2008考研英语阅读理解真题解析第四篇“美国元首”

2021年1月24日发(作者：地壳运动)
2008 Text 4
In 1784, five years before he became president of the United States, George Washington,
52, was nearly toothless. So he hired a dentist to transplant nine teeth into his jaw
–
having
extracted them from the mouths of his slaves.

1784
，
52
岁的乔治
?
华盛顿在成为美国总统
5
年前，牙齿就几乎已经掉光了。他专门请 牙医从他的
奴隶口中拔出九颗牙齿种在自己的身上。

transplant
[tr?ns'pl
ɑ
:nt] vt.
移居
,
移植
,
迁移

vi.
移居
,
移植

n.
移居者
,
移植

【例】
Santillan waited three years for the first transplant.
为了找到合适的心肺进行移植，桑
提连已经等了足足三年。

That’s
a
far
different
image
from
the
cherry
-tree-chopping
George
most
people
remember from their history books. But recently, many historians have begun to focus on the
roles slavery played in the lives of the founding generation.

①
They have been spurred in
part
by
DNA
evidence
made
available
in
1998,
which
almost
certainly
proved
Thomas Jefferson had fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemings.
And
only over the past 30 years have scholars examined history from the bottom up. Works of
several historians reveal the moral compromises made by the nation’s
early leaders and the
fragile
nature
of
the
country’s
infancy.
More
significantly,
they
argue
that
many
of
the
Founding Fathers knew slavery was wrong
–
and yet most did little to fight it..
这跟很多人在历史书上读到过的那个砍樱桃树的华盛顿有 点大相径庭。但是最近开始，历史学家开始
越来越关注奴隶制在美国开国一代人的生活中所扮演的角色。 他们多半是受了
1998
年
DNA
事件的影响。
那个事件证明托马斯
?
杰弗逊至少和他的奴隶萨利
?
赫明思生过一个孩子。学者们从头至尾地研究 历史还是
近三十年的事情。一些历史学家揭示了早期开国者们的道德妥协和早期国家的不稳定性。更重要 的是，他
们认为很多开国元勋知道奴隶制是错误的，但是大多数并没有去反抗。

spur
[sp
?
:] n.
马刺
,
刺激物
,
鼓舞

vt.
刺激
,
激励
,
用马刺刺

vi.
用马刺驱马
,
疾驰

【例】
Do not spur a willing horse.
君子一言，好马一鞭。

compromise
['k
?
mpr
?
maiz] n.
妥协
,
折衷
,
折衷案
,
和解

vi.
妥协处理

vt.
危害


【例】
Oppose all vacillation and compromise.
反对任何的动摇妥协。

fragile
['fr?d
?
ail] a.
易碎的
,
脆的

名词：
fragility, fragileness
副词：
fragilely
【例】
Is anything fragile enclosed?
这包裹里有易破的东西吗？

infancy
['inf
?
nsi] n.
幼年
,
初期
,
幼儿期

【例】
Growth is rapid in infancy.
幼儿期的成长相当快。

1
、
They have been spurred in part by DNA evidence made available in 1998, which almost
certainly proved Thomas Jefferson had fathered at least one child with his slave Sally
Hemings.
【译文】他们多半是受了
1998年
DNA
事件的影响。那个事件证明托马斯
?
杰弗逊至少和他的奴隶萨< br>利
?
赫明思生过一个孩子。

【解析】该句的主干是
They have been spurred in part by DNA evidence
，过去分词短语
made
available in 1998< br>和
Which
引导的非限定性从句都做后置定语，共同修饰名词
evidenc e
。定语从句的
主谓结构是
which
proved
，宾语是省略 了关系代词的宾语从句（
that
）
Tommas
Jefferson
had
fathered
…
Hemings
，其中
father
做动词，意为“
[
作为父亲
]
生
[
孩子
]
，成为·
·
·
·
·
·的父亲”
。

