【听力原文】
Today, I would like to begin by discussing early European settlement along one of our well known rivers—the Hudson, which empties into the Atlantic to form New York bay. [22] The Hudson river has a couple of interesting physical features that made it very attractive for settlement by the Europeans.[23] The first is that the river extends inland from the Atlantic Ocean for more than 150 miles with no waterfalls or rapids.Its surface is virtually flat for that entire distance, with no obstacles. Second, [24] the whole 150 mile stretch is influenced by tides from the Atlantic Ocean. Roughly every six hours, the river reverses direction, flowing north when the tide is rising and south toward the ocean when the tide is going down. Obviously there were no obstacles to prevent settlers from moving further upstream on the Hudson river, and this explains why the Dutch penetrated so far inland. They were the first Europeans to settle in the Hudson valley. Of course, to go upstream,the Dutch settlers needed the right kind of boat, and so to navigate the river, they designed a sloop with only one mast but with two sails, one rigged in front of the mast and one behind. [ 25 ] The mast was very tall, in many cases over 100 feet tall, so that the large sails could catch winds blowing above the shore line hills. Hudson river sloops carried passengers and cargo. The cargo ranging from coal, lumber and hay to fruit, vegetables and livestock. Travelling only ten miles an hour in a good wind, the sloop was not too speedy by modem standards, but it was ideally suited to the Dutch settlement, and in fact when the steam boat eventually was introduced, it couldn't keep up with the sloop.
What attracted the Europeans to the Hudson river area?
【解题思路】
1．四项均为以the开头的名词短语，但从后两项来看，并不像是考查主旨的题目。
2．两项含有与优点有关的词；r "(strength，abundance)。
结论：本题可能是问某种优势，具体内容可能与河流有关。
【解析】题干问是什么吸引欧洲人来到了哈德逊河流域。文章开头处提到： “哈德逊河因其自身具有的某些有趣的自然特征吸引了欧洲人来此区域定居。”选项B中的physical features为原词复现，故选B。