书城外语课外英语-美国各州小知识(五)(双语版)
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第1章 康涅狄格州(1)

康涅狄格州小档案:

人口:约330万

面积:约12550平方公里,排名第48位

州府:哈特佛Hartford

康涅狄格州是新英格兰六州中最偏南的一州。康涅狄格州名,来自印第安语Quinnethtukqut,意义是“受海潮影响的一条长河流经之地”,简称“长河之地”。

1614年,荷兰航海者,首先驶入康涅狄格河。1635年,英人始向本区殖民。那时候,印第安人在本州之内,约有7千。其中最强的一族,叫做白卦特族Bequot。1637年,英人与土著发生战争。1788年1月9日成为美国旧13州中之第5州。以“山桂”Mountain Laurel为州花。本州别名为“宪法之州”Constitution State。本州箴言:“移居本地者仍在生存”He Who Transplanted Still Sustains。

本州大专院校有50多所。其中最著名的,例如1701年创立的耶鲁大学,1877年创立的哈特福大学及1881年建立的康涅狄格大学。哈大在西哈特福。康大在斯托尔斯Storrs,其地在哈特福之东。哈特福Hartford位于本州中心,又介于纽约与波土顿两大港口之间,地理位置重要。

本州有三个特征:第一,1639年,本州首先创立基本法Fundamental Orders,确定每一位公民都有选举权。这部基本法,已公认为世界上最老的一部成文宪法。首先实施基本法地区是本州威则斯非德Wetheersfield。第二,本州是新英格兰6州中工业最盛的1州。主要是制造核子潜艇、喷射飞机引擎、直升飞机引擎、球承轴、塑胶、钟表、电业、电气器材及打字机等。第三,本州州府哈特福Hartford,是美国的保险业都市Insurance City。市内有40家美国大保险公司总部。

本州人口虽然只有330多万,但其生产总值,可达70多亿美元。工人总数约占本州就业人口五分之二。本州工业技术水平精密,工人具有高度精巧的技术,例如制造喷射飞机引擎及电脑。本州为冰碛土区,土壤之内,含有大量沙砾。出产马铃薯、玉蜀黍及蔬菜,牛奶业及肉鸡业也很发达。

Introduction简介

本丛书共50册,分为美国各州的小知识,七彩缤纷的音符,优美好看的小散文,开心时分的短文,经典流传的寓言,超级高效的短句,实际有用的词汇等等在这些书中,备有单词解释,相关简介,或中文翻译,便于同学们更好的阅读和理解,真正进入文字的内涵当中,准确地和文字进行交流。主要介绍康涅狄格州和德拉瓦州的概况、州长、州鸟、州花、州旗、州歌以及相关资料,附有话里话外部分,主要介绍美国遗址和美国科学家。

Before the arrival of European settlers in the 1500s and 1600s,Connecticut was home to a number of indigenous(本土的)peoples.The Dutch navigator,Adriaen Block,was the first European of record to explore the area,sailing up the Connecticut River in 1614,and though the Dutch established a trading post,it was the British who fully colonized the area In 1633,Dutch colonists built a fort and trading post near present-day Hartford,but soon lost control to English Puritans(清教徒)migrating south from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Dutch settlers of Manhattan Island,New York,and the Puritans and Pilgrims from Massachusetts,learned of the fertility(肥沃,丰产)of the soil on the Connecticut River,and both laid claim to territory,but both hesitated for awhile(片刻,一会儿)in making any settlement.However,in October,1633(three years after Winthrop’s Fleet had started the populating the Massachusetts Bay Colony),a small vessel sailed from Plymouth,with the design of erecting a trading-house on the bank of the Connecticut;but when they had sailed up the river to the location of the present city of Hartford,they found the Dutch had gotten there before them,and had erected a fort(堡垒,边界上的贸易站).

The Dutch forbade them to advance and threatened to fire upon them.The English ignored the threats and sailed right past them!They landed at a spot within the limits of the present town of Windsor,and built a trading-house there.Windsor is approximately 40miles inland,to the north,from the Long Island Sound coast.

The next movement towards settling Connecticut was in July,1635,when at Wethersfield(韦泽尔斯菲尔德)a settlement was made.This settlement is about 10miles south,or closer to the coast,than Windsor had been.Since Windsor was just a trading post,Wethersfield,then was the first English settlement in Connecticut,five years after the Massachusetts Bay Colony had begun and fifteen years after the beginning of the Plymouth Colony.

The next settlement was at or near the first intrusion into Connecticut,at the Plymouth trading-house,in the summer of 1635,by people from Dorchester.They gave the settlement the name of Windsor.The next year,Mr.Hooker,with his congregation(集合,集会,[宗]圣会),removed from Cambridge(then Newtown)to Connecticut and founded the town of Hartford,in between Windsor and Wetherfield.These three towns,Wethersfield,Windsor and Hartford,soon associated,and chose magistrates(文职官员,地方官员)to regulate their common interests.At about the same time,in 1635,John Winthrop,the younger,had established a fort on the coast at Saybrook,near the mouth of the Connecticut River.

The Pequot War ensued in 1637,culminating(达到顶点)in the destruction of the Pequot Indian Camp and massacre(大屠杀)of many Indians by the white settlers.At the close of the Indian troubles,in 1639,George Fenwick arrived from England,and came over to take charge of the colony by authority of the “Company”.New Haven,on the coast,west of Saybrook,was settled about this time,followed by Milford,yet further west on the coast,then Guilford,Fairfield,Stratford,and,in 1660,Norwich was settled.

English settlements,established in the 1630s at Windsor,Wethersfield,and Hartford,united in 1639to form the Connecticut Colony and adopted the Fundamental Orders.Connecticut played a prominent role in the Revolutionary War,serving as the Continental Army’s major supplier.The state became one of the most industrialized in the nation.

From the first,Connecticut enjoyed a great measure of political independence,proclaiming in its Fundamental Orders of 1639a democratic principle of government based on the will of the people.These Fundamental Orders are said to have been the first written Constitution of a democratic government;that’s why Connecticut today is nicknamed “The Constitution State”.Meanwhile,the Puritan colony at New Haven adopted its own Fundamental Agreement,proclaiming the Scriptures(手稿,文件)to be the supreme law in civil affairs.Despite their differences,the two colonies were joined(under a royal charter in 1662),and together they formed one of the more fiercely(猛烈地,厉害地)independent of the original 13British colonies,defying the crown as early as 1687and contributing huge numbers of troops to the Revolutionary War effort.

Connecticut’s homogeneous(同类的,相似的,均一的,均匀的),community centered form of government,out of the mainstream of royal imperial affairs,remained focused on the town and its people.With events of the impending Revolution espousing(支持,赞成)the principles of freedom of expression,Connecticut began to move away from a solely town focus and look out toward the broader community of colonies opposing Royal authority.Connecticut people fought on both sides of the conflict,with many Loyalists migrating north and east to Canada and its eastern provinces.