首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Economic Decline in Europe During the Fourteenth Century P1: Some very negative factors accounted for the economic crisis in fou
Economic Decline in Europe During the Fourteenth Century P1: Some very negative factors accounted for the economic crisis in fou
admin
2018-10-18
23
问题
Economic Decline in Europe During the Fourteenth Century
P1: Some very negative factors accounted for the economic crisis in fourteenth-century Europe. With minimal human influence, the climate in Europe in the 1300s changed drastically, and the results were devastating. For seven years the weather turned abnormally cold and wet, triggering floods and ruining crops. There is substantial historical evidence for the Little Ice Age. The Baltic Sea froze over, as did many of the rivers and lakes in Europe. All of these indicate that during the fourteenth century, Europe’s average annual temperature declined approximately two degrees Celsius—this may sound like very little at first, but if one considers current projections about the possible effects of global warming, in which the average annual temperature shift is only one degree Celsius, a rather different impression emerges. As the temperature dropped, shortening the summer growing season and affecting the resilience of certain vegetable species, the wind and rain increased. During the coldest times, England’s growing season was shortened by one to two months compared to present day values.
The availability of varieties of seed today that can withstand extreme cold or warmth, wetness or dryness, was not available in the past. Therefore, climate changes had a much greater impact on agricultural output in the past.
P2: The next essential change occurred in the geopolitics of the Mediterranean world. The trade routes served principally to transfer raw materials, foodstuffs, and luxury goods from areas with surpluses to others where they were in short supply. The Byzantine trade was among the most advanced in Europe and the Mediterranean for many centuries. The decline of the Byzantine Empire, which had dominated the eastern Mediterranean, meant the interruption of trade routes to central and eastern Asia. The empire once operated as a prime hub in a trading network that at various times extended across nearly all of Eurasia and North Africa, in particular as the primary western terminus of the famous Silk Road. European interest in circumnavigating Africa and exploring westward into the Atlantic Ocean, in fact, originated in the desire to avoid the roadblock in the eastern Mediterranean and to tap directly into the trade with eastern Asia that had long sustained Europe’s economic growth.
P3: A more immediate cause of the ailing economy was an observable absence: since the eleventh century there had been few innovations in the agricultural technology. The groundwork for disaster was laid when populations exploded, as roughly the same farming methods as those adopted two hundred years prior were still in use, which brought a disruption in the food supply. With a much larger population to feed, there was little surplus left to generate fresh capital. Although the failure of agriculture to keep up with the growing population did not become a crisis until the fourteenth century, clear signs of the problem had already emerged by the middle of the thirteenth century, when occasionally low yields due to bad weather or social disruption revealed how perilous the balance between Europe’s population and its food supply had become. Farmlands most recently brought under cultivation during the economic crisis of the twelfth century witnessed the first evident tentativeness of the food supply. The less established farmers of these lands frequently did not have the ability to survive successive poor harvests. Tenant farmers unable to pay their rents were thus heavily in debt, and landlords who collected rents for their financial source tended to rely considerably on urban financiers for credit.
P4: The credit crisis afflicted almost all European countries and the most remarkable of which was England. The cycle of indebtedness was hardly inevitable, but the string of bank failures and commercial collapses in the first half of the fourteenth century was striking. The famed Bardi and Peruzzi banks of Florence (the two largest financial houses of Europe) collapsed spectacularly in the 1340’s. They were soon followed by the Riccardi bank of Lucca, whose massive loans had kept the English government afloat for years. Many more houses collapsed in turn.
P5: Farm expansion in Europe had come to an end by the year 1300. Much farm land fell into disuse, reducing the output of food.
Farm animals died, further diminishing the food supply. With all the deaths and drop in demand for food, the price of food dropped. In cities of Western Europe, with fewer people to work the demand for labor increased, as did wages. Consequently, large-scale migration of rural populations rushed into the cities. Europe’s overall population growth from 1050 to 1300 had been primarily due to an increase in the number of rural folk. Many cities doubled in size, and some even tripled, over the course of just one or two generations. Few were capable of absorbing such large numbers of people.
