? 美国历史American History -1

? Stage 1. Discovery of North America 北美的发现

? 西班牙国王资助Columbus的远征(expedition)，发现了美洲大陆。很多人错误地认为哥伦布是西班牙

人(Spanish)，其实他是意大利人(Italian)，这位仁兄最终发现了美洲，却以为自己到了印度(India)，于是称美洲土著(Native Americans)为印第安人(Indians)，(可怜的北美土著英文冠名权就这样被剥夺了。)巨大的利益很快引起了当时的世界强国英、法、西班牙、荷兰等的觊觎。

? 美国历史American History -2

? Stage 2. English Settlement 英国后裔的定居

? Early colonization was under individual control. Two historical events:

1. 16xx年一个英国商业性公司(company) 在Massachusetts 建立了第一个成功的殖民定居地

Jamestown，可以推断此前建立的定居地均以失败告终；

2. 16xx年x月花(May Flower)号载着一船被排挤的清教徒(Puritans)来到美洲大陆，他们算是美

国人的祖先(ancestors/ predecessors)，正是这些人当年的境遇使得后来的美国以追求“自由、

民主、平等”为己任。

? 美国历史American History -3

? Stage 3. Colonial Era 殖民地时期

? 当时的美洲大陆无异于一块肥肉，西班牙、法国都曾为了瓜分这片土地与大英帝国展开激励的竞争，

其中最著名的就是英法百年战争，最终英国获得了对北美大陆的控制权。ETS对此阶段并不关注，所以有关这一时期的考题也就非常少。

? 美国历史American History -4

? Stage4.American Revolution 美国革命(1775~1783)

? 美国革命就是美国独立战争(War of Independence/ Independence War)，战争的导火索是中国学生熟

知的Boston Tea Event，随着Lexington 的枪声打响，战争宣告开始。TOEFL文章和听力段落一般不会直接描述正面战场.

? 美国历史American History -5

? Stage 5. Establishing a New Nation 建国阶段

? 美国历史American History -6

? Stage 6. Civil War 内战阶段(1861-1865)

? 南北方因为废除奴隶制(slavery)的问题产生了激烈的争执，由于拥有大量奴隶的南方庄园主无法接受

废奴制，所以南方各州脱离了合众国，组成联邦(该战争又称为War of Secession, 源于Secede 脱离)，这场战争最终以北方人(Yankee)的胜利告终。对于这场战争，TOEFL考试主要讲述后方(back front)对前线(frontline)的支持。(之后林肯总统被暗杀)

? 美国历史American History -7

? Stage 7. Reconstruction战后重建时期

? 内战给美国带来的创伤是巨大的(tremendous)，为修复战争带来的破坏(destruction)，战后人们积极

开展重建工作，这是一个令人畏惧的(staggering) task。

? 美国历史American History -8

? Stage 8. Western Exploration 西部开发

? 直至这时美国的疆土还局限在东部，接下来就是“西部大开发”，这和我国的西部大开发(grand

development of West China)不太一样，development 指进一步发展，而美国当时是拓荒，在这期间铺设了铁路。

? 美国历史American History -9

? Stage 9. Industrial Growth工业化发展

? 工业化(industrialization)发展最终推动了美国的经济发展。其中城市发展史可以作为一个子话题体现：

城市化(urbanization)是经济发展的必然，在TOEFL中出现得较少，而市郊化(suburbanization)则备受ETS的重视；在城市的发展过程中，城市建筑物的老化(urban decay)很成问题，解决的策略主要有两种：一种是彻底毁坏(bulldoze)或推翻, 粉碎(demolish)；另一种是要对这些老式建筑翻新(refurbish)或改造(remodel)，哪种策略更受重视呢？

 

第二篇：American romanticism总结

American Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution. In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was known as the Romantic Movement or Romantic revival. Its chief self-expression, sincerity, spontaneity and originality become the new standards of literature. The Romantics turned to their emotional directness of personal experience and their boundlessness of individual imagination and inspiration. While the main achievement in America during Romantic Movement was Transcendentalism and America achieved its intellectual independence.

Washington Irving, the first great prose stylist of American romanticism, restored the waning Gothic romances and his work The Legend of Sleepy Hollow made him the first American writer who won international-wide reputation. Then came James Fennimore Cooper launched two kinds of immensely popular stories——the sea adventure tale and the frontier saga including

Leatherstocking Tales and The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans, and his The Prairie was regarded as “the nearest approach yet to an American epic.

Emerson was spokesman of Transcendentalism and his book Nature became the Bible of Transcendentalism-universe in which he called for American stopped imitating English writers. Then it was Henry David Thoreau who put transcendental principals into life practice. His first famous book Walden he advocated a simple, primitive, pure life but he once said,” I would not have anyone adopt my mode of living, each should find out his own way, not his neighbor’s or his parents`.

The next was Nathaniel Hawthorne. The central theme in his works was about sin. Sin was universal in human being even in those who appeared pure actually related to wickedness.

Everyone was corrupted by original sin so he developed psychological novel like The House of the Seven Gables for Hawthorne sin was kind of psychological effect, thus all his main characters were in painful inner conflict. Also, puritan was at heart of Hawthorne and a strong puritan influence can be found in his works like The Scarlet Letter. Herman Melville, influenced by

Enlightenment Movement, believed in human goodness. He lived an eventful life. At 20, he went to sea as a whaler and his life at sea provided materials for Moby Dick, which earned him a name “American Shakespeare”. In Moby Dick, one of the major themes in Melville was alienation,

which he sensed existing in the life of his time on different levels, between man and man, man and society, man and nature.

Walt Whitman, the first great American poet who most consciously expressed American spirit in poetry better than others, used free verse without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. Most of the poems in Leaves of Grass, were about man and nature and this work was regarded as the first genuine epic poem and it free expressed American spirit and fundamental ideas in American culture and society. In his poetry, he combined the ideal of democratic common man and that of the rugged individual. He envisioned the poet as a hero, a savior and a prophet, one who leads the community by his expression of the truth. Emily Dickinson was the best American female poet. Her poets were simple and symbol of language, philosophical, metaphorical and symbolic in metaphysical.

Edgar Allan Poe, the father of modern short story, detective story, and psychoanalytic

criticism and aesthetician and one of the forerunners of symbolism, also one of the major founders of gothic tales, science fictions and horror stories, enjoys a worldwide fame now and influenced French Symbolism and Aestheticism.

American Romanticism was characterized by not having political radicalism, imitative and independent. Romantic celebration of nature was inspired in part by a desire to establish an original relationship with the “new landscape”.