托福听力短文 II-04-2

(WA) The Old Canada Road is a long-lost trail between the Canadian province of Quebec and Maine, in the northeast corner of the United States. Yes, it really was lost, and finding it again was a complex process that involved state-of-the-art technology. How the location of the road was pinpointed was very interesting, and I'll return to it as soon as I've given you a little background information.

The road was begun in 1817, a few years before Maine even became a state. At the time, Quebec was a major market for livestock, crops, and fish, so a road to Quebec was seen by officials in Maine as necessary for trade. For about 20 years, the movement of people and goods was mostly from Maine to Quebec, but then the trend reversed as thousands of Canadians immigrated to Maine to escape poor crops, a lack of jobs, and the threat of disease. I think it was a cholera epidemic.

Besides these negative reasons, major building projects in Maine also made the state very attractive for the Canadians who needed work. I should stress, though, that immigration during that period went in both directions. In fact, the flow of people and goods went completely unhindered. There wasn't even a border post until around 1850. The people of the time saw Maine and Quebec as a single region, mainly because of the strong French influence, which is still evident in Maine today.

Eventually, the road fell into disuse as a major railway was completed; finally, people simply forgot about it and that's how it came to be lost. This brings me back to the original topic.