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The next time the men were taken up onto the deck, Kunta made a point of
looking at the man behind him in line, the one who laid beside him to the left
when they were below. He was a Serer tribesman much older than Kunta, and his
body, front and back, was creased with whip cuts, some of them so deep and
festering that Kunta, felt badly for having wished sometimes that he might
strike the man in the darkness for moaning so steadily in his pain. Staring back
at Kunta, the Serer's dark eyes were full of fury and defiance. A whip lashed
out even as they stood looking at each other—this time at Kunta, spurring him to
move ahead. Trying to roll away, Kunta was kicked heavily in his ribs. But
somehow he and the gasping Wolof managed to stagger back up among the other men
from their shelf who were shambling toward their dousing with bucked of
seawater.
A moment later, the stinging saltiness of it was burning in Kunta's wounds, and his screams joined those of others over the sound of the drum and the wheezing thing that had again begun marking time for the chained men to jump and dance for the toubob. Kunta and the Wolof were so weak from their new beating that twice they stumbled, but whip blows and kicks sent them hopping clumsily up and down in their chains. So great was his fury that Kunta was barely aware of the women singing "Toubob fa!" And when he had finally been chained back down in his place in the dark hold, his heart throbbed with a lust to murder toubob.
Every few days the eight naked toubob would again come into the stinking darkness and scrape their tubs full of the excrement that had accumulated on the shelves where the chained men lay. Kunta would lie still with his eyes staring balefully in hatred, following the bobbing orange lights, listening to the toubob cursing and sometimes slipping and tailing into the slickness underfoot—so plentiful now, because of the increasing looseness of the men's bowels, that the filth had begun to drop off the edges of the shelves down into the aisle way.
The last time they were on deck, Kunta had noticed a man limping on a badly infected leg. This time the man was kept up on deck when the rest were taken back below. A few days later, the women told the other prisoners in their singing that the man's leg had been cut off and that one of the women had been brought to tend him, but the man had died that night and been thrown over the side. Starting then, when the toubob came to clean the shelves, they also dropped red-hot pieces of metal into pails of strong vinegar. The clouds of acrid steam left the hold smelling better, but soon it would again be overwhelmed by the choking stink. It was a smell that Kunta felt would never leave his lungs and skin.
The steady murmuring that went on in the hold whenever the toubob were kept growing in volume and intensity as the men began to communicate better and better with one another. Words not understood were whispered from mouth to ear along the shelves until someone who knew more than one tongue would send back their meanings. In the process, all of the men along each shelf learned new words in tongues they had not spoken before. Sometimes men jerked upward, bumping their heads, in the double excitement of communicating with each other and the fact that it was being done without the toubob's knowledge. Muttering among themselves for hours, the men developed a deepening sense of intrigue and of brotherhood. Though they were of different villages and tribes, the feeling grew that they were not from different peoples or places .
本文节选自查尔斯·西尔伯曼的小说《根》，聚焦18世纪大西洋奴隶贸易中黑奴的运输船场景。理解这一历史背景对把握文章情感至关重要——每艘奴隶船的甲板都浸透着千万人的血泪。
关键词：
"whip cuts"（鞭痕）：肉体折磨的具象化，注意"festering"（溃烂）暗示伤口感染
"fury and defiance"（愤怒与蔑视）：眼神描写埋下反抗伏笔
考点提示：
细节题可能问Kunta对Serer族人态度转变的原因（从厌恶到共情）。
推理题注意"spurring him to move ahead"背后的监工压迫机制。
隐喻解析：
"jump and dance for the toubob"：铁链中的扭曲动作实为精神羞辱
"stinging saltiness burning wounds"：盐水浇伤口的双重痛苦（生理+心理）。
情感递进：
Kunta从"barely aware"（麻木）到"lust to murder"（杀意），体现仇恨的觉醒。
五感描写考点：
视觉："bobbing orange lights"（晃动的灯笼）→ 监工的监视象征
嗅觉："choking stink" vs "acrid steam" → 消毒的徒劳与恶臭的永恒。
历史细节：
"red-hot metal in vinegar"是真实消毒法，但截肢者被抛海暴露奴隶主视人命如草芥。
核心命题点：
"brotherhood"的形成过程：跨语言耳语→共同词汇→身份认同。
对比前文的个体痛苦，此处集体意识的诞生是全文升华。
高频考点：
"though they were of different villages..." 强调压迫催生超越族群的人性联结。
正确答案特征：
包含 suffering（苦难） + unity（团结） 的双要素。
错误选项警惕片面强调"暴力"或只提"文化交流"。
例题：
What is the main theme of the passage?
A. The cruelty of slave traders （片面）
B. Medical conditions on slave ships （细节）
C. The birth of resistance through shared suffering （正确）
破解"toubob"含义：
上下文线索：
"jump for toubob"（为toubob跳舞）→ 施令者
"lust to murder toubob"→ 仇恨对象。
结论：指代白人奴隶主（四级阅读常见文化词推理）。
快速抓取法：
题干关键词定位：如"red-hot metal"直接锁定第4段。
注意同义替换：原文"thrown over the side"=选项"discarded into the sea"。
1.The living conditions for the Blacks in the salve ship were _______.
A.adequate but primitive B.inhumane and inadequate
C.humane but crowded D.similar to the crew's quarters
2.The prisoners had difficulty communicating with each other because _______.
A.they were too sick to talk B.they distrusted one another
C.no one felt like talking D.they spoke different languages
3.Which of the following words is closest in meaning to "balefully" as used in "Kunta would lie still with his eyes staring balefully in hatred"?
A.Indulgently. B.Vacantly. C.Forlornly. D.Menacingly.
4.By constantly referring to such thing as filth and choking stink, the author seeks to create a tone that arouses a feeling of _______.
A.disgust with the dirt B.horror at the injustice
C.revolting at the foul odor D.relief that this happened long ago
5.Despite their intense pain and suffering, the Black men found a small measure of comfort in _______.
A.their exercise periods on deck B.the breathtaking ocean scenery
C.their conversations with the Black women D.their conversations with one another
1.【答案】B。
【解析】根据文中的chains，whips以及居住地点难闻的气味等等，说明他们生活在非人的条件下。因此B项正确。
2.【答案】D。
【解析】本题可参照原文的最后一段“Words not understood... send back their meanings.（他们沿着架子说着对方听不懂的话，直到某个懂得不止一门语言的人传回那些话的含义。）”据此应选D项。
3.【答案】D。
【解析】由in hatred可知balefully此处指“凶恶的，凶狠的”，menacingly的意思是“险恶地”；indulgently的意思是“放任地，溺爱地”；vacantly的意思是“空虚地”；forlornly的意思是“被遗弃地”。只有D项与balefully的意思最接近。
4.【答案】B。
【解析】本文作者多次提到“污秽”、“令人窒息的恶臭”等词语，是为了显示这些囚犯们所受的非人待遇，也让人震惊于这种惨无人道的行为。所以B（对这种不公正感到恐怖）是正确答案。
5.【答案】D。
【解析】题干的意思是“尽管他们强烈的疼痛和可怕遭遇，黑人们在何种情况下找到了一种使痛苦减轻（安慰）的方法”。由最后一段可以看出，他们尽管说不同的语言，但能够相互交流令他们感到很激动。所以D（他们相互间的交谈）是正确答案。
