现代大学英语精读4 Lesson 4 (课件).ppt

; I Introduction to the Text …………………………..…. ? II Detailed Discussion of the Text …………………….. ? III Oral Work ………………………………………….. IV Word Usages………………………………………… V Grammar Exercises ……………… VI Writing Exercises……………………………………… ;Introduction to the Text The story is set against the background of Apartheid South Africa.South Africa was colonized by the British and Dutch in the 17th century. British domination of the Dutch descendants (known as Boers or Africaners, speaking a Dutch dialect known as Afrikaans) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal. The discovery of diamonds in these lands around 1900 led to a British invasion which resulted in the Boer War. Following independence from Britain, there was a period of uneasy power-sharing between the two groups until the 1940s, when the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority. Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to strengthen their control over the economic and social system. The aim, in reality, was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation.;Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites, and the sanctioning of “white-only” jobs, In 1950, the Population Registration Act required that all South Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of mixed descent). Nom-compliance with the race laws was dealt with harshly. Chinese settlers, mainly laborers, were classified as coloreds, while Japanese, mainly businesspeople, were classified as white. Toward the end of the 1980s, amid increasing racial tension and criticism from the outside world, Nationalist president F. W. De Klerk started a serious reform. He removed the ban on the African National Congress, the principal anti-apartheid organization, and released Nelson Mandela, the ANC deputy pre