During the early years of the twentieth century, wheat was seen as the very lifeblood of Western Canada. When the crops were goo

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问题     During the early years of the twentieth century, wheat was seen as the very lifeblood of Western Canada. When the crops were good, the economy was good; when the crops failed, the economy was slow and terrible. People in city streets watched the yields and the price of wheat with almost as much feeling as if they were growers. The marketing of wheat became an increasing favorite topic of conversation.
    War set the stage for the most dramatic events in marketing the western crops. For years, farmers did not trust the grain selling as carried on through the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. Wheat prices were generally low in autumn, but farmers could not wait for markets to improve. It had happened too often that they sold their wheat soon after harvest when their farm debts were coming due, only to see price rising and some businessmen getting rich. On various occasions, producer groups asked for firmer controls, but government had no wish to become involved, at least not until wartime wheat prices threatened to run wild.
    Anxious to check rising prices and rising living costs, the Canadian government appointed a board of grain experts to handle deliveries of the crops of 1917 and 1918. Grain Exchange trading was suspended and farmers sold at prices fixed by the board. To deal with the crop of 1919, the government appointed the first Canadian Wheat Board, with full authority to buy, sell and set prices.
The author uses the term "lifeblood" (paragraph 1) to indicate that wheat was

选项 A、difficult to produce in large quantities
B、essential to the survival of the nation
C、expensive to gather and transport
D、easily affected by weather

答案B

解析 lifeblood的意思是“生命线”,在这里指小麦对加拿大的国民经济非常重要,所以B是正确答案。
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