时间:2018-12-30 作者:英语课 分类:托福听力短文


英语课
(WA) One of the most popular myths about the United States in the nineteenth century was that of the free and simple life of the farmer. It was said that farmers worked hard on their own land to produce whatever their families needed. They might sometimes trade with neighbors; but in general they could get along just fine by relying on themselves, not on commercial ties with others.

This is how Thomas Jefferson idealized the farmer at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and, at that time, this may have been close to the truth --- especially on the frontier. But by mid-century, sweeping 1 changes in agriculture were well under way as farmers began to specialize in the raising of crops such as cotton or corn or wheat.

By late in the century, revolutionary advances in farm machinery 2 had vastly increased production of specialized 3 crops. And the extensive network of railroads had linked farmers throughout the country to markets in the East and even overseas. By raising and selling specialized crops, farmers could afford more and finer goods and achieve a much higher standard of living --- but at a price.

Now, farmers were no longer dependent just on the weather and their own efforts. Their lives were increasingly controlled by banks, which had power to grant or deny loans for new machinery, and by the railroads, which set the rates for shipping 4 their crops to market. As businessmen, farmers now had to worry about national economic depressions and the influence of world supply and demand on, for example, the price of wheat in Kansas.

And so, by the end of the nineteenth century, the era of Jefferson's independent farmer had come to a close.


adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的
  • The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
  • Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗?
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构
  • Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗?
  • Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。
adj.专门的,专业化的
  • There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
  • These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。
n.船运(发货,运输,乘船)
  • We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
  • There's a shipping charge of £5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。
学英语单词
acronical rising
Adolf Hitler
aforen-on
air-kissing
angle inductosyn
apical meristem
atkinson formula
autogenomatic (levan 1937)
automotive frame
Ban Longlan
Bartolome Esteban Murillo
beinhart
Benjamin Shahn
binomial differentia
biology of animal
Buraymah, Jab.
c-x
chaparral mallow
cheese-boards
chrome garnet
class flagellatas
coal measure
composite iron and steel
coronation anthems
cyclosa quinqueguttata
digital debugging tape
digitizes
dust-ups
erie Congo base
evaporator tube
fatigue theory
filtration resistance coefficient
Forbes disease
four bar guide
frontal forceps
funar
Great Haywood
Gulf War syndrome
hemp tallow packing
high-hanging fruit
hseq
human service
humid soil
immunotherapy
in the fullest sense of the word
inauthentic
inferiority feeling
Jagadhri
lamisils
light airborne multipurpose system (lamps)
line-feeds
linearised equation
low-pressure header
majority view
marmelade
marone
Medina, River
membranosomas
minimum fastness
mows down
mudirias
Mulder's angle
nasus aduncus
negative availability
overfeed pin stenter
overproliferate
paramilitary force
percussed
phalen
place of abode
post - secondary education
prematernal
pull-out distance
question paper
rich men
roughing filter
runs around
Saugus
saws band
shambhala
slag input
Sokwo
solar energy absorber
squamous temporal bone
strombuses
subcordatum
sympycnus nudus
tablet machine
tangina
theft of forest-produce
throat of furnace
throw-back interpolation
Tijuca, L.da
to harvest
toggle-action
tommy lee jones
TTFT
undefouled
unique subroutine
universal control automation
wage slavery system
wheel-chairs