新托福阅读背景知识整合

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新托福阅读背景知识：美国内战

The Civil War

Causes of the war

The American Civil War was fought between the northern and southern states from 1861 to 1865. There were two main causes of the war. The first was the issue of .lavery: should Africans who had been brought by force to the US be used as slaves. The second was the issue of states' rights: should the US federal government be more powerful than the governments of individual states.

The North and South were very different in character. The economy of the South was based on agriculture, especially cotton. Picking cotton was hard work, and the South depended on slaves for this. The North was more industrial, with a larger population and greater wealth. Slavery, and opposition to it, had existed since before independence (1776) but, in the 19th century, the abolitionists, people who wanted to make slavery illegal, gradually increased in number. The South's attitude was that each state had the right to make any law it wanted, and if southern states wanted slavery, the US government could not prevent it. Many southerners became secessionists, believing that southern states should secede from the Union (= become independent from the US).

In 1860, Abraham .incoln was elected President. He and his party, the .icans, were against slavery, but said that they would not end it. The southern states did not believe this, and began to leave the Union. In 1860 there were 34 states in the US. Eleven of them (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina) left the Union and formed the .erate States of America, often called the Confederacy. Jefferson .became its President, and for most of the war d, Virginia, was the capital.

Four years of fighting

The US government did not want a war but, on 12 April 1861, the Confederate Army attacked .ort Sumter, which was in the Confederate state of South Carolina but still occupied by the Union army. President Lincoln could not ignore the attack and so the Civil War began.

Over the next four years the Union army tried to take control of the South. The battles that followed, .hiloh, Antietam, .ull Run and Chickamauga, have become part of America's national memory. After the battle of .ettysburg in 1863, in a speech known as the .ettysburg Address, President Lincoln said that the North was fighting the war to keep the Union together so that '...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth'. In the same year he issued the .mancipation Proclamation which made slavery illegal, but only in the Confederacy.

Slaves and former slaves played an important part in the war. Some gave information to Union soldiers, because they knew that their best chance of freedom was for the North to win the war. Many former slaves wanted to become Union soldiers, but this was not very popular among white northerners. In spite of this opposition about 185000 former slaves served in the Union army.

Women on both sides worked as spies, taking information, and sometimes even people, across borders by hiding them under their large skirts.

In the South especially, people suffered greatly and had little to eat. On 9 April 1865, when the South could fight no more, General Robert E .ee surrendered to General Ulysses S .rant at .ppomattox Court House in Virginia. A total of 620000 people had been killed and many more wounded.

The war was over but feelings of hostility against the North remained strong. John Wilkes .ooth, an actor who supported the South, decided to kill President Lincoln. On 14 April 1865 he approached the President in Ford's Theatre in Washington and shot him. Lincoln died the next morning.

The killing of President Lincoln showed how bitter many people felt. The South had been beaten, but its people had not changed their opinions about slavery or about states' rights. During the war, the differences between North and South had become even greater. The North had become richer. In the South, cities had been destroyed and the economy ruined.

After the war the South became part of the United States again. This long, difficult period was called Reconstruction. The issues that had caused the war, slavery and states' rights, still had to be dealt with. The issue of slavery was difficult, because many people even in the North had prejudices against Blacks. The new state governments in the South wanted to make laws limiting the rights of Blacks, and the US government tried to stop them. Between 1865 and 1870 the 13th, 14th and 15th .mendments to the .onstitution were passed, giving Blacks freedom, making them citizens of the US and the state where they lived, and giving them, in theory, the same rights as white Americans.

Many northern politicians went to the South where they thought they could get power easily. These northerners were called .arpet-baggers. Both carpet-baggers and southern politicians were dishonest and stole money from the new governments, which hurt the South even more.

In 1870 the last three southern states were admitted to the Union again, and in 1877 the northern army finally left the South. The war lasted four years, but efforts to reunite the country took three times as long.

Effects of the Civil War

Differences between North and South are still strong. In the South the Confederate flag is still often used, and the state flags of .eorgia and .ippi were made to look similar to it. The state motto is Adams jury nostra defender, which is Latin for 'We dare to defend our rights'. The Civil War helped to end slavery, but long afterwards Blacks were still being treated badly, and race relations continue to be a problem. The South was so angry with the .cans, the party of Lincoln and Reconstruction, that southerners voted .atic for a century. The war showed strong differences between parts of the US, but many people believe that the most important thing it did was to prove that the US is one country.

新托福阅读背景知识：美国原住民

Native Americans

Native Americans were living in North America for many hundreds of years before Europeans reached the continent. For a long time white people called them Indians. Today, many people do not like this name since it is based on a mistake: it was given to the people living in the Americas by Christopher .us who, when he arrived there, thought he had discovered India. Instead, people prefer to use the term Native Americans. There are also native peoples living in . and Canada, e.g. .s and Aleuts, but they are separate groups and are not called Native Americans.

Early contact with Europeans

in .re-Columbian North America there were many tribes who lived by hunting animals and gathering plants. Many of the tribes moved from one place to another according to the season and what food was available. Most of what is known about Native Americans dates from the time when they came into contact with Europeans.

