[单项选择]It is said that George Washington was one of the first to realize how important the building of canals would be to the nation’s development. In fact, before he became President, he headed the first company in the United States to build a canal which was to connect the Ohio and Potomac rivers. It was never completed, but it showed the nation the feasibility of canals. As the country expanded westward, settlers in western New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio needed a means to ship goods. Canals linking natural waterways seemed to offer an effective solution.
In 1791 engineers commissioned by the state of New York investigated the possibility of a canal between Albany on the Hudson River and Buffalo on Lake Erie, which would link the Great Lakes area with the Atlantic seacoast. It would avoid the mountains that served as a barrier to canals from the Delaware and Potomac rivers.
The first attempt to dig the canal, to be called the Erie Canal, was made by private companies, but only a
A. They were being planned but had not yet been built.
B. They were seriously underdeveloped.
C. They had begun to compete with the Erie Canal for traffic.
D. They were weakened by the expansion of the canal.

[单项选择]It is said that George Washington was one of the first to realize how important the building of canals would be to the nation’s development. In fact, before he became President, he headed the first company in the United States to build a canal which was to connect the Ohio and Potomac rivers. It was never completed, but it showed the nation the feasibility of canals. As the country expanded westward, settlers in western New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio needed a means to ship goods. Canals linking natural waterways seemed to offer an effective solution.
In 1791 engineers commissioned by the state of New York investigated the possibility of a canal between Albany on the Hudson River and Buffalo on Lake Erie, which would link the Great Lakes area with the Atlantic seacoast. It would avoid the mountains that served as a barrier to canals from the Delaware and Potomac rivers.
The first attempt to dig the canal, to be called the Erie Canal, was made by private companies, but only a
A. He was President at the time the Erie Canal was built.
B. He was involved in pioneering efforts to build canals.
C. He successfully opened the first canal in the United States.
D. He commissioned engineers to study the possibility of building the Erie Canal.

[简答题] George Washington Carver showed that plant life was more than just food for animals and humans. Carver’’s first step was to analyze plant parts to find out what they were made of. He then combined these simpler isolated substances with other substances to create new products. The branch of chemistry that studies and finds ways to use raw materials from farm products to make industrial products is called chemurgy. Carver was one of the first and greatest chemurgists of all time. Today the science of chemurgy is better known as the science of synthetics. Each day people depend on and use synthetic materials made from raw materials. All his life Carver battled against the disposal of waste materials, and warned of the growing need to develop substitutes for the natural substances being used up by humans. Carver never cared about getting credit for the new products he created. He never tried to patent his discoveries or get wealthy from them. He turned down many offers to leave Tu