2014年職稱英語(綜合類)教材閱讀理解文章及譯文32

　　The Cherokee Nation

　　Long before the white man came to the America, the land belonged to the American Indian nations. The nation of the Cherokees lived in What is now the southeastern part of the United States.

　　After the white man came, the Cherokees copied many of their ways. One Cherokee named Sequoyah saw how important reading and writing was to the white man. He decided to invent a way to write down the spoken Cherokee language. He began by making word pictures. For each word he drew a picture. But that proved impossible-there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the language. Using this own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokees knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, they were even printing their own newspaper.

　　In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It allowed the government to remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokees refused to go. They had lived on their lands for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi River?

　　The army was sent to drive the Cherokees out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them at gunpoint into the western territory. The sick, the old and the small children went in carts, along with their belongings. The rest of the people marched on foot or rode on horseback. It was November, yet many of them still wore their summer clothes. Cold and hungry, the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of the journey. Many dropped dead and were buried by the roadside. When the last group arrived in their new home in March 1839, more than 4,000 had died. It was indeed a march of death.

　　詞匯：

　　belong 屬于;歸類于 territory 領(lǐng)土;版圖;領(lǐng)域;范圍

　　amazingly 令人驚訝地，十分，非常 belongings 所有物，財產(chǎn)，財物

　　march 迫使……行進;走過，通過

　　注釋：

　　1.The Cherokee Nation：(北美印第安人的)徹羅基部落

　　2.long befor：在……很久以前;在……以前已有很長時間。例如：Our ancestors had been living on this island long before the colonists came.在殖民者到來前我們的祖先已在這個島上生活了很長時間。注意：before long的意識是“不久以后”，例如：The work will be finished before long.這項工作不久就會完成。

　　3.…that made up the language：構(gòu)成那種語言的。make up這里表示“組成，構(gòu)成”，類似的例子還有：Teams from Europe and South American make up the majority of all the participating teams in the Worl-Cup Final.來自歐洲和南美洲的球隊占世界杯決賽全部 參賽隊的大多數(shù)。

　　4.the U.S.Congress：美國國會，由參議院(Senate)和眾議院(the House of Representative)構(gòu)成。

　　5.the Mississippi River：密西西比河(美國)

　　6.at gunpoint：在槍口的威脅下

　　7.the sick，the old：病人和老人。英語中，定冠詞the后跟一個形容詞，表示該形容詞所描述的一類人，整個詞組可作主語或賓語。又如：the dead(死者)，the young(年輕人)，the rich(富人)，the poor(窮人)等。

　　8.Cold and hungry，the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of the journey：寒冷、繼而，徹羅基人很快便被艱苦的行程折磨得精疲力竭。這里的cold and hungry是形容詞詞組，放在主句前面，充當狀語。像這樣的前置形容詞詞組往往可表示伴隨狀況、因果關(guān)系等。例如：Tired and thirsty，he arrived at the campsite at last.他又累又渴，終于抵達營地。Somewhat embarrassed，Mr.Jackson left the room in silence.杰克遜先生感覺有些難堪，悄悄地離開了房間。

　　練習：

　　1. The Cherokee Nation used to live

　　A) on the American continent.

　　B) in the southeastern part of the US.

　　C) beyond the Mississippi River.

　　D) in the western territory.

　　2. One of the ways that Sequoyah copied from the white man is the way of

　　A) writing down the spoken language.

　　B) Making word pictures.

　　C) Teaching his people reading.

　　D) Printing their own newspaper.

　　3. A law was passed in 1830 to

　　A) allow the Cherokees to stay where they were.

　　B) Send the army to help the Cherokees.

　　C) Force the Cherokees to move westward.

　　D) Forbid the Cherokees to read their newspaper.

　　4. When the Cherokees began to leave their lands.

　　A) they went in carts.

　　B) They went on horseback.

　　C) They marched on foot.

　　D) All of the above.

　　5. Many Cherokees died on their way to their new home mainly because

　　A) they were not willing to go there.

　　B) The government did not provide transportation

　　C) They did not have enough food and clothes.

　　D) The journey was long and boring.

　　答案與題解：

　　1.B 答案可在第一段最后一句中找到。The nation of the Cherokees lived in whatis now the southeastern part of the United States.選項A的范圍太廣，選項C和D指的是他們后來遷移至的地方。

　　2.A 課文第二段講述的是Sequoyah從白人那里學到的是將口頭語言寫下來的方法，即運用字母符號記錄發(fā)音。選項B是用圖形表示單詞，選項C是教會人們?nèi)绾伍喿x，選項D是如何印刷報紙的方法，這些都不 準確。因此選項A是正確答案。

　　3.C 本題詢問1930年通過的法律是什么內(nèi)容，選項A說讓徹羅基人留在他們原來的地方，這顯然是不對的;選項B說派軍隊去幫助徹羅基人，這與第四段中的“marched them at gunpoint”(用槍口威逼他們遷移)相矛盾，選項D說禁止徹羅基人閱讀報紙，這在課文中沒有提到。只有選項C“逼迫徹羅基人向西遷移”最符合文章內(nèi)容。

　　4.D 本題問徹羅基人是如何向西遷移的。文章第四段提到了有關(guān)內(nèi)容，病人、老人、小孩坐馬車，其余人步行，有些騎馬。因此選項(all of the above)最全面。

　　5.C 眾多徹羅基人在往西遷移中喪生，其原因可在第四段中找到。選項A說是因為他們不愿離開家鄉(xiāng)，盡管這是事實，但這不是許多人死亡的主要原因。選項B說是因為政府沒有提供交通工具，這在課文中沒有提及。選項D說的是因為路途遙遠，而且令人乏味，但這似乎也非主要原因。因此選項C說他們沒有足夠的食物和衣服，比較接近原文的意思，是正確的答案。

　　譯文：徹羅基部落

　　在白人到來之前的很長一段時間里，美洲這片土地是屬于美洲印第安部落的。徹羅基部落就 生活在現(xiàn)在美國的東南部地區(qū)。

　　白人到來后，徹羅基人學習了他們的很多方法。一個叫賽史伊荷的徹羅基人看到了讀書、寫 字對白人的重要性。他決心創(chuàng)造一種方法來書寫口頭的徹羅基語言。他開始是制作單詞圖形，他 為每一個單詞都畫了圖。但事實證明那是行不通的――單詞太多了!接著他記下構(gòu)成這門語言的 85種聲音。根據(jù)自己的想象和英語拼讀書籍，他為每一個聲音創(chuàng)造了一個符號。他的字母表是極 其容易學的。不久徹羅基人知道了怎樣用他們自己的語言去讀、去寫。到1828年的時候，他們已 經(jīng)在印刷他們自己的報紙了。

　　1830年，美國議會通過了一條法令，它允許政府把印第安人從他們現(xiàn)在的土地上遷走。但徹 羅基人拒絕離開，他們已經(jīng)在這里生活了幾個世紀，這片土地是屬于他們的，為什么他們要到一 個遠離密西西比河的陌生地方去?

　　軍隊被派來驅(qū)趕徹羅基人了，士兵包圍了他們的村莊，在槍口的威脅下，他們被押往西部地 區(qū)。病人、老人和孩子坐在運送物品的大車上，剩下的人則步行或騎馬。當時正值11月份，可他 們中的好多人還穿著夏天的衣服。寒冷、饑餓，徹羅基人很快便被艱苦的行程折磨得精疲力竭， 好多人倒地而死被掩埋在路旁。當1839年3月最后一批人被趕到他們的新家時，已經(jīng)死了 4000 多人。這實在是一次死亡之旅。