The first place in the US where Europeans settled permanently was own, Virginia, founded in 1607. At first Native Americans were positive about the Europeans and were happy to have the many new things they brought, e.g. metal cooking pots, cloth and guns. But the Europeans also introduced diseases that Native Americans had no resistance to, so many became ill and died. They also brought alcohol, the effects of which Native Americans did not know. Some Europeans took advantage of this by getting them drunk and then paying low prices for their goods.

The worst problem for Native Americans, which lasted into the late 20th century, was that the new settlers wanted their land. To Native Americans owning land was a strange idea. Tribes moved around as they pleased and shared land with any other tribe that was friendly. They did not understand that a person might believe a piece of land was theirs, or that they would try to keep others from using it. The settlers, on the other hand, assumed that they would take control of North America and used all means to do this, including making agreements, which they usually did not keep, tricking Native Americans into selling land cheaply, and taking it by military force. Native American chiefs like .itting Bull, .ecumseh and .eronimo fought against the settlers.

As Whites began moving west, Native American tribes had to be moved on. Some were forced to go to other parts of North America, to areas very different from the ones they were used to. The .rail of Tears was one of many terrible examples: in the cold winter of 18389 17 000 .herokees had to move from their land in the south-east to what is now .klahoma and more than 4 000 died. The government promised tribes that if they agreed to stay in one part of the country they could keep that land forever. But the promises lasted only until Americans discovered that the land they had given them was good for farming or had gold.

Whites have explained this behavior in different ways. When the Indians fought and killed white people they said that this proved that Native Americans were wild and had to be controlled. People also believed that the Native Americans were wasting good land by not developing it. In the 19th century Americans believed in .anifest destiny, meaning that they thought God wanted them to occupy the whole continent. They also believed that it was better for the Native Americans to learn to live like white people and tried to teach them Christianity. Many Native American children, including the athlete Jim .horpe, were taken away from their tribe and sent to schools where they were not allowed to speak their own language.

Native American languages

Before Europeans arrived in North America there were over 300 Native American languages. Some have now died out, and of the 250 or so remaining many are spoken only by a few older people. Other languages, like Cherokee, are more widely spoken. Most Native Americans speak English, some as their first language and others as their second.

Native American languages have added many words to English, though the meaning of a word has often been changed. Teepees are a kind of tent, .ampum belts were made of beads and since the belts had great value Europeans used wampum to mean 'money'. Moccasins, a kind of shoe, are today worn by people all over the world. Many Native American words describe the things they name. For example, the Sukiyaki tribe's name means 'people of the yellow earth', and the Cherokees' name for themselves, Ani-Yun'wiya, means 'the leading people'. Indian names for Whites included 'people greedily grasping for land'.

Many American place names have their roots in Native American languages. .for instance, is a Native American name, and the names of many of its towns and cities, such as Chillicothe and Sandusky, and the lakes Scioto and Planting, are of Native American origin.

Native Americans today

According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a part of the US government, there are now about 550 tribes. These include well-known groups like the .avajo and .ioux, and less famous tribes like the Cayuse. The number of Native Americans living in the US is about 1.2 million.

Almost a million live on reservations, areas of land that the government has allowed them to keep as their own. Native Americans are US citizens, and have the rights and responsibilities of any US citizen. However, reservations have their own governments and police forces and Native Americans pay different taxes. They also have the right to hunt and fish where and when they like, while other Americans have to get a license.

On or off the reservations Native Americans find it difficult to live the traditional life. Activities of other Americans affect the way they live. Building dams across a river, for example, can affect the numbers of fish living there, so that even though Native Americans have the right to fish they may not be able to catch anything. Away from the reservations, many Native Americans find that their culture is very different from that of white people and have difficulty adapting.

Poverty is a serious problem. About 37% of people who live on reservations are unemployed, compared with 6% of the general population. Many tribes try to bring in money from outside. Some sell rights to search for oil on their reservation; others use the fact that the reservation makes its own rules to open casinos where people from outside can come and gamble. Gambling is illegal in most parts of the US and many Americans want it to remain so, but it makes a lot of money for the tribes. This brings Native Americans, once again, into conflict with white Americans.

Native Americans in the popular imagination

An American tradition dating back to early times is .hanksgiving. When the English arrived in Jamestown many died during the long cold winter, but in the following spring Native Americans showed them what local foods they could eat. In the autumn, well-prepared for the winter, settlers and Native Americans had a special dinner together, the first Thanksgiving, to thank God and the Native Americans for all the food they had.

Another story describes how the Native American princess .ocahontas saved the life of John .mith, the leader in Jamestown, when her father, .owhatan, wanted to kill him. She later married another Englishman, John Rolfe, and went to England with him. The story of Pocahontas is widely known and many Americans are proud to have her as an ancestor.

But Native Americans were more often seen by white settlers as the enemy. .ns, i.e. films and books about the est, use the threat from Indians as their central theme. In this context Native Americans are still called 'Indians'. Children often play 'cowboys and Indians' and pretend to kill each other. When .o Bill, began touring the US with his Wild West show, the chief Sitting Bull was one of many Native Americans in it, and many people went to see this former great enemy.

