美英报刊阅读教程Lesson1课文

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美英报刊阅读教程Lesson1课文

【Lesson 1 Good News about Racial Progress

The remaining divisions in American society should

not blind us to a half-century of dramatic change

By Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom

In the Perrywood community of Upper Marlboro, Md.1, near

Washington, D.C., homes cost between $160,000 and $400,000.

The lawns are green and the amenities appealing—including a

basketball court.

Low-income teen-agers from Washington started coming

there. The teens were black, and they were not welcomed. The

homeowners? association hired off-duty police as security, and

they would ask the ballplayers whether they “belonged” in the

area. The association? s newsletter noted the “eyesore” at the

basketball court.

But the story has a surprising twist: many of the homeowners

were black t oo. “We started having problems with the young

men, and unfortunately they are our people,” one resident told

a re porter from the Washington Post. “But what can you do?”

The homeowners didn?t care about the race of the basketball

players. They were outsiders—in truders. As another resident

remarked, “People who don?t live here might not care about

things the way we do. Seeing all the new houses going up,

someone might be tempted.”

It?s a t elling story. Lots of Americans think that almost all

blacks live in inner cities. Not true. Today many blacks own homes

in suburban neighborhoods—not just around Washington, but

outside Atlanta, Denver and other cities as well.

That?s not the only common misconception Americans have

ab out race. For some of the misinformation, the media are to

blame. A reporter in The Wall Street Journal, for instance, writes

that the economic gap between whites and blacks has widened.

He offers no evidence. The picture drawn of racial relations is

even bleaker. In one poll, for instance, 85 percent of blacks, but

only 34 percent of whites, agreed with the verdict in the O.J.

Simpson murder trial. That racially divided response made

headline news. Blacks and whites, media accounts would have us

believe, are still separate and hostile. Division is a constant theme,

racism another.

To be sure, racism has not disappeared, and race relations

could —and probably will —improve. But the serious inequality

that remains is less a function of racism than of the racial gap in

levels of educational attainment, single parenthood and crime.

The bad news has been exaggerated, and the good news

neglected. Consider these three trends:

A black middle class has arrived. Andrew Young recalls the

day he was mistaken for a valet at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in

New York City. It was an infuriating case of mistaken identity for

a man who was then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

But it wasn?t so long ago that most blacks were servants—or their equivalent. On the eve of

World War II, a trivial five percent of black men were engaged

in white-collar work of any kind, and six out of ten African-American women were employed as domestics.

In 1940 there were only 1,000 practicing African-American

lawyers; by 1995 there were over 32,000, about four percent of

all attorneys.

Today almost three-quarters of African-American families

have incomes above the government poverty line. Many are in

the middle class, according to one useful index—earning double

the government poverty level; in 1995 this was $30,910 for a two-parent family with two children and $40,728 for a two-parent

family with four children. Only one black family in 100 enjoyed a

middle-class income in 1940; by 1995 it was 49 in 100. And more

than 40 percent of black households also own their homes. That?

s a huge change.

The typical white family still earns a lot more than the black

family because it is more likely to collect two paychecks. But if we

look only at married couples—much of the middle class—the

white-black income gap shrinks to 13 percent. Much of that gap

can be explained by the smaller percentage of blacks with college

degrees, which boost wages, and the greater concentration of

blacks in the South, where wages tend to be lower.

Blacks are moving to the suburbs. Following the urban riots

of the mid-1960s, the presiden-tial Kerner Commission14

concluded that the nation? s future was menaced by

“accelerating segrega-tion”—black central cities and whites

outside the core. That segregation might well blow the country

apart, it said.

It? s true that whites have continued to leave inner cities for

the suburbs, but so, too, have blacks. The number of black

suburban dwellers in the last generation has almost tripled to

10.6 million. In 1970 metropolitan Atlanta, for example, 27

percent of blacks lived in the suburbs with 85 percent of whites.

By 1990, 64 percent of blacks and 94 percent of whites resided

there.

This is not phony integration, with blacks moving from one

all-black neighborhood into another. Most of the movement has

brought African-Americans into neighborhoods much less

black15 than those they left behind, thus increasing integration.

By 1994 six in ten whites reported that they lived in

neighborhoods with blacks.

Residential patterns do remain closely connected to race.

However, neighborhoods have become more racially mixed, and

residential segregation has been decreasing.

Bigotry has declined. Before World Was ft, Gunnar Myrdal16

roamed the South researching An American Dilemma, the now-classic book that documented17 the chasm betwe en the

nation?s ideals and its racial practices, hi one small Southern city,

he kept asking whites how he could find “Mr. Jim Smith,” an

African-American who was principal of a black high school. No

one seemed to know who he was. After he finally found Smith,

Myrdal was told that he should have just asked for “Jim.” That?

s how great was white aversion to dignifying African-Americans

with “Mr.” Or “Mrs.”

