《英语报刊选读》期末考试试卷附答案

《英语报刊选读》期末考试试卷附答案

一、将下列所给的英语名词翻译成中文。（15小题*2=30）

1．The House of Lords

2．Social Security

3．Capitol Hill

4．Speaker

5．Fund —raising party

6．Senior citizen

7．Westinghouse Science Talent Search

8．Asia —Pacific summit

9．Sovereignty

10．British Foreign Secretary

11．Christian

12．economic recession

13．royal family

14．the Commonwealth

15．spokesman

二、报刊阅读题。

Campaign strategists have agreed to focus to focus on the Senate, where leaders hope to complete work on the budget package by May 1. “We felt that if the Senate defeated the proposal, it would not even come up in the House,”says John Rot her, legislative director for the 18—million —member American Association of Retired persons.

Targeted mainly are Republicans, who control the Senate, with particular emphasis on the 21 who face re—election next year. The next election looms large in the lobbyists’strategy. “We shall not forget if Congree haves in an unfriendly fashion to the senior citizens of the United States,”warns Jacob Clay man, president of the NCSC, which represents 4.5 million persons. “We shall remember—and 1986 is just around the corner.”Eric Shulman, legislative director for the NCSC, explains: “Those up for

reelection will have their ears closest to the ground—and we are making as much of a rumble as we can. We see this issue being won or lost not in Washington but out in the countryside.”Adds Arthur Flemming, former U. S. commissioner on aging and now a lobbyist for the elderly:”“It’s the grass roots that convey the message most effectively.”

I ．单项选择题。（4小题*5=20）

1．……where leaders hope to complete …——which leader？

A ．House leaders B．floor leaders C ．Congressional D．Senate leader

2．…it would not even come up in the House …

A ．the House of Commons

B ．the House of Representative

C ．the House of Lords

D ．the Senate

3．Targeted mainly are Republicans who control the Senate …

A ．so said because the Democrats hold more seats in the Senate

B ．so said because the Republicans hold more seats in the Senate

C ．so said because the Republicans hold less seats in the Senate

D ．so said because the Republicans Party holds more congressional seat

4．“It’s the grass roots that convey the message most effectively.”

A ．ordinary citizens or voters B．basic structure

C ．politicians D．Congressmen

II ．读文章回答问题（5小题*10=50）

Blacks’history in America (1660—1860)

American Blacks are without doubt all of African origin. The first group of 20 Blacks sold to English settlers of Virginia in 1619 were brought in by a Dutch ship. From that time to the mid—19th century, some 14 million blacks were transported from West Africa to Virginia and other southern colonies of the New World. Almost all of them were sold into slavery and subjected to white rule. Not only would they work for their masters as slaves for life but also their descendants would be slaves the moment they were born.

Of course no person would have voluntarily chosen to be sold away from his native country. He was either sold by his own rulers or captured by white slave traders as portrayed in Alex Haley’s novel Roots. Some of the details in Haley’s story were similar to those in other books. The kidnapping of slaves and their miserable life under the supervision of slave owners and overseers existed and the conditions on the voyage from Africa to America were horrible. The slaves’bodies were bound together and their limbs either tied or chained with shackles like Kurta, an important character in Roots. The air in the holds was filthy with the smell of sweat, vomit and body waste. When they caught infections diseases, many slaves died on the voyage. Some even died of flogging or starvation. It was said that only about half slaves could survive the voyage. Though some survived, the fate of those survivors was no better than being sold at auction like animals. After 1700, a large number of Africans arrived in America. In the first half of the century, they made up 20 percent of the colonial population. Many of them were in the southern colonies. They worked either on plantations or in houses. Then in 1793, the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney resulted in a new demand for more slaves as it provided an inexpensive method of separating cotton seeds from fibers. With the increase in cotton acreage, slavery persisted in the South and became the foundation of its economy.Slavery was anyhow a moral evil. It was inhuman and was also a institution restricting the development of industry. Many people, mostly people in the North desired an immediate end to the evil institution so that they would be able to develop industry. Some assumed that the only way to solve the problem was to ship all Blacks back to Africa. With the aid of such leading figures as James Monroe (president), John Marshall (Supreme Court justice), Henry Clay and Daniel Webster (senators), they established the American Colonization Society in the 1820’s. This organization was finally successful in getting some land in West Africa for those willing to go back home, thus forming the new nation: the Republic of Liberia, the place of freedom. They named its capital Monrovia after the U. S. president at the time. However, the resettlement policy did little to solve the dilemma. No more than 15,000 Blacks returned to Africa between 1821 an d1860; most of the others preferred to stay in the places they had been born. Those rejecting the policy of being sent home claimed American citizenship on the ground that they were Americans by birth so that they were entitled to the rights set forth in the Declaration of independence.

II. Answer the following questions: