第21题:
问答题
A Nation of Immigrants Composed Mainly of the White People The United States of America has long been known as a nation of immigrants and a “melting pot”, because the great majority of its people are immigrants and descendants of settlers who came from all over the world to make their homes in the new land, seeking their dream in America. The first immigrants in American history came from England and the Netherlands. Now the descendants of European immigrants make up 80.3% of the American population of about 250 million. English colonization in North America in the sixteenth century repeatedly failed. It was not until 1607 that the first English permanent settlement in America was establish. The first wave of colonizing activity, which began in 1606 and lasted until 1637, planted three groups of English colonies: Virginia and Maryland on the Chesapeake, the Puritan commonwealths of New England, and the British West Indies, and also the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, which became New York. Some other European countries also established their colonies along North America’s Atlantic coastline. In 1713, the population of the twelve continental colonies was nearly 360,000, a fourfold increase. Quite a lot of them were German and Scots-Irish. Discontented Germans came to English America because the German states had no overseas possessions, and no colonies except those of the English would admit foreigners. Most Germans entered America at Philadelphia, whence they spread out fanwise into the back-country and became the most prosperous farmers in North America. The English-speaking Scots-Irish came from Ulster. They were largely descendents of the Scots who had colonized Northern Ireland when the English were first setting Virginia. After 1713 the pressure of the native Catholic Irish and the restrictive legislation of the British. Parliament forced them to emigrate in drove. As land was dear in the eastern colonies, these fighting Celts drifted to the frontier. A considerable number of southern Irish, mostly Protestants but including Catholic families came at the same time. They were mostly men of property who invested in land and remained in the older-settled regions. Britain gradually established its dominance over North America’s Atlantic coast. It successfully planted 13 colonies by edging out other colonial powers and by driving off the native Indians. Though the first English permanent settlement in America was established in Jamestown in1607, modem America was established in Jamestown in 1607, modem Americans choose to look back to the Pilgrim Father, a group of Puritans who came from England in 1620 for a symbol of the origin of their new country. They were followed by other Englishmen. They were generally known as the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP), who played the leading role in winning America’s independence. Their mother tongue, English, became the official language of the new nation. Today about 33% of Americans are of British origin. They control most of the national wealth and political power. The other white Americans, whose forefathers were from other European countries, are not so influential as the WASPs. All these white European immigrants and their descendants together constitute the majority of the American population. After the American Civil War, a large number of the “new immigrations” came to the United States of America. Even during the Civil War some 800,000 immigrants had entered the United States, and in the ten years after the ending of the war, some 3.25 million immigrants flooded into the cities and the farms of the North and the West. In the single generation from 1880 to 1910 a tidal wave of immigration spilled almost 18 million persons on American shores. Unlike the old immigrations, who were “pushed out” of West Europe by religious persecution or impoverishment, the new immigrations were “pulled to” the United States by the prospect of good jobs and happy life. Most of them were unskilled. The large influx of the new immigrations resulted in the adoption of the Immigration Quota Law by the American government. A lot of Chinese coolies were brought into America after the discovery of gold in California. and for the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. The Chinese-Americans made a great contribution to the development of the American West. But, Chinese-Americans and other Asian-Americans never constitute a majority of the American population. The United States has always been a nation of immigrants composed mainly of the white people. Immigrants from different nations all over the world joined together to make one nation, the American. They speak almost the same kind of English with far less class or regional variety than in Great Britain. They have the same way of life, similar habits and manners. They have established a new universal national culture. With only a few exceptions, the national origins have well been mixed. In this sense, the United States of America has been known as a “melting pot”.