Bigotry was not just a Southern problem. A national survey

in the 1940s asked whether “Ne-groes shoul d have as good a

chance as white people to get any kind of job.” A majority of

whites said that “white people should have the first chance at

any kind of job.”

19. Such a question would not even be asked today. Except

for a lunatic fringe18, no whites would sign on to such a

notion.19

20. In 1964 less than one in five whites reported having a

black friend. By 1989 more than two out of three did. And more

than eight often African -Americans had a white friend.

21. What about the last taboo?20 In 1963 ten percent of

whites approved of black-white dating; by 1994 it was 65 percent.

Interracial marriages? Four percent of whites said it was okay in

1958; by 1994 the figure had climbed more than elevenfold, to

45 percent. These surveys measure opinion, but behavior has also

changed. In 1963 less than one percent of marriages by African-

Americans were racially mixed. By 1993, 12 percent were.

22. Today black Americans can climb the ladder to the top.21

Ann M. Fudge is already there; she?s in charge of manufacturing,

promotion and sales at the $2.7-billion Maxwell House Coffee

and Post Cereals divisions of Kraft Foods.22 So are Kenneth

Chenault, president and chief operating officer at American

Express23 and Richard D. Parsons, president of Time Warner,

Inc.24 After the 1988 Demo-cratic Convention25, the Rev. Jesse

Jackson26 talked about his chances of making it to the White

House. “I may not get there,” he said “But it is possible for our

children to get there now.”

23. Even that seems too pessimistic. Consider how things

have improved since Colin and Alma Powell27 packed their

belongings into a V olkswagen28 and left Fort Devens, Mass., for

Fort Bragg, N. C. “I remember passing Woodbridgc, Va.,”

General Powell wrote in his autobiogra phy, “and not finding

even a gas-station bathroom that we were allowed to use.” That

was in 1962. In 1996 reliable polls suggest he could have been

elected President.

24. Progress over the last half-century has been dramatic. As

Corctta Scott King wrote not long ago, the ideals for which her

husband Martin Luther King Jr. died, have become “deeply

embedded in the very fabric of America29.”

From Reader?s Digest, March, 1998

V. Analysis of Content

1. According to the author, ___________

A. racism has disappeared in America

B. little progress has been made in race relations

C. media reports have exaggerated the racial gap

D. media accounts have made people believe that the gap

between blacks and whites has become narrower

2. What the Kerner Commi ssion meant by “accelerating

segregation” was that __________

A. more and more whites and blacks were forced to live and

work separately

B. more and more blacks lived in the central cities, and whites

outside the core

C. more and more whites lived in the central cities, and blacks

outside the core

D. nowadays more and more blacks begin to live in the

suburbs

3. The last taboo in the article is about ____________.

A. political status of America?s minority people

B. economic status of America? s minori ty people

C. racial integration

D. interracial marriages

4. Gunnar Myrdal kept asking whites how he could find “Mr.

Jim Smith,” but no one seemed to know who he was, because

_____________.

A. there was not such a person called Jim Smith

B. Jim Smith was not famous

C. the whites didn …t know Jim Smith

D. the white people considered that a black man did not

deserve the title of “Mr.”

5. In the author?s opinion, _

A. few black Americans can climb the ladder to the top

B. Jesse Jackson? s words in th is article seemed too

pessimistic

C. Colin Powell could never have been elected President

D. blacks can never become America? s President

VI. Questions on the Article

1. Why were those low-income teen-agers who came to the

Perrywood community consid-ered to be “the eyesore”?

2. What is the surprising twist of the story?

3. According to this article, what has caused much of the

white-black income gap?

4. Why did the presidential Kerner Commission conclude that

the nation? s future was menaced by “accelerating

segregation”?

5. Why wouldn?t questions as “Should negroes have as

good a chance as white people to get any kind of job?” be asked

today?

Topics for Discussion

1. Can you tell briefly the dramatic progress in the status of

America? s minority p eople over the last half-century?

2. Do you think the article is unbiased? What do you think of

the author s view on the African-Americans?

