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Over the course of more than 250 years, the US Postal Service has gone through many changes, including switching its focus from newspapers to package delivery service.

In the early 1830s, the Postal Service focused on delivering newspapers to keep Americans informed and connected. To keep newspaper subscriptions cheap and accessible, the Postal Service charged high prices for letter postage as much as a full-day’s wages. In order to help the expansion of the passenger transportation network in the new nation, the agency often shared the letter delivery with stagecoach lines. Later, it did the same for private steamboats and railroads, even airlines

But the competition for the letter delivery became so fierce that a wave of laws between 1845 and 1851 made the Postal Service the only letter-carrier and set aside an annual budget to support the agency. Helped by lowered rates, letters soon became the agency’s main business.

In 1863, the Postal Service began to experiment with home delivery, instead of just carrying letters from post office to post office. By the dawn of the 20th century, even remote farmers’ letters were dropped into their mailboxes. Since then, home delivery has become a “universal public service (UPS)” that every American deserves to receive at a low price.

By the early 20th century, the Postal Service had set a four-pound limit on mail: Anything heavier was supposed to be left to private companies. But the four largest private carriers secretly cooperated to charge confusing and often terribly high rates. In 1913, the Postal Service eventually took the parcel (包裹) service away from the private carriers.

Now the Postal Service’s only growing business is package delivery fed by the online shopping addictions. Since it is required by law to visit every household six days a week, the Postal Service now offers cheap rates to private companies like Amazon and FedEx to deliver their goods to our doorsteps. However, most Americans think that it is unfair to use taxpayer’s money to help such big private companies to deliver their goods.

【小题1】What can we learn from the second paragraph?
A.Letter delivery was once a very profitable business.
B.The US was well connected by airlines in the 1820s.
C.The Postal Service charged high prices for newspapers.
D.In the 1830s. Americans had free access to newspapers.
【小题2】What was the Postal Service’s main business in the 1850s?
A.Goods transportation.B.Letter delivery.
C.Newspaper subscriptions.D.Parcel services.
【小题3】Why is it unfair for private companies to use the Postal Service to deliver their goods?
A.The private companies often charge terribly high rates.
B.The online-shoppers cannot receive their parcels on time.
C.The Postal Service usually leaves parcels in the local post offices.
D.The “UPS” is originally designed for non-commercial home delivery.
【小题4】What is the best title for the text?
A.The Problems of the US Postal Service
B.The Postal Service’s Roles in the US History
C.A Brief History of the US Postal Service
D.The Main Functions of the US Postal Service
22-23高三上·安徽·阶段练习
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Levi Strauss did not invent jeans, but he is considered the first person to make and sell great numbers of them. He was born in Bavaria, an area that is part of Germany. In 1847 he and his family moved to the United States.

Levi Strauss opened a small dry goods store, first in New York, then in San Francisco, California. Among the products he sold were jeans. These pants were especially useful for miners in California. They needed clothing made from a strong material. Jeans are usually made from a heavy cotton cloth called denim.

Levi Strauss partnered with a clothing maker named Jacob Davis. Davis had invented a process for making rivets (铆钉) for jeans. These little metal connectors helped hold the pieces of cloth together to make the jeans stronger.

In 1875, the government gave Strauss and Davis a patent (专利) for their invention. That meant no one else could legally copy it without their permission. In 1928 the Levi Strauss company registered (注册) the word “Levi’s” as a trademark for their product.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington has one of the oldest known pairs of Levi’s. Writer James Sullivan published a book called “Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon.” In the book, he says jeans show two American values, creativity and rebellion.

Cowboys wore jeans in the old Wild West. In the 1950s, people saw famous Hollywood actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando wearing jeans in movies.

Today jeans come in blue but also lots of other colors and in many styles and at all prices.

