学位英语

The Conquest of Distance

1　In 1848,pioneers who crossed the American continent in their wagons made the trip in 109 days. Today a New York family can drive by automobile to San Francisco in less than a week or make the trip in several days by train, or fly there in five hours. The transportation has conquered the vastness of the land and brought together people living thousands of kilometers apart,

2　Railroads played a major role in uniting the far reaches of the continent. In 1830 there were only 37 kilometers of railroad track in the United States. But by 1863, two companies proposed to connect the east and west coast by a railroad all the way across the continent. Advancing eastward from California, the Central Pacific pushed forward across the desert;the Union Pacific moved slowly westward over the mountain plateaus. Finally, in 1869, the tracks of the two railroads met, and the first transcontinental railroad--the first real link between east and west-was completed.

3　Although the railroads brought towns and cities together, they could not go everywhere. In many parts of America, distances are so great that automobiles are necessities, not luxuries. As we have noted, most American farmers do not live in villages but are sometimes kilometers from their nearest neighbor and even hundreds of kilometers from a town. Large-scale farming is common in many parts of the United States today, but it did not become profitable until there were trucks and tractors. Trucks and cars go wherever there is a road and the more than six million kilometers of roads bring every field and barn into the circle of civilization.

4　The family automobile has helped to bring people of the United States two other things-two things which can seldom exist at the same time: community life and the privilege of privacy. In the early days of industrialization, factory workers lived close together, within walking distance of their jobs. As industries grew, more and more working class families lived together in crowded conditions. But with the construction of longer and better roads and with the greater availability of automobiles and other means of rapid transportation, it was no longer to live close to the factory. New residential areas, suburbs, grew up outside the big cities and, increasingly, industry and commerce concentrated in the cities. Every morning, millions of Americans dive their automobiles to work in the city, sometimes a distance of around 100 kilometers. At night they drive home to houses and apartments outside the cities, surrounded by trees and lawns.

5　Automobiles and other methods of rapid transportation are also changing American industry. Instead of continuing to concentrate in the big cities, industry is building factories in previously undeveloped areas. Because the means of transportation are available, it is not hard to transport people as well as materials to the places where they are needed. This factor was largely responsible for the remarkable growth of the Pacific Coast during and after World WarⅡ. As industries built new factories in the Far West, Americans from all over the country moved west to take advantage of new jobs and new opportunities.

6　The airplane, too, has played a major role in uniting Americans. Only 70 years after the Wright brothers made the first successful airplane flight, the United States had move than 277,000 kilometers of regular flight routes. People and goods can now travel to every part of the country in less time than ever before. Human beings have conquered the distances which lie between them.

23　Paragraph 2 ____________

24　Paragraph 3 ____________

25　Paragraph 4 ____________

26　Paragraph 6 ____________

A　Automobiles promote farming.

B　Planes bring people even closer.

C　Railroads unite the whole country.

D　Building railroads is costly.

E　Transportation makes it possible for workers to move out of cities.

F　People can travel all over the world.

27　In the early days it took more than three months for people ____________.

28　Not until trucks and tractors came into wide use ____________.

29　While family automobiles have given people greater freedom to move about, they have at the same time deprived people ____________.

30　Faster than both trains and automobiles, planes have shortened the distance between people ____________.

A　of the opportunities to live more closely with others

B　did large-scale farming become possible

C　was quickly popularized

D　to an even greater degree

E　to travel from the east of the country to the West

F　was greatly improved

答案：CAEB EBAD

相关推荐：2017年职称英语报名时间及入口

报考条件：综合类，理工类，卫生类考试原则上没有严格的界限。职称英语考试报名可在单位报，评职称与户口无关，主要看你的工作单位，所以你可以直接咨询单位的人事部门，如果他们说可以就行，每个省规定不大一样。【查看详情】

报考选择：职称英语报考科目|级别选择|报名条件及相关问题解答

免考规定：取得外语(从事翻译工作人员及外语教师第二外语)专业专科及以上学历的人员申报中、高级职称评审……。【查看详情】

（责任编辑：hbz）

共2页,当前第1页  第一页  前一页  下一页