1 . From quiet paths by a stream in a forest to busy roads running through a city, people have created various forms of routes in different places. These now exist all around us, and their use is imperative for societies. These routes have enabled people to move, transport things, and send information from one place to another quickly and safely. Throughout history, they have been important in our daily lives.
Early routes were often formed naturally on land. They gradually developed over long periods of time while people traveled them on foot or horseback. A significant turning point in their history arrived when the first wheeled carts appeared in ancient times. Once this happened, people recognized the importance of well-maintained routes. Therefore, towns, cities, and entire countries improved them. As a result, life became more convenient, communities grew, economies evolved, and cultures expanded.
People have established routes on water, too. Rivers and canals have served as effective routes for people to move around and carry things. For instance, in the old, Japanese city of Edo, water routes were used for the transportation of agricultural products, seafood, and wood. People have also opened routes across the sea. The seaways were critical for the navigation of ships, particularly in the days when they moved mainly by wind power. Using these sea routes, people could travel great distances, and go to places they had not previously been able to reach.
People have gone on to open routes in the sky as well. Since the invention of the airplane, they have made it possible to travel long distances easily. Eventually, people became able to travel safely and comfortably high in the sky, and going vast distances only took a small amount of time.
Today, we have a new type of route, the Internet. By using this worldwide route, people can easily obtain information that once was available mainly from books and face-to-face communication. They can also instantly send messages to large numbers of people all at once.
As long as there have been people, there have been routes to connect them. Currently unknown routes will surely take us even further in the future.
1. Which of the following is closest to the meaning of the underlined word imperative in paragraph 1?| A．accidental | B．industrial |
| C．essential | D．traditional |
| A．To describe the difficulty of creating routes on the water. |
| B．To emphasize the fact that it was an important city. |
| C．To explain the use of water routes to move along the coastlines. |
| D．To illustrate the important roles of water routes for cities. |
| A．Routes can be thought of as existing invisibly in the world. |
| B．Routes that move information can be regarded as dangerous. |
| C．The fundamental functions of routes are declining. |
| D．The importance of different kinds of routes is the same. |
| A．Humankind first created various types of convenient routes on land. |
| B．Improvements in transportation have come at great cost. |
| C．Technology has interfered with opening up routes around the world. |
| D．The advancement of humanity was aided by the development of routes. |
