Passage 1
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 Vans-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 whole sale 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.
In the first paragraph, the author argues that ________.
根据第一段倒数第二句“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.”可知非洲及西方国家的奴隶制度在本质上是相同的， 故选择B项。
Which of the following was true of the local African slavery?
根据第一段第五句“They had clearly defined rights, and their slave status was not necessarily inherited.”非洲当地的奴隶拥有明确的权利， 而且他们的奴隶身份不一定是世袭的， 因此， 奴隶的下一代不一定还是奴隶， B项正确。 文中并未提到选项A表述的内容； 第一段第一句提到， 运往欧洲的奴隶来自于海港地区， 并没有指出非洲本地的奴隶制度只限于海港地区， 故C项的表述是错误的； 根据第一段倒数第三句“Slavery in its extreme forms, including the taking of life, was common to both Africa and the West.”屠杀奴隶的事件在非洲和西方国家都有发生， 故D项表述错误。
The sentence “This argument ... can be carried too far” implies that ________.
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 carried too far.”即作者认为该观点有失偏颇。 根据第一段倒数第二句可知， 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。
Supporters of the rationalization of slavery believe that the trade ________.
根据第二段第三句“Western slave traders and slave owners were acted on by purely economic considerations...”西方的奴隶贸易者及蓄奴者只是出于经济方面的考虑才进行奴隶贸易的， 并不意味着出于好意， 即“good intents”， 故A项错误； 根据第二段最后一句， “合理化”观点的支持者认为蓄奴使非洲信仰邪恶的宗教转变为真正的信仰及文明， 但没有指出蓄奴促进了非洲宗教的发展， 故B项错误， 同时可知C项正确； D项文中未提及。
The relation between the two paragraphs is that in the 2nd paragraph the author ________.
根据第二段第一句可知， 作者虽然在第一段认为非洲传统的奴隶制度与欧洲的奴隶制度在本质上是一致的， 但是欧洲组织的奴隶贸易在数量上和质量上都完全不同于非洲传统的奴隶制度， 接下来作者便详细介绍了欧洲奴隶贸易的特点， 强调的是欧洲组织的奴隶与非洲传统奴隶制度的不同。 因此这两段之间的关系很明显，即第二段是对前一段问题做进一步分析， 故选D。