首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Two half-brothers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, were the first Englishmen to undertake serious ventures in Ameri
Two half-brothers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, were the first Englishmen to undertake serious ventures in Ameri
admin
2011-02-11
50
问题
Two half-brothers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, were the first Englishmen to undertake serious ventures in America. Gilbert, one of the more earnest seekers of the Northwest Passage, went to Newfoundland in 1578 and again in 1583 but failed to colonize the territory either time and lost his life on the re. mm voyage to England after the second attempt. Raleigh, in turn, was granted the right to settle in "Virginia" and to have control of the land within a radius of 200 leagues from any colonists to the new continent. The first landed on the island of Roanoke off the coast of what is now North Carolina and stayed less than a year; anything but enthusiastic about their new home, these first colonists returned to England with Sir Francis Drake in the summer of 1586. Undaunted, Raleigh solicited the financial aid of a group of wealthy Londoners and, in the following year, sent a second contingent of 150 people under the leadership of Governor John White. Raleigh had given explicit instructions that this colony was to be planted somewhere on the Chesapeake Bay, but Govemor White disregarded the order and landed at Roanoke. White went back to England for supplies; when he returned after much delay in 1590, the settlers had vanished. Not a single member of the famed "lost colony" was ever found, not even a tooth.
After a long war between England and Spain from 1588 to 1603, England renewed attempts to colonize North America. In 1606, two charters were granted—one to a group of Londoners, the other to merchants of Plymouth and other western port town. The London Company was given the right to settle the southern part of the English territory in America; the Plymouth Company was given jurisdiction over the northern part.
So two widely separated colonies were established in 1607: one at Sagadahoc, near the mouth of the Kennebec River, in Maine; the other in modern Virginia. Those who survived the winter in the northern colony gave up and went home, and the colony established at Jamestown won the hard-earned honor of being the first permanent English settlement in America.
Hard-earned indeed! When the London Company landed three tiny vessels at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in 1607, 105 people disembarked to found the Jamestown Colony. Easily distracted by futile "get rich quick" schemes, they actually sent shiploads of mica and yellow ore back to England in 1607 and 1608. Before the news reached their ears that their treasure was worthless "fool’s gold," disease, starvation, and misadventure had taken a heavy toll: 67 of the original 105 Jamestown settlers died in the first year.
The few remaining survivors (one of whom was convicted of cannibalism) were joined in 1609 by 800 new arrivals, sent over by the reorganized and renamed Virginia Company. By the following spring, frontier hardships had cut the number of settlers from 838 to 60. That summer, those who remained were round fleeing down river to return home to England by new settlers with fresh supplies, who encouraged them to reconsider. This was Virginia’s "starving time”.
Inadequately supplied and untutored in the art of colonization, the earliest frontier pioneers routinely suffered and died. In 1623, a royal investigation of the Virginia experience was launched in the wake of an Indian attack that took the lives of 500 settlers. The investigation reported that of the 6,000 who had migrated to Virginia since 1607, 4,000 had died. The life expectancy of these hardy settlers upon arriving was two years.
The heavy human costs of first settlement were accompanied by substantial capital losses. Without exception, the earliest colonial ventures were unprofitable. Indeed, they were financial disasters. Neither the principal nor the interest on the Virginia Company’s accumulated investment of more than £200,000 was ever repaid (approximately $20,000,000 in today’s values). The investments in New England were less disappointing, but overall, English capitalists were heavy losers in their quest to tame the frontier.
The first colonists returned to England mainly because
选项
A、they were attacked by the Indians.
B、they didn’t have adequate supplies.
C、they had no passion for their new home at all.
D、they didn’t receive enough financial aid.
答案
C
解析
文章第1段第4句提到了第一批拓居者由于对新家园毫无热情,于1586年夏随Francis Drake爵士返回英国,因此答案为C。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/w5eO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Whiteneighborhoodsarebecomingdarkerin【1】______andmoreexpensive.【1】______Analystssaythatsoaringhousepricesandboom
ACareerinAccountingAsafieldofstudyandwork,accountingisexpandingthroughouttheworld.Ajobinaccountingpromi
Alinguisticsituationinwhichtwostandardlanguagesareusedeitherbyanindividualorbyagroupofspeakersiscalled
MrDuffyraisedhiseyesfromthepaperandgazedoutofhiswindowonthecheerlesseveninglandscape.Theriverlayquietbesi
A、theweatherconditionsareunfavourable.B、thenecessarydocumentsareunavailable.C、thesitesareinaccessible.D、somelocal
Mostdoctorsinarecentsurveysaidthatannualphysicalexaminationswereeffectivewith【M1】______detectingillne
1Aboutthetimethatschoolsandothersquitereasonablybecameinterestedinseeingtoitthatallchildren,whateverthei
AnOrganizationthatSupportstheArtsAsidefromperpetuatingitself,thesolepurposeoftheAmericanAcademyandInstitute
A、Sharon’sgovernmentaimedatalleviatinginternationalpressureonIsraelB、Sharon’sgovernmentfeltguiltyoftheirexcessive
WhichstateofAustraliaisMelbournein?
随机试题
下列药物中,吸湿性最大的是()。
下列改性沥青混合料路面横接缝处理做法中,错误的是()。
“备案号”栏:()。“标记唛码及备注”栏:()。
在统计抽样中,样本容量的含义是指()。
Buildingahousecostsquitealotofmoney.Supposeyouplantobuildahouse.Yourfirststepwillbetofindarightpieceof
如果只记得某个文件或文件夹的名称,忘记了它的位置,那么要打开它的最简便方法是()。
教师职业公正性是教师职业道德水平的重要标准,核心是()。
A、 B、 C、 D、 A这是一道关于“旋转”问题的题目。观察第一套图形,三幅的外围图形都是一个相同的长方形,其不同的是内部各部分的位置在改变。但规律是:组成长方形的黑色、阴影和空白三部分都按顺时针方向旋转9
【《洛迦诺公约》】南京大学2013年国际关系史真题;首都师范大学2014年历史学基础(世界史)真题;吉林大学2017年历史学基础真题
—Whatdoyouthinkhashappenedtotheleaderoftherebels?—He______thebombingand______somewhere,butnooneknowsforsure.
最新回复
(
0
)