More than anything, the historians say, the founders were hampered by the culture of
their time. While Washington and Jefferson privately expressed distaste for slavery, they also
understood that it was part of the political and economic bedrock of the country they helped
to create.
最主要的原因，就是建国者们受到了当时文化的束缚。当华盛顿和杰弗 逊私底下表示对奴隶制的不满
时，他们也明白奴隶制同时也是他们努力建造的这个国家的政治经济基础的 一部分。

bedrock
[bed'r
?
k] n.
岩床
,
根底
,
基础

【例】
Ancient culture is the bedrock of all.
古老的文化蕴孕着时代永恒的文明。

For one thing, the South could not afford to
part with its slaves. Owning slaves was “like
having a large bank account,” says Wiencek, author of An Imperfect God: George Washington,
His Slaves, and the Creation of America.
②
The southern states would not have signed
the
Constitution
without
protection
s
for
the
“peculiar
institution,”
including
a
clause that counted a slave as three fifths of a man for purposes of congressional
representation.
一方面，
南方各州 无法认同废除奴隶制度。
如
《不完美的上帝：
乔治
?
华盛顿、
他的奴隶和美国的建立》
一书作者
Wiencek
所描述，拥有努力“就像拥有一笔 巨额存款”
。如果没有对于这种“特殊制度”的保护，
南方各州不会同意签署宪法。这种特殊的 制度保护包括：在国会代表人数中一个奴隶可以算作五分之三个
公民。

congressional
[k
?
n'gre
??
nl] a.
会议的
,
议会的
,
国会的


【例】
The congressional opponents zeroed in on the bill.
国会中的反对派把矛头集中指向那
项议案。

2
、
The southern states would not have signed the Constitution without protections for the
“peculiar institution,” including a clause that counted a slave as three fifths of a man for
purposes of congressional representation.
【译文】如果没有对于这种“特殊制度”的保护，南方各州不会同意签署宪法。这种特殊的制度保护
包括 ：在国会代表人数中一个奴隶可以算作五分之三个公民。

【解析】这句话虽然很长，但是结构 很简单。
”
including
”后面是对“
perculiar institution
”

的进一步解释，在理解的时候，可以把这句话分成两句话 来理解。
“如果没有对于这种“特殊制度”的
保护，南方各州不会同意签署宪法。这种特殊的制 度保护包括：在国会代表人数中一个奴隶可以算作五分
之三个公民。
”

And the statesmen’s political lives depended on slavery. The three
-fifths formula handed
Jefferson his narrow victory in the presidential election of 1800 by inflating the votes of the
southern states in the Electoral College. Once in office, Jefferson extended slavery with the
Louisiana Purchase in 1803; the new land was carved into 13 states, including three slave
states.
政治家的政治生命也取决于奴隶制度。正由于这个 五分之三公式，南方选举团的选票扩大了，杰弗逊
才在
1800
大选中险胜。入主白宫 之后的
1803
年，杰弗逊通过购买路易斯安那州扩大了奴隶制度，这片
土地后来被划 分为了
13
个州，其中包括
3
个蓄奴州。

formula
['f
?
:mjul
?
] n.
公式
,
程式
;
准则
,
方案复


【例】
What formula will they accept?

什么方案各方都能接受呢？

Still,
Jefferson
freed
Hemings’s
children
–

though
not
Hemings
herself
or
his
approximately 150 other slaves. Washington, who had begun to believe that all men were
created equal after observing the bravery of the black soldiers during the Revolutionary War
,
overcame the strong opposition of his relatives to grant his slaves their freedom in his will.
Only a decade earlier
, such an act would have required legislative approval in Virginia.
然而，杰弗逊还是解放了赫明思的孩子们，虽然没有同样解放赫明思和其他
150
名奴隶。华盛顿在目
睹了美国独立战争中黑人士兵的英勇之后开始相信人人生就平等。 于是，不顾亲属的反对，他解放了自己
所有的努力。而仅仅在十年前，解放奴隶的法案才在弗吉尼亚得以 批准。