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【参考译文】
白人为主的移民国家 一直以来,美利坚合众国就以移民国家而著称,被称之为“民族大熔炉”。其人口组成的绝大部分是移民,那些移居者怀揣着梦想,从世界各地来到这片新大陆上,并在此生息繁衍。美国历史上的第一批移民来自英国和荷兰。现在,在美国大约2亿5,000万的总人口中,欧洲移民的后裔占到了80.3%。
16世纪时,英国在北美洲的殖民行动屡遭挫败,直到1607年才建立起第一个永久居留地。1606年至l637年间掀起的第一次殖民活动浪潮产生了3个英国殖民地,它们分别是位于切萨皮克湾一带的弗吉尼亚和马里兰,位于新英格兰地区的英国清教徒社区还有英属西印度群岛。荷兰人在新尼德兰建立了殖民地,也就是后来的纽约市。其他欧洲国家也在北美的大西洋沿岸一带建立了自己的殖民地。1713年,22个大陆殖民地的总人口接近36万;到1760年,加上佐治亚地区,殖民地人口达到160万,增加了将近4倍。其中,德国和苏格兰—爱尔兰人占据了较大比例。因为德国没有海外殖民地,而且只有英属殖民地允许外国人进入,所以很多不满于本国现状的德国人来到了北美。他们大多从费城进入美洲,随后便伞状扩散开来,进入边远地区并成为北美最富裕的农场主。那些讲英语的苏格兰—爱尔兰人来自北爱尔兰,他们主要是苏格兰人的后裔。当英格兰在弗吉尼亚落户时,他们的祖先也移居到北爱尔兰。1713年后,由于受到当地信仰天主教的爱尔兰人的迫害和英国议会的限制性立法的影响,他们被迫移居国外。因为当时美国东部殖民地的土地价格较高,所以这些极富斗争性的凯尔特人漂泊到了边境。大批的南方爱尔兰人——其中大部分是新教徒,也有天主教家庭——同期也来到了美洲。他们大部分都是有产者,纷纷购置田地,如今仍然居住在这些早期定居地上。
英格兰逐步确立了对北美大西洋沿岸的统治地位。它排挤掉其他殖民强国、驱赶走本地印第安居民,成功建立了13个殖民地。尽管1607年英格兰人就在詹姆士城建立了美洲的第一个永久定居地,但现今的美国人仍然以“清教徒先驱”——那些于l620年从英格兰来的清教徒——作为他们国家起源的象征。随后,其他的英格兰人接踵而至。这些被称作盎格鲁—撒克逊新教徒的人在美国赢得独立的过程中发挥了极重要的作用。他们的母语——英语也成为这个新生国家的官方语言。如今,约有33%的美国人拥有英国血统。他们掌握了这个国家大部分的财富和政治权力。来自欧洲其他国家的移民后裔远不如他们的影响力大。这些欧洲白种移民和他们的后代共同构成了美国人口的大多数。
内战过后,大批的“新移民”来到美国。内战期间就有约80万移民进入了美国,内战后的10年中,约325万移民潮涌入美国北部和西部的城镇与农场。l880年到1910年间,移民大潮将多达1,800万的移民席卷至美国海岸。与老一代移民不同的是,这些新移民不是因为受到宗教迫害或是因为贫困而离开西欧的,他们或是被称心的工作机会吸引、或是出于对于幸福生活的期盼而来到这里。他们大多没有什么技术专长。新移民的大量涌入致使美国政府颁布了移民分配法来对他们进行调控。
在加利福尼亚发现金矿后,为满足中央太平洋铁路建筑之需,大批的中国苦力来到了美国。华裔人士对美国西部的发展做出了巨大贡献。但是与其他亚裔美国人一样,美籍华人从来没有成为美国人口的大多数。美国一直是以白种人为主体的移民国家。
来自世界各地不同国家的移民组合在一起形成了美国人。他们说着同样的英语,在很大程度上减少了大布列颠曾经存在的阶层和宗教差异。他们有着相同的生活方式、类似的生活习惯和行为方式。他们已经建立起一种新的全民文化。除少数例外者外,不同的民族起源已经融合在一起。这也是美国以“民族大熔炉”而著称的原因所在。
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