考满分 toefl

1 .Listen to part of a lecture in a history class.

听一段历史课上的演讲

1 .P: Usually in most countries, the responsibility for building and maintaining highways falls to the central government. That hasn't always been the case in the United States, however. Initially, individual states were responsible for building their own roads. So the state of California built California roads, the state of Texas, Texas roads, with each state responsible for its own roads. It's not surprising that many highways in the United States were quite poor, even after the arrival of the automobile.

教授：通常，在大多数国家，修建和维护高速公路的责任落在中央政府身上。然而，在美国情况并非总是如此。最初，各个州负责修建自己的道路。所以，加利福尼亚州修建加利福尼亚的道路，德克萨斯州修建德克萨斯的道路，每个州都负责自己的道路。美国的许多高速公路质量很差，这并不让人感到诧异，甚至在汽车出现之后也是如此。

1 .S: Roads weren't centrally planned. Their dimensions weren't standardized or regulated. Many were plain inadequate, some no more than dirt roads, and because they'd been constructed using low-quality materials, most weren't built to last. Today, if you were to drive across the United States, umm, in terms of the time it takes, you're probably looking at... S: We did it in four days with my parents taking turns driving.

教授：道路没有中央规划，尺寸没有标准化或规范化，很多道路简直是泥土路，而且因为使用质量差的材料建造，大多数都不经久耐用。如今，如果你要驾车穿越美国，考虑到所需的时间，你可能需要…… 学生：和我的父母轮流开车，我们花了四天时间。

1 .P: That sounds about right, but in the 1920s that same trip would have taken you two months. In fact, there's a famous story about Dwight Eisenhower, long before he became president of the United States. Dwight Eisenhower was a young army officer in the 1920s he was involved in a military convoy that crossed the entire United States, and he was astounded to discover the trip took 62 days.

教授：听起来差不多，但在1920年代，同样的旅程会花上两个月。事实上，有一个关于德怀特艾森豪威尔的著名故事，早早在他成为美国总统之前，在20世纪20年代，艾森豪威尔还是一名年轻的军官，他加入了一个穿越整个美国的军事车队，震惊地发现这次旅行用了62天。

1 .P: He subsequently became a leading spokesperson for expanding the nation's highway system. By the middle of the 20th century, there were about 60 million cars in the United States, and this dramatic rise in car ownership was a critical added pressure. The United States was becoming a country of drivers.

教授：随后，他成为扩展全国高速公路系统的主要发言人。到20世纪中期，美国大约有6000万辆汽车，汽车拥有量的急剧上升，成为了一个严重的额外压力。美国正逐渐成为一个全是驾驶者的国家。

2 .When Eisenhower became president, he signed legislation to expand highway system, a public works project of this amplitude had never been undertaken before, and some in the government weren't convinced it was a priority. But finally, in 1956 construction began on what officially became the Interstate Highway System. Now the name Interstate Highway System is significant here, because these new highways, or interstates, cut across state lines and constituted a truly national highway system crisscrossing the country from end to end.

教授：当艾森豪威尔成为总统时，他签署了扩展高速公路系统的立法，如此大规模的公共工程项目以前从未进行过，政府中的一些人不认为这应该成为优先项。但最终在1956年正式开始建设我们所熟知的州际高速公路系统。如今，州际高速公路系统这个名称很重要，因为这些新的高速公路，或者说州际公路，跨越州界，构成了一个真正的全国性高速公路系统，从各个端到端交叉遍布全国。

3 .S: And were the different states okay with this?

学生：那各个州对此没意见吗？

1 .P: Hardly. the interstate was an extremely divisive political issue. In fact, the political challenge was just as great as the engineering one. Until this point, the individual states had authority to build roads how they saw fit. It wasn't easy to reach a compromise between the states and the national government. And then there was the question of who would pay for all of this? S: The States probably didn't want to pay if the control was being taken from them.

教授：很难没有意见。州际公路是一个极具争议的政治问题。事实上，政治挑战与工程挑战同样大。此前，各州有权按照自己认为合适的方式修建道路。很难在各州和国家政府之间达成妥协。还有一个问题是，谁来为这一切买单？ 学生：如果控制权被夺走，各个州可能不愿意支付这些费用。

1 .P: There was a lot of discussion in the end. Construction of the highway system was primarily funded by the national government, usually collected through a tax on gasoline. The government also funneled additional funds to the states for maintenance of the roads. The whole project was very ambitious. Some of the new roads crossed the width of the entire continent.

教授：经过大量讨论，最终高速公路系统的建设主要由国家政府资助，通常是通过对汽油征税来筹集资金的。政府还向各州提供额外资金用于公路维护。整个项目非常雄心勃勃，有些新公路跨越了整个大陆。

2 .The first of these, stretching from San Francisco to New York, was several years behind schedule when it was finished, and most of the interstate highways that were completed at that time had been built to earlier standards, with earlier estimates of traffic density in mind. So paradoxically, a lot of the highways were out of date even before they were finished.

一个从旧金山到纽约的公路完工时，已经落后于计划几年，大多数当时完工的州际公路是按照早期标准建造的，考虑的是早期的交通密度估算。所以，矛盾的是，很多高速公路在完工之前就已经过时了。

3 .Still, the interstate system was a really impressive accomplishment. It eventually included tens of thousands of kilometers of accessible, durable highways. All were built to uniform standards, using concrete reinforced with steel. These new highways were homogenous and predictable regardless of what state they were in.

尽管如此，州际公路系统仍然是一个非常令人印象深刻的成就。它最终包括了数万公里的通畅、耐用的高速公路。所有的高速公路都按照统一的标准建造，使用钢筋混凝土建造。这些新公路，无论在哪个州，都具有一致性和可预测性。

1 .S: But these new roads, didn't they bypass some smaller towns that used to get more traffic? And wasn't that bad for local economy? P: A lot of studies have been done on that, and it's hard to quantify. Businesses that specifically serve travelers. Motels, for example, do seem to lose business when more traffic is rounded around, rather than through towns.

学生：但是这些新公路，不是绕过了一些原本交通量更大的小镇吗？这对当地经济来说不是不好吗？ 教授：很多研究已经对此进行了研究，而且很难量化。专门服务旅行者的企业，比如汽车旅馆，当更多的交通绕过而不是穿过小镇时，似乎确实失去了生意。

2 .But as much as I sympathize with the people that were involved in these businesses, well, good infrastructure, like an efficient road system, is essential for the overall economic growth of a country. And actually, by some markers of economic health, such as employment rates, small towns don't appear to have been affected so significantly.

教授：但尽管我同情那些参与其中的人们，良好的基础设施，比如高效的道路系统，对于国家整体经济增长仍然是至关重要的。而且，实际上，通过某些经济健康指标，比如就业率，小镇似乎并没有受到太大的影响。