2014届高考英语一轮复习话题阅读素材48

Chinese Immigrants in the USA Chinese Americans make up a tiny fraction of US population, and their numerous contributions to their adopted land are much appreciated. However, it was once common in America to associate Chinese Americans with restaurants and laundries. People did not realize that the Chinese had been driven into these occupations by the prejudice and discrimination. The first Chinese to reach the USA came during the California Gold Rush of 1849. In that largely unoccupied land, the men staked a claim for themselves by placing markers in the ground.

Either because the Chinese were so different from the others in speech and appearance, including a long "pigtail" at the back of their otherwise shaved heads, or because they worked so patiently that they succeeded in turning a seemingly worthless mining claim into a profitable one, they became the scapegoats of their envious competitors. They were harassed in many ways, and therefore started to seek out other ways of earning a living. Some began to do the laundry for the white miners; others set up small restaurants. There being almost no women in California in those days, the Chinese filled a real need by doing this "woman's work". In the early 1860's more Chinese were imported as work crews to construct the first transcontinental railroad. They were needed because the work was so backbreaking and dangerous, and was carried out in such a remote part of the country that the railroad company couldn't find other laborers for the job.

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