众所皆知，SSAT暨美国中考，文章话题体裁多样，涉及历史，天文，生物，人文，文学等。如果说你谈“尸”色变，天生讨厌诗歌，我相信你一定历史很好。
譬如说，你一定知道美国的一些历史性战争：
Independent War(American Revolution)关键词： George Washington, colonial American, The Declaration of Independence
Civil War: Abraham Lincoln, assassinate, Confederates, Union, slavery system,Emancipation Proclamation
World War I
World War II
Cold War : Soviet Union VS United States Communism VS Capitalism , altruism
Korea War,Vietnam War, Iraq War
OK，如果你已经对美国战争史有一个基本了解，并且已经熟练掌握解题技巧，你狠快会发现，刚刚结束的2015年1月10号考试中关于南北战争和林肯的文章，SO EASY!
一. Abraham Lincoln and Civil War
Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated in March of 1861 as the sixteenth President of the United States.
During 1861, southern states were trying to secede from the Union of the United States(有题问这是什么意思，应该选political separation from…)and form their own country. Lincoln, though against the separation, made clear in his inaugural address that he held no malice toward the South: "There need be no blood-shed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts(有题问imposts的意思，选taxes); but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere." On April 12th, 1861, the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, and the Civil War began. Two years later, on January 1st, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation(有题问下面那个词与它意思最接近，选liberty/liberation那个) Proclamation, a declaration that stated that "all slaves in States or parts of States then in rebellion" were free. On April 9th, 1865, General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox, ending the war.
On April 14th, 1865 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes-Booth. He died on April 15th from the wound. Though he never authored any books, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given on November 19th, 1863, is one of the best-known speeches of any decade. "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
这三道题其实都是关于前后逻辑关系的
1. During 1861, southern states were trying to secede from the Union of the United States and form their own country. Lincoln, though against the separation
“and” 前后表并列关系， 应选选项应与“form their own country”意思一致，并且后一句的“against the separation “ 更加确定了应选“political separation from”
2. to collect the duties and imposts
同样根据 “and” 前后表示并列关系， imposts 与 duties应该是同义， 而collect duties应表示征税，“duty” 有责任，关税。 答案为”taxes”
3. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a declaration that stated that "all slaves in States or parts of States then in rebellion" were free.
Emancipation Proclamation后面逗号后紧跟解释，关键词“free”, 因此选“liberty”
是不是很简单呢?
如果答案是NO, 童鞋们，是不是美国基本历史可以看起来了呢?
着眼于上一篇文章题材，我们首先回顾一下美国的南北战争。
二. The American Civil War(1861-1865)
often referred to simply as The Civil War in the United States, was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ("the Confederacy"); the other 25 states supported the federal government ("the Union"). After four years of warfare, mostly within the Southern states, the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. Issues that led to war were partially resolved in the Reconstruction Era that followed, though others remained unresolved.
In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, had campaigned against expanding slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. The Republicans strongly advocated nationalism, and in their 1860 platform they denounced threats of disunion as avowals of treason. After a Republican victory, but before the new administration took office on March 4, 1861, seven cotton states declared their secession and joined to form the Confederate States of America. Both the outgoing administration of President James Buchanan and the incoming administration rejected the legality of secession, considering it rebellion. The other eight slave states rejected calls for secession at this point. No country in the world recognized the Confederacy.
Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state to recapture federal property, which led to declarations of secession by four more slave states. Both sides raised armies as the Union seized control of the border states early in the war and established a naval blockade. Land warfare in the East was inconclusive in 1861–62, as the Confederacy beat back Union efforts to capture its capital, Richmond, Virginia, notably during the Peninsular Campaign. In September 1862, the Confederate campaign in Maryland ended in defeat at the Battle of Antietam, which dissuaded the British from intervening. Days after that battle, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal.
In 1863, Confederate general Robert E. Lee's northward advance ended in defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg. To the west, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River after the Battle of Shiloh and Siege of Vicksburg, splitting the Confederacy in two and destroying much of their western army. Due to his western successes, Ulysses S. Grant was given command of the eastern army in 1864, and organized the armies of William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan and others to attack the Confederacy from all directions, increasing the North's advantage in manpower. Grant restructured the union army, and put other generals in command of divisions of the army that were to support his push into Virginia. He fought several battles of attrition against Lee through the Overland Campaign to seize Richmond, though in the face of fierce resistance he altered his plans and led the Siege of Petersburg which nearly finished off the rest of Lee's army. Meanwhile, Sherman captured Atlanta and marched to the sea, destroying Confederate infrastructure along the way. When the Confederate attempt to defend Petersburg failed, the Confederate army retreated but was pursued and defeated, which resulted in Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. The practices of total war, developed by Sherman in Georgia, and of trench warfare around Petersburg foreshadowed World War I in Europe. It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Historian John Huddleston estimates the death toll at ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40.Victory for the North meant the end of the Confederacy and of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war decisively shaped the reconstruction era that lasted to 1877.
