（雅思课外精读）非裔美国人的上流社会

2024-07-09 16:31:31 来源：中国教育在线

雅思托福考试是一个非常有难度的考试，相信很多在备考阶段的小伙伴们，每天都在关注一些雅思相关的消息。有同学问：【雅思课外精读】非裔美国人的上流社会？今天，一起来看看吧。

【雅思课外精读】非裔美国人的上流社会

Americas black elite

美国黑人精英

Our kind of people

我们这样的人

How does the black upper class respond to Black Lives Matter?

美国黑人上流社会对Black Lives Matter活动看法为何？

1. Lawrence Otis Graham recalls where he first met Kamala Harris, last summer, in Marthas Vineyard. It was at the holiday home of Spike Lee, a film director, who held a $1,500-a-headfundraiser for the woman who is now number two on the Democratic ticket. She is the new Barack Obama for us, says the thrilled Mr Graham, an author and property lawyer from New York. By us Mr Graham means African-Americans, and in particular the glitziest end of African-American high society.

劳伦斯奥蒂斯格雷厄姆想起去年夏天他在玛莎葡萄园岛第一次见到卡玛拉哈里斯的情景。他是在电影导演斯派克李的度假屋见到她的，斯派克李为这位如今在民主党内排行第二的候选人卡马拉哈里斯举办了每人1500美元的筹款活动。格雷厄姆是纽约一家房地产律师兼作家，他激动地说：对我们来说，她就是下一个巴拉克奥巴马。格雷厄姆所说的我们指的是非洲裔美国人，特别是那些处于上流社会顶端的非裔美国人。

2. He knows of whom he speaks. He made a name in 1999 by publishing Our Kind of People, asympathetic insider account of the habits, clubs and lifestyles of Americas wealthiest black families. Early on the book, now in its 37th printing, proved controversial. Some whites were ignorant of how black millionaires had thrived, a few of them since the 1870s. People often dont think of blacks having different socioeconomic classes, he says. Some fumed at being publicly named as part of a black aristocracy; others were furious for being left out. Some poorer black readers, in turn, raged at the wealthy.

他知道他在说谁。1999年，他出版了《我们这种人》一书，这是一部讲述富有的非裔美国家庭的生活习惯，社团和生活方式的书，格雷厄姆因为本书一举成名。这本书现在已经出版了第37版，早期的时候，这本书还引起了一些争议。一些白人不知道黑人百万富翁是如何发家致富的，其中有几个黑人19世纪70年代就已经家财万贯了。人们通常不会认为黑人有不同的社会经济阶层，他说。一些人对被公开指名为黑人贵族感到愤怒;其他人则因为没有被列入美国黑人贵族名单而愤怒。反过来，一些较穷的黑人读者也对这些黑人巨富大为光火。

3. On average black Americans remain significantly less well-off than whites, including among the richest. Among the top 10% of black earners, for example, the median family hasaccumulated assets worth $343,160, said a Brookings Institution report in February. For theequivalent top 10% of white families it was more than five times higher, at $1,789,300. By one Federal Reserve measure, around 2% of black families have assets worth more than $1m; over 15% of white ones do.

总的来看，美国黑人仍远不如白人富裕，即使是最富有的非裔美国人也比不上白人。布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)今年2月发布的一份报告显示，美国收入最高的10%黑人家庭资产中值为343,160美元。而美国收入最高的10%白人家庭则高出五倍多，为1,789,300美元。根据美联储的一项数据，大约2%的黑人家庭资产超过100万美元，而白人则是15%。

4. Yet even if the African-American elite is not huge, it is influential, as a planned televisedserialization of Mr Grahams book will show. The most prominent black families long formed invitation-only clubs where they socialised, created professional networks and presented their children at debutante balls. A prime example is Jack and Jill of America, founded in 1938, a society which claims 40,000 members in 247 chapters, and which is devoted to shaping children into future leaders in business, society and politics.

然而，即使非裔美国人精英人数不多，他们的影响力却很大，正如格雷厄姆的书中所显示的那样，这本书将会在电视上连载。最显赫的黑人家庭长期以来都成立了仅限受邀者参加的俱乐部，在那里他们进行社交活动，建立职业关系网，并在初次社交舞会上介绍他们的孩子。最典型的例子就是1938年成立的美国杰克和吉尔协会(Jack and Jill of America)，该协会据称有247个分会，4万名成员，致力于将孩子培养为未来商业、社会和政治领域的领袖。

5. It continues to go strong. This week it held its 44th national conventiona fourday, virtualshindig. It is unabashedly for the most successful. Danielle Brown, its president, dislikes the word elite, but says 98% of members children attend university. (That matters: rising higher-education rates best explain why the earnings of top-paid African-Americans have kept climbing in the past half century, even as those of most black workers steadily fell.) Almost everyone goes on to thrive professionally. They are pretty much at the top of wherever they go, she says.

