听力题 In the West, land was always cheap. Every man was his own master. Yet, he was faced with the problem that he would have to learn to do everything by himself. He had to be his own doctor, mechanic, priest, soldier, and governor. His wife had to make the family’s clothes, teach her children, and help her husband in the fields. She kept a rifle behind the door to protect her children from wild animals. And she knew how to use it. Such was life in the Old West. Those early Americans were not afraid to work. Men who didn’t work didn’t eat. Work was necessary and honorable. With so much to do, Americans kept trying to find quicker and better ways of doing things. They brought eastern ways and experiments with new ways of farming, new religions, new machines, and new types of government. They made many mistakes, but they kept on learning.