首页
登录
职称英语
Two half-brothers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, were the first E
Two half-brothers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, were the first E
游客
2024-12-27
22
管理
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 return 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 Governor 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 found 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. [br] 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对新家园毫无热情,因此答案为C。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3886781.html
相关试题推荐
DawnaWalterisoneoftheauthorsleadingthewayinBritainwithherbook
DawnaWalterisoneoftheauthorsleadingthewayinBritainwithherbook
DawnaWalterisoneoftheauthorsleadingthewayinBritainwithherbook
DawnaWalterisoneoftheauthorsleadingthewayinBritainwithherbook
Twohalf-brothers,SirHumphreyGilbertandSirWalterRaleigh,werethefirstE
Twohalf-brothers,SirHumphreyGilbertandSirWalterRaleigh,werethefirstE
Twohalf-brothers,SirHumphreyGilbertandSirWalterRaleigh,werethefirstE
DawnaWalterisoneoftheauthorsleadingthewayinBritainwithherbookt
DawnaWalterisoneoftheauthorsleadingthewayinBritainwithherbookt
DawnaWalterisoneoftheauthorsleadingthewayinBritainwithherbookt
随机试题
A、Afoodfightamongchildhoodacquaintance.B、Acustomofcelebratingharvest.
AccordingtoascientificstudypublishedinApril,2007,birdshaveshownt
Twomen,startingatthesamepoint,walkinoppositedirectionsfor4meters,t
关于税收支出的说法不正确的是( )。A.税收支出的目的是取得收入 B.照顾
管道工程有关背景资料如下: 1.某厂区室外消防给水管网平面图如图6.II所示
接有二次电缆的开关场就地端子箱内(汇控柜、智能控制柜)应设有铜排(不要求与端子箱
2014年12月5日。中国建设银行多伦多分行正式开业。建设银行多伦多分行持全能
在使用他评量表时,评定等级的划分通常是在3~7级之间,最常见的是()个等级。(2
对特殊用药人群需要特别详细提示服用药品的方法,特殊人群如下列A.婴幼儿 B.成
用于我国严寒、寒冷地区的建筑节能外窗进入现场时,应对其进行复验的性能有()
最新回复
(
0
)