GRE阅读题目解析:殖民者内部矛盾

　　1

　　Some recent historians have argued that life in the British colonies in America from approximately 1763 to 1789 was marked by internal conflicts among colonists.

　　近期一些历史学者认为，约 1763 - 1789 年的英属北美殖民地的殖民者中，有明显的内部矛盾。

　　2

　　Inheritors of some of the viewpoints of early twentieth-century Progressive historians such as Beard and Becker, these recent historians have put forward arguments that deserve evaluation.

　　二十世纪早期 Progressive 派历史学者比如 Beard 和 Becker，他们某些观点的传人已经提出了一些值得讨论的问题。

　　(两位学者确有其人。

　　……

　　Progressive historians

　　From 1910 to the 1940s, "Progressive" historiography was dominant, especially in political studies. It stressed the central importance of class conflict in American history. Important leaders included Vernon L. Parrington, Carl L. Becker, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., John Hicks, and C. Vann Woodward.[96] The movement established a strong base at the History Department at the University of Wisconsin with Curtis Nettels, William Hesseltine, Merle Curti, Howard K. Beale, Merrill Jensen, Fred Harvey Harrington (who became the university president), William Appleman Williams, and a host of graduate students.[97] Charles A. Beard was the most prominent representative with his "Beardian" approach that reached both scholars and the general public.[98]

　　……

　　(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography#Progressive_historians)

　　)

　　3

　　The kind of conflict most emphasized by these historians is class conflict.

　　他们最强调的矛盾是阶级矛盾。

　　4

　　Yet with the Revolutionary War dominating these years, how does one distinguish class conflict within that larger conflict?

　　然而时值美国独立战争，我们何以从这样一场大战中分辨出哪些是阶级矛盾呢?

　　(美国独立战争，1775 - 1783)

　　5

　　Certainly not by the side a person supported.

　　当然不能凭立场。

　　6

　　Although many of these historians have accepted the earlier assumption that Loyalists represented an upper class, new evidence indicates that Loyalists, like rebels, were drawn from all socioeconomic classes. (It is nonetheless probably true that a larger percentage of the well-to-do joined the Loyalists than joined the rebels.)

　　尽管这些学者中的许多人已经接受，早前的 认为忠于英王者代表了上层阶级 的假设，但新证据显示忠于英王者和反抗军一样，来自于各个社会经济阶层。(事实是，仍然可能有更大比例的富人加入了忠于英王的阵营，而非反抗军。)

　　(well-to-do 富人，富裕的)

　　7

　　Looking at the rebel side, we find little evidence for the contention that lower-class rebels were in conflict with upper-class rebels.

　　反抗军方面，我们没发现什么证据证明其内部较低的社会阶层，与较高社会阶层有冲突。

　　8

　　Indeed, the war effort against Britain tended to suppress class conflicts.

　　实际上，与英国开战缓和了阶级矛盾。

　　(suppress 镇压、评定(叛乱等)，查禁、查封(思想等)，压抑(感情等)，suppress class conflicts 压制了冲突，意译为缓和矛盾，suppress 本意没有缓和)

　　9

　　Where it did not, the disputing rebels of one or another class usually became Loyalists.

　　而那些没有缓和的，一直争论不休的反抗军，往往后来倒向英王。

　　10

　　Loyalism thus operated as a safety valve to remove socioeconomic discontent that existed among the rebels.

　　这样一来，是否忠于英王就成为反抗军中，消除社会经济不满情绪的安全阀。

　　(安全阀的作用不是消除不满情绪，而是实在不满的可以离开反抗军，相当于送走了不满的人)

　　11

　　Disputes occurred, of course, among those who remained on the rebel side, but the extraordinary social mobility of eighteenth-century American society (with the obvious exception of slaves) usually prevented such disputes from hardening along class lines.

　　当然，余下的反抗军内部仍有矛盾，但十八世纪美国社会超常的流动性(显然奴隶阶层例外)往往防止这些争端发展到阶级间对立的程度。

　　(harden 使变硬，使(人)变得麻木无情。)

　　12

　　Social structure was in fact so fluid --- though recent statistics suggest a narrowing of economic opportunity as the latter half of the century progressed --- that to talk about social classes at all requires the use of loose economic categories such as rich, poor, and middle class, or eighteenth-century designations like "the better sort."

　　实际上社会阶层之间的流动如此频繁 —— 尽管近期数据显示十八世纪后半段改变个人经济状况的机会变少了 —— 以至于任何时候讨论社会阶层，我们都需要用到一些不严谨的经济分类比如，富，穷，以及中产，或者十八世纪的说法如 “更好的一种” 。

　　(at all 一般用作 “根本、丝毫” to the least extent，“根本(压根)不知道”，I don't know that at all;在本句中比较适合解读为 under any circumstance，任何条件下。

　　举个例子解释句子，我们今天说一个阶层，比如工人，你脑中可能会马上浮现出一个问题，下岗了没?如果没下岗，你也不会认为一个工人的工资有多高，这是因为我们社会相对固化，工人这个阶层的收入在社会中的相对位置，几乎不浮动;

　　但句中说的美国十八世纪则完全是另外一种样子，说阶层，根本不能帮你判断他们的经济能力，可能很普通的职业也赚很多钱，相对高端的职业也常破产，谈论一个阶层时，往往需要多问一句经济状况。

　　没查到关于 “the better sort” 的什么有用典故。)

　　13

　　Despite these vague categories, one should not claim unequivocally that hostility between recognizable classes cannot be legitimately observed.

