四六级

　　俗话说，得阅读者得天下。相信很多正在准备英语六级的考生都深有体会，六级阅读是考试的难点与重点，小编来给大家支一招——通篇翻译。翻译不光可以提高你的词汇语法，更重要可以让你了解文章结构，以及行文逻辑。在破解方法上有帮助。不过比较消耗时间，但长期练习，提高非常明显，考生可适当选择高级题目进行练习。以下是小编为大家挑选的阅读题，希望有所帮助。

　　The History of Chinese Americans

　　Chinese have been in the United States for almosttwo hundred years. In fact. the Chinese hadbusiness relations with Hawaii prior to relations withthe mainland when Hawaii was not yet part of the United States.But United States investmentscontrolled the capital of Hawaii at that time. In 1788,a ship sailed from Guangzhou to Hawaii. Most of the crewmen were Chinese. They were considered the pioneers of Hawaii. TheImmigration Commission reported that the first Chinese arrived in the United States in 1820. eight in 1830 andseven hundred and eighty in 1850. The Chinese population graduallyincreased and reached 64,199 in 1870.

　　For many years it was common in the United States to associate Chinese Americans withrestaurants and laundries. People did not realize that the Chinese had been driven into theseoccupations by the prejudice anddiscrimination that faced them in this country.

　　The First Chinese to reach the mainland United States came during the California Gold Rush of 1849. Like most of the other people there, they had come to search for gold. In that largelyunoccupied land,the men staked a claim for themselves by placing markers in the ground. However. either because the Chinese were sodifferent from the others or because they workedso patiently that they sometimes succeeded in turning a seemingly worthless mining claim intoa profitable one, they became che scapegoats of their envious competitors. They wereharassed in many ways. Often they were prevented from working their claims; some localitieseven passed regulations forbidding them to own claims. The Chinese therefore started to seekout other ways of earning a living. Some of them began to do che laundry for the whiteminers; others set up small restaurants. (There were almost no women in California in thosedays,and the Chinese filled a real need by doing this“woman's work”.) Some went to work asfarmhands or as fishermen.

　　In the early 1860's many more Chincse arrived in California.This time the men were imported aswork crews to construct the first transcontinental railroad.They were sorely needed becausethe work was so strenuousand dangerous, and it was carried on in such a remote part of thecountry that the railroad company could not find other laborers for the job. As in the case oftheir predecessors,these Chinese were almost all males; and like them, too, they encountered agreat deal of prejudice. The hostility grew especially strong afrer the railroad project wascomplete, and the imported laborers returned to California-thousands of them, all out of work. Because there were so many more of them this time,these Chinese drew even more attentionthan the earlier group did. They were so very different in every respect: in their physicalappearance,including a long“pigtail”at the back of their otherwise shaved heads; in thestrange, non-Western clothes they wore; in their speech (few had learned English since theyplanned to go back to China); and in their religion. They were contemptuously called “heathenChinese” because there were many sacred images in their houses of worship.

　　When times were hard. they were blamed for working for lower wages and taking jobs awayfrom white men. who were in many cases recent immigrants themselves. Anti-Chinese riotsbroke out in several cities. culminating in arson and bloodshed. Chinese were barred from usingthe courts and also from becoming American citizens. Californians began to demand that nomore Chinese be permitted to enter their state. Finally. in 1882. they persuaded Congress topass the Chinese Exclusion Act, which stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers. ManyChinese rerurned to their homeland, and their numbers declined sharply in the early part ofthis century. However. during the World War II,when China was an ally of the United States. the Exclusion laws were ended; a small number of Chinese were allowed to immigrate each year, and Chinese could become American citizens. In 1965, in a general revision of our immigrationlaws,may more Chinese were permitted to settle here,as discrimination against Asianimmigration was abolished.

