【2016高考训练】阅读理解—词义猜测题、观点态度题。

　　Carrier Pigeons

　　People have used pigeons to carry messages to one another for hundreds of years. In fact, pigeons were a common way to send messages right up through World War Ⅱ.

　　In 1815 an English banker named Nathan Rothschild made his fortune by relying on messages sent to him by carrier pigeons. English troops were fighting Napoleon's forces in France, and the English were believed to be losing. A financial panic gripped London. Government bonds were offered at low prices. Few people noticed that Rothschild was snapping up these bonds when everyone else was desperately trying to sell them. A few days later, London learned the truth; the Duke of Wellington had defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. The value of the bonds went up, and Rothschild became extremely wealthy-all because his pigeons had brought him news of the victory before anyone else knew of it.

　　Most of the time, however, carrier pigeons were used to benefit an entire country, not just one individual. The United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy, in both World War I and World War , used carrier pigeons. Not only were the birds often the fastest, most reliable way to send messages, they could also be used to reach soldiers far behind enemy lines, where radios and field telephone lines were useless. Since they could easily be released from airplanes or ships, every branch of the armed services used the birds. In World War Ⅱ, more than 3,000 soldiers and 150 officers were needed to care for and train the tens of thousands of birds in the US Pigeon Service.

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