听力文本

A baby is born every second, but in Detroit an automobile is born every minute. Most of the automobiles in the World are made in Detroit. Into one end of a Detroit factory go iron and wood, leather, etc., and out at the other end comes an automobile. Every hour of the day，hundreds of automobiles are finished and run out of the factories, to be shipped over the whole World.

I am sitting in a chair that was made from a tree that grew in Michigan, a thousand miles away, before I was born. The upper part of Michigan used to be covered with forests of trees especially suited for making furniture—and more furniture was made there, especially at a place called Grand Rapids, than at any other place in the World. You probably have some Grand Rapids furniture in your own home. Look on the bottom and see if you can find a label “Made in Grand Rapids.” So much furniture was made there that men have cut down and used up most of the trees, and only stumps are left. But the people had learned how to make furniture, and so they kept on making furniture, though now much of the lumber has to be brought to Michigan from other parts of the country.

Side by side, like two children trying to peek out of one small window, are two States looking out on Lake Michigan. They are Illinois and Indiana, written “Ill. and Ind.” for short. The second largest city in the country is in the State of Illinois on the lower end of Lake Michigan. It has an Indian name—Chicago. More trains of cars come into and go out of Chicago than any other city in the World. Most trains going across the United States stop there and start there—freight trains carrying things and passenger trains carrying people.

There are a great many kinds of animals in the World, and yet of all these animals there are only three kinds that people generally eat. These three are the cow, the sheep, the pig. It takes millions of these animals every year to feed all the people in the United States, and millions of these animals are raised in the States near-by and far from Chicago. These animals have to be fed, and the food that is best to make them fat is corn, so whole States grow corn, just to feed cows and sheep and pigs. The State of Iowa grows more corn than any other State, so it is called the Corn State. Some of the corn is shipped to Chicago, but most of it is shipped “on the hoof”—that is, it is fed to the animals and the animals are sent alive to Chicago to be killed. They are kept in big pens called stock-yards until they are killed. From Chicago they are sent in refrigerator cars or ships, everywhere, even to Europe. Chicago is the greatest butcher-shop in the World. The bacon I had for breakfast, the ham sandwich I had for luncheon, and the roast beef I had for dinner came from Chicago.

参考译文

每一秒钟就有一个婴儿降生，但是在底特律每一分钟就有一辆汽车生产出来。世界上的大部分汽车都是在底特律生产的。在底特律的汽车厂一端进去的是钢铁、木材和皮革等材料，另一端出来的就是一辆辆汽车。每天每小时都有几百辆汽车生产出来，开出工厂，准备运往世界各地。

我正坐在一把椅子上，木材取自于一棵早在我出生以前就生长在一千英里以外的密歇根州的大树。密歇根州的北部过去覆盖着大片的森林，那里的树木很适合做家具——那里生产的家具，尤其是一个叫做大瀑布市的地方，比世界上其他任何地方生产出来的家具都要多。你家里或许就有一些大瀑布市产的家具。看看家具的底部，看看能不能找到一个写着“大瀑布市制造”的标签。那里生产了太多的家具，人们已经砍下并用光了大部分的树木，只剩下了树桩在那儿。但是当地的人们已经学会了怎么造家具，所以他们还在不停地生产家具，不过现在很多木材必须从别处运到密歇根州来。

有两个州互相紧挨着面向密歇根湖，就像两个孩子挤在小窗户探头向外看一样。那就是伊利诺伊州和印第安纳州，英语简写为“Ill.”和“Ind.”。美国第二大城市就在伊利诺伊州，位于密歇根湖南部。它有一个印第安名字——芝加哥。芝加哥的铁路是世界上最繁忙的。大多数跨越美国的火车都会在芝加哥停靠或从芝加哥出发——货运列车载着货物，客运列车载着乘客。

世界上有很多种动物，而在这所有的动物中人们通常只吃三种，那就是牛、羊、猪。全美国的人每年要吃掉好几百万头这样的动物，在离芝加哥较近或较远的一些州人们饲养几百万头牛、羊、猪。养这些牲畜就要喂饲料，最能让它们长肥的饲料就是玉米了，因此全国都种植玉米，就是为了养牛、养羊和养猪。爱荷华州种植的玉米比其他任何州的都多，因此被称为“玉米州”。有些玉米被运到芝加哥，但是大部分直接用来喂养牲畜，然后这些牲畜尚未屠宰就运到芝加哥。它们被关在我们称为牲畜围栏的地方，直到被屠宰。被屠宰的动物肉加工后被装上冷藏车或者冷藏船，从芝加哥运到各地，甚至运到欧洲。芝加哥是世界上最大的肉店。我早餐吃的熏肉、午餐吃的火腿三明治和晚餐吃的烤牛肉都来自于芝加哥。