By 1,800 about half the population of Brazil had come from Africa. So had about half the population of Venezuela. So had a smaller but still large part of all the population of Trans-Atlantic republics, whether in North, Central or South Africa, or in the Caribbean islands. It was these men and women of African descent conquered the wilderness of the Americas, clearing and working in countless farms and plantations, founding and opening innumerable mines of iron or precious metals. Harsh and painful as it was, the overseas slave trade (like the not much less painful movement of millions of hungry and jobless men and women from Europe) laid the foundations of American republics. These Africans beyond the seas have their place in the story of Africa (the story of West Africa), for what they attempted and achieved was also a reflection of the strong and independent civilization from which they came. Consider, for example, the heroic and successful struggle for independence conducted by the slaves of the Caribbean land of St. Domingue. In 1789, at the moment of the French Revolution, this French colony in the Caribbean was probably the wealthiest colony in the world. Its tens of thousands of African slave-workers produced enormous quantities of sugar, whole European communities lived off the profits.
When news of the Revolution in France reached St. Domingue, these slaves claimed their share in its ideals and benefits. They demanded their freedom. When denied this, they rose in revolt against their masters. In years of hard fighting against large armies sent by France, and afterwards against large armies sent by Britain, these men of St. Domingue won their freedom and founded the Republic of Haiti. Yet more than half these soldiers of freedom had made the "middle passage" across the Atlantic. More than half, in other words, had been born in Africa, had spent their childhood in Africa, and had learned in Africa their respect for freedom; while nearly all the rest were the children of parents or grandparents born in Africa. And they were led by Africans: by men of genius and courage such as Boukman, the unforgettable Toussaint Louverture, and Dessalines.
Raised by Toussaint and his Africans, the banner of freedom across the Atlantic was carried from people to people. Many threw off their bondage. Large numbers of men of African origin fought in the armies that made the United States what they are today. It was a general of African descent, Antonio Maceo, who led the military struggle for Cuban independence against Spain in 1868.
Like other men of vision, Maceo had no time for racism, for the false idea that one race of men is better or worse than any other. Some of the whites of Cuba disagreed with him. They were Spanish settlers who thought that white was going to be better than black even in an independent Cuba.
One day Maceo was approached by a Spanish Cuban who suggested that the regiments of independence army should be divided into whites and non-whites. Maceo made him a reply which became famous in Cuba. "If you were not white," Maceo said to this man, "I would have you shot on the spot. But I do not wish to be accused of being racialist as you are, and so I let you go, but with the warning that I shall not be so patient another time. The revolution has no color./
It could be inferred that the writer thinks that, in comparison with the movement of millions of hungry and jobless people from Europe, the overseas slave trade was ______

A:much less harsh and painful B:rather harsh and painful C:more harsh and painful D:not much less harsh and painful

Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. There is certainly much work which is exceedingly weary and an excess of work is always very painful. I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Moreover the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from toil. At times they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but the number of such sensations is limited, especially after youth is past, Accordingly the more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of those earth-shaking importance they are firmly persuaded.
Work therefore is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventive of boredom, for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do with his days. With this advantage of work another is associated, namely that it makes holidays much more delicious when they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to impair his vigor, he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could possibly find.
The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. In most work success is measured by income, and while our capitalistic society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. The desire than men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can acquire. However dull work may be, it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up a reputation, whether in the world at large or only in one’s own circle.
As put by the author, most of the work that most people have to do is______.

A:delightful but time consuming B:exceedingly dull and always painful C:not worth doing and bearable at all D:not interesting but very rewarding

Many states have gone on prison-building sprees, yet the penal system is choked to bursting. To ease the pressure, nearly all convicted felons are released early—or not locked up at all. "About three of every four convicted criminals," says John DiIulio, a noted Princeton criminologist, "are on the streets without meaningful probation or parole supervision. " And while everyone knows that amateur thugs should be deterred before they become career criminals, it is almost unheard-of for judges to send first-or second-time offenders to prison.
Meanwhile, the price of keeping criminals in cages is appalling—a common estimate is $30,000 per inmate per year. (To be sure, the cost to society of turning many inmates loose would be even higher. ) For tens of thousands of convicts, prison is a graduate school of criminal studies: They emerge more ruthless and savvy than when they entered. And for many offenders, there is even a certain cachet to doing time—a stint in prison becomes a sign of manhood, a status symbol.
But there would be no cachet in chaining a criminal to an outdoor post and flogging him. If young punks were horsewhipped in public after their first conviction, fewer of them would harden into lifelong felons. A humiliating and painful paddling can be applied to the rear end of a crook for a lot less than $ 30,000—and prove a lot more educational than 10 years’ worth of prison meals and lockdowns.
Are we quite certain the Puritans have nothing to teach us about dealing with criminals
Of course, their crimes are not our crimes: We do not arrest blasphemers or adulterers, and only gun control fanatics would criminalize the sale of weapons to Indians. (They would criminalize the sale of weapons to anybody.) Nor would the ordeal suffered by poor Joseph Gatchell—the tongue "pierce
through" with a hot poker—be regarded today as anything less than torture.
But what is the objection to corporal punishment that doesn’t maim or mutilate Instead of a prison term, why not sentence at least some criminals—say, thieves and drunk drivers—to a public whipping
"Too degrading," some will say. "Too brutal. " But where is it written that being whipped is more degrading than being caged Why is it more brutal to flog a wrongdoer than to throw him in prison—where the risk of being beaten, raped, or murdered is terrifyingly high
The Globe reported in 1994 that more than 200,000 prison inmates are raped each year, usually to the indifference of the guards. "The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who... are convicted of nonviolent offenses," former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun has written, "border on the unimaginable. " Are those horrors preferable to the short, sharp shame of corporal punishment
Perhaps the Puritans were more enlightened than we think, at least on the subject of punishment. Their sanctions were humiliating and painful, but quick and cheap. Maybe we should readopt a few.
The author is highly suspicious of

