听力原文： As settlers moved to California in the mid-nineteenth century, they became concerned about the lack of communications with the eastern United States. Because of the many dangers and hardships of crossing the West, mail often did not arrive. The most important mail was therefore sent by way of Panama, which took a month or more. In 1860 a stagecoach company decided to meet the problem by beginning the Pony Express. The company hired the bravest riders and bought the fastest horses to be used as relay teams between Missouri and California, and the company promised that mail would be delivered in ten days. The company established two hundred stations along the route at which riders could rest and change horses. In less than two years, however, telegraph lines to San Francisco were completed and the Pony Express was no longer needed. (33)