该协会继续发展。本周，该协会举行了第44届全国大会为期4天的远程盛会。对于最成功的人来说，这是不加掩饰的。委员会主席Danielle Brown不喜欢精英这个词，但她说委员会98%的孩子都会上大学。(这一点很重要:高等教育比例的上升，很好地解释了为什么在过去半个世纪里，收入最高的非洲裔美国人的收入一直在上升，而大多数黑人工人的收入却在稳步下降。)几乎每个人都会在职业上取得成功。无论他们去哪里，都是最棒的，她说。

6. Her outfit, as any rich club must, does plenty of charity work. This year its members helped to pay for 247 needy students to finish college, she says. It also promotes civic duties, the virtue of voting and the benefits of a sound financial education. That is all worthybut in contrast to the occasionally riotous efforts of Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists, it can look terrifically staid. At its cotillion dances demure teenagers, in white Cinderella ball gowns, vie to deliver the deepest curtsy as pearlwearing older ladies look on.

和其他富人俱乐部一样，该俱乐部也做了大量的慈善工作。她说，今年俱乐部成员资助247名贫困学生完成了学业。协会还大力宣传公民义务、投票和健全的金融教育的好处。这一切都是有价值的，但是和Black Lives Matter （BLM）活动比起来，这就显得很古板了。在俱乐部舞会上，端庄的年轻人穿着灰姑娘的白色礼服，争先恐后地行最深的屈膝礼，而身穿珍珠首饰的年长女士们则在一旁观看。

7. Not all alumni are relaxed talking of their past. Few politicians brag of belonging to an elite group. Cory Booker, a senator from New Jersey, rarely brings up his youthful time in Jack and Jill. Dont expect Ms Harris, member of a similarly august group of women volunteers, The Links Inc, to mention it on the stump. Yet many of the most radical leaders or their childrenincluding those of Malcolm x and of Mr Lee had links to Jack and Jill or similar outfits.

并不是所有的人都愿意谈论他们的过去。很少有政客吹嘘自己属于某精英俱乐部。来自新泽西州的参议员科里布克很少提及他在杰克与杰尔的时光，更不要说哈里斯女士了。哈里斯是Links俱乐部的成员。然而，许多最激进的领导人或他们的子女包括马尔科姆艾克斯和李的子女都与杰克和吉尔或类似的组织有联系。

8. How do high-society African-Americans respond to upheavals from the covid-19 pandemic, killings by police, and BLM protests of recent months? For Mrs Brown, BLM is representative of the civilrights movement, with a new name. She praises protesters for their vigilance and for stirring publicincluding whiteconcern over matters that were previously ignored. But BLM, in her view, is just one of a wonderful plethora of groups, clubs, sororities, voter-registration outfits and charities: We need different people doing different things.

上流社会的非洲裔美国人如何应对新冠大流行、警察杀人和近几个月的BLM抗议活动带来的剧变?对布朗夫人来说，BLM是有了新名字的民权运动。她赞扬抗议者的警惕，该活动激起了包括白人在内的人们去关注之前一直被忽视的东西。但在她看来，BLM只是众多团体、俱乐部、姐妹会、选民登记机构和慈善机构中的一员:我们需要不同的人做不同的事。

9. Lerry Knox, a wealthy Chicagoan who runs an international infrastructure-investment fund, and Farissa Knox, who runs an ad agency, also in Chicago, see it in a similar light. The ongoing BLM debate over white supremacy is welcome. I support what BLM is doing. Its a narrative that needs to be spoken, says Mrs Knox. But the couple prefer to invest their personal funds and time in local groups that educate black residents on the benefits of completing census forms, sitting for jury duty and, especially, registering to vote. Structural changes, they say, will come from institutions, including the companies they lead, or from judicial reform and getting new people elected to office. Rage voiced on the streets can dissipate fast.

Lerry Knox是芝加哥一位富人，他经营着一家国际基础设施投资基金，其夫人Farissa Knox经营着一家广告公司，他们对此持同样的看法。BLM活动白人至上的辩论是很好的。我支持BLM活动的做法。这些需要说出来，诺克斯夫人说。但这对夫妇更愿意将他们的个人资金和时间投入到当地的一些团体中，这些团体在像黑人居民普及填写人口普查表、担任陪审员, 尤其是参加投票的好处。他们说，根本的改变得是制度上的改变，这包括他们领导的公司制度的改变，司法改革以及推举新的人当选, 而游行抗议活动很快就会结束。

10. Yet even the wealthiest align with street protesters in their fury over threats and harassment from police. Mr Knox is blunt about the risks any African-American man faces in public. Mr Graham recounts being stopped and hounded by a plainclothes policeman near his home, while collecting his daughter from schooleven though he was the chairman of his county police board. He describes how rich black families, on moving into mostly white neighbourhoods, learn to visit local police stations to hand out photos of their families, in an effort to stave off trouble. We have to be proactive, he says. It is absolutely demeaning to act in this way, but we have too many stories of what happens when you dont. Dont assume weve bought our way out of this treatment.