1. amenity: n. A. The quality of being pleasant or attractive;

agreeableness. 怡人：使人愉快或吸引人的性质；使人愉快 B. A

feature that increases attractiveness or value, especially of a piece

of real estate or a geographic location.生活福利设施；便利设施：能够增加吸引力或价值的事物，特别是不动产或地理位置⊙ We enjoy

all the -ties of home life. 我们享受家庭生活的一切乐趣。

2. appealing: adj. Attractive; inviting: 吸引人的，令人心动的；有魅力的，诱人的：⊙ an appealing manner; an appealing idea. 令人心仪的举止；大受欢迎的想法

3. twist: n. An unexpected change in a process or a departure

from

a pattern, often producing a distortion or perversion: 变化：在过程中出人意料的变化或方式的改变，经常产生扭曲或颠倒：⊙ a

twist of fate; a story with a quirky twist. 命运的扭转；跌宕起伏的故事

4. telling: adj. Having force and producing a striking effect 有效的：有力量并产生突出效果的, 生动的; 显著的; 说明问题的⊙ with

telling effect 有显著效验 the most telling passages in that novel

那部小说中最生动的段落 History is the most telling witness. 历史是最有力的见证人。

5. journal: n. A newspaper. 报纸 B. A periodical presenting

articles on a particular subject: 期刊：刊登关于某特殊主题的文章的期刊：⊙ a medical jour nal. 医学期刊

6. bleak: adj. Cold and cutting; raw: 寒冷和刺骨的；阴冷的：⊙

bleak winds of the North Atlantic. 北大西洋的冷风 -> 无遮蔽的; 光秃秃的, 荒凉的, 萧瑟的; 寒冷的, 苍白的; 暗淡的⊙ a bleak prospect

前途暗淡 a bleak hillside 荒凉的山坡

7. attorney: =lawyer, A-General[英]检察总长; [美]司法部长

8. paycheck: n. A. A check issued to an employee in payment

of salary or wages. 付薪金用的支票：发给雇员的支付工资或薪金的支票 B. Salary or wages: 薪金或工资：

9. metropolitan: adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a

major city: 大城市的，大都会的：属于或关于大都市的，具有大都市的特点的：⊙ crowded m etropolitan streets; a metropolitan

newspaper. 繁忙拥挤的大城市街道；大城市的报纸

10. chasm: n. a. A deep, steep-sided opening in the earth's

surface; an abyss or a gorge. 裂缝：土地表面上深的、陡峭的缝隙；深渊或峡谷-> b.

A pronounced difference of opinion, interests, or loyalty. 分歧：意见、利益或忠诚上的明显差异⊙ a chasm in the story 故事中

的脱节处bridge over a chasm 弥补隔阂

11. phony: adj. Not genuine or real; counterfeit:假冒的，不真实的；假的：⊙ a phony credit card. 伪造的信用卡a phony excuse.

不实的借口a phony name.假名 n. a. Something not genuine; a

fake. 假货，赝品 One who is insincere or pretentious. b. 伪君子：虚伪或自负的人 c. An impostor;

a hypocrite. 骗子，冒名顶替者

12. dignify: vt. To confer dignity or honor on; give distinction

to: 授…以荣誉：授与高位或荣誉的；给予荣誉称号：⊙ dignified

him with a title. 授于他的荣誉称号

13. bigotry: n. The attitude, state of mind, or behavior

characteristic of a bigot; intolerance. 偏见：抱偏见的人的态度、思想状况或行为特点；偏执 bigot: n. 盲目信仰者, 顽固者

14. lunatic: adj. insane 精神错乱的, 疯狂的, 极端愚蠢的 n. 疯子,

狂人, 大傻瓜, 疯人⊙ a lunatic decision. 一个极其愚蠢的错误

15. fringe: n. Something that resembles such a border or

edging. 边缘, 边界⊙ on the fringe(s) of a forest 在森林的边缘 the

mere fringes of philosophy 哲学的皮毛 This is an enormous field

of which I can here touch only the fringe. 这是一个很广阔的领域,

我在这里只能谈个大概。-> Those members of a group or political

party holding extreme views: 见解偏激的人：某一类持偏激观点人或政党：⊙ the lunatic fringe. 极端分子

16. taboo: n. A ban or an inhibition resulting from social

custom or emotional aversion. 禁忌：一种因社会习俗或感情上的反感而导致的禁忌或忌讳⊙ taboos and commandments 清规戒律

17. reverend: adj. Deserving respect. 值得尊重的 -> [the

Reverend ]大师, 法师, 牧师[僧侣]的尊称(略作Rev 或the Rev; 对教长用 the Very Reverend, 对主教 bishop 用Right Reverend, 对大主教archbishop 用Most Reverend)

18. pessimistic: adj. expecting the worst in this worst of all

possible 悲观的, 厌世的; 悲观主义的⊙ take a pessimistic view of ...

对...抱悲观见解

19. civil action: 民事诉讼

20. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 美国参谋长联席会议主席

21. United States Secretary of State：美国国务卿

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