2014届最新高考英语一轮单元复习 精品阅读理解提升文章精选一百篇四四.docVIP

2014届最新高考英语一轮单元复习 精品阅读理解提升文章精选一百篇（44） 　Unit 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 womans work.　　In the early 1860s 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 couldnt find other laborers for the job. As in the case of their predecessors, these Chinese were almost all males and encountered a great deal of prejudice and hostility. When times were hard, they were blamed for working for lower wages and taking jobs away from white men. Anti-Chinese riots broke out, and Chinese were barred from using courts and from becoming American citizens. Many Chinese returned to their homeland, and their numbers declined sharply in the early 2