　　尽管这些分类很模糊，你仍然不能明确地判断出，可识别的阶级间不存在明显的敌意。

　　(烂句子，烂死了，翻译成人话应该是：虽然分类模糊，但不同阶层间确有敌意。)

　　14

　　Outside of New York, however, there were very few instances of openly expressed class antagonism.

　　然而，除了纽约，很少爆发公开的阶级对抗事件。

　　15

　　Having said this, however, one must add that there is much evidence to support the further claim of recent historians that sectional conflicts were common between 1763 and 1789.

　　可是说到这，你得知道有很多证据支持近期学者们更进一步的观点，即 1763 - 1789 时期，地域冲突是家常便饭。

　　16

　　The "Paxton Boys" incident and the Regulator movement are representative examples of the widespread, and justified, discontent of western settlers against colonial or state governments dominated by eastern interests.

　　"Paxton Boys" 事件以及 “ the Regulator Movement ” 表明，西部拓荒者们对 被东部财阀主导的殖民地政府或州政府，有着广泛的，理由充分的不满。

　　17

　　Although undertones of class conflict existed beneath such hostility, the opposition was primarily geographical.

　　尽管阶级矛盾是这种对抗情绪下的潜流，但冲突主要还是地域间的。

　　18

　　Sectional conflict -- which also existed between North and South -- deserves further investigation.

　　南北方同样存在地域冲突，值得更深入讨论。

　　19

　　In summary, historians must be careful about the kind of conflict they emphasize in eighteenth-century America.

　　总而言之，历史学者在讨论十八世纪美国的冲突时，需要谨慎地界定是何种冲突。

　　20

　　Yet those who stress the achievement of a general consensus among the colonists cannot fully understand that consensus without understanding the conflicts that had to be overcome or repressed in order to reach it. (461 words)

　　而那些强调殖民者达成全面共识的学者，如果不搞清楚殖民者们为达成共识，需要克服或压制哪些冲突，就不会完全理解这种共识。

　　(我认为句首的 yet 作副词，“更、甚至”，为了翻译通顺，用了个比较模糊的 “而”，其实是种递进)

　　2.The author most likely refers to "historians such as Beard and Becker" in the first paragraph in order to

　　(A) isolate the two historians whose work is most representative of the viewpoints of Progressive historians

　　(B) emphasize the need to find connections between recent historical writing and the work of earlier historians

　　(C) make a case for the importance of the views of the Progressive historians concerning eighteenth-century American life

　　(D) suggest that Progressive historians were the first to discover the particular internal conflicts in eighteenth-century American life mentioned in the passage

　　(E) point out historians whose views of history anticipated some of the views of the recent historians mentioned in the passage

　　选 E

　　A 并不能确定是不是 most representative 。

　　B 错在 need to find connections，不用找，作者明确地告诉我们后面这些都是 inheritors，关系很明显。

　　C 过于发散了，看不出作者有这样的态度。

　　D 早 early 可能没问题，但是不是最先 the first 说不准。

　　E 正确项。指出文中某些学者的观点，在历史上的源流。

　　3.According to the passage, Loyalism during the American Revolutionary War served the function of

　　(A) eliminating the disputes that existed among those colonists who supported the rebel cause

　　(B) drawing upper, as opposed to lower, socioeconomic classes away from the rebel cause

　　(C) tolerating the kinds of socioeconomic discontent that were not allowed to exist on the rebel side

　　(D) channeling conflict that existed within a socioeconomic class into the war effort against the rebel cause

　　(E) absorbing members of socioeconomic groups on the rebel side who felt themselves in contention with members of other socioeconomic groups

　　选 E

　　根据在句 9 - 10：

　　Where it did not, the disputing rebels of one or another class usually became Loyalists. Loyalism thus operated as a safety valve to remove socioeconomic discontent that existed among the rebels.

　　For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply

　　4. The passage suggests that the author would be likely to agree with which of the following statements about the social structure of eighteenth-century American society?

　　A It allowed greater economic opportunity than it did social mobility.

　　B It permitted greater economic opportunity prior to 1750 than after 1750.

　　C It did not contain rigidly defined socioeconomic divisions.

　　选 BC

　　A 相对于社会流动性，给予了更大的经济机会。这俩是相关，无从比较。

　　B 根据句 12 中的 “ …a narrowing of economic opportunity as the latter half of the century… ”

　　C 句 11 说 “extraordinary social mobility”，可以认为不僵化。

　　5.The author suggests which of the following about the representativeness of colonial or state governments in America from 1763 to 1789 ?

　　(A) The governments inadequately represented the interests of people in western regions.

　　(B) The governments more often represented class interests than sectional interests.

　　(C)The governments were less representative than they had been before1763 .

　　(D)The governments were dominated by the interests of people of an upper socioeconomic class.

　　(E) The governments of the northern colonies were less representative than were the governments of the southern colonies.

　　选 A

　　见句 16：

　　“The "Paxton Boys" incident and the Regulator movement are representative examples of the widespread, and justified, discontent of western settlers against colonial or state governments dominated by eastern interests. ”

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