英语自考本科高级英语笔记-上册-Lesson_Five

Lesson Five I'd Rather Be Black than Female Words and Expressions

Text Explanation

1Congress

The American congress consists of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representative (参议院和众议院) 2Being the first black woman elected to Congress has made me some kind of phenomenon.

Being the first black woman elected to Congress has made me quite an extraordinary person.

3That there is prejudice against women is an idea that still strikes nearly all men - and, I am afraid, most women - as bizarre.

strike sb as bizarre means make sb feel surprised, can be translated as: 使某人感到很奇怪。

歧视妇女的说法会使几乎所有的男人－－恐怕还有多数妇女－－感到莫名其妙。

4Prejudice against blacks was invisible to most white Americans for many years.

Prejudice against blacks was taken for granted, therefore unnoticed by many white Americans.

5When black finally started to "mention" it…

"mention" here refers to the use of action to fight against prejudice against blacks.

6"Who, us?" they asked in injured tones. "We're prejudiced?"

American whites asked in a tone as if there were unfairly blamed for being prejudiced against blacks and thus felt hurt.

7For all but the last six, I have done the work-all the tedious details that make the difference between victory and defeat on

election day-while men reaped the rewards, which is almost invariably the lot of women in politics.

Except for the last six years, I have done all the boring routine jobs that can determine the outcome of an election while men got the rewards, that is, got elected.

the lot: a person's fortune or destiny 命运

除了最后六年，我所做的工作一直非常乏味，只是些在大选那天决定胜负的琐事。而男人却得到好处，

这几乎成了女人在政界不变的命运。

8The best any of them can hope is the honor of being district or county vice-chairman, a kind of separate-but-equal positon…

The best any woman can hope for is to become a district or county vice-chairman.

separate-but equal position here means an inferior position that is specially kept for women but is claimed by men to be a position equal to men's. 隔离但平等。

9run for the New York State Assembly seat

to compete to be elected member of the New York State Assembly 竞选纽约州议会议员

to win a seat : to win in the election

to lose one's seat: to be defeated in the election

10closed meetings were held to discuss ways of stopping me.

Male members of my own party held secret meetings to discuss how to stop me from running for the seat.

11My opponent, the famous civil-rights leader James Farmer, tried to project a black, masculine image…

My opponent James Farmer was a famous leader of the civil rights movement. He tried to create the impression of a strong, black male in the minds of voters. He did so because he thought the voters would surely vote a man rather than a woman.

12toured the neighborhood with sound trucks filled with young men wearing Afro haircuts, dashikis, and beards.

Sound trucks are trucks with amplifiers to broadcast propaganda.

Afro haircut was a fashionable hairstyle for black young men at that time.

A dashiki is a loose, often colorfully printed, shirt-like dress put on by pulling it over the head.

13while the television crew ignored me…

Groups of people sent by TV stations to report on the election campain ignored me, because they did not think I would be elected. As I was not interviewed, I was not reported on TV.

14Mr. Farmer still doesn't quite know what hit him.

Mr. Farmer still doesn't know how and why he was defeated in the election.

15The happy homemaker and the contented darky are both stereotypes produced by prejudice.

The typical fixed image of a woman is a housewife who is happy doing housework at home. The typical fixed image of a

black is one who is content with his inferior status. Both are believed to be true because of prejudice against them.

16Women have not even reached the level of tokenism that blacks are reaching.

Tokenism is a policy or practice of doing something to create the impression that a certain goal, especially racial equality and sex equality, has been accomplished.

女人甚至还没达到黑人正在达到的表面性的平等。

17No women sit on the Supreme Court.

There are no women judges in the Supreme Court.

18Only two have held Cabinet rank, and none do at present.

Only two women have once been members of the Cabinet （内阁）.

19But women predominate in lower-paying, menial, unrewarding, dead-end jobs.

Most of the people doing lower-paying, menial, unrewardin, dead-end jobs are women.

20Why invest time and effort to build the girl up?

build up: make, acquire steadily and gradually 逐渐获得