2014届高考英语一轮复习 阅读理解强化系列Test20.doc

PAGE 2014届高考英语一轮复习 阅读理解强化系列Test20 Ⅰ.阅读理解 A Brazil is a federation that consists of twenty-six states and one federal district.The biggest majority of Brazil’s population belongs to the Christian religion and almost all of them are Catholics.This is something Brazil inherited(继承) being Portugal’s colony(殖民地)． Historically，the country was a colony claimed by people from Portugal and this made Portuguese the official language.The Portuguese reached Brazil in 1500 and until that moment it was inhabited by semi-nomadic(半游牧的) people.The Portuguese changed Brazil into a country of slaves until 1800，when Maria I of Portugal came to live in Brazil.The Queen did not stay long in Brazil，but during the 20 years of royal presence a lot of changes occurred：commercial ports to United Kingdom were opened; Brazil stopped being isolated(孤立) from other countries.So at the moment of getting the independence on the 7th of September,1822，Brazil already had the potential to develop.The Brazilian Empire，Pedro I，abolished slavery in 1888 in the face of Princess Isabel.A lot of European people started coming to Brazil and the industry of the country started working.In the 19th and the 20th century as it has been said above foreign people immigrated(移民) to Brazil and basically 5 million European and Japanese people became the residents of Brazil.The beginning of the 20th century was especially marked by the immigration of a lot of Asian people：Japanese，Korean and Chinese immigrants.As a matter of fact，Japanese people do not immigrate a lot，and the fact that the Brazilian-Japanese people are the largest Japanese minority in the world does astonish greatly. The majority of the cultural inherits of Brazil are actually Portuguese，due to the fact that Brazil was Portugal’s colony for a very long time.The southern states mainly consist of European population and the north and the northeast consist of a mixed population including Africans，Amerindians and Europeans.Most of this population is Roman