大学英语六级阅读理解的精选题 The 4 th of July is the most important holiday in theUSA, for it commemorates that famous day in 1776when the Americans declared their independence .Congress2 made the declaration in Philadelphia, andthat night in the city there were joyful celebrationsthat soon became nationwide. Ever since, the 4 th ofJuly has been marked in the American calendar asIndependence Day, and there are parades and festivities of all kinds. The basic cause of the Americans’ struggle for independence against the mother country,England, was too much interference and intolerance from London and very littleunderstanding of American problems and pride. Most galling to the Americans was theassumption by the English Government and the King that they had a right to tax theirsubjects overseas without their consent and without giving them anything in return. 3 The British were divided. It was a war inspiring no patriotism. As for the troops which the Government sent to fight the rebels, they were unenthusiastic andincompetent, especially their leaders. The Americans had no army. In fact, it is quite possible that but for the extraordinary faithand leadership of George Washington, the revolution might have come to nothing. 4 He builtan army that remained loyal to him until the end, despite terrible hardships. He was a truefrontiersman. He had seen lands that he knew would make an independent America a mightynation. He was given valuable support by the two great patriots — Thomas Jefferson andBenjamin Franklin. 5 It was Franklin who helped persuade the French to come into the waragainst the British. In 1781 a British army commanded by an exceptionally incompetent general, Lord Cornwallis,surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown6 , Virginia , and the war was over. Not longafterward, the 13 colonies became States and joined together in a Union. The effect of the American Revolution was farreaching. The Declaration of Independence drawnup by Thomas Jefferson is one of the most important documents ever published, and itdropped like a bombshell on the western world. Here are the two sentences which shook theruling classes of Europe.“We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are cr
