2015考研英语阅读城市里的种族隔离_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读城市里的种族隔离

　　第一次世界大战前夕，殖民统治和割裂的城市均发展到鼎盛时期。当时，大批迁徙至版图不断扩大的大英帝国的偏远地区的欧洲人，他们需要物质上和精神上都有舒服的状态，这意味着他们变本加厉的无情对待其他种族。书中，南丁格尔先生道出为何人们认为南非种族隔离制度的起源比1948年国民党大选成功得更早。其实，隔离制度早就存在于隔离计划中。早在半个世纪以前，割裂为白人区和非白人区的约翰尼斯堡的创建，就是拜隔离制度所赐。1948年后，种族隔离制度更加毫不遮掩地暴露出来这让世界为之震惊，因为当时的种族主义和殖民主义的观点都受到挑战，有的也被废除。但是，人们对种族隔离的热情并非空穴来风。隔离制度存在于空间已经被分配的现存体系中，而且反映着帝国精英的需求。

　　Those needs were complex and shifting. After their defeat of the Boers in 1902, the Britishmasters of South Africa wanted labour for the gold mines that had given birth toJohannesburg; but they also wanted to attract white, English-speaking immigrants, and topromise them a life in which other races featured only as house servants. Ever moreingenious forms of separation emerged, including the foundation of present-day Sowetobeside an urban sewage farm. In Cape Town, a new effort to divide, aimed at keepingEuropeans healthy, began after the arrival of bubonic plague at the start of the 20th century.The scourge had been spreading westward from China s ports; in many cities, infectiousdiseases were the catalysts for grand segregationist projects, and were underpinned by racistideologies.