WESTWARD EXPANSION INDUSTRIALIZATION URBANIZATION 1870 1900
IMMIGRATION IN INDUSTRIAL AMERICA
|
Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
|
|
|
Americans were rich.
|
|
|
America was full of opportunities.
|
|
|
American provided many jobs to bricklayers.
|
|
|
Streets in America were literally paved with gold.
|
Detailed explanation-1: -said about a place where it is easy to get rich, or where people imagine that it is: Immigrant families soon discovered that the streets of New York were not paved with gold.
Detailed explanation-2: -(For a thorough examination of immigrant expectations of America, including the view that it was a land where the streets were paved with gold, see Hoerder and Rössler, 1-33 in particular for a synopsis of such expectations.) It is, in one sense, a metaphor for a naïve, blind belief in the New World.
Detailed explanation-3: -Phrase. the streets are paved with gold. (idiomatic) Used to describe a place where it is easy to become wealthy or live well.
Detailed explanation-4: -In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity.
Detailed explanation-5: -The concept of “streets paved with gold” was a figure of art to describe a paradise so exotic that things people ordinarily value enormously are so common that the streets are paved with it. No emperor or ruler, no matter how extravagant, would actually use gold to pave streets.