纽约的文化是"熔炉还是混合色拉"
"Melting pot or tossed salad?"
The story of New York City is a story of successive waves of immigrants arriving to find a better life. In 1626, the Dutch sailed into the harbor and founded the city they called New Amsterdam. Then, in 1664, came the conquering British who changed the young city's name to New York . the name was retained even after America won its independence. By 1800, half the city's 60,000inhabitants were of British origin, but already there were settlers of many other nationalities as well.
The year 1856 marked the arrival of the first of large numbers of Germans and Irish. Twenty-four years later, In 1880, eastern Europeans and Italians began to arrive. By 1900, the city's population had grown to 3,437,200. soon after that, however, laws were passed to limit the number of foreigners allowed to immigrate to America.
Such laws did not prevent the arrival in the 1950s of a large number of Puerto Ricans from the U.S. possession of Puerto Rico. As American citizens, they had every right to live wherever they chose in the USA. Prior to that , between the two world wars , hundreds of thousands of American blacks rode buses and trains from the south to New York City in search of work and better living conditions . both groups originally settled in large numbers in Harlem.
With few exceptions, new immigrants chose to live in neighborhoods where earlier immigrants from their former country had settled. This permitted them to be among those who shared similar religious beliefs, customers and language. Only when their command of English was sufficient did they venture out into new neighborhoods where Americans of other national origins lived. The dream of many of those immigrants was to become American , as soon as possible leaving behind the accents and manners that showed them ot be foreign . this meant speaking, dressing and ever thinking like Americans.
Today, the desire to be "as Americans as apple pie" is not so compelling. Where nonce Jewish immigrants cut off their long sideburns(络腮胡) and named their children with English names like James and Jane, their grandchildren , Joshua and Rebecca, play in the park with Puerto Rican youngsters named Maria and Juan. Italian Americans are proud of their ability to cook home-made pastas(意大利面食), and go to classes to learn the Italian their parents spoke fluently. More and ,ore black Americans , whose ancestors were forcibly brought across the Atlantic as slaves, mow learn with pride of their African heritage, and live by the motto: "to know where we are going , we have to know where we came from."
This ethnic pride is evident everywhere in New York city. In Chinatown , phone booths are shaped like pagodas. Irish-Americans learn Gaelic in order to sing the folk songs of their ancestors blacks wear colorful dashikis , loose-fitting pullover shirts , as they stroll along the city's streets. German-Americans eat weiner schnitzel (德式葡萄酒煎肉)and drink imported German beer during the Oktoberfest in Yorkville（约克村举行的德国民间十月）.
New Yorkers no longer care to be thrown into the "melting pot". They prefer to be put into a bowl and made into a 'tossed salad." That way, like the individual items in salad-lecture, tomato ,onion , scallion, radish, garlic and many other vegetables-they contribute to the taste of the whole but retain their individual flavor.
关键字:文化英语
生词表:
"Melting pot or tossed salad?"
The story of New York City is a story of successive waves of immigrants arriving to find a better life. In 1626, the Dutch sailed into the harbor and founded the city they called New Amsterdam. Then, in 1664, came the conquering British who changed the young city's name to New York . the name was retained even after America won its independence. By 1800, half the city's 60,000inhabitants were of British origin, but already there were settlers of many other nationalities as well.
The year 1856 marked the arrival of the first of large numbers of Germans and Irish. Twenty-four years later, In 1880, eastern Europeans and Italians began to arrive. By 1900, the city's population had grown to 3,437,200. soon after that, however, laws were passed to limit the number of foreigners allowed to immigrate to America.
Such laws did not prevent the arrival in the 1950s of a large number of Puerto Ricans from the U.S. possession of Puerto Rico. As American citizens, they had every right to live wherever they chose in the USA. Prior to that , between the two world wars , hundreds of thousands of American blacks rode buses and trains from the south to New York City in search of work and better living conditions . both groups originally settled in large numbers in Harlem.
With few exceptions, new immigrants chose to live in neighborhoods where earlier immigrants from their former country had settled. This permitted them to be among those who shared similar religious beliefs, customers and language. Only when their command of English was sufficient did they venture out into new neighborhoods where Americans of other national origins lived. The dream of many of those immigrants was to become American , as soon as possible leaving behind the accents and manners that showed them ot be foreign . this meant speaking, dressing and ever thinking like Americans.
Today, the desire to be "as Americans as apple pie" is not so compelling. Where nonce Jewish immigrants cut off their long sideburns(络腮胡) and named their children with English names like James and Jane, their grandchildren , Joshua and Rebecca, play in the park with Puerto Rican youngsters named Maria and Juan. Italian Americans are proud of their ability to cook home-made pastas(意大利面食), and go to classes to learn the Italian their parents spoke fluently. More and ,ore black Americans , whose ancestors were forcibly brought across the Atlantic as slaves, mow learn with pride of their African heritage, and live by the motto: "to know where we are going , we have to know where we came from."
This ethnic pride is evident everywhere in New York city. In Chinatown , phone booths are shaped like pagodas. Irish-Americans learn Gaelic in order to sing the folk songs of their ancestors blacks wear colorful dashikis , loose-fitting pullover shirts , as they stroll along the city's streets. German-Americans eat weiner schnitzel (德式葡萄酒煎肉)and drink imported German beer during the Oktoberfest in Yorkville（约克村举行的德国民间十月）.
New Yorkers no longer care to be thrown into the "melting pot". They prefer to be put into a bowl and made into a 'tossed salad." That way, like the individual items in salad-lecture, tomato ,onion , scallion, radish, garlic and many other vegetables-they contribute to the taste of the whole but retain their individual flavor.
关键字:文化英语
生词表:
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