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Chinese Americans today have higher incomes than Americans in general and higher occupational status. The Chinese have risen to this position despite some of the harshest discrimination and violence faced by any immigrants to the United States in the history of this country. Long confined to a narrow range of occupations they succeeded in those occupations and then spread out into other areas in later years, when opportunities finally opened up for them. Today much of the Chinese prosperity is due to the simple fact that they work more and have more (usually better) education than others. Almost one out of five Chinese families has three or more income earners compared to one out of thirteen for Puerto Ricans, one out of ten among American Indians, and one out of eight among Whites. When the Chinese advantages in working and educational are held constant, they have no advantage over other Americans. That is in a Chinese Family with a given number of people working and with a given amount of education by the head of the family, the income is not only about average for such families, and offer a little less than average.

While Chinese Americans as a group are prosperous and well-educated Chinatowns are pockets of poverty, and illiteracy is much higher among the Chinese than among Americans in general. Those paradoxes are due to sharp internal differences. Descendants of the Chinese Americans who emigrated long ago from Toishan Province have maintained Chinese values and have added acculturation to American society with remarkable success. More recent Hong Kong Chinese are from more diverse cultural origins, and acquired western values and styles in Hong Kong, without having acquired the skills to proper and support those aspirations in the American economy. Foreign-born Chinese men in the United States are one-fourth lower incomes than native-born Chinese even though the foreign-born have been in the United States an average of seventeen years. While the older Hong Kong Chinese work tenaciously to sustain and advance themselves, the Hong Kong Chinese youths often react with resentment and antisocial behavior, including terrorism and murder. The need to maintain tourism in Chinatown causes the Chinese leaders to mute or downplay these problems as much as possible.

1.According to the passage, today, Chinese Americans owe their prosperity to___.
A.their diligence and better education than others.
B.their support of American government.
C.their fight against discriminations.
D.advantages in working only.

2.The passage is mainly concerned with___.
A.chinese Americans today.
B.social status of Chinese Americans today.
C.incomes and occupational status of Chinese Americans today.
D.problems of Chinese Americans today.

3.Chinatowns are pockets of poverty, as is probably associated with___.
A.most descendants of Chinese Americans are rebelling.
B.most descendants of Chinese Americans are illiterate.
C.sharp internal difference between Chinese coming from different cultural backgrounds.
D.only a few Chinese Americans are rich.

4.Which of the following statements is not true according to this article
A.As part of the minority, Chinese Americans are still experiencing discrimination in American today.
B.Nowadays, Chinese Americans are working in wider fields.
C.Foreign-born Chinese earn lower income than native-born Chinese Americans with the similar advantages in the U.S.
D.None of the above.

5.According to the author, which of the following can best describe the older Hong Kong Chinese and the younger
A.Tenacious; rebellion.
B.Conservative; open-minded.
C.Out-of-date; fashionable.
D.Obedient; disobedient.

答案和词汇讲解

答案：ACCCA

词汇讲解

1. occupational 职业的

For professional footballers, injuries are an occupational hazard.
对于职业足球运动员来说，受伤是职业本身带来的危险。

Explosions, though infrequent, are an occupational hazard for coal-miners.
矿井爆炸虽然不常发生, 但却是煤矿工人职业中的危险.

2. harsh 粗糙的,刺耳的,严厉的

His harsh words caused her much pain.
他说话很刺耳, 她听了很不舒服.

Some modern music sounds harsh and tuneless.
现代音乐中有一些又刺耳又不成调子.

3. descendant 子孙,后代

A member or descendant of a northern Semitic people, claiming descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; an Israelite; a Jew.
希伯来人，犹太人北方闪米特民族的一员或后裔，自称是亚伯拉罕、以撒克和雅各的后代；古以色列人；犹太人

He is a descendant of Queen Victoria.
他是维多利亚女王的后裔。

4. tenaciously 坚韧不拔地,执着地

Some people tend to tenaciously cling to the misguided concept of racial superiority.
一些人顽强地坚持种族优越性的错误观点。