Today, the Indianapolis 500, one of the world’s most famous car races, takes about four hours to run. If the Indy 500 had been held in 1895, it would have taken almost three days. The horseless carriage had just been invented a short time before. Top speeds back then were much lower than they are today. For most people, just seeing a car move without a horse pulling it was thrilling enough. The driver’s main concern was making sure the car didn’t break down.
One of the first car races was held in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day in 1895. Folks crowded the streets to gawk at the new machines. The route of the race went through the heart of town. The cars were to go out to a nearby suburb and back. The race covered a distance of about 54 miles. That’s less than one-tenth the distance at Indy. The drivers cranked up their engines and prayed that they wouldn’t break down. Then they were off. The race proved too much for some of the cars. Perhaps they couldn’t withstand the high speeds. The winner of the contest was J. Frank Duryea. He finished the race a bit more than seven hours after he started. He had covered the grueling distance at an average speed of 7.5 miles per hour. That is slower than a modern marathoner can go on foot. Even so, as Duryea finished, the crowd went wild.
In this passage the word "gawk" means ______.
A．laugh
B．stare
C．frown
D．glare
