passage4
注解：标题为红色，翻译为蓝色，分析为绿色。
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(下巴,下巴口腔)—having extracted them from the mouths of his slaves.
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 role slavery played in the lives of the founding generation(founding generation创国的那一代人，开国元勋). 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(婴儿期,初期). More significant, they argue that many of the Founding Fathers knew slavery was wrong—and yet most did little to fight it.
(资料图)
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.
For one thing, the South could not afford to part with(part with丢弃) 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. 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.
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.
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.
一、文章结构分析
本文是议论文。文章主要论述了美国一些开国元勋对待废奴问题的态度和做法，并分析了其原因。
第一段是关于华盛顿补牙的一个例子，通过总统的轶事引出本文的主要内容。
第二段指出一些开国元勋虽然憎恨奴隶制度，但很少为废奴而斗争。
随后的四个段落分析了这些开国元勋在他们任期内没有废除奴隶制的原因。
36. George Washington’s dental surgery is mentioned to.
[A] show the primitive medical practice in the past.
[B] demonstrate the cruelty of slavery in his days.
[C] stress the role of slaves in the U.S. history.
[D] reveal some unknown aspect of his life.
36．提到乔治·华盛顿的牙齿手术是为了 。
[A] 说明过去原始的医疗行为
[B] 证明他那个时代奴隶制的残忍
[C] 强调奴隶制在美国历史上的作用
[D] 揭露他生活中不为人知的方面
37. We may infer from the second paragraph that.
[A] DNA technology has been widely applied to history research.
[B] in its early days the U.S. was confronted with delicate situations.
[C] historians deliberately made up some stories of Jefferson’s life.
[D] political compromises are easily found throughout the U.S. history.
37．从第二段我们可以推知 。
[A] DNA 技术已经被广泛应用到历史研究上
[B] 早期的美国面临着微妙的处境
[C] 历史学家故意编造了杰斐逊的一些生活故事
[D] 在整个美国历史上政治妥协随处可见
38. What do we learn about Thomas Jefferson?
[A] His political view changed his attitude towards slavery.
[B] His status as a father made him free the child slaves.
[C] His attitude towards slavery was complex.
[D] His affair with a slave stained his prestige.
38．关于托马斯·杰斐逊我们知道什么？
[A]他的政治观点改变了他对奴隶制的态度
[B]父亲的身份使他释放了儿童奴隶
[C]他对奴隶制抱有复杂的态度
[D]他与一名奴隶的暧昧关系玷污了其名声
39. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[A] Some Founding Fathers benefit politically from slavery.
[B] Slaves in the old days did not have the right to vote.
[C] Slave owners usually had large savings accounts.
[D] Slavery was regarded as a peculiar institution.
39．根据文章，下面哪一项正确？
[A] 一些开国元勋们在政治上得益于奴隶制。
[B] 过去的奴隶没有选举权。
[C] 奴隶主常常拥有大笔存款。
[D] 奴隶制被视为一种奇特的制度。
40. Washington’s decision to free slaves originated from his .
[A] moral considerations.
[B] military experience.
[C] financial conditions.
[D] political stand.
40．华盛顿释放奴隶的决定源于他的 。
[A]道德考虑
[B]军事经历
[C]经济状况
[D]政治立场
二、核心词汇与超纲词汇
1. bedrock n. 基岩；底蕴；最小量
2. carve v. 切割；雕刻；造成
3. clause n. 分句；条款
4. extract v. 拔出，提炼出；推断出
5. from the bottom up 从头，完全彻底地
6. part with sth 放弃，交出
7. spur v. 用马刺刺马；激励，鞭策；促进，加速
三、阅读答案：D B C A B
四、全文翻译：
1784 年，也就是乔治·华盛顿成为美国总统的前五年，52 岁的他牙齿几乎掉光了。于是他雇了一名牙医往自己口腔里植入了九颗牙，这些牙是从他的奴隶之口中拔出来的。
这与大多数人所记得的历史书中华盛顿砍倒樱桃树的形象截然不同。但是最近，很多历史学家开始关注奴隶制在开国元勋们的生活中所扮演的角色。他们的兴趣部分源自 1998 年的 DNA 证据，它几乎肯定地证明了托马斯·杰斐逊曾与其奴隶萨利·赫明斯育有至少一个孩子。然而学者只在过去三十年间才自下而上研究历史。几位历史学家的著作揭示了这些国家早期领导人的道德妥协以及新生国家的脆弱性。更意味深长的是，他们认为许多开国元勋明知奴隶制错误，却很少有人试图推翻它。
历史学家认为，最重要的原因是开国元勋们受到当时社会文化的局限。尽管华盛顿和杰斐逊私下里都表达了对奴隶制的反感，但是他们也知道奴隶制是他们努力创建的国家的政治与经济基石的一部分。一方面，南方不能没有奴隶。《不完美的上帝：乔治·华盛顿，他的奴隶和他创造的美利坚》一书的作者温瑟柯称：拥有奴隶就如同“拥有一笔巨额存款”。如果没有对这种“奇特的制度”的保护性条款(其中一项规定黑奴按 3/5 人口计算以保证国会代表权)，南方各州是不会签署宪法的。
这些政治家们的政治前途也取决于奴隶制。3/5 规定增加了选举人团制度中南方州的选票数，使杰弗逊在 1800 年大选以微弱的优势获胜。他在任总统期间通过 1803 年的“路易斯安那购地”扩大了奴隶制，这片新国土被划分成 13 个州，其中三个实行奴隶制。
但是，杰弗逊给了赫明斯的孩子自由——虽然没有给她本人和其他近 150 名奴隶自由。目睹了解放战争中黑人士兵的勇敢后，华盛顿开始相信人人生而平等，他不顾亲戚的强烈反对，在遗嘱中赋予他的奴隶自由。而仅仅在那之前十年的弗吉尼亚州，这种行为的实施还要得到立法机关的批准。