Many Americans have an image of a 'typical Indian', a chief who lived in a teepee with his squaw (= wife), smoked a peace pipe after signing a treaty with the white man (whom he called pale face), sent smoke signals to communicate with people far away, and spoke broken English full of colorful expressions such as 'big heap wampum' (a lot of money) and 'speaks with forked tongue' (is lying). Most of these ideas have some basis in Native American culture, but it is wrong to put them all together and believe that that was how Native Americans lived.

Americans make such mistakes because they have little interest in Native Americans. Having succeeded in pushing them out of the way onto reservations, most Americans ignore them. This may be because the Native Americans who are left are living proof of a hard truth: America wants to be, and often is, a land where everyone has a chance and where the government behaves fairly and honestly to all, but this America is built on land stolen from the people who lived there first.

新托福阅读背景知识：乔治华盛顿(1732-99)

George Washington (1732-99)

the first US .resident (1789-97), who had led its army to success in the an Revolution. He is called 'the Father of His Country'. The ental Congress placed him in charge of the American forces in 1775. Although his army had a difficult and dangerous winter at . Forge, General Washington led them to several victories, including the final Battle of .wn. He later gave his important approval for the .an Constitution and was elected in 1789 as the country's first president. He supported a strong central government but disliked political party arguments. He was elected a second time, but refused to stand as a candidate for a third time and returned to his home at M.ernon.

Americans have always admired Washington as one of their best and most moral presidents. He is considered by many to have been the country's greatest leader and perhaps the only one who could have united the colonists during the American Revolution. Most people know the story of how as a boy he cut down his father's cherry tree and then admitted what he had done, saying, 'I cannot tell a lie.' The story may not be true but it is seen as a symbol of his honesty. Washington's fine personal qualities and fair politics were recognized during his life, and they seem even more impressive today. His memory is honored by the.gton Monument and the names of the country's capital city, a state, many c.s, government buildings, schools, streets, mountains, etc, and his image appears on the dollar note and the 25-cent coin.

Washington, DC (Washington, District of Columbia)

the capital city of the US, whose area covers the .istrict of Columbia. The place was chosen by George .ashington in 1790 and since 1800 the main departments of the US government have been there. It is known for its historical monuments and important buildings, including the .apitol, the .hite House (1), the .upreme Court, the .ational Archives, the .ibrary of Congress, the .onian Institution, the al Gallery of Art and the y Center. About 66% of Washington's population are n Americans.

Washington Monument

a tall, thin monument on the .all (2) in .ashington, DC, built to honor the memory of George .ashington. It is 555 feet/169 meters high and made of white marble. Tourists can climb the 898 steps to the top, from which there are fine views of the city. The Monument took 40 years to build and was completed in 1888.

Jazz

Jazz is one of the greatest forms of music originating in the US. The names of its stars, who are mostly .frican Americans, are known around the world. Most people have heard of stars like Ella .itzgerald, 'Count' .asie, 'Duke' .on and Louis ng. Winton .s, who plays in the traditional style, is the best-known jazz musician today.

Jazz was begun in the .outh by African Americans. Many of its rhythms came from the work songs and spirituals (= religious songs) of black slaves. New Orleans Street bands first made jazz popular. Early forms of jazz created at the beginning of the 20th century were .agtime and the .lues. Ragtime musicians included the singer 'Jelly Roll' .orton and the composer and piano player Scott . Famous blues singers included Bessie .and later Billie y. D.nd developed from ragtime and the blues and made a feature of improvisation (= making up the music as it is being played), especially on the trumpet and saxophone. Dixieland stars included Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechtel.

In the 1920s many African Americans moved north, taking jazz with them, and . and New York became centers for the music. This was the beginning of the big band era. In the 1930s swing music came into fashion and people danced to jazz. Radio and the new recording industry helped to make it even more popular. The big bands were led by Basie, Ellington, Woody  Glenn M.nd 'the King of Swing', Benny G. In the 1940s there were new styles such as b.developed by 'Dizzy' G.e, Charlie 'Bird' P.and Thelonious M.eer forms like progressive jazz developed in the 1950s with stars including Stan G.. Dave B.. Cool jazz followed in the 1960s, led by Getz and Miles D.ore recent styles have included funky jazz, jazz-rock and hip-hop jazz. Many jazz clubs, like the C..lub, have now closed but others, like Preservation Hall in N.ans, and Bird land in Ma., remain.

In Britain jazz attracts a small but enthusiastic audience. The height of its popularity was in the 1940s and 1950s, when large crowds gathered to hear big bands. British jazz has always been heavily influenced by US jazz. In the 1960s pop and rock music replaced jazz as the music of the young generation. There are now few jazz bands, although smaller combos (= groups) continue to play a wide range of trade (= traditional), bebop, cool and avant-garde jazz. The most famous British jazz musicians have included Johnny .ank worth and Cleo .George Molly, Humphrey .ton and Courtney The home of jazz in Britain is Ronnie .s club in London.