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OFFICIAL46 Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points. Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong. To remove an answer choice, click on it. During the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300), Europe underwent a commercial revolution.

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The Commercial Revolution in Medieval Europe
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Beginning in the 1160s, the opening of new silver mines in northern Europe led to the minting and circulation of vast quantities of silver coins. The widespread use of cash greatly increased the volume of international trade. Business procedures changed radically. The individual traveling merchant who alone handled virtually all aspects of exchange evolved into an operation involving three separate types of merchants: the sedentary merchant who ran the "home office" financing and organizing the firm's entire export-import trade; the carriers who transported goods by land and sea; and the company agents resident in cities abroad who, on the advice of the home office, looked after sales and procurements.

Commercial correspondence, unnecessary when one businessperson oversaw everything and made direct bargains with buyers and sellers, multiplied. Regular courier service among commercial cities began. Commercial accounting became more complex when firms had to deal with shareholders, manufacturers, customers, branch offices, employees, and competing firms. Tolls on roads became high enough to finance what has been called a road revolution, involving new surfaces and bridges, new passes through the Alps, and new inns and hospices for travelers. The growth of mutual trust among merchants facilitated the growth of sales on credit and led to new developments in finance, such as the bill of exchange, a device that made the long, slow, and very dangerous shipment of coins unnecessary.

The ventures of the German Hanseatic League illustrate these advancements. The Hanseatic League was a mercantile association of European towns dating from 1159. The league grew by the end of the fourteenth century to include about 200 cities from Holland to Poland. Across regular, well- defined trade routes along the Baltic and North seas, the ships of league cities carried furs, wax, copper, fish, grain, timber, and wine. These goods were exchanged for finished products, mainly cloth and salt, from western cities. At cities such as Bruges and London, Hanseatic merchants secured special trading concessions, exempting them from all tolls and allowing them to trade at local fairs. Hanseatic merchants established foreign trading centers, the most famous of which was the London Steelyard, a walled community with warehouses, offices, a church, and residential quarters for company representatives. By the late thirteenth century, Hanseatic merchants had developed an important business technique, the business register. Merchants publicly recorded their debts and contracts and received a league guarantee for them. This device proved a decisive factor in the later development of credit and commerce in northern Europe.

These developments added up to what one modern scholar has called "a commercial revolution." In the long run, the commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages (a d 1000-1300) brought about radical change in European society. One remarkable aspect of this change was that the commercial classes constituted a small part of the total population—never more than 10 percent. They exercised an influence far in excess of their numbers. The commercial revolution created a great deal of new wealth, which meant a higher standard of living. The existence of wealth did not escape the attention of kings and other rulers. Wealth could be taxed, and through taxation, kings could create strong and centralized states. In the years to come, alliances with the middle classes were to enable kings to weaken aristocratic interests and build the states that came to be called modern.

The commercial revolution also provided the opportunity for thousands of agricultural workers to improve their social position. The slow but steady transformation of European society from almost completely rural and isolated to relatively more urban constituted the greatest effect of the commercial revolution that began in the eleventh century. Even so, merchants and business people did not run medieval communities, except in central and northern Italy and in the county of Flanders. Most towns remained small. The nobility and churchmen determined the predominant social attitudes, values, and patterns of thought and behavior. The commercial changes of the eleventh through fourteenth centuries did however, lay the economic foundation for the development of urban life and culture.

14.Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points. Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong. To remove an answer choice, click on it. During the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300), Europe underwent a commercial revolution.

A.Merchants adopted new accounting and trading procedures to make long-distance trading more efficient.

B.The faster transportation made possible by improved roads expanded the variety of goods that could be brought to European towns from far away.

C.The increasing importance of commercial trade led to a decline in the influence of traditional sources of power, such as kings and church leaders.

D.The mining of silver improved the security of commercial transactions by allowing coins to replace credit and bills of exchange as the means of exchange.

E.The Hanseatic League was an association of European towns that obtained shipping, trading, and financial benefits for its members.

F.European society became increasingly urban, with better living conditions and a stronger centralized government.

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【题目翻译】说明:下面是文章的简要概括的介绍句。通过选择三个答案来完成总结,这三个答案表达了文章中最重要的观点。有些句子不属于摘要,因为它们表达了文章中没有呈现的想法,或者是文章中的次要思想。 在高中世纪(公元1000-1300年),欧洲经历了一场商业革命。 A:商家采用新的会计和交易程序,使远距离交易更加有效。 B道路的改善使更快的交通成为可能,从而扩大了从远处运到欧洲城镇的商品种类。 C:商业贸易的重要性日益增加,导致传统权力来源的影响力下降,如国王和教会领袖。 D:采银通过允许硬币代替信用和汇票作为交换手段,提高了商业交易的安全性。 E汉萨同盟是欧洲城镇协会,其成员获得航运、贸易和财政利益。 F:欧洲社会越来越城市化,生活条件越来越好,中央政府也越来越强大。 【判定题型】:根据问题的提问方式和6选3的作答方式可以确定该题目为概要小结题。 【选项定位及分析】 A根据原文第一段和第二段的Business procedures changed dramatically 和Commercial accounting became more complex可知,A选项正确。 B选项的隐含的因果逻辑关系在原文没有对应点,错误。 C选项的表述与原文第5段的The nobility and churchmen determined the predominant social attitudes, values….不符。 D选项的allowing coins to replace credit的说法与第2段的 a device that made … coins unnecessary的说法不符。 E选项对Hanseatic League的描述与第3段的表述吻合,为正确选项。 F选项对应原文to relatively more urban 以及which meant a higher standard of living,为正确选项。

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