Questions 4 to 6 are based on the following conversation.

M： Hey Teresa! Thanks for agreeing to help me review all this history material.

W： No problem, Bob. So do you want to start with the stuff missed yesterday? (4) That is a part about urban problems in the colonial period.

M： Yeah. That’ll be great.

W： OK. Well, when the British were building cities in American colonies, they had to figure out how to make the cities run smoothly, right? Like... (4) Take traffic for instance.

M： Traffic? They had traffic back then?

W： Well, not the same kinds of traffic cities have today. Back in the 18th century there were not any automobiles. But there were other vehicles like coaches and carts, pulled by horses. Only few people could afford to have their own coaches. But there were more and more public coaches and carts. The cart drivers usually overloaded their carts. (5) And these oversized，clumsy carts would slow down the traffic. And when you added to that all the farm animals.

M： Farm animals? In the cities?

W： Lots of them, cattle, pigs and other livestock rolled in the streets. And they really caused trouble, although the pigs at least had good reasons for being there.

M： They did?

W： Yeah, (6) the towns’ people used pigs to clean up the garbage that was thrown into the streets. But then the pigs interfered with the traffic.

M： So what did the colonists do?

W： Well, they passed traffic laws. Like one that said，if your animals were found wandering in the street, they could be seized. Of course people who owned pigs didn’t want to keep them penned up because the pigs were so good at cleaning up the streets.

M： Sounds like a good idea letting them clean up the garbage.

 

题目

Conversation 4

Questions 4 to 6 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation，you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.

Now, listen to the conversation.

4. What is the main topic of the conversation?

A. The difficulty of producing vehicles in colonial America.

B. Traffic problems in colonial American cities.

C. Population growth in colonial American cities.

D. Economic conditions in colonial America.

5. Why were the carts considered the problem in colonial towns?

A. Because carts scared the pigs away.

B. Because carts injured a large number of people.

C. Because carts often moved too slowly.

D. Because carts broke down too easily.

6. According to the conversation, what did colonial towns，people do to clean their streets?

A. They used carts for collecting garbage.

B. They used pigs to get rid of garbage.

C. They burnt the garbage.

D. They set up trash cans.

 

答案解析

Conversation 4

4. B主旨题。比较四个选项可知，选项A和B谈论的对象是交通，而选项C谈论的对 象是人口增长，选项D谈论的对象是经济情形，再根据听前的预测可知本对话的主题是关于交通的，故可初步排除C和D。对话开头处，女士明确提到她要帮助男士复 习昨天错过的与美国殖民地时期的城市问题有关的历史课内容，并以traffic为例给 男士做了详细讲解，再结合整篇对话可推知本对话的主要话题就是关于美国殖民地 时期的城市交通问题。听音前的预测得到了验证。

5. C细节题。女士介绍说当时美国主要的交通工具是公共的coaches(四轮大马车）或 carts(马车），驾驶者们经常会使马车载重过多，这就导致了马车oversized且 clumsy,进而slow down the traffic(阻碍交通），被认为是城市中的一大问题。

6. B细节题。女士明确提到，当时殖民地的城镇里的人们used pigs to clean up the garbage。