雅思听力

🎧 Listening Transcript

Good morning, everyone. Today we're going to discuss the history of the postal service. Before the nineteenth century, mail delivery was slow and unreliable. In the UK, the first official postage stamp, the Penny Black, was introduced in 1840. This innovation made postage affordable for ordinary people. However, it was not until the late nineteenth century that the postal service expanded globally, with the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874. This organization standardized international mail rates and delivery rules. Interestingly, the speaker mentions that the introduction of the railway network in the 1830s greatly sped up mail transport within countries, but the real breakthrough for international mail came with steamships and later airplanes.