2017年6月大学英语四级短文阅读听力原文
天津东丽湖-
Passage
One
Wild
c
arrots
probably
evolved
with
the
other
flowering
plants
about
360
million
years
ago.
Like
apples,
carrots
are
native
to
Central
Asia.
That's
why
horses,
which
also
come
from
Central
Asia,
like
both
apples
and
carrots
so
much.
With
wild
carrots,
the
roots
are
white,
small
and
skinny,
so
you'd
have
to
pick
a
lot
of
wild
carrots
to
get
enough
to
eat.
Doctors
used
carrot
seeds
and
roots
as
medicine,
on
the
theory
that
foods
that
taste
bad
must
be
good
for
you.
Around
800
AD,
people
in
Central
Asia
managed
to
develop
a
new
kind
of
carrot
—
a
purple
carrot
—
that
attracted
more
interest
from
international
traders.
Then,
in
the
late
1500s,
food
scientists
in
the
Netherlands
cultivated
large,
straight,
sweet,
red
carrots
like
the
ones
we
eat
today.
But
people
still
mostly
fed
carrots
to
horses,
donkeys
and
pigs,
and
didn't
eat
them
themselves.
In
the
1600s,
people
in
China
used
carrots
as
medicine,
but
they
also
ate
carrots
boiled
in
soup.
The
red
color
was
popular
for
Chinese
New
Year
celebrations.
But
carrots
got
their
biggest
boost
during
the
two
world
wars,
when
food
shortages
forced
people
to
eat
them,
and
governments
told
everyone
how
healthy
carrots
were.
Today,
cooler
countries
grow
most
of
the
world's
carrots.
Machines
do
most
of
the
planting
and
picking,
and
carrots
are
easy
to
store
and
ship,
so
they
are
cheap
almost
everywhere.
Questions
16
to
18
are
based
on
the
passage
you
have
just
heard.
16.
What
do
we
learn
from
the
talk
about
wild
carrots?
17.
What
does
the
speaker
say
about
carrots
in
the
late
1500s?
18.
Why
did
people
turn
to
carrots
for
food
during
the
two
world
wars?
Passage
Two
Katherine
loved
Facebook.
With
Facebook,
she
could
stay
connected
with
her
family
no
matter
how
far
away
they
were.
She
could
see
their
photos
and
read
their
status
updates.
With
Facebook,
she
could
keep
her
relatives
up-
to-date
on
what
she
was
doing.
Another
thing
Katherine
loved
about
Facebook
was
that
she
didn't
have
to
think
about
time
zones
when
updating
family.
Whenever
she
called
her
parents
or
other
relatives,
she
always
had
to
think
about
the
time
difference
so
that
she
wouldn't
wake
someone
up
or
call
when
she
knew
they
were
at
church.
Facebook
was
so
convenient.
When
Katherine
joined
Facebook,
some
of
her
classmates
at
high
school
started
to
add
her
as
a
friend.
At
first,
this
didn't
bother
her.
She
loved
learning
about
the
success
of
people
she
knew
when
she
was
just
a
teenager.
She
loved
finding
out
people
were
getting
married,
having
babies,
and
traveling.
Soon,
however,
Katherine
found
herself
comparing
herself
with
the
people
she
was
reading
about
on
Facebook.
It
began
to
make
her
feel
bad
that
some
people
seemed
to
be
doing
so
much
better
than
she
was.
She
was
also
spending
a
lot
of
time
on
Facebook.
It
took
a
lot
of
time
and
energy
to
keep
up
with
everyone's
status
updates.
Katherine
started
to
think.
She
looked
at
the
list
of
over
500
friends
she
had
on
Facebook
and
realized
some
of
them
were
not
really
friends
at
all.
Questions
19
to
21
are
based
on
the
passage
you
have
just
heard.
19.
What
was
one
particular
convenience
Katherine
loved
about
Facebook?
20.
How
did
Katherine
feel
when
her
classmates
added
her
as
a
Facebook
friend?
21.
What
made
Katherine
feel
bad
about
herself
later
on?
Passage
Three
Do
you
know
where
a
mule
comes
from?
It
is
the
child
of
a
donkey
and
a
horse.
Mules
have
strong
muscles
like
horses,
but
they
eat
less,
can
work
longer,
and
are
gentler,
like
donkeys.
George
Washington
was
the
first
person
in
the
United
States
to
own
mules.
He
had
heard
that
mules
made
good
farm
animals
and
he
contacted
the
U.S.
ambassador
in
Spain
to
ask
about
them.
In
1785,
King
Charles
Ⅲ
of
Spain
sent
Washington
a
male
donkey
as
a
gift.
That
male
donkey
became
the
father
of
the
mule
industry
in
the
U.S.
Every
April,
Maury
County
holds
a
Mule
Day
celebration.
Held
in
Columbia,
Tennessee,
Mule
Day
had
its
beginnings
as
Day
in
the
1840s.
Farmers
and
farm
animal
breeders
would
bring
their
animals
to
market
every
April
to
show,
buy,
and
trade.
This
was
an
important
business
before
the
days
of
tractors,
when
many
families
made
a
living
from
farming
and
mules
were
used
as
work
animals.
Eventually,
tractors
began
to
replace
mules,
making
them
less
in
demand.
A
parade
was
added
to
Mule
Day
in
1934
to
attract
more
people.
Over
the
years
other
activities
have
been
added,
and
today
more
than
200,000
people
show
up
each
year
to
watch
and
participate.
If
you
visit
during
Mule
Day
celebrations,
you
might
see
mule-driving
contests,
square
dances,
horse
shows
or
even
tree-cutting
competitions.
Questions
22
to
25
are
based
on
the
passage
you
have
just
heard.
22.
What
does
the
speaker
say
about
mules?
23.
What
do
we
learn
about
the
donkey
which
is
said
to
be
the
father
of
the
U.S.
mule
industry?
24.
What
did
farmers
usually
do
on
Mule
Day
in
the
1840s?
25.
What
made
mules
less
in
demand
in
America?
This
is
the
end
of
listening
comprehension.