背诵为王 第 四 册 第 38 课

Lesson38 The Cherokee
Long before the white man came to the Americas, the land belonged only tothe Indian. The Cherokee lived in what is now the southeastern part of theUnited States. They were peace-loving farmers who lived in permanentvillages. They built homes and public buildings of brick¹ and stone. They hadfine plantations².
When the first white men came, the Cherokee copied many of their ways. OneCherokee scholar³, Sequoyah, saw how important reading and writing was to thewhite man. He decided⁴ to make a written form of the spoken Cherokeelanguage. At first he tried to make a sign, or symbol, for each word. Butthat proved impossible - there were just too many words. Then he took the 85sounds that made up the Cherokee language. Using his own imagination and anEnglish spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabetproved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokee knew how to readand write in their own language. By 1828, the Cherokee were even printingtheir own newspaper.
In 1830, the U.S. Congress⁵ passed a law. It said the government could removeIndians from their lands. The Cherokee would not go. They had lived on theirland for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strangeland far beyond the Mississippi River?
The army was sent to force the Cherokee out. Soldiers surrounded theirvillages and marched them west at gunpoint.
More than 4000 Cherokee died during the terrible march. They called thatmarch "The Trail⁶ of Tears." The end of the trail was also the end of thegreat Cherokee nation.

切罗基人
远在白人来到美洲之前，印第安人是这片土地的唯一主人。如今美国的东南部曾经是切罗基人居住的地方。切罗基人是热爱和平的农夫，居住在固定的村庄里。他们的家园和公共建筑是用砖和石头建造的。他们拥有美丽的种植园。
第一批白人来到之后，切罗基人学会了许多白人的生活方式。希考亚是一位切罗基学者，他看到了读和写对白人的重要性，于是决定为切罗基口语创造一种文字。起初他试图为每一个词创造一个符号，但是后来证明这是不可行的&&切罗基语言里有太多的词汇。
后来他采纳了组成切罗基语言的八十五个音。借助自己的创造力和一本英语拼写课本，希考亚为每一个音发明了一个符号。令人惊讶的是，他的符号系统非常容易学。没过多久，很多切罗基人就学会了用自己的语言读和写。到一八二八年，切罗基人甚至拥有了自己的报纸。
1830年，美国议会通过了一项法律，规定政府可以把印第安人从他们居住的土地上赶走。但切罗基人不愿意离开。他们世代居住在这片土地，这片土地属于他们。为什么要让他们迁到密西西比河对岸一片遥远的陌生之地？
政府派来了军队，强迫切罗基人迁出。士兵们包围了切罗基人的村庄，用枪口逼着他们向西迁徙。四千多切罗基人死在了残酷的迁徙路途上。他们称这次迁徙为“悲伤之旅”。
这条路的尽头也是伟大的切罗基民族的尽头。

1 brick   

n.砖；vt.用砖砌，用砖堵住

参考例句：

• She stared blankly at the brick wall in front of her.她面无表情地瞪着面前的砖墙。
• I bought a brick of ice cream for my daughter.我给女儿买了块冰砖。

2 plantations   

n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Soon great plantations, supported by slave labor, made some families very wealthy. 不久之后出现了依靠奴隶劳动的大庄园，使一些家庭成了富豪。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• Winterborne's contract was completed, and the plantations were deserted. 维恩特波恩的合同完成后，那片林地变得荒废了。 来自辞典例句

3 scholar   

n.学者，公费生，有文化者，学习者

参考例句：

• There was no doubt that he was a fine scholar.毫无疑问，他是位杰出的学者。
• To be a scholar is to be the top of society.万般皆下品，惟有读书高。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 Congress   

n.(代表)大会；(C-:美国等国的)国会，议会

参考例句：

• There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
• After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后，他打算告老还乡。

6 trail   

n.踪迹，痕迹，一串，尾部，小径，尾，持枪姿势；vt.拖，尾随，追踪，落后于

参考例句：

• The car raised a trail of dust.汽车掀起了一股尘土。
• The hound found the trail of the rabbit.猎狗发现了兔子的踪迹。