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  3. I was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot Country, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record

I was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot Country, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record

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问题      I was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot Country, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their age as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember having ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvesting, springtime, or fall-time. A lack of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages, I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it. He considered all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent. The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old.
     My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Issac and Betsey Bailey, both coloured, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather.
     My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an older woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection towards its mother.
In the mid-nineteenth century, slaves often
选项 A、marked their birthdays by the season.
B、did not really care how old they were.
C、forgot the exact time when they were born.
D、pretended not to know each other’s birthdays.
答案A
解析 推断题。根据文章首段：“I don’t remember having ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday． They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time，harvesting，springtime，or fall-time．” (我不记得有哪个奴隶能说出自己的生日来，他们除了知道自己出生在播种季节、收割季节、春季或秋季外，几乎没有更确切的时间了。)，可见，A 为正确答案。至于B ，本文在开始就写道“By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their age as horses know of theirs，and it is the wish of most masters…”，从这句话，我们可以看出奴隶主不想让他们知道，因此，B 不应入选；C 和D 在文中都没有提及。
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