【雅思听力】邮局的猫(2/4)

英语自学网

全文听写，英式拼法

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HINTS
Queen Victoria
How come the post office had the idea to employ cats?
Usually the public had to queue inside post offices for their mail. The whole idea of the post office employing cats to control the rodent population goes back to the days prior to 1867. As a part of the jubilee celebration of the Queen Victoria, it was decided that there would be a house-to-house delivery of letters by postmen. As a result, there was a huge accumulation of letters and parcels at post offices. Vast numbers of rats and mice began to hide amongst the mail and nibbled at letters and parcels.
Yes, I see. They caused great damage to the mail.
That's right. So in 1868, the post office authorities decided to employ cats to keep the rodent population under control. Most of the cats they employed were females.
Why was that?
Because it was thought that females were better and more persistent hunters than the males. If the number of mice in a post office did not decline greatly after six months, then these cats were to be dismissed from their place of work.