新托福阅读背景知识最新汇总

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新托福阅读背景知识：美国历史大事年表

美国历史大事年表

1607.5 英国伦敦公司在弗吉尼亚的詹姆斯敦建立第一个永久居留地。

1620.12.26 英国清教徒移民乘“五月花”号轮漂洋到达普利茅斯，在船上通过了五月花号公约。

1636.10.28 美国第一所大学——哈佛大学在马萨诸塞的坎布里奇成立。

1740 丹麦人维特斯·白令受俄国人雇佣，抵达阿拉斯加进行探险。

1752.6.15 本杰明·富兰克林在风暴中放风筝，证明闪电是一种电，并发明避雷针。

1765 英国颁布印花税条例。因遭到抵制而在次年3月被废除。

1767 英国颁布唐森德税法。1770年废除，只保留对茶的征税。

1773.12.16 波士顿发生倾茶运动，以抗议茶叶条例。

1774.9.5 第一届大陆会议在费城召开，抗议英国的行为，呼吁人民起来斗争。

1775.4.19 列克星敦和康科德人民对英军进行反抗，打响了美国独立战争的第一枪。

1776.1.9 托马斯·潘恩发表小册子《常识》。

1776.7.4 大陆会议通过杰斐逊起草的《独立宣言》草案。

1784.8.30 美国商船“中国皇后”号抵达中国的广州进行丝茶贸易，中美关系由此开始。

1784.9.21 美国第一份日报《宾夕法尼亚邮船和每日广告》开始发行。

1786.12.26 马萨诸塞州爆发由丹尼尔·谢斯领导的起义。

1787.5.25 制宪会议在费城召开，草拟了新宪法。1789年3月4日，宪法正式生效。

1787.7.13 联邦国会通过西北土地法令。

1789.4.30 美国联邦政府成立，乔治·华盛顿就任第一届美国总统。

1789.9.24 根据联邦政府条例，最高法院成立。

1791.12.15 美国宪法增列十条修正案，即权利法案。

1792.4.2 美国国会通过造币法，在费城建造一座造币厂。

1794.11.19 美国政府与英国政府签定杰伊条约。

新托福阅读背景知识：美国革命

The American Revolution

The War of Revolution between America and Britain began in April 1775 in xington, Massachusetts, when soldiers from each side met and somebody fired a shot. It was called the 'shot heard round the world' because the war that followed changed the future of the .itish Empire and America. But the American Revolution, the movement to make an independent nation, began many years earlier.

The causes of revolution

the desire of Americans to be independent from Britain arose out of a long series of disagreements about money and political control. Britain had had colonies (= places taken over by people from a foreign country) in North America since 1607 and kept soldiers there to defend them from attack by the French and Spanish, and by .ative Americans. In order to raise money for this, the British .rliament tried to make the colonists (= people who had gone to settle in America) pay taxes.

From 1651, Britain passed a series of laws called Navigation Acts, which said that the colonists should trade only with Britain. These laws were frequently broken and were a continuing source of tension. Taxes imposed in the 18th century increased ill feeling towards Britain. In 1764 the Sugar Act made colonists pay tax on sugar, and in 1765 the .tamp Act put a tax on newspapers and official documents. Opposition to this was strong and the following year Parliament had to remove the tax. By then, people in both America and Britain were arguing about who had the power to tax the colonies. The 13 colonies each had an assembly of elected representatives, and the colonists wanted these assemblies to decide what taxes they should pay, not Parliament. Some colonists, called patriots, began to want independence from Britain. They expressed their feelings in the slogan 'no taxation without representation'.

In 1767 there was a disagreement in New York about whether Britain could ask people to give soldiers accommodation in their houses. The local assembly agreed, eventually, but became involved in a dispute with Parliament over who had the right to decide such matters. In the same year the Townshend Acts put taxes on certain products including tea. The assemblies refused to help collect the money and Parliament responded by closing them down. All this caused many more people to want independence. .oston, especially, had many patriots, including those who called themselves the .ons of Liberty. On 5 March 1770 there was a riot in Boston and British soldiers killed five people. This incident became known as the .oston Massacre.

The Tea Act gave a British company the right to sell tea to the colonists and actually lowered the price for legally imported tea. But most colonists bought cheaper tea that had been smuggled into the country. On 16 December 1773, when ships arrived in Boston Harbor carrying the tea, a group of patriots dressed up as Native Americans went onto the ships and threw the tea into the water. After the .oston Tea Party, as the event was later called, Britain passed the Intolerable Acts, laws to increase her control over the colonies.

As more Americans began to support revolution, Britain sent yet more soldiers. On 5 September 1774 representatives of all the colonies except .orgia met in iladelphia, calling themselves the .ntinental Congress. The Congress decided that the colonies needed soldiers of their own, and agreed to start training militiamen who could leave their jobs and be used as soldiers if necessary. Since the militiamen had to be ready to fight at short notice, they were called .nutemen.

On 18 April 1775 British soldiers marched out of Boston into the countryside to search for weapons that the colonists had hidden. Paul .evere, a patriot from Boston, rode ahead to warn people that the British were coming. The minutemen got ready, and when they and the British met, the 'shot heard round the world' was fired.

The Americans had the advantage of fighting at home, but Britain was a much stronger military power. There were victories and defeats on both sides during the seven years of war.

