单选题

A It was well established.

B It was the same as that available to men.

C It was not highly developed.

D It was only available in the northern states.

解析：
[考点]细节题。在一个多世纪以前，女性受教育的机会开始增长，持续至今，距离美国内战结束也已经超过100年了。可见女性教育的迅速崛起在美国内战之后，在内战之前是没有发展得这么好的。因此C项正确。
【听力原文】
　　Three developments in the United States higher education that people are benefiting from today started more than a century ago following the Civil War. [31]The first of these was the rapid growth of the technological, engineering, architecture, law and medical schools. The second was the provision of graduate study, such as what had long existed in France and Germany: Harvard University and John Hopkins University quickly took the lead in the field, but the state universities did not lag far behind. The third was the increased provision for the education of women. This included the establishment of new women’s colleges, such as Vassar, Wellesley and Smith, and the adoption of co-education in all the new state universities outside the South as well as in many private institutions. These developments, the growth of the technological and professional education, the provision for graduate study, [32] and the increased educational opportunities for women began over a century ago, continue to this day, well over ten decades since the end of the Civil War.
Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.
30. What is the main topic of the passage?
31. Which of the three developments in the American higher education does the growth of professional education belong to?
32. From the passage, what assumption can be made about education for women in the United States prior to the Civil War?