单选题 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 Americans 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.

单选题 In the first paragraph, the author argues that______.

单选题 Which of the following was true of the local African slavery?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】细节题。短文第一段在提到奴隶制度在非洲由来已久之后，简单说明了一下非洲奴隶的情况，其中第五句指出：They had clearly defined rights，and their slave status was not necessarily inherited(他们拥有明确的权利，且其奴隶身份并非一定会继承)，也就是说，一名奴隶的子女不一定会是奴隶，故本题选[B]。当然，由于答题的关键在于对这一句话的理解，因此也可将本题归入词句理解题中。其余三项都属于抓住原文中的词句进行的无据发挥，都是不对的。

单选题 The sentence "This argument...can be carried too far" implies that______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】词句理解题。该句字面上的意思是“然而，这种论点可能说得太过(即有失偏颇)了”。在该句之后，作者引用学者的话语进一步说明“只有西方的奴隶制度才是残忍和灭绝人性的”是一种illusion(错觉)，非洲的奴隶制度和西方的奴隶制度本质上是一样的。也就是说，作者和这些学者都认为非洲的奴隶制度也是惨无人道的(inhumane)，因此本题答案是[A]。其余三项都属于抓住原文中的个别词句进行的发挥．在原文中都没有体现，也无法由原文合理推知。

单选题 Supporters of the rationalization of slavery believe that the trade______

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】细节题。rationalization(合理化)一词出现在短文第二段后半部分。在该段最后一句中，作者举例说明了持这种态度的人的观点：It was argued…assured the conversion of the African evil-believing religions to the true faith as well as to civilization(这种观点认为……奴役制度确保让非洲各种信奉魔鬼的宗教皈依到真正的信仰，并且确保非洲得以文明化)，换句话说，持奴隶制度合理化观点的人认为这种制度有助于非洲的文明化，故本题答案就是[C]。其他三项都似是而非，将它们与原文对照即不难发现都不对。

单选题 The relation between the two paragraphs is that in the 2nd paragraph the author______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】分析推理题。本题形式较为特殊，属于推断段落之间关系，即作者写作逻辑的题目。在第一段，作者先介绍了非洲奴隶的基本情况，如奴隶来源、奴隶制度的特点等，然后引用学者的话语，反驳了认为非洲奴隶制度比西方奴隶制度要温和的观点，提出了“非洲奴隶制度和西方奴隶制度在本质上同样惨无人道”的观点。而在第二段一开始，作者用Granting all this(就算承认这一切)表明了自己是对上述观点进行进一步分析，接着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贸易与非洲传统的奴隶制度的不同。因此，这两段之间的关系很明显：后者是对前者中的问题做进一步分析，故选[D]。其余三项都不对。[A]项指“质疑第一段中提出的观点”，但作者是赞同前一段中学者的观点的；[B]项指“修正他在第一段提出的观点”，但作者在第一段并未提出自己的观点；[C]项指“为第一段中的论点提供原因”，同样也不对。