Distraction.
In order to effectively listen to another person when they are speaking to you all other distractions should be eliminated so your complete focus and attention is on the person speaking and nothing else. In this case the distraction was the tv. By switching it off Bjorn has eliminated the barrier to effective listening.
It was the "Transcontinental railroad" that great helped to further the Westward Expansion in the United States after 1865, since although it wasn't oficially completed until 1869, it began to reach further and further west beginning at this time.
Military conflict in and around the middle east
