专四专八考试

【单选题】Considering how jazz is transcribed inChinese (jueshi), you may be misled into assuming that it is an aristocratic cultural form. Nothing could be further from the truth. It originated among blackAmericans at the end of the 19th century, at a time when they occupied the very bottom of theAmerican social heap.
So how has something that was created by a once downtrodden and despised minority acquired a central place in today’sAmerican culture Mr.Darrell
A、Jenks, director of theAmericanCenter forEducationalExchange, and also a drummer in the jazz band Window, analyses the phenomenon for us here.
Perhaps the essence ofAmerica is that you could never get twoAmericans to agree on just what that might be.After thinking about it for a while, we might chuckle and say, "Hmm, seems like beingAmerican is a bit more complicated than we thought. "Certainly things like individualism, success (the "AmericanDream"), innovation and tolerance stand out.But these things come together because of our ability to work with one another and find common purpose no matter how diverse we might be.
Some, likeAfrican-American writer RalphEllison, believe that jazz captures the essence ofAmeric
A、For good reason, for in jazz all of the characteristics I mentioned above come together. The solos are a celebration of individual brilliance that can’t take place without the group efforts of the rhythm section.Beyond that, though, jazz has a connection to the essence ofAmerica in a much more fundamental way. It is an expression of theAfrican roots ofAmerican culture, a musical medium that exemplifies the culture of theAfricans whose culture came to dominate much of what isAmerican.
That’s right, in many respectsAmerica’s roots are inAfric
A、Read RalphEllison’s perceptive description of the transformation of separateAfrican andEuropean cultures at the hands of the slaves:
"... the dancing of those slaves who, looking through the windows of a plantation manor house from the yard, imitated the steps so gravely performed by the masters within and then added to them their own special flair, burlesquing the white folks and then going on to force the steps into a choreography uniquely their own. The whites, looking out at the activity in the yard, thought that they were being flattered by imitation and were amused by the incongruity of tattered blacks dancing courtly steps, while missing completely the fact that before their eyes aEuropean cultural form was becomingAmericanized, undergoing a metamorphosis through the mocking activity of a people partially sprung fromAfric
A、" (RalphEllison, Living with Music, pp 83-84).
Jazz brought together elements fromAfrica andEurope, fusing them into a new culture, an expression unique to theAmericans.
Out of this fusion came an idea that weAmericans believe central to our identity: tolerance.Both cultures represented inEllison’s passage eventually came to realize each other’s value.Americans acknowledge that in diversity is our strength. We learn every day that other cultures and peoples may make valuable contributions to our way of life. Jazz music is the embodiment of this ideal, combining elements fromAfrican andEuropean cultures into a distinctlyAmerican musiC、
Jazz reflects two contradictory facets ofAmerican life. On the one hand it is a team effort, where every musician is completely immersed in what the group does together, listening to each of the other players and building on their contributions to create a musical whole. On the other hand, the band features a soloist who is an individual at the extreme, a genius likeCharlie Parker who explores musical territory where no one has ever gone before. In the same sense,American life is also a combination of teamwork and individualism, a combination of individual brilliance with the ability to work with others.
We hope that manyChinese friends can bring their own uni
网考网参考答案：A
网考网解析：
[题干译文] 在引用埃里森的段落里体现了美国人的哪种特质 [解析] 本题题干虽然提到的是第六段，但相关信息却在第八段中，在论证美国人包容性的特质时又运用到了埃里森提出的范例，故答案为A。其余选项虽然都是美国人所具有的特质但没有在其中得到体现。 document.getElementById("warp").style.display="none"; document.getElementById("content").style.display="block"; 查看试题解析出处>>