The United States has always been a multiethnic

精品文档1 The United States has always been a multiethnic country. Hector St. John, who came from France in the 18th century, marveled at the astonishing diversity of the settlers- “a mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, German and Swedes.” He proposed a famous question: “What then is the American, this new man?” And he gave a famous answer: “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men.” The United States escaped the divisiveness of multiethnic society by a brilliant solution: the creation of a brand-new national identity. The point of America was not to preserve old cultures but to forge a new American culture. “By an intermixture with our people,” President George Washington said immigrants will “get assimilated to our customs, measures and laws: in a word, soon become one people.” This was the ideal that a century later Israel Zangwill crystallized in the title of his popular 1908 play The Melting Pot.The new American nationality was inescapably English in language, ideas, and institutions. The pot did not melt everybody, not even all the white immigrants; deeply bred racism put black American, yellow American, red American, and brown Americans well outside the pale. Still the fusion of other stocks, even of non-white stocks, and the experience of the New World reshaped the British legacy and made the United States, as we all know, a very different country from Britain.In the 20th century, new immigration laws altered the composition of the American people, and a cult of ethnicity erupted both among non-Anglo whites and among nonwhite minorities. This had many healthy consequences. The American culture at last began to give recognition to the achievements of group subordinated and rejected during the high noon of Anglo dominance, and it began to acknowledge the great swirling world beyond Europe.1) What idea does “Melting Pot” embody? 2) Why did the author in the 3rd paragraph say: “The pot did not melt everybody, well outside the pale.” 3) From this passage what is the change in the 20th century America? 4)Do you think “Melting Pot” is still an appropriate term to label the current American society? Why? 中方将根据沉船事件的是非曲直，客观、公正作出判断，决定立场。 China will make a judgment in an objective and fair manner and take its stance on the basis of facts concerning the sinking of a South Korean warship.温家宝呼吁各方保持冷静克制，防止事态升级，尤其要避免发生冲突，共同维护半岛来之不易的和平稳定。Premier Wen urges all parties to keep calm and show restraint, so as to prevent a deterioration of the situation, especially possible clashes in a joint effort to maintain the hard-won peace and stability on the Peninsula. 温家宝指出，各方应着眼长远，积极推进六方会谈进程，解决朝鲜半岛核问题，实现半岛的长治久安。Wen said that all concerned parties should take a long-term perspective, actively promote the proce