2008考研英语阅读理解真题解析第四篇“美国元首”
2008 Text 4养生大讲堂
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 [træns'plɑ: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. ①They 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 veral historians reveal the moral compromis 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 [spə:] 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 hor. 君子一言，好马一鞭。
compromi ['k梅溪湖ɔmprəmaiz] n. 妥协,折衷,折衷案,和解 vi. 妥协处理 vt. 危害
【例】Oppo all vacillation and compromi. 反对任何的动摇妥协。
fragile ['frædʒail] a. 易碎的,脆的 名词：fragility, fragileness 副词：社交恐惧症测试fragilely蝴蝶涂色
【例】Is anything fragile enclod? 这包裹里有易破的东西吗？
infancy ['infənsi] 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和Which引导的非限定性从句都做后置定语，共同修饰名词evidence。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 expresd 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'rɔk] n. 岩床,根底,基础
【例】石时态>电话销售工作内容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. ②The southern states would not have signed the Constitution without protections for the “peculiar institution,” including a clau that counted a slave as three fifths of a man for purpos of congressional reprentation.
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。十字礼貌用语
congressional [kən'greʃənl] a. 会议的,西宫南内多秋草议会的,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 clau that counted a slave as three fifths of a man for purpos of congressional reprentation.
【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 Purcha in 1803; the new land was carved into 13 states, including three slave states.
