托福听力
Questions 44 through 46 Listen to a talk in a class about United States history. Last week, you recall, we discussed the early development of railroads in the United States. Today I want to mention an even earlier form of transportation, one that brought the first European settlers to America. And that’s the wooden sailing ship. From colonial times sailing ships were vital to the economy. Many coastal towns depended on fishing or whaling for employment and income. This was especially true in the northeastern states. And there the wood from nearby forests and the skills of local designers and workers also formed the basis of an important shipbuilding industry. But the big profits were to be made on trade with far away places. And since sea captains often became part of owners of their ships, they had a strong interest in the commercial success of their voyages. So these Yankees, that’s what US sailor and officers came to be called, they carried on a very profitable trade with other parts of the world. The high point of this trade came in the mid-19th century with the introduction of the clipper ship, the Enormous Yankee clippers with huge sails reaching nearly two hundred feet into the sky. He’d carry passengers and cargo from New York around South American to San Francisco in less than three months and clear to China in just half a year. At that time this seemed unbelievably fast and efficient. But in the 1860s, more reliable steam-powered ships began to take over. And soon the important role of sailing ships in the US economy would come to an end.