【小题1】Which of the following about Levi Strauss is TRUE?
A.He invented jeans.B.He was born in the west of America.
C.He used to run a dry goods store in New York.D.He started the Levi Strauss company by himself.
【小题2】Rivets in Jeans were first used to _____.
A.hang little things.B.make the clothes stronger.
C.decorate the clothes.D.protect miners from attacks.
【小题3】From the text, we can learn Levi’s _____.
A.was registered in 1928.B.was given a patent.
C.was the oldest trademark of jeans.D.has ever appeared in movies.
【小题4】The text mainly talks about ____.
A.the meaning of jeans.B.the history of jeans.
C.how jeans are invented.D.why jeans become popular.

There are 195 countries in the world today and actually none of them have purple on their national flags. Throughout history, purple was never used to represent a kingdom.

So what’s wrong with purple? It’s such a popular color today. The answer is really quite simple. Purple was just far too expensive.

The color purple has been related to royal power and wealth for centuries. Queen Elizabeth I didn’t allow anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it. Purple’s unique position comes from the rarity and high cost of the dye used to produce it. The dye was from a small sea snail that was only found in the Tyre area of the Mediterranean. Over 10,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of Tyrian purple; not to mention lots of work went into producing the dye, which made purple dye so expensive even for some royal families. Third century Roman Emperor Aurelio famously wouldn’t allow his wife to buy a scarf made from purple silk because it cost three times its weight in gold. A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold, which equals 56,000 dollars today. Therefore, even the richest countries couldn’t spend that much having purple on their flags.

In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin by accident created a man-made purple dye while attempting to produce an anti-malaria drug. He noticed that it could be used to dye cloth. He patented the dye and mass-produced it. Therefore everybody could afford it.

Till now, a handful of new national flags have been designed and a few of them have chosen to use purple.

【小题1】Why was color purple expensive in the past?
A.Because only royal families were allowed to wear purple.
B.Because it took a long time to get purple dye from snails.
C.Because purple was worth as much as its weight in gold.
D.Because purple dye used to be uncommon and hard to produce.
【小题2】What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 4 refer to?
A.The anti-malaria drug.B.Snails.
C.The man-made purple dye.D.Tyrian purple.
【小题3】What can we infer from the passage ?
A.A few new national flags have chosen to use purple.
B.William Henry Perkin got rich by producing the purple dye.
C.Royal families stop using purple because it’s not expensive.
D.A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold.
【小题4】Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A.No Purple Flags?B.Purple vs. Gold
C.How to Produce Purple Dye?D.The Birth of Purple Color

Paper is one of the most important products ever invented by man. Wide spread use of written language would not have been possible without some cheap and practical material to write on. The invention of paper meant that more people could be educated because more books could be printed and distributed. Together with the printing press, paper provided an extremely important way to communicate knowledge.

How much paper do you use every year? Probably you cannot answer that question quickly. In 1900 the world's use of paper was about one kilogram for each person a year. Now some countries use as much as 50 kilograms of paper for each person a year. Countries like the United States, England and Sweden use more paper than other countries.

Paper, like many other things that we use today, was first made in China. In Egypt and the West, paper was not very commonly used before the year 1400. The Egyptians wrote on a kind of material made of a water plant. Europeans used parchment for many hundreds of years. Parchment was very strong; it was made from the skin of certain young animals. We have learnt of the most important facts of European history from records that were kept on parchment.

【小题1】What's the meaning for the word 'parchment'? ________
A.The skin of young animals.
B.A kind of paper made from the skin of certain young animals.
C.The paper used by European countries.
D.The paper of Egypt.
【小题2】Which of the following is not mentioned about the invention of paper? ________
A.More jobs could be provided than before.
B.More people could be educated than before.
C.More books could be printed and distributed.
D.More ways could be used to exchange knowledge.
【小题3】When did the Egyptians begin to use paper widely? ________
A.Around 1400.B.Around 1900.C.Around 400.D.Around 900.
【小题4】Which of the following countries uses more paper for each person a year? ________
A.China.B.Sweden.C.EgyptD.Japan.

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