美国南北战争(1861-1865)，通常被称为在美国南北战争，是一场内战，战斗在美利坚合众国。在亚伯拉罕·林肯作为美国总统的选举中，来自美国的11个南部蓄奴州宣布他们的分裂，并形成了美国南部邦联(“邦联”)，其他25个州的支持联邦政府(“ “联盟”)。经过4年的战争，大多是在南方各州，联邦投降，并在全国各地奴隶制被取缔。导致战争的问题，部分解决重建中的时代之后，虽然仍然没有得到解决。
在1860年的总统选举中，共和党，亚伯拉罕·林肯的带领下，反对扩大奴隶制以外的国家，它已经存在了竞选。共和党大力提倡民族主义，他们在他们的1860平台斥为叛国avowals的不统一威胁。新政府后，共和党的胜利，但在此之前于1861年3月4日，办公室，七个棉花国家宣布他们的分裂和加入，形成了美国南部邦联。即将卸任的总统詹姆斯·布坎南的管理和下届政府都反对分裂国家的合法性，考虑到它的叛乱。在这一点上，其他8个奴隶州拒绝分裂电话。世界上没有任何国家承认邦联。
敌对行动开始，1861年4月12日，当南方军队袭击了美国南卡罗来纳州萨姆特堡的军事设施。林肯回应，要求从每个国家的志愿者大军夺回联邦的财产，这导致四个蓄奴州脱离声明。双方提出了军队作为联盟抓住控制边境各州在战争初期，建立了海上封锁。在东方的土地战是不确定的，在1861年至1862年，作为南部邦联打退半岛战役期间捕获的资本，里士满，弗吉尼亚州，特别是联盟的努力。在1862年9月，在马里兰州的同盟运动以失败告终，在Antietam争斗，英国劝阻干预。[2]天之后战斗，林肯颁布“解放宣言”，结束奴隶制的战争目标。
1863年，同盟将军罗伯特·李北进失败而告终，在葛底斯堡战役。到西部，联盟得到控制后，希洛和维克斯堡围攻战役，在两个分裂联邦和摧毁他们的西方军队的密西西比河。由于他的西方的成功，尤利塞斯格兰特于1864年东部军队的命令，和威廉Tecumseh谢尔曼，菲利普Sheridan和其他组织的军队从四面八方攻击邦联，增加人手北的优势。批准重组的联盟军队，并把其他将军指挥军队的分裂，支持他推到弗吉尼亚。他反对李开复的几个战斗减员，通过陆上运动要抓住里士满，尽管面对激烈的抵抗，他改变了他的计划，导致接近完成关闭其余李的军队围困的圣彼得堡。同时，谢尔曼攻占亚特兰大，并游行到海，摧毁沿途的同盟基础设施。当保卫圣彼得堡同盟企图失败后，同盟军撤退，但被追求和被击败的，这导致在李的投降在Appomattox法院，1865年4月9日授予。
美国南北战争中是最早的真正的工业战争之一。铁路，电报，轮船，和大规模生产的武器被广泛应用。谢尔曼格鲁吉亚的全面战争，和圣彼得堡附近的战壕战的做法在欧洲的世界战埋下了伏笔。它仍然在美国历史上最惨重的战争，造成的死亡62万士兵和平民伤亡人数不详。历史学家约翰·赫德尔斯顿估计所有20-45岁的北方男性为10%，所有18-40岁的南方白人男性和30%的死亡人数。[4]北方的胜利意味着联邦和结束奴隶制美国，并加强了联邦政府的作用。社会，政治，经济和种族战争的问题，果断地塑造了重建的时代，一直持续到1877年。
其次，我们回顾一下林肯的著名演讲。
三. Gettysburg Address
Delivered on the 19th Day of November, 1863 Cemetery Hill, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new Nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now, we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that Nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who gave their lives that Nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that this Nation, under GOD, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the People by the People and for the People shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln
87年前，我们的先辈们在这个大陆上创立了一个新国家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。现在我们正从事一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家是否能够长久存在下去。我们在这场战争中的一个伟大战场上集会。烈士们为使这个国家能够生存下去而献出了自己的生命，我们来到这里，是要把这个战场的一部分奉献给他们作为最后安息之所。我们这样做是完全应该而且是非常恰当的。
但是，从更广泛的意义上来说，这块土地我们不能够奉献，不能够圣化，不能够神化。那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们，活着的和去世的，已经把这块土地圣化了，这远不是我们微薄的力量所能增减的。我们今天在这里所说的话，全世界不大会注意，也不会长久地记住，但勇士们在这里所做过的事，全世界却永远不会忘记。毋宁说，倒是我们这些还活着的人，应该在这里把自己奉献于勇士们已经如此崇高地向前推进但尚未完成的事业。倒是我们应该在这里把自己奉献于仍然留在我们面前的伟大任务——我们要从这些光荣的死者身上汲取更多的献身精神，来完成他们已经完全彻底为之献身的事业;我们要在这里下定最大的决心，不让这些死者白白牺牲;我们要使国家在上帝福佑下得到自由的新生，要使这个民有、民治、民享的政府永世长存。
再问一遍：美国历史你知多少?
当然美国历史远不止美国战争史，anti-slavery 必须重视，美国女权运动也不容忽视。
而谈到女性，你肯定很熟悉“碧池”，对，就是我们常常听到的B*, 这个词早在15世纪就被用来贬低女性, 直到上世纪二十年代，“碧池” 才成为骂街吵架的热门词汇，甚至一度达到井喷式的传播速度。1915年到1930年这十五年间，“碧池” 在报纸上的使用率足足增加了一倍。究其原因，还是因为英国妇女的普选权得到了保障。没错，就是那个叫苏珊·B·安东尼(Susan B. Anthony)的 “碧池” 为妇女征得了选举的权利，男人们因此而垂头丧气;不久，“碧池” 就成了所有恼人女性的代名词。
SO, 如果下次考到美国女权运动，千万不要说你不认识女权运动第一人 Susan B. Anthony !
所以，同学们，从现在做起，熟悉常见的历史话题，为2017年的SSAT阅读做好准备吧!
