DuringtheearlyyearsofthesettlementoftheAmericancontin...

问题详情：

During the early years of the settlement of the American continent, a highly distinctive form of English, spoken by the black population, was beginning to develop in the islands of the West Indies and the southern part of the mainland. The beginning of the seventeenth century saw the emergence（出现）of the slave trade. Ships from Europe traveled to the West African coast, where they exchanged cheap goods for black slaves. The slaves were shipped in terrible conditions to the Caribbean islands and the American coast, where they were in turn exchanged for such products as sugar and molasses. The ships then returned to England, completing an “Atlantic triangle” of journeys, and the process began again. Britain and the United States had outlawed the slave trade by 1865, but by that time, nearly 200 years of trading had taken place. By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were over four million black slaves in America.

The policy of the slave-traders was to bring people of different language backgrounds together in the ships, to make it difficult for groups to plan rebellion. The result was the growth of several pidgin（混杂的）forms of communication, and in particular a pidgin between the slaves and the sailors, many of whom spoke English. Once they arrived in the Caribbean, this pidgin English continued to act as a major means of communication between the black population and their new owners, and among the blacks themselves. Then, when children came to be born, the pidgin became their mother tongue, thus producing the first black Creole（克里奥尔语）speech in the region. This Creole English rapidly came to be used throughout the cotton plantations（种植园）, and in the coastal towns and islands.

1. Which of the following is the correct route taken by slave traders?

A. Europe → the West African coast → the Caribbean islands and the American coast → England.

B. Europe → the West African coast → Europe → the Caribbean islands and the American coast.

C. The West African coast → Europe → the Caribbean islands and the American coast → Europe.

D. The West African coast → Europe → the Caribbean islands and the American coast → the West African    coast.

2. It can be inferred that slaves in the same ship _____.

A. didn’t communicate with each other                    B. could understand several languages

C. spoke different languages                           D. came from the same place

3. Creole speech comes from _____.

A. Spanish and English  

B. English and African languages

C. a European language and an American language

D. an African language and an Asian language

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A. The history of the slave trade.                          B. The so-called “Atlantic triangle”.

C. Languages spoken in America.                         D. How a particular version of English was born.

【回答】

ACBD

知识点：历史类

题型：阅读理解