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  3. For centuries the most valuable of African resources for Europeans were the slaves, but these could be obtained at coastal ports

For centuries the most valuable of African resources for Europeans were the slaves, but these could be obtained at coastal ports

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问题     For centuries the most valuable of African resources for Europeans were the slaves, but these could be obtained at coastal ports, without any need for going deep inland. Slavery had been an established institution in Africa. Prisoners of war had been enslaved, as were also debtors and individuals guilty of serious crimes. But these slaves usually were treated as part of the family. They had clearly defined rights, and their slave status was not necessarily inherited. Therefore it is commonly argued that Africa’s traditional slavery was mild compared to the trans-Atlantic slave trade organized by the Europeans. This argument, however, can be carried too far. In the most recent study of this subject, some scholars warned against the illusion that" cruel and dehumanizing enslavement was a monopoly of the West. Slavery in its extreme forms, including the taking of life, was common to both Africa and the West. The fact that African slavery had different origins and consequences should not lead us to deny what it was—the exploitation and control of human beings. " Neither can it be denied that the wholesale shipment of Africans to the slave plantations of the Americas was made possible by the participation of African chiefs who rounded up their fellow Africans and sold them as a handsome profit to European ship captains waiting along the coasts.
    Granting all this, the fact remains that the trans-Atlantic slave trade conducted by the Europeans was entirely different in quantity and quality from the traditional type of slavery that had existed within Africa. From the beginning the European variety was primarily an economic institution rather than social, as it had been in Africa. Western slave traders and slave owners were acted on by purely economic considerations, and were quite ready to work their slaves to death if it was more profitable to do so than to treat them more mercifully. This inhumanity was reinforced by racism when the Europeans became involved in the African slave trade on a large scale. Perhaps as a subconscious rationalization they gradually came to look down on Negroes as inherently inferior, and therefore destined to serve their white masters. Rationalization also may have been involved in the Europeans’ use of religion to justify the traffic in human beings. It was argued, for instance, that enslavement assured the conversion of the African evil-believing religions to the true faith as well as to civilization.
The sentence "This argument... can be carried too far"implies that
选项 A、African’s traditional slavery was inhumane.
B、the slavery in Africa was confined to some regions.
C、supporters of this argument knew little of Africa.
D、slave shipment was not so serious as was imagined.
答案A
解析 该题为推理题。问题中的“argument”指的是第一段第六句“Therefore it is commonly argued that Africa’s traditional slavery was mild compared to the trans-Atlantic slave trade organized by the Europeans．”即人们普遍认为，相对于欧洲人组织的跨大西洋的奴隶贸易来说，非洲传统的奴隶制度要温和一些，接下来“This argument，however，can be carded too far．”即作者认为该观点有失偏颇。根据前题我们知道非洲的奴隶制度与欧洲的奴隶制度本质上都是一致的，因此非洲的奴隶制度同样是不人道的，故选择A项。
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