然而，即使是最富有的黑人，也会因为警察的威胁和骚扰而愤怒地与街头抗议者结盟。对于任何一个非裔美国人在公共场合可能面临的风险，诺克斯直言不讳。格拉汉姆先生回忆说，他是县警察委员会的主席，但在接女儿放学时，他在家附近被一名便衣警察拦截跟踪。他描述了富有的黑人家庭如何在搬进白人居多的社区后，学会去当地警察局分发他们家庭的照片，以避免麻烦。我们必须积极主动，他说。这样做肯定有损人格，但不这样做会发生什么我们太清楚了。不要以为我们有钱就不会遭遇这些了。

精读解析

篇章结构

P1：引出主题：非裔美国人中的上流社会

P2：介绍了格雷厄姆的相关著作Our Kind of People (标题与之相呼应)

P3：美国黑人上等阶层和白人的对比，前者目前还远不如后者

P4：但美国黑人上等阶层在各个领域都有不小的影响力，建立了许多社交俱乐部

P5P6：详细介绍了其中一个名为Jack and Jill of America的协会。

P7：然而政客们却往往不愿提及自己加入过这类上流协会

P8P10：而面对现在的 BLM 运动，这类协会成员的看法大部分是支持和赞成，因为他们自己也经常遭到莫名的拦截审查；但他们更偏向于以自己的方式（例如：向黑人推广人口普查、选票等好处）来提升黑人地位

重点单词

fundraiser/fʌnd,reizə/ n. 募捐者

【例句】

The companys chief operating officer was the numero-uno fund-raiser for the event。

该公司的首席运营官曾是这个活动的最佳募捐者。

glitzy/glɪtsɪ/ adj. 闪光的,耀眼的,眩目的

【例句】

A glitzy new exhibition centre dedicated to the Titanic (a ship built in Belfast) opened last spring.

去年春天纪念泰坦尼克号的一个耀眼的展览中心开放了，因为这艘船是在贝尔法斯特建造的。

sympathetic /sɪmpəetɪk/ adj. 表示同情的；赞同的, 支持的

【短语】

sympathetic with 对同情

sympathetic consideration 体恤处理，同情之考虑

【例句】

Her eyes brimmed over with sympathetic tears.

她的眼睛里充满了同情的泪水。

millionaire/mɪljəneə/ n. 百万富翁, 大富翁；大财主, 有钱人

【例句】

He became a millionaire when he was still young.

他还年轻时就成了百万富翁。

socioeconomic/səʊsɪəʊ,iːkənɒmɪk/ adj. 社会经济学的

【例句】

Infant mortality is a highly sensitive barometer of socio-economic conditions.

婴儿死亡率能够充分反映社会经济状况。

fume at 对生气，对感到恼火

【例句】

The air component isnt influenced by the residual fume at the switching moment.

高温空气成份几乎不受四通阀切换瞬间发生器内滞留烟气的影响。

aristocracy/ˌrɪstɒkrəsɪ/ n. 贵族,统治阶级；贵族统治的国家；一批杰出代表,一批优秀人物；贵族品质；贵族精神；贵族气派

【例句】

TheLordsare members of the old aristocracy, bishops, lawyers, and retired politicians.

上议院议员是由旧贵族、主教、律师以及退休的政治家组成。

well-off/ˈwelˈɔ:f/ adj. 顺利的,走运的,手头宽裕的,繁荣昌盛的

【拓展】

well off 富裕的；处境好的

be well off 生活过得好，处境良好

come off well 运气好，走运；（事情）有满意的结果

【例句】

My grandparents were quite well-off.

我的祖父母生活很富裕。

median/miːdɪən/ n. 中值，中位数；中线adj. 中央的；中值的

【例句】

The median age on the African continent is 17.

非洲大陆的年龄中位数是17岁。

accumulate/əkjuːmjʊleɪt/ vt.vi. 堆积; 积累

【同根】

accumulative adj. 累计的；累积的；积聚而成的

accumulation n. 积聚，累积；堆积物

accumulation of 积累

【例句】

Her only interest was the accumulation of money.

她唯一的兴趣是攒钱。

equivalent /ɪkwɪv(ə)l(ə)nt/ adj. 相等的, 相当的

【例句】

The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole years earnings.

歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。

serialization /ˌsɪərɪəlɪzeʃən/ n. 序列化；串行化；连载长篇

【例句】

It was first written for serialization in a magazine.