P3: ■ A more immediate cause of the ailing economy was an observable absence: since the eleventh century there had been few innovations in the agricultural technology. ■ The groundwork for disaster was laid when populations exploded, as roughly the same farming methods as those adopted two hundred years prior were still in use, which brought a disruption in the food supply. ■ With a much larger population to feed, there was little surplus left to generate fresh capital. ■ Although the failure of agriculture to keep up with the growing population did not become a crisis until the fourteenth century, clear signs of the problem had already emerged by the middle of the thirteenth century, when occasionally low yields due to bad weather or social disruption revealed how perilous the balance between Europe’s population and its food supply had become. Farmlands most recently brought under cultivation during the economic crisis of the twelfth century witnessed the first evident tentativeness of the food supply. The less established farmers of these lands frequently did not have the ability to survive successive poor harvests. Tenant farmers unable to pay their rents were thus heavily in debt, and landlords who collected rents for their financial source tended to rely considerably on urban financiers for credit.
The word "accounted for" in the passage is closest in meaning to
选项
A、predicted
B、explained
C、typified
D、worsened
答案
B
解析
【词汇题】accounted for意为“导致”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/6chYFFFM
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
Completethesentencesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.Inthehome,oneofthemostimportantusesofwa
Whichattitudeisassociatedwiththefollowingpeopleduringtheconversation?ChooseSIXanswersfromtheboxandwritetheco
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.TheroleofsleepinhumansandanimalsImportanceofsl
Completethenotesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.EffectsofurbanenvironmentsonanimalsIntroductionRecenturba
ChooseTWOletters,A-E.WhichTWOsubjectsdidMartinalikebestbeforegoingtouniversity?AArtBHistoryCFrenchDEnglish
ChooseTWOletters,A-E.WhichTWOsubjectsdidMartinalikebestbeforegoingtouniversity?AArtBHistoryCFrenchDEnglish
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.Dianawasdisappointedbecause
WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSAND/ORANUMBERforeachanswer.MonarchButterfliesHibernationButterflyspeciesadoptdifferent
AsystemwasdevelopedtocontroltrafficcongestionontheM25motorway.Expertsuse【L5】________informationfromthemotorw
HowtoMakePersonalControlofOne’sHealth【L31】________shouldtakechargeoftheirhealth.Thesinglegreatestthreattoheal
随机试题
患者,男,35岁。左肾和右侧输尿管下段结石各l枚。直径分别约1.3-1.5cm。IVP提示双肾积水。若患者行上述治疗后,出现暂时性肉眼血尿,正确的处理方法是
肛裂的典型临床表现是
心衰心肺气虚,痰投痹阻型治宜心衰心肾阳虚,水饮泛滥治宜
根据《水利工程建设项目施工监理规范》SL288—2014,施工监理在工程资金控制方面的工作包括()。
建设单位A将某工程承包给建筑企业B建造,C为该工程监理公司,建筑企业B为该工程投保了建筑工程一切险,则该保险合同的主体是( )。
关于城镇土地使用税的纳税义务发生时间,表述正确的有()。
根据国有资产管理法律制度的规定,某事业单位发生下列情形,其中应当对相关国有资产进行评估的有()。(2016年)
根据消费税的有关规定,下列表述不正确的是()。
表外业务
甲乙曾一起合伙做生意,后甲退出,乙继续做生意。后乙的生意越做越大,赚的钱越来越多。甲眼红,觉得乙赚的钱里也有自己的一份。一日,甲约乙来家里喝茶叙旧,言谈间发生争执,甲一怒之下用刀将乙捅死。杀死乙后,甲用塑胶袋将乙带离家里,找个偏僻的地方掩埋。三日后,甲打
最新回复
(
0
)