托福英语 学英语,练听力,上听力课堂! 注册 登录
> 托福 > 托福听力教程 > 托福听力短文 >  第72篇

托福听力短文 II-08-3

所属教程:托福听力短文

浏览:

手机版
扫描二维码方便学习和分享
https://online2.tingclass.net/lesson/shi0529/0008/8562/0083.mp3
https://image.tingclass.net/statics/js/2012

(W-JA) Today, I want to talk about the Cariboo gold rush of 1858, which began when gold was discovered in the frontier town of Quesnel [k-NEL] Forks in the Canadian province of British Columbia. By 1861 thousands of men had flocked to the region hoping to strike it rich. Naturally, as the town grew, supplies had to be brought in, and this was done with mules.

Now the mules were quite reliable, but there were some drawbacks. For example, a mule carrying a heavy load could travel only 15 miles in a day --- meaning that a typical trip into Quesnel could take as long as 20 days. So, as the demand for supplies continued to grow, a group of merchants and packers decided to try a new approach --- believe it or not, they shipped in a herd of camels. I know that sounds strange, but camel trains had been used quite effectively during the California gold rush some 10 years earlier.

But the results in the Cariboo region weren't quite the same. In fact it was a disaster. The camels couldn't carry the heavier loads the merchants expected them to. Their two-toed feet were perfect for desert travel, but they weren't suited for Cariboo's rugged mountain terrain. To make matters worse, the mules became very agitated whenever they came across a camel --- and that caused a lot of accidents on the treacherous mountain trails. The mulepackers went so far as to threaten the camel owners with a lawsuit. But the reason the merchants finally got rid of the camels is because these animals simply weren't cut out for the job.

用户搜索

疯狂英语 英语语法 新概念英语 走遍美国 四级听力 英语音标 英语入门 发音 美语 四级 新东方 七年级 赖世雄 zero是什么意思濮阳市咖啡时光英语学习交流群

网站推荐

英语翻译英语应急口语8000句听歌学英语英语学习方法

  • 频道推荐
  • |
  • 全站推荐
  • 推荐下载
  • 网站推荐