参考答案：D

解析：[听力原文]21-25 One of the most popular myths about the United States in the 19th century was that of the free and simple life of the farmers. It was said that the farmers worked hard on their own land to produce whatever their families needed. They might sometimes trade with their neighbors, but in general they could get along just fine by relying on themselves, not on commercial ties with others. This was how Thomas Jefferson idealized the farmers at the beginning of the 19th century. And at that time, this might have been close to the truth especially on the frontier. But by the mid century sweeping changes in agriculture were well underway as farmers began to specialize in raising crops such as cotton or corn or wheat. By late in the century, revolutionary advances in farm machinery have vastly increased production of specialized crops and an extensive network of railroads had linked farmers throughout the country to markets in the east. By raising and selling specialized crops, farmers could afford more and finer goods and achieve a much higher standard of living but at a price. Now farmers are no longer dependent just on the weather and their own effort, their lives are increasingly controlled by banks, which have the power to grant or deny loans for new machinery, and by the railroads, which set the rates for shipping their crops to the market. As businessmen, farmers now have to worry about national economic depressions and the influence of world supply and demand on, for example, the price of wheat in Kansas. By the end of the 19th century, the era of Jefferson’s independent farmer had come to a close.

[分析]： 主旨题。 本题要求听者掌握全文的主要内容。本文主要围绕19世纪美国农民自己自足生活的改变进行，从历史发展的不同阶段分析了这种生活方式改变的原因和结果，因此，涉及自己自足生活的改变的选项d是正确答案。[解题关键] 文章首尾部分一般是全文的中心句，这就需要听者在听一篇文章时，要格外对首尾部分留神，如本文第三句“...but in general they could get along just fine by relying on themselves...”和最后一句“By the end of 19th century, the era of Jefferson’s independent farmer had come to a close.”都涉及到 independence。因此与该词有关的选项有可能就是题解。