公共英语四级
Slavery has played a significant role in the history of the U. S. It existed in all the English ma-inland colonies and most of the Founding Fathers also had slaves, as did eight of the first 12 presi-dents.
Dutch traders brought 20 Africans to Jamestown, Virginia, as early as 1619, however,throughout the 17th century the number of Africans in the English mainland colonies grew very slowly. At that time, colonists used two other sources of unfree labor: Native American slaves and European indentured servants:
During those years, every colony had some Native American slaves, but their number was limited. Indian men avoided performing agricultural labor, because they viewed it as women´ s work, and colonists complained that they were too "haughty". The more important was that the settlers found it more convenient to sell Native Americans captured in war to planters in the Carib-bean than to turn them into slaves, because they often resisted and it was not hard for the slaves to escape. Later, the policy of killing Indians or driving them away from white settlements was pro- posed and it contradicted with their widespread employment as slaves.
The other form of labor was the white indentured servitude. Most indentured servants consisted of poor Europeans. Desiring to escape tough conditions in Europe and take advantage of fabled op-portunities in America, they traded three to seven years of their labor in exchange for the transatlan-tic passage. At first, it was mainly English who were the white indentured servitude but later in-creasingly Irish, Welsh, and German joined. They were essentially temporary slaves and most of them served as agricultural workers although some, especially in the North, were taught skilled trades. During the 17th century, they performed most of heavy labor in the Southern colonies and also consisted of the bulk of immigrants to those colonies.
At the end of the 17th century, in order to meet the labor need, landowners in America turned to African slaves. During the late 17th and 18th centuries, thanks to the dominant position of Eng-land in terms of naval superiority, English traders ( some of whom lived in English America) trans-ported millions of Africans across the Atlantic. And the transatlantic slave trade produced one of the largest forced migrations in history, blacks (the great majority of whom were slaves) increasing from about 7 percent of the American population in 1680 to more than 40 percent by the middle of the 18th century.
Which of the following was true of the slavery in America?
A．The colonists sold African Americans to planters in the Caribbean．
B．Native American slaves performed agricultural labor．
C．During the l7th century，the white indentured servitude was the main labor in the Southern colonies．
D．It was at the end of the l7th century that African people began to be brought to America．
奴隶制在美国历史上发挥了重要作用。它存在于所有的英国大陆殖民地，很多开国元勋们自己也拥有奴隶，前12位总统中有8位都拥有奴隶。
早在1619年，荷兰商人就把20个非洲人带到了弗吉尼亚州的詹姆斯敦，但是，在整个l7世纪，非洲人在英国殖民地的数量增长缓慢。当时，殖民者使用了另两种不自由的劳动力：美洲土著奴隶和欧洲契约奴隶。
在那些年里，每一个殖民地都有一些印第安奴隶，但他们的人数是有限的。印第安男子不从事农业劳动，因为他们认为那是妇女的工作，殖民者也抱怨说他们太“傲慢”。更重要的是，殖民者发现把在战争中俘获的印第安人卖给加勒比地区的种植园主，而不是把他们变成奴隶，这样做更方便，因为他们往往进行反抗，也很容易逃走。后来，杀害印第安人或驱逐他们远离白人定居点的政策被提了出来，这种政策与广泛使用印第安人当奴隶相冲突。
另一种劳动力是由白人构成的契约奴隶，他们大多是欧洲的穷人。
为了逃避欧洲艰苦的条件，并利用他们听到的美国的机会，他们用3到7年的劳动换取了跨过大西洋的道路。刚开始，主要是英国人做这种契约奴隶，后来，逐渐地又有爱尔兰人、威尔士人和德国人加入了进来。事实上，他们是暂时的奴隶，而且他们中的大多数是农业工人，但是有一些，特别是在北方地区，被教授职业技巧。在l7世纪的南方殖民地，大多数的重活都是由他们干，而且他们也是迁移到这些殖民地的人口的主干。
17世纪末，因为劳动力不足，美国的土地所有者把目光转向了非洲奴隶。17和18世纪，得益于英国在航海方面的支配地位，英国商人(其中一些是住在美国的英国人)把成百上千万的非洲人运到了大西洋的另一端。跨越大西洋的奴隶贸易也产生了历史上最大的一次被迫移民，1680年，黑人(其中绝大多数是奴隶)占美国人口的7％，而到18世纪中叶，黑人人口的比例已经超过了40％。
答案及解析
由第三段第三句“The more important was that the settlers found it more convenient to sell Native Americans captured in war to planters in the Caribbean than to turn them into slaves，because they often resisted and it was not hard for the slaves to escape．(更重要的是，殖民者发现把在战争中俘获的印第安人卖给加勒比地区的种植园主，而不是把他们变成奴隶，这样做更方便，因为他们往往进行反抗，也很容易逃走。)”可知，选项A不正确。由第三段第二句“Indian men avoided performing agricultural labor，because they viewed it as women’s work，and eolorasts complained that they were too‘haughty’．”(印第安男子不从事农业劳动，因为他们认为那是妇女的工作，殖民者也抱怨说他们太“傲慢”。)可知，选项B不正确。由第二段第一句“Dutch traders brought 20 Afri-cans to Jamestown，Virginia，as early as 1619(早在1619年，荷兰商人就把20个非洲人带到了弗吉尼亚州的詹姆斯敦)”可知，选项D不正确。由第四段最后一句“During the 17th century，they performed most of heavy labor in the Southern colonies(在17世纪的南方殖民地，大多数的重活都是由他们干)”可知，选项C正确。所以，本题选择C。
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