　　From the start,the Chinese had lived apart in their own separate neighborhoods, which came tobe known as “Chinatowns”. In each of them the residents organized an unofficial governmentto make rules for the community and to settle disputes. Unable to find jobs on the outside, many went into business for themselves-primarily to serve their own neighborhood. As forlaundries and restaurants. some of them soon spread to other parts of the city,since suchservices continued to be in demand among non-Chinese, too. To this day. certain Chinatowns. especially those of San Francisco and New York. are busy. thriving communities, which havebecome great attractions for tourists and for those who enjoy Chinese food.

　　Most of today's Chincse Americans are the descendants of some of the early miners andrailroad workers. Those immigrants had come from the vicinity of Canton in Southeast China. where they had been uneducated farm laborers.The same kind of young men,from the samearea and from similar humble origins,migrated to Hawaii in those days. There they fared farbetter, mainly because they did not encounter hostility. Some married native Hawaiians, andother brought their wives and children over. They were not restricted to Chinatownand manyof them soon became successful merchants and active participants in general communityaffairs.

　　Chinese Americans retain many aspects of their ancient culture. even after having lived here forseveral generations. For Example, their family ties continue to be remarkably scrong (encompassing grandparents. uncles, aunts, cousins. and others). Members of the family lendeach other moral support and also practical help when necessary. From a very young agechildren are imbued with the old values and attitudes. including respect for their elders and afeeling of responsibility to the family. This helps co explain why there is so little juveniledelinquency (少年犯罪 ) among them.

　　The high regard for education which is deeply imbedded in Chinese culture.and the willingnessto work veryhard to gain advancement, are other noteworthy characteristics of theirs. Thisexplains why so many descendants of uneducated laborers have succeeded in becomingdoctors. lawyers, and other professionals.(Many ofthe most outstanding Chinese Americanscholars,scientists, and artists are more recent arrivals, who come from China's former upperclass and who represent its high cultural traditions.)

　　Chinese Americans make up only a tiny fraction of our population; there are fewer than half amiilion, living chiefly in California. New York. and Hawaii. As American attitudes toward minoritiesand toward ethnicdifferences have changed in recent years, the long-reviled Chinese havegained wide acceptance. Today, they are generally admired for their many remarkablecharacteristics, and are often held up as an example worth following. And their numerouscontributions to their adopted land are much appreciated.

　　1.Most Chinese Americans worked in restaurants and laundries because of______________.

　　A)the skills they acquired at the motherland

　　B)local people's discrimination against them

　　C)their high employment rates

　　D)their comparatively high pay

　　2. During the California Gold Rush.restaurant and laundry were regarded as________________.

　　A)unprofitable work

　　B)comfortable work

　　C)woman's work

　　D)Chinese work

　　3.In the early l860's, more Chinese were shipped to California to work as________________.

　　A)gold miners

　　B)railroad builders

　　C)steelworkers

　　D)farmhands

　　4.Few Chinese learned English at that time because_________________.

　　A)they seldom used Engiish in Chinatown

　　B)they were too old to learn a new tongue

　　C)they couldn't find good English teachers

　　D)they wouldn't stay in America for long

　　5.The Chinese Exclusion Act came to an end_________________.

　　A)by the California governor then

　　B)after a massive bloodshed

　　C)during WWII

　　D)in 1965

　　6.One of the Chinatowns as a busy and thriving community now is located in________________.

　　A)Florida

　　B)Hawaii

　　C)New Jersey

　　D)New York

　　7.Chinese immigrants to Hawaii found that they________________.

　　A)were treated without discrimination

　　B)were provided with fewer job choices

　　C)couldn't travel to mainland America

　　D)could only live or work in Chinatown

　　8.The old values and attitudes imparted into the young Chinese Americans effectively help prevent_______________.

　　9.China's high cultural traditions are represented by the Chinese American_____________.

　　10.The contributions made by Chinese to America had gained much_____________.

　　PS：考生们先自己作答，原文翻译及答案小编会在下一篇文章公布，便于考生查看。

　　以上就是小编今天为大家介绍的相关内容，想了解更多四六级备考课程、备考资讯，请点击文都网校四六级资讯站查询!

      编辑推荐