问答题Practice 8　　The United States has long been known as a “melting pot”, because many of its people are descended from settlers who came from all over the world to make their homes in the new land. The first immigrants in American history came from Englan

Practice 9　　Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.　　How valuable is history for our generation? On the surface this question is not as easy as it once might have been, for there is a widespread belief that history may no longer be relevant to modem life. We live, after all, in an age that appears very different from the world that came before us.　　Adapted from Stephen Vaughn, History: Is It Relevant?　　Assignment: Is knowledge of the past no longer useful for us today? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

Practice 1　　Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island rich in history and remarkable natural beauty, has a cuisine all its own. Immigration to the island has helped to shape its cuisine, with people from all over the world making various contributions to it. However, before the arrival of these immigrants, the Taino people lived on the island of Puerto Rico. Taino cuisine included such foods as rodents fresh shellfish and fish fried in corn oil.　　Many aspects of Taino cuisine continue today in Puerto Rican cooking, but it has been heavily influenced by the Spanish, who invaded Puerto Rico in 1508, and Africans, who were initially brought to Puerto Rico to work as slaves. Taino cooking styles were mixed with ideas brought by the Spanish and Africans to create new dishes. The Spanish extended food choices by bringing cattle, pigs, goats, and sheep to the island. Africans also added to the island’s food culture by introducing powerful, contrasting tastes in dishes. In fact, much of the food Puerto Rico is now famous for—coffee, coconuts, and oranges—was actually imported by foreigners to the island.

Since Jonas Salk came up with his polio vaccine, infantile paralysis has virtually disappeared from the United States.

Practice 3　　A woman in Native American clothes is sitting in the sun, sewing a dress from skin. Inside a building, a colonist is making a wooden chair, using very simple tools. And all around, tourists are taking pictures with their digital (数码的) cameras. This is Jamestown Settlement today.　　Jamestown, Virginia, was one of the first places in the world where people from Europe, America, and Africa came together in 1608. Today, it is a living history museum, where children and adults come to experience history. In a living history museum, actors wear clothes from the past and demonstrate many of the activities of daily life back then. The actors also talk to the visitors and explain everything they do.　　At a Living History museum, there are always many things to touch, hear, and smell Visitors at Jamestown Settlement can walk through copies of the three small sailing ships that carried colonists to Virginia and even lie down in a colonist’s bed. The colonists stayed on the crowed, dangerous ships for more than four months. When they got to Virginia they built an area of houses with a high wall around it in today’s fort(堡垒)，you can see houses, a church, and even a garden with foods that the colonists ate. Women in long dresses work inside their homes, and visitors can help them with their sewing and cooking.　　There is also an Indian Village at Jamestown Settlement, and it looks very different from the fort. It shows how the Indians lived in long houses and grew corn and other crops in large fields. Actors there make pottery(陶器) and teach visitors how to play Indian games. You can even help them make an Indian boat from a tree.　　Today the living history museum of Jamestown is very popular, especially with children and families. People come here to have fun, but also to learn. Many school classes visit to experience old ways of getting things done. A living history museum is the best way to understand how people lived in the past.

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”.

One of America’s most important export is her modern music.　　　　　 　　 (1) _______American popular music is playing all over the world. It is enjoyed　　　　　　(2) _______by people of all ages in all countries. Because the lyrics are English,　　　　(3) _______nevertheless people not speaking English enjoy it. The reasons forits popularity are its fast pace and rhythmic beat.　　The music has many origins in the United States. Country music,coming from the suburban areas in the southern United States, is one　　　　　 (4) _______source. Country music features simple themes and melodies describingday-to-day situations and the feelings of country people. Many peopleappreciate this music because the emotions expressed by country　　　　　 　　 (5) _______music songs.　　A second origin of American popular music is the blues. It depicted　　　　(6) _______mostly sad feelings reflecting the difficult lives of American blacks. Itis usually played and sung by black musicians, but it is not popular with　 　 (7) _______all Americans.　　Rock music is a newer form of music. This music style, featuringfast and repetitious rhythms, was influenced by the blues and countrymusic. It is first known as rock-and-roll in the 1950s. Since then there　　　 (8) _______have been many forms of rock music, hard rock, soft rock, punk rock,disco music and others. Many performers of popular rock music areyoung musicians.　　American popular music is marketed to a demanding audience.Now popular songs are heard on the radio several times a day. Somesongs become popular all over the world. People hear these songs sing　　　　　(9) _______in their original English or sometimes translated into other languages.The words may coincide but the enjoyment of the music is universal.　　　　　 (10) _______

Practice 6　　If there's a threat of dangerous deflation—a general fall in prices—the causes lie as much in Europe and Japan as in the United States. The inevitable collapse of America's speculative boom need not have been especially damaging if the world's other advanced economies were healthy. Their expanding appetite for imports would have bolstered the United States and so-called emerging market countries, from Brazil to South Korea. The trouble is that other advanced economies aren't healthy.　　Deflation could emerge from simultaneous slumps in the world's three major economies. Prices drop because there's too little global demand chasing too much global supply—everything from steel to shoes. Japan's ills are well known. Its banks are awash in bad loans. Less understood (at least in the United States) is the fact that Europe's troubles stem significantly from Germany. Germany is Europe's “sick man”, just as Japan is Asia's. Only 15 years ago, these countries seemed poised to assume leadership of the world economy. Now they are dragging it down.