A:the Puritan values. B:probation and parole supervision. C:humiliating and painful paddling. D:punishment by way of imprisonment.

By 1,800 about half the population of Brazil had come from Africa. So had about half the population of Venezuela. So had a smaller but still large part of all the population of Trans-Atlantic republics, whether in North, Central or South Africa, or in the Caribbean islands. It was these men and women of African descent conquered the wilderness of the Americas, clearing and working in countless farms and plantations, founding and opening innumerable mines of iron or precious metals. Harsh and painful as it was, the overseas slave trade (like the not much less painful movement of millions of hungry and jobless men and women from Europe) laid the foundations of American republics. These Africans beyond the seas have their place in the story of Africa (the story of West Africa), for what they attempted and achieved was also a reflection of the strong and independent civilization from which they came. Consider, for example, the heroic and successful struggle for independence conducted by the slaves of the Caribbean land of St. Domingue. In 1789, at the moment of the French Revolution, this French colony in the Caribbean was probably the wealthiest colony in the world. Its tens of thousands of African slave-workers produced enormous quantities of sugar, whole European communities lived off the profits.
When news of the Revolution in France reached St. Domingue, these slaves claimed their share in its ideals and benefits. They demanded their freedom. When denied this, they rose in revolt against their masters. In years of hard fighting against large armies sent by France, and afterwards against large armies sent by Britain, these men of St. Domingue won their freedom and founded the Republic of Haiti. Yet more than half these soldiers of freedom had made the "middle passage" across the Atlantic. More than half, in other words, had been born in Africa, had spent their childhood in Africa, and had learned in Africa their respect for freedom; while nearly all the rest were the children of parents or grandparents born in Africa. And they were led by Africans: by men of genius and courage such as Boukman, the unforgettable Toussaint Louverture, and Dessalines.
Raised by Toussaint and his Africans, the banner of freedom across the Atlantic was carried from people to people. Many threw off their bondage. Large numbers of men of African origin fought in the armies that made the United States what they are today. It was a general of African descent, Antonio Maceo, who led the military struggle for Cuban independence against Spain in 1868.
Like other men of vision, Maceo had no time for racism, for the false idea that one race of men is better or worse than any other. Some of the whites of Cuba disagreed with him. They were Spanish settlers who thought that white was going to be better than black even in an independent Cuba.
One day Maceo was approached by a Spanish Cuban who suggested that the regiments of independence army should be divided into whites and non-whites. Maceo made him a reply which became famous in Cuba. "If you were not white," Maceo said to this man, "I would have you shot on the spot. But I do not wish to be accused of being racialist as you are, and so I let you go, but with the warning that I shall not be so patient another time. The revolution has no color."

It could be inferred that the writer thinks that, in comparison with the movement of millions of hungry and jobless people from Europe, the overseas slave trade was ( )

A:much less harsh and painful B:rather harsh and painful C:more harsh and painful D:not much less harsh and painful

Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. There is certainly much work which is exceedingly weary and an excess of work is always very painful. I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Moreover the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from toil. At times they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but the number of such sensations is limited, especially after youth is past, Accordingly the more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of those earth-shaking importance they are firmly persuaded.
Work therefore is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventive of boredom, for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do with his days. With this advantage of work another is associated, namely that it makes holidays much more delicious when they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to impair his vigor, he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could possibly find.
The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. In most work success is measured by income, and while our capitalistic society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. The desire than men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can acquire. However dull work may be, it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up a reputation, whether in the world at large or only in one’s own circle.

