For those who make journeys across the world, the speed of travel today has turned the countries into a series of villages．Distances between them appear no greater to a modern traveler than those which once faced men as they walked from village to village. Jet planes fly people from one end of the earth to the other, allowing them a freedom of movement undreamt of a hundred years ago.
　　Yet some people wonder if the revolution in travel has gone too far. A price has been paid, they say, for the conquest (征服) of time and distance. Travel is something to be enjoyed, not endured (忍受).  The boat offers leisure and time enough to appreciate the ever-changing sights and sounds of a journey. A journey by train also has a special charm about it. Lakes and forests and wild, open plains sweeping past your carriage window create a grand view in which time and distance mean nothing. On board a plane, however, there is just the blank blue of the sky filling the narrow window of the airplane. The soft lighting, in-flight films and gentle music make up the only world you know, and the hours progress slowly.
　　 Then there is the time spent being “processed” at a modern airport. People are conveyed like robots along walkways; baggage is weighed, tickets produced, examined and produced yet again before the passengers move to another waiting area. Journeys by rail and sea take longer, yes, but the hours devoted to being “processed” at departure and arrival in airports are luckily absent. No wonder, then, that the modern high-speed trains are winning back passengers from the airlines.
　　Man, however, is now a world traveler and cannot turn his back on the airplane. The working lives of too many people depend upon it; whole new industries have been built around its design and operation. The holiday maker, too, with limited time to spend, patiently endures the busy airports and limited space of the flight to gain those extra hours and even days, relaxing in the sun. speed controls people’s lives; time saved, in work or play, is the important thing—or so we are told. Perhaps those first horsemen, riding free across the wild, open plains, were enjoying a better world than the one we know today. They could travel at will, and the clock was not their master.
【小题1】What does the writer try to express in Paragraph 1?

Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California．That could take several months.  
So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C．Lawmakers in Congress（国会） in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land．Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail—and passengers, too.
Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.
It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach（马车） would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.
Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day.
One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.
The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.
The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: “You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by granted by anyone but God.”
1．What is the passage mainly about?
A．Different ways of sending mail in the United States.
B．The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land.
C．The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail.
D．The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.
2．The reason why Lawmakers wanted to send mail by land was that ________.
A．mail was usually carried west on ships  
B．it was safer to travel to send mail by land
C．it would take less time to send mail by land
D．stagecoaches could carry passengers and mail
3．As is described in the passage, the stagecoach ________.
A．could only stop once a day           
B．was modern with seats ,beds and cooking equipment
C．was a closed wagon operated only by skillful drivers.
D．had different horses or mules pulled all the way
4．What can we learn from the passage?
A．John Buttterfield got thousands of dollars for delivering mail in stagecoaches.
B．John Buttterfield kept his promise to deliver mail straight to the West Coast.
C．Passengers might be robbed by Indians when traveling through the West.
D．Passengers needed to pay one hundred dollars for their journey. 

Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California．That could take several months.  

So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C．Lawmakers in Congress（国会） in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land．Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail—and passengers, too.

Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.

It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach（马车） would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.

Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day.

One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.

The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.

The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: “You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by granted by anyone but God.”

1．What is the passage mainly about?

         A．Different ways of sending mail in the United States.

         B．The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land.

         C．The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail.

         D．The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.

2．The reason why Lawmakers wanted to send mail by land was that ________.

         A．mail was usually carried west on ships  

B．it was safer to travel to send mail by land

         C．it would take less time to send mail by land

D．stagecoaches could carry passengers and mail

3．As is described in the passage, the stagecoach ________.

         A．could only stop once a day                

B．was modern with seats ,beds and cooking equipment

         C．was a closed wagon operated only by skillful drivers.

         D．had different horses or mules pulled all the way

4．What can we learn from the passage?

         A．John Buttterfield got thousands of dollars for delivering mail in stagecoaches.

         B．John Buttterfield kept his promise to deliver mail straight to the West Coast.

         C．Passengers might be robbed by Indians when traveling through the West.

         D．Passengers needed to pay one hundred dollars for their journey. 

Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California．That could take several months.  

So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C．Lawmakers in Congress（国会） in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land．Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail—and passengers, too.

Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.

It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach（马车） would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.

Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day.

One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.

The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.

The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: “You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by granted by anyone but God.”

1．What is the passage mainly about?

       A．Different ways of sending mail in the United States.

       B．The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land.

       C．The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail.

       D．The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.

2．The reason why Lawmakers wanted to send mail by land was that ________.

       A．mail was usually carried west on ships  

B．it was safer to travel to send mail by land

       C．it would take less time to send mail by land

D．stagecoaches could carry passengers and mail

3．As is described in the passage, the stagecoach ________.

       A．could only stop once a day            

B．was modern with seats ,beds and cooking equipment

       C．was a closed wagon operated only by skillful drivers.

       D．had different horses or mules pulled all the way

4．What can we learn from the passage?

       A．John Buttterfield got thousands of dollars for delivering mail in stagecoaches.

       B．John Buttterfield kept his promise to deliver mail straight to the West Coast.

       C．Passengers might be robbed by Indians when traveling through the West.

       D．Passengers needed to pay one hundred dollars for their journey. 

Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California.That could take several months.  
So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C.Lawmakers in Congress（国会） in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land.Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail—and passengers, too.
Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.
It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach（马车） would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.
Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day.
One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.
The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.
The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: “You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by granted by anyone but God.”

1. 1.

   What is the passage mainly about?
   

   1. A.
      Different ways of sending mail in the United States.
   2. B.
      The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land.
   3. C.
      The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail.
   4. D.
      The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.
2. 2.

   The reason why Lawmakers wanted to send mail by land was that ________.
   

   1. A.
      mail was usually carried west on ships  
   2. B.
      it was safer to travel to send mail by land
   3. C.
      it would take less time to send mail by land
   4. D.
      stagecoaches could carry passengers and mail
3. 3.

   As is described in the passage, the stagecoach ________.
   

   1. A.
      could only stop once a day           
   2. B.
      was modern with seats ,beds and cooking equipment
   3. C.
      was a closed wagon operated only by skillful drivers.
   4. D.
      had different horses or mules pulled all the way
4. 4.

   What can we learn from the passage?
   

   1. A.
      John Buttterfield got thousands of dollars for delivering mail in stagecoaches.
   2. B.
      John Buttterfield kept his promise to deliver mail straight to the West Coast.
   3. C.
      Passengers might be robbed by Indians when traveling through the West.
   4. D.
      Passengers needed to pay one hundred dollars for their journey.