英语专业八级满分听力 test-4

[00:27.99]Test Four
[00:29.85]SECTION A  MINI-LECTURE
[00:31.92]In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY.
[00:39.58]While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked,
[00:45.16]but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over,
[00:51.50]you’ll be given two minutes to check your notes, and another 10 minutes to complete the gap-filling task.
[00:56.75]Now listen to the mini-lecture.
[00:59.49]Good morning. We’ll continue with our introduction of American minorities.
[01:04.30]Today’s focus is on Chinese Americans. For many years it was common
[01:10.54]in the United States to associate Chinese Americans with restaurants and laundries.
[01:14.80]People did not realize that the Chinese had been driven into these occupations
[01:19.39]by the prejudice and discrimination that used to face them in this country.
[01:22.68]The first group of Chinese came during the California Gold Rush of 1849.
[01:27.16]Like most of the other people there, they had come to search for gold.
[01:31.53]In that largely unoccupied land, they stated a claim for themselves by placing markers in the ground.
[01:37.76]However, either because the Chinese were so different from the others or because they
[01:43.12]so patiently that they sometimes succeeded in turning a seemingly worthless mining claim into a profitable one,
[01:49.25]they became the scapegoats of their envious competitors. They were harassed in many ways.
[01:54.72]Often they were prevented working on their claims;
[01:57.34]some localities even passed regulations forbidding them to own claims.
[02:02.92]Therefore, these Chinese had to seek out other ways of earning a living.
[02:06.97]Some of them began to do the laundry for the white miners; others set up small restaurants.
[02:12.11]There were almost no women in California in those days,
[02:15.60]and the Chinese filled a real need by doing this “woman’s work”.
[02:19.55]Some others went to work as farmhands or as fishermen.
[02:23.04]In the early 1860’s, a second group of Chinese arrived in California.
[02:27.75]This time, they were imported as work crews to construct the first transcontinental railroad.
[02:33.10]The work was so strenuous and dangerous, and it was carried on in such a remote part of the country,
[02:38.90]that the railroad company could not find other laborers for the job. As in the case of their predecessors,
[02:44.70]these Chinese were almost all males and they encountered a great deal of prejudice.
[02:49.29]The hostility grew especially strong after the railroad project was completed,
[02:53.89]and the imported laborers returned to California, all out of work.
[02:58.26]Because there were so many more of them this time,
[03:01.33]these Chinese drew even more attention than the earlier group did.
[03:05.26]They were so different in every aspect: in their physical appearance,
[03:08.54]in their language, and in their religion. They were contemptuously called “heathen Chinese”.
[03:13.47]When times were hard, they were blamed for working for lower wages and taking jobs away from white men.
[03:20.03]And these white men were actually recent immigrants themselves. Anti-Chinese riots broke out in many cities.
[03:26.70]Some even developed into arson and bloodshed.
[03:29.65]The Chinese were not allowed to make legal appeals and they were not accepted as American citizens.
[03:34.90]Californians began to demand that no more Chinese be permitted to enter their state.
[03:40.25]Finally, in 1882, the Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act,
[03:45.17]which stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers.
[03:47.69]Many Chinese returned to their homeland, and their numbers declined sharply in the early part of this century.
[03:53.93]However, during World War Two, when China was an ally of the United States,
[03:58.96]the Exclusion laws were ended; a small number of Chinese were allowed to immigrate each year,
[04:04.10]and Chinese could become American citizens. In 1965, in a general revision of our immigration laws,
[04:11.98]many more Chinese were permitted to settle here.
[04:14.93]From the start, the Chinese had lived apart in their own separate neighborhoods,
[04:19.41]which came to be known as “Chinatowns’.
[04:21.71]In each of them the residents organized an unofficial government
[04:25.65]to make rules for the community and to settle disputes.
[04:28.49]Many people couldn’t find jobs on the outside, and they went into business for themselves,
[04:33.96]primarily to serve their own neighborhood. As for laundries and restaurants,
[04:38.88]some of them soon spread to other parts of the city,
[04:41.84]since such services continued to be in demand among non-Chinese, too.
[04:46.31]To this day, certain Chinatowns, especially those of San Francisco and New York,
[04:51.79]are very busy, thriving communities.
[04:54.19]They have become great attractions for tourists and for those who enjoy Chinese food.
[04:58.56]Most of today’s Chinese Americans are the descendants of some of the early miners and railroad workers.
[05:04.69]Those immigrants had been uneducated farm laborers in the vicinity of Canton
[05:09.61]in Southeast China before they came to America.Even after having lived here for several generations,
[05:15.74]Chinese Americans retain many aspects of their ancient culture.
[05:19.67]For example, their family ties continue to be remarkably strong.
[05:23.94]Members of the family lend each other moral support and also practical help when necessary.
[05:29.73]From a very young age children are taught with the old values and attitudes,
[05:34.11]including respect for their elders and a feeling of responsibility to the family.
[05:38.71]This helps to explain why there is so little juvenile delinquency among them.
[05:43.52]The high regard for education, and the willingness to work very hard to gain advancement,
[05:48.77]are other noteworthy characteristics of theirs.
[05:51.17]This explains why so many descendants of uneducated laborers have succeeded in becoming doctors,
[05:56.97]lawyers, and other professionals.
[05:58.83]By the way, many of the most outstanding Chinese American scholars,
[06:03.31]scientists, and artists are more recent arrivals.
[06:05.94]They come from China’s former upper class and they represent its high cultural traditions.
[06:11.08]Chinese Americans make up only a tiny fraction of the American population.
[06:15.24]They live chiefly in California, New York, and Hawaii.
[06:18.84]As American attitudes toward minorities and toward ethnic differences have changed in recent years,
[06:24.64]the long-hated Chinese have gained wide acceptance.
[06:28.03]Today, they are generally admired for many remarkable characteristics,
[06:32.08]and are often held up as an example worth following.
[06:35.47]And their numerous contributions to their adopted land are much appreciated.
[06:39.63]Now, we are coming to the end of our lecture. Our focus for next week will be on African Americans.
[06:45.86]Thank you for your attention.