美国文化测试试卷答案

American culture testDirection: Answer the following questions.1. In the United States, immigrants fall into several categories, each with its own label such as “ the early immigrants,”“ the old immigrants,”“ the new immigrants,” and “the most recent immigrants.”Describe these immigrants in the historical context and point out their distinctive features in national origins and religious beliefs.(1)The early immigrants (the colonial period) The English 1607 Virginia, New England settlers: Pilgrim and Puritans, Protestant faith. Gentry class, religious tolerance, political egalitarianism. The Germans. The Scotch-Irish. Other Ethnic Groups: diversity.(2)The old immigrants (the mid-nineteenth century)The mid-nineteenth century saw mainly an influx from northern Europe.The Industrial Revolution .Overpopulation in Europe. Religious persecution combined with transportation revolution. Poverty. American fever. Immigration wave.(3)The new immigrants (the early twentieth-century) The early twentieth-century immigrants are mainly from Southern and Eastern Europe. Between 1880 and 1920,southern and eastern Europeans, total of 27 million immigrants.1920-1930 : immigration restriction laws and a major depression put barriers in their way.(4)The most recent immigrants (post-1965)Post-1965 immigrants are mostly from Latin America and Asia. Immigration Act of 1924 virtually closed the door. Quota system. Refugees: Hungarians, Cubans, Vietnamese and Cambodians. The new immigration law of 1965, family reunification, occupation and refugees.1999 Census, 7million immigration most Latinos and Asians. From 1991 to 2000: 10-11 million new immigrants.population from 249 million to 281.The most Recent Immigrants:Latino,Chinese,The Filipinos,The Vietnamese,The Koreans.2. Being a nation of immigrants, the United States has been compared to a “ melting pot,” a “ salad bowl,” or even a “pizza.”How do you understand the complex nature of the ethnic groups in the United States?The United States is compared to a big pot of soup that has bits of flavor from eachdifferent culture.But it still has the mainstream culture and the non-mainstream culture. The early immigrants from Europe are mostly the white,and they easily assimilate into the culture.Now, immigrants are from different culture and race,so it is difficult for them to assimilate into the mainstream culture.It resulted that different ethnical immigrants still owned their traditional habits and characteristics of the original.The racial integration is a complicated, painful process along with the progress of the times.During the period,the racial discrimination gradually faded,and various people integrated into the sciety in different ways.They changed things in American.Each race are also influenced by the American culture.Today,America has the absorption characteristics of all kinds of family. USA has become the super country by making good use of these characteristics. Ethnic diversity makes American prosperity. The immigrants not only brought a variety of culture and lots of work for USA, but also embody the openness and freedom of the American.3. Examine the experience of Chinese immigrants in the United States, noting, in particular, the maltreatment, indeed discrimination, Chinese immigrants encountered there. Additionally, explain how recent Chinese immigrants differ from old Chinese immigrants.Contract laborers: work cheaply and lived frugally. Gold rush 1849 west coast. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.Non-white, non-Christian, incapable of being assimilated into the mainstream culture.They were feared as competitors.Their hard work and long hours for low pay were said to drive down the standard of living of American labor. The early immigrants people had the purpose of making a living across the ocean.They cannot well integrate into the local community.While the new immigrants received higher education at home, and they want to accept more education in USA.Old settlers think that Chinese culture cannot be lost, especially the traditional culture.Howeever,the new immigrants integrate into Western society, accept the mainstream culture,absorb in western culture.4. Read the “Bill of Rights” and comment on it.“Bill of Rights"is of great influence on the American history. Especially,the first rule in the bill of rights has the profound and lasting influence for the development of America. It becomes personal freedom’s unshakable talisman. A major flaw--"bill of rights" didn’t amend the constitution, namely to confirm the slavery. The bill of rights is to protect citizens against the federal government’s involvement. The first amendment for the most famous goal is to protect the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and other rights. The bill of rights is the most imposing restrictions on government, and it provided the things that the federal government cannot do so as to protect the individual freedom from government persecution.The fundamental purpose is to ensure that the state power is from the national people.It advised to establish the government by people,and eliminate the government’s restrictions on personal freedom.The country is based on personal rights,in order to prevent the generation of authoritarian regime. The bill of rights reflects the people’s requirements in the nation,and provides the basic rights of citizens, embodies the thought of people's sovereignty and the declaration of independence of spirit.5. Read the “Declaration of Independence” and comment on it.“The Declaration of Independence ”mainly absorbed the thinker John Locke’s thinking—natural rights.The declaration uses the simple words,but has the significant meanings.It is the incomparable documents in the history of America. The Declaration of Independence includes three parts: the first part expounds the nation, political philosophy, that is the democracy and freedom of philosophy; the second part lists the king on the colony's brutal rule, states the practical reason for the colonies from England; the third part solemnly declared independence. The Declaration of Independence not only declared the birth of a new nation,but also expressed political demands of the bourgeoisie for the first time.The form of political program played a powerful role in the west bourgeois revolution. The declaration analyses of the human rights--the theory of rights in the people,and reflects the period of bourgeois revolution spirit. The declaration is the first the Universal Declaration of human rights in human history.Itencouraged the North American people's struggle for independence and liberation of the Chinese nation spirit.We can call it as a programmatic document of the war of independence and the banner of revolution. The declaration of independence had a major impact on the American future’s development,and it also promoted the development of world history. Freedom equal rights in the declaration can only be bourgeois power, and it reflects the essence of the bourgeois class.So it is served for capitalist system.。