting sentence: "Manchester ... had passed 300,000 by 1850, almost entirely through migration from the surrounding countryside and from Ireland". Migration, not local births. Direct contradiction.

3. TRUE Supporting sentence: "The waterborne origin of the disease was not understood until Dr John Snow's investigation of a Soho outbreak in 1854". Direct paraphrase.

4. FALSE Supporting sentence: "The 1848 Public Health Act allowed local boards to be set up where mortality exceeded a national threshold". "Allowed" is permissive, not "required" all councils. The statement overstates the Act.

5. B — roughly three times that of rural villages Supporting sentence: "a death rate among children that, in the worst districts, exceeded that of rural villages by a factor of three". "Factor of three" = "roughly three times".

6. B — unhealthy environmental conditions Supporting sentence: "shocked Parliament with its evidence that filth, not vice, drove urban mortality". "Filth" matches "unhealthy environmental conditions"; A is the trap (vice).

7. 1831 Supporting sentence: "Cholera epidemics, unknown in Britain before 1831". The number counts as one word.

8. threshold Supporting sentence: "allowed local boards to be set up where mortality exceeded a national threshold". Single-word answer.

9. rural Supporting sentence: "although it would not match the rural rate until well into the twentieth century". Single-word answer; the question supplies "rate".