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OFFICIAL33 According to paragraph 3, what was a disadvantage of shipping goods from northwestern areas to New Orleans?

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Railroads and Commercial Agriculture In Nineteenth-Century United States
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By 1850 the United States possessed roughly 9,000 miles of railroad track; ten years later it had over 30,000 miles, more than the rest of the world combined. Much of the new construction during the 1850s occurred west of the Appalachian Mountains – over 2,000 miles in the states of Ohio and Illinois alone.

The effect of the new railroad lines rippled outward through the economy. Farmers along the tracks began to specialize in crops that they could market in distant locations. With their profits they purchased manufactured goods that earlier they might have made at home. Before the railroad reached Tennessee, the state produced about 25,000 bushels (or 640 tons) of wheat, which sold for less than 50 cents a bushel. Once the railroad came, farmers in the same counties grew 400,000 bushels (over 10,000 tons) and sold their crop at a dollar a bushel.



The new railroad networks shifted the direction of western trade.
In 1840 most northwestern grain was shipped south down the Mississippi River to the bustling port of New Orleans. But low water made steamboat travel hazardous in summer, and ice shut down traffic in winter. Products such as lard, tallow, and cheese quickly spoiled if stored in New Orleans’ hot and humid warehouses. Increasingly, traffic from the Midwest flowed west to east, over the new rail lines. Chicago became the region’s hub, linking the farms of the upper Midwest to New York and other eastern cities by more than 2,000 miles of track in 1855. Thus while the value of goods shipped by river to New Orleans continued to increase, the South’s overall share of western trade dropped dramatically.



A sharp rise in demand for grain abroad also encouraged farmers in the Northeast and Midwest to become more commercially oriented. Wheat, which in 1845 commanded $1.08 a bushel in New York City, fetched $2.46 in 1855; in similar fashion the price of corn nearly doubled. Farmers responded by specializing in cash crops, borrowing to purchase more land, and investing in equipment to increase productivity.

As railroad lines fanned out from Chicago, farmers began to acquire open prairie land in Illinois and then Iowa, putting the fertile, deep black soil into production. Commercial agriculture transformed this remarkable treeless environment. To settlers accustomed to eastern woodlands, the thousands of square miles of tall grass were an awesome sight. Indian grass, Canada wild rye, and native big bluestem all grew higher than a person. Because eastern plows could not penetrate the densely tangled roots of prairie grass, the earliest settlers erected farms along the boundary separating the forest from the prairie. In 1837, however, John Deere patented a sharp-cutting steel plow that sliced through the sod without soil sticking to the blade. Cyrus McCormick refined a mechanical reaper that harvested fourteen times more wheat with the same amount of labor. By the 1850s McCormick was selling 1,000 reapers a year and could not keep up with demand, while Deere turned out 10,000 plows annually.

The new commercial farming fundamentally altered the Midwestern landscape and the environment. Native Americans had grown corn in the region for years, but never in such large fields as did later settlers who became farmers, whose surpluses were shipped east. Prairie farmers also introduced new crops that were not part of the earlier ecological system, notably wheat, along with fruits and vegetables. Native grasses were replaced by a small number of plants cultivated as commodities. Corn had the best yields, but it was primarily used to feed livestock. Because bread played a key role in the American and European diet, wheat became the major cash crop. Tame grasses replaced native grasses in pastures for making hay.

Western farmers altered the landscape by reducing the annual fires that had kept the prairie free from trees. In the absence of these fires, trees reappeared on land not in cultivation and, if undisturbed, eventually formed woodlots. The earlier unbroken landscape gave way to independent farms, each fenced off in a precise checkerboard pattern. It was an artificial ecosystem of animals, woodlots, and crops, whose large, uniform layout made western farms more efficient than the more-irregular farms in the East.

5.According to paragraph 3, what was a disadvantage of shipping goods from northwestern areas to New Orleans?

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【题目翻译】根据第3段,将货物从西北地区运往新奥尔良有什么缺点? A:从新奥尔良到东部城市的货物没有可靠的运输方式。 B:从河流到新奥尔良的运费继续上涨。 C:从新奥尔良周边地区装运的货物,由于运输成本较低,具有显著的竞争优势。 D:存放在新奥尔良仓库的货物由于高温和潮湿而经常变质。 【判定题型】:题目问的是文章中的具体细节信息,故根据题目问法可以判断本题为事实信息题。 【关键词定位】:根据关键词“disadvantage”,定位到Passage 3 第3、4句,原句为“But low water made steamboat travel hazardous in summer, and ice shut down traffic in winter.Products such as lard, tallow, and cheese quickly spoiled if stored in New Orleans’hot and humid warehouses.”,意思是“但是夏天水位低,蒸汽船的航行很有危险,冬天冰就封锁了交通。像猪油、牛脂和奶酪这样的产品如果存放在新奥尔良闷热潮湿的库房中的话就会很快融化。”。 【逻辑分析】题目问从西北将货物用船运到新奥尔良市的一个缺点是什么。所以我们要用关键词disadvantage去定位负面的信息,或者是带有否定、转折含义的逻辑关联词。在本段中,看到第三句话开头的“but”这个词,说明后面的内容可能与题目相关。第三句话说夏天的温度和冬天的温度都有可能对水道造成影响,阻碍航行。第四句说用船运食物,在闷热潮湿的环境下食物可能会坏掉。 【选项分析】 A.未说船的运输方式不可靠,只是有些缺点,故错误。 B.文章未说运费 ,只说了商品价值和总体盈利额,故选项错误。 C.其实是不太具有竞争优势的,因为存放在新奥尔良仓库的货物由于高温和潮湿而经常变质。故错误。 D.文章对应了D选项中的温度和湿度这两个要点。故D选项正确。

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