阅读理解。
For many years it was common in the United States to associate Chinese Americans with restaurants
and places that wash clothes. People did not realize that the Chinese had been driven into these
occupations by the prejudice and discrimination that faced them in this country.
The first Chinese to reach the United States came during the California Gold Rush of 1849. Like
most of the other people there, they had come to search for gold. In that largely unoccupied land, the
men staked a claim (立界标表明所有权 ) for themselves by placing markers in the ground. However,
either because the Chinese were so different from the others or because they worked so patiently that
they sometimes succeeded in getting a mining claim to make a profit( where others saw no way to do so) ,
they became the target of their competitors. They were troubled and attacked in many ways.
Often they were prevented from working their claims; some places even passed regulations forbidding
them to own claims. The Chinese therefore started to seek out other ways of earning a living. Some of them began to wash clothes for the white miners; others set up small restaurants. ( There were almost no
women in California in those days and the Chinese filled a real need by doing this " women's work". )
Some went to work as farmhands or as fishermen.
In the early 1860's many more Chinese arrived in California. This time railroad companies brought
the men in to construct the first railroad line from Califomia to the East. They were sorely needed
because the work was so hard and dangerous,and it was carried on in such an isolated part of the
country that the railroad company could not find other laborers for the job. As in the case of the first
Chinese in America,these Chinese were almost all males; and like them,too,they encountered a great deal
of prejudice. The hostility grew especially strong after the railroad project was completed,and the Chinese
laborers returned to California-thousands of them,all out of work.
Many of today's Chinese Americans are the descendants (后裔) of some of the early miners and
railroad workers.
1. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. The first Chinese to reach the United States came during theCalifornia Gold Rush of 1849.
B. Many more Chinese arrived in Califomia to construct the first railroad from California to the East.
C. Early Chinese immigrants to America experienced a lot of prejudice and discrimination.
D. Prejudice and discrimination that Chinese Americans met.
2. Why did the Chinese become the target of their competitors?
A. Because the Chinese were different and they worked patiently to achieve a lot of success while others couldn't.
B. The Chinese were so different from the others.
C. They worked so patiently with little payment.
D. There were almost no women in California in those days.
3. What was the fate of the Chinese after the construction of the railroad ?
A. They went back to their own country.
B. They stayed to work in the railroad companies.
C. They went to California to search for gold.
D. The hostility grew especially strong.