The first aim of the American army led by George .ashington was to force the British, called .edcoats because of the color of their uniform, to leave Boston. On 17 June 1775 the British fought and won the Battle of .unker Hill, but they lost so many soldiers that their position in Boston was weak and in March 1776 they were forced to leave. The Continental Congress suggested that Britain and America should make an agreement, but Britain refused and so, on 4 July 1776, members of the Congress signed the .eclaration of Independence. This document, written by the future President Thomas .efferson, gave the Americans' reasons for wanting to be independent. It included ideas that were rather new, e.g. that ordinary people had certain rights that government should respect. Since the British king .eorge III refused to accept this, Americans had the right, and the duty, to form their own government.

Later in the same year the British took control of .ew York and .hode Island, and Washington's army moved away into .ennsylvania. The defeats discouraged many Americans, but at Christmas, when soldiers were not expecting an attack, Washington surprised the British by taking his army across the Delaware River to Trenton, .ew Jersey, and defeating the Hessians, German soldiers paid by the British to fight for them. A story often told is that, before crossing the river, Washington threw down a silver dollar, thinking that if any guards were near they would hear the noise and come. Since nobody came, he knew it was safe to attack.

Washington's army spent the winter at .alley Forge, Pennsylvania. It was very cold and the new government of the United States did not have money to provide soldiers with warm clothes and food. Many became ill, and many more lost their enthusiasm for the war. But in the spring of 1777 they received help from two different sources. A German, General von Steuben, came to train the American soldiers and the Marquis de .afayette brought French soldiers to fight on the American side. With this help, the Americans won a victory at .aratoga, New York. France and also Spain supported the United States because they thought that if Britain became weaker in North America, it would also be weaker in Europe.

Over the next few years, neither side was strong enough to defeat the other completely. But in 1781 Washington saw a perfect opportunity to win. The British General .ornwallis had taken his army to .orktown, Virginia, where he was too far away to get supplies or help. Washington marched south to meet him, while French ships made sure that the British could not receive help by sea. Cornwallis realized how bad his position was and surrendered.

In 1783, after a period of talks, Britain recognized the United States of America, making the US completely independent and giving it the western parts of North America.

Modern American attitudes to the Revolution

the Revolution is remembered by Americans in many ways. .reedom, and the right of ordinary people to take part in their own government, the main reasons why Americans fought the War of Revolution, is values that almost all Americans still support strongly. The .ourth of July, the day on which the Declaration of Independence was signed, is a national holiday, .ndependence Day.

Places, like Boston Harbor and .ndependence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, are visited by millions of Americans every year. The names of people involved in the Revolution are known to everyone. George Washington's birthday is celebrated as a national holiday. John.ncock's signature on the Declaration of Independence was the largest, so today John Hancock means 'signature'. Patrick .nry is remembered for his speeches, especially for saying, 'Give me liberty or give me death'.

But if Americans remember the Revolution as a great victory, they seem to forget that the British were the enemy. The governments and people of the two countries have always had a special relationship, and for many Americans, even those whose ancestors were not British, Britain is still the 'mother country'.

新托福阅读背景知识：玛雅文化

Maya Culture

The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatán around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras. Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Oleic, the Maya developed astronomy, cylindrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizeable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples.

Around 300 B.C., the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government with rule by nobles and kings. This civilization developed into highly structured kingdoms during the Classic period, A.D. 200-900. Their society consisted of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites built around ceremonial centers. It started to decline around A.D. 900 when - for reasons which are still largely a mystery - the southern Maya abandoned their cities. When the northern Maya were integrated into the Toltec society by A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a close, although some peripheral centers continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century.

Maya history can be characterized as cycles of rise and fall: city-states rose in prominence and fell into decline, only to be replaced by others. It could also be described as one of continuity and change, guided by a religion that remains the foundation of their culture. For those who follow the ancient Maya traditions, the belief in the influence of the cosmos on human lives and the necessity of paying homage to the gods through rituals continues to find expression in a modern hybrid Christian-Maya faith.

Cosmology and Religion

The ancient Maya believed in recurring cycles of creation and destruction and thought in terms of eras lasting about 5,200 modern years. The current cycle is believed by the Maya to have begun in either 3114 B.C. or 3113 B.C. of our calendar, and is expected to end in either A.D. 2011 or 2012.

Maya cosmology is not easy to reconstruct from our current knowledge of their civilization. It seems apparent, however, that the Maya believed Earth to be flat and four-cornered. Each corner was located at a cardinal point and had a color value: red for east, white for north, black for west, and yellow for south. At the centre was the color green.

Some Maya also believed that the sky was multi-layered and that it was supported at the corners by four gods of immense physical strength called "Baca’s". Other Maya believed that the sky was supported by four trees of different colors and species, with the green cobia, or silk-cotton tree, at the centre.

Earth in its flat form was thought by the Maya to be the back of a giant crocodile, resting in a pool of water lilies. The crocodile's counterpart in the sky was a double-headed serpent - a concept probably based on the fact that the Maya word for "sky" is similar to the word for "snake". In hieroglyphics, the body of the sky-serpent is marked not only with its own sign of crossed bands, but also those of the Sun, the Moon, Venus and other celestial bodies.

Heaven was believed to have 13 layers, and each layer had its own god. Uppermost was the moan bird, a kind of screech-owl. The Underworld had nine layers, with nine corresponding Lords of the Night. The Underworld was a cold, unhappy place and was believed to be the destination of most Maya after death. Heavenly bodies such as the Sun, the Moon, and Venus, were also thought to pass through the Underworld after they disappeared below the horizon every evening.

Very little is known about the Maya pantheon. The Maya had a bewildering number of gods, with at least 166 named deities. This is partly because each of the gods had many aspects. Some had more than one sex; others could be both young and old; and every god representing a heavenly body had a different Underworld face, which appeared when the god "died" in the evening