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  3. Highways Early in the 20th century, most of the street and roads in the U.S. were made of dirt, brick, and cedar wood blocks

Highways Early in the 20th century, most of the street and roads in the U.S. were made of dirt, brick, and cedar wood blocks

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问题                                Highways
    Early in the 20th century, most of the street and roads in the U.S. were made of dirt, brick, and cedar wood blocks. Built for the horse, carriage and foot traffic, they were usually poorly cared for and too narrow to accommodate automobiles.
    With the increase in auto production, private turnpike (收费公路) companies under local authorities began to spring up, and by 1921 there were 387,000 miles of paved roads. Many were built using certifications of 19th century Scottish engineers Thomas Telford and John MacAdam (for whom the macadam surface is named), whose specifications stressed the importance of adequate drainage. Beyond that, there were no national standards for size, weight restrictions, or commercial signs. During World War I, roads thorough the country nearly destroyed by the weight of trucks. When General Eisenhower returned from Germany in 1919, after serving in the U.S. Army’s first transcontinental motor convey, he noted "the old convoy had started me thinking about good, twoline highway, but Germany’s autobahn motorways had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land."
    It would take another war before the federal government would act on a national highway system. During World War II, a tremendous increase in truck and new roads required. The war demonstrated how critical highways were to the defense effort. Thirteen percent of defense plants received all their supplies by truck, and almost all other plants shipped more than half of their products by vehicle. The war also revealed that local control highways had led to a confusing variety of design standards. Even federal and state highways did not follow basic standards. Some states allowed trucks up to 36.000 pounds, while other restricted anything over 7000 pounds. A government study recommended a national highway system of 33,920 miles, and congress passed FederalAid Highway Act of 1944, which called for strict, centrally controlled design criteria.
    The interstate highway system was finally launched in 1956 and has been hailed as one of the greatest public works projects of century. To build its 44000mile web of highways, bridges and tunnel, hundreds of unique engineering designs and solutions had to be work out. Consider the many geographic features of the country: mountains, steep grades, wetlands, rivers, deserts and plants. Variables included the slope of the land, the ability of the pavement to support the load, the intensity of the road use, and the nature of the underlying soil. Urban areas were another problem. Innovative designs of roadways, bridges, overpasses and interchanges that could run through and bypass urban areas soon began to weave their way across the country, forever altering the face of America.
    Longspan, segmentconcrete, cabstayed bridges such as Hale boggs in Louisian and the Sunshine Skyway in Florida, and remarkable tunnels like fort McHenry in Maryland and Mr. Baker in Washington, met many of the nation’s challenges. Traffic control systems and methods of construction developed under the interstate program soon influenced highway construction around the world, and were invaluable in improving the condition of urban and streets and traffic patterns.
    Today, the interstate system links every major city in the U.S., with Canada and Mexico. Build with the safety in mind, the highways have wide lines and shoulders dividing and median or barrier, long entry and exit lanes, curves engineered for safe turns, and limited success. The death rate on highways is half of all other U.S. road (0.86 deaths per 100 million passengers miles compare to 1.99 death per 100 million on all other roads).
    By opening the North American continent, highways have enable consumer goods services to reach people in remote and rural area of the country, spurred the suburbs, and provided people with greater options in terra of jobs, access to cultural programs, health care, and other benefits. Above all, the interstate system provides individuals with what cherish most: personal freedom mobility.
    The interstate system had been an essential element of the nation’s economic growth in terms of shipping and job creation: more than 75 percent of the nation’s freight deliveries arrived by trucks; and most products that arrived by rail or air use interstates for the last leg of the journey by vehicle. Not only has the highway system affected the American economy by providing shipping routes, it has led to the growth of spinoff industries like service stations, motels, restaurants, and shopping centers. It has allowed the relocation of manufacturing plants and other industries from urban areas to rural.
    By the end of the century there was an immense network of paved road, residential streets, expressways, and freeways built to support millions of vehicles. The highway system was officially renamed for Eisenhower to honor his vision and leadership. The year construction began he said: "Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bearUnited states. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts."
The greatest benefit brought about by the interstate system was ______.
选项
答案personal freedom of mobility
解析 该题的定位有一定难度，因为文中没有出现benefit的字眼，所以要根据它的意思在文中搜索，即寻找高速公路的好处的相关信息。据此，我们可以定位在倒数第三段，greatest是对最后一句话中的Above all的同义改写。“Above all，the interstate system provides individuals with what they cherish most：personal freedom of mobility”所以该题的空白处应该填personal freedom of mobility。
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