那是原来为在杂志上连载而写的。

socialise/səuʃəlaiz/ v. 使适于社会生活；使符合群体生活之需要；社会主义化

【例句】

And he said a good place for the community to come together is at the pub - thats a very British place where you can socialise over a drink or two.

他说团体一起去的好地方就是酒吧--这是很具有英国特色的地方，你可以一边喝酒一边社交。

debutante/debjʊtɑːnt/ n. 初次参加上层社会社交活动的少女

【例句】

But those familiar with the history of debutante balls feel confident that they will not suffer permanent demise.

但是那些熟悉初次社交舞会历史的人坚信这样的舞会不会永远消失。

shindig/ʃɪndɪg/ n. 狂欢会,舞会,吵闹,骚动

【例句】

At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a three-day shindig attracting big-name Republicans that ended on March 8th, Dr Carson was given a prominent speaking slot.

3月8号结束的，连续举办三天，吸引众多共和党大人物保守党政治活动会议（CPAC）上，

Carson医生成为重要的致辞者。

unabashed/ʌnəbeɪtɪd/ adj. 不减弱的，不衰退的

【例句】

It requires the feminine temperament to repeat the same thing three times with unabated zest.

只有女性才能以不息的热情把同一件事重复三遍。

demure/dɪmjʊə/ adj. 严肃的；端庄的；娴静的；假装正直的

【例句】

Rose Waterford cast down her eyes demurely to give greater effect to her reply.

为了使自己的答话给我更深的印象，瓦特尔芙德故意把眼皮一低，做出一副一本正经的样子。

riotous/raɪətəs/ adj. 暴乱的；狂欢的；不受约束的；放荡的；茂盛的

【例句】

He was expelled from college for riotous conduct.

他因行为放荡而被勒令退学。

cotillion/kətɪljən/ n. 沙龙舞(19世纪流行的一种不断交换舞伴,穿插各种花样的轻快交谊舞)

【例句】

The cotillion teaches the good graces that women should always have in their Arsenal.

交谊舞的老师所教的礼节能让女孩子变得高雅。

vie to争夺；竞争

【例句】

He is vying to remain a leading progressive voice on the world stage.

他渴望继续在世界舞台发出领导性的进步声音。

on the stump 做巡回政治演说

alumni/əlʌmnaɪ/ n. (男)校友；(男)毕业生

alumnus n. 男校友；男毕业生

【短语】

alumni association 校友会

【例句】

Several alumni have agreed to help raise money.

几位校友已同意帮助筹资。

august /ˈɔːɡəst/ n. 八月（简写为Aug）adj. 威严的；令人敬畏的

【例句】

Being so near the august person of the Empress, he was overcome with awe.

如此靠近威严的女皇，他心中充满了敬畏。

upheaval/ʌphiːv(ə)l/ n. 剧变；隆起；举起

【例句】

It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.

它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。

vigilance /vɪdʒɪl(ə)ns/ n. 警觉;警惕;警戒；失眠症;惊醒症

【例句】

We shouldnt relax our vigilance at any time.

任何时候我们都不应该放松警惕。

plethora/ple(ə)rə/ n. 过剩；过多；多血症

【短语】

plethora of 过剩的

【例句】

But Dr Goldacre illustrates his points with a plethora of real-world stories and examples.

戈尔达克尔博士很好地避免了这一问题，他使用了大量的事实论据来例证他的观点。

sorority/sərɒrɪtɪ/ n. 妇女联谊会；女学生联谊会

【例句】

A sorority member offered a rushee a cigarette.

一个联谊会成员给一位新生一支烟。

sit for 参加，坐着

supremacy/s(j)uːpreməsɪ/ n. 至高, 无上;最高权力【例句】No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员,无人能胜过她。

dissipate/dɪsɪpeɪt/ vt.vi. 驱散; 消失【同根】dissipative adj. 浪费的；消耗的；消散的dissipated adj. 消散的；沉迷于酒色的；闲游浪荡的；放荡的; dissipation n. 浪费；消散；[物] 损耗【例句】He often dissipated his energies in trivial matters.他常在无关紧要的小事上浪费精力。

align with v. 与结盟

【例句】

A militant group aligned with ISIS has claimed responsibility.

一个与ISIS结盟的武装组织宣称为此次袭击负责。

plainclothes /pleɪnkləʊz/ adj. 便衣(尤指不穿制服的警察)的

【例句】

Riot squads joined plainclothes policemen to move the protesters away from the square.

防爆人员同便衣警察将抗议者带出广场。

stave off v. 避开,挡开,延迟

【例句】

Some executives want to meet Mr. Trump to try to stave off the tariffs.

一些高管想与特朗普会面，试图阻止关税壁垒的实施。