[originaltext] Good afternoon, everybody, today I am going to tell you some

Good afternoon, everybody, today I am going to tell you some information about agricultural trade in the United States in the past. About 200 years ago, the United States economy was growing quickly, mainly because of booming trade in grain and cotton. This trade went on near or at the coast where goods can be sold by ship, or near rivers where boats can run. It took place there because it was so expensive to transport goods over the roads that existed. They were muddy, narrow, and hard to travel on. At that time, don’t forget there was only one continuous road that existed in the US, and it was made up of north-to-south local country roads, linked together to get one long road. Within a short time, the first east-to-west roads were built. They were sort of like the present highways. Private companies built these roads, and collected fees from all vehicles travelled on them. These companies knew how to make their own luck and that meant being in the right place at the right time with the right tools. Eventually, a network of roadways connected some major cities and towns. But even these roads were still very slow, and travelling on them was too costly for farmers. Farmers would spend much money to move their crops on these roads that they cannot afford. So, we see that even with some major improvements in roadways, farmers still had to rely on rivers to move their crops to markets.
    Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.
    9. What is the passage mainly about?
    10. What caused the growth of the US economy about 200 years ago?
    11. What did private companies do after they built new roads?