As put by the author, most of the work that most people have to do is()

A:delightful but time consuming B:exceedingly dull and always painful C:not worth doing and bearable at all D:not interesting but very rewarding

By 1,800 about half the population of Brazil had come from Africa. So had about half the population of Venezuela. So had a smaller but still large part of all the population of Trans-Atlantic republics, whether in North, Central or South Africa, or in the Caribbean islands. It was these men and women of African descent conquered the wilderness of the Americas, clearing and working in countless farms and plantations, founding and opening innumerable mines of iron or precious metals. Harsh and painful as it was, the overseas slave trade (like the not much less painful movement of millions of hungry and jobless men and women from Europe) laid the foundations of American republics. These Africans beyond the seas have their place in the story of Africa (the story of West Africa), for what they attempted and achieved was also a reflection of the strong and independent civilization from which they came. Consider, for example, the heroic and successful struggle for independence conducted by the slaves of the Caribbean land of St. Domingue. In 1789, at the moment of the French Revolution, this French colony in the Caribbean was probably the wealthiest colony in the world. Its tens of thousands of African slave-workers produced enormous quantities of sugar, whole European communities lived off the profits.
When news of the Revolution in France reached St. Domingue, these slaves claimed their share in its ideals and benefits. They demanded their freedom. When denied this, they rose in revolt against their masters. In years of hard fighting against large armies sent by France, and afterwards against large armies sent by Britain, these men of St. Domingue won their freedom and founded the Republic of Haiti. Yet more than half these soldiers of freedom had made the "middle passage" across the Atlantic. More than half, in other words, had been born in Africa, had spent their childhood in Africa, and had learned in Africa their respect for freedom; while nearly all the rest were the children of parents or grandparents born in Africa. And they were led by Africans: by men of genius and courage such as Boukman, the unforgettable Toussaint Louverture, and Dessalines.
Raised by Toussaint and his Africans, the banner of freedom across the Atlantic was carried from people to people. Many threw off their bondage. Large numbers of men of African origin fought in the armies that made the United States what they are today. It was a general of African descent, Antonio Maceo, who led the military struggle for Cuban independence against Spain in 1868.
Like other men of vision, Maceo had no time for racism, for the false idea that one race of men is better or worse than any other. Some of the whites of Cuba disagreed with him. They were Spanish settlers who thought that white was going to be better than black even in an independent Cuba.
One day Maceo was approached by a Spanish Cuban who suggested that the regiments of independence army should be divided into whites and non-whites. Maceo made him a reply which became famous in Cuba. "If you were not white," Maceo said to this man, "I would have you shot on the spot. But I do not wish to be accused of being racialist as you are, and so I let you go, but with the warning that I shall not be so patient another time. The revolution has no color.

It could be inferred that the writer thinks that, in comparison with the movement of millions of hungry and jobless people from Europe, the overseas slave trade was ()

A:much less harsh and painful B:rather harsh and painful C:more harsh and painful D:not much less harsh and painful

Shared Holiday

Spending a holiday with another family sounds like a good idea. It enables your kids to play with other kids, enables you to communicate with other parents, and enables your family to rent a bigger and nicer house. It might be too expensive fur your family to rent such a house on your own. However, not all sharing holidays are pleasant for everyone.
Clare is a mother of four. She used to spend holidays with her friends. However, she found that the experience was painful although her friends are nice people. Her friends rented a nice house and invited her family to join them. The house was much more expensive than Clare was able to pay for. In addition, her children were too yuung to enjoy the holiday. The big problem was that Clare had to share the cooking during the holiday. Her friends left their children with their nanny (保姆)when they were cooking. Keeping up with children was tiring for Clare, because she didn’t have a nanny. What’s more, her children didn’t want to be looked after by her friends. As a result, Clare had to look after her children whenever she had to prepare the dinner. What’s worse, Clare’s friends paid too much attention to how many ice creams their children had. They even didn’t care about Clare’s kids at all.
John is a lawyer and father of tour children. He once spent a holiday with one of his best friends. During the holiday, the relationship between John and his wile, became very bad. His friend said that he discovered a whole different side of John.
From the first paragraph, what is the writer’s attitude towards spending holidays with other families

A:Most of the time it is good. B:Must of the time it is boring. C:It can be expensive sometimes. D:It is always painful for some peopl

{{B}}第二篇{{/B}}

{{B}}? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Work and Happiness{{/B}}
? ?Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. ?There is certainly much work which is exceedingly weary and an excess of work is always very painful. I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Moreover the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from toil. At times they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but the number of such sensations is limited, especially after youth is past. Accordingly the more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of those earth-shaking importance they are firmly persuaded.
? ?Work therefore is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventive of boredom, for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do with his days. With this advantage of work another is associated, namely that it makes holidays much more delicious when they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to impair his vigor, he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could possibly find.
? ?The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. In most work success is measured by income, and while our capitalistic society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. The desire that men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can acquire. ?However dull work may be, it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up a reputation, whether in the world at large or only in one’s own circle.
As put by the author, most of the work that most people have to do is______.

A:delightful but time consuming B:exceedingly dull and always painful C:not worth doing and bearable at all D:not interesting but very rewarding

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