Texans have bursting pride and love attention. They also have a thick streak of short- sighted greed and, even by American standards, a busted disposition to violence. When they hear this sort of criticism they usually ascribe it to the ignorance and jealousy of stuffy Yankees who have not spent enough time in the state to understand it. For such avowedly robust people they are surprisingly sensitive. They hated Edna Ferber’s novel Giant, which scourged Texan vulgarity, racism and the mores of millionaires, but they bought it in great quantities and packed cinemas to see the film. They would rather be talked about than not, and if you do not talk about them they do it for you.
In claiming special qualities for themselves, Texans have had to become reconciled to the fact that a large number of them are not native. In the last century "Gone to Texas" was a commonplace graffito daubed on barns in other states, and in recent years "Gone to Texas" has, figuratively, been written on the front doors of millions of Americans and also Mexicans. In the early 1980s newcomers accounted for nearly two-thirds of the state’s population increase. But Texans do not believe they are being diluted. They maintain that Texanhood, or Texianism, is a matter of attitude and that Texanic qualities exist in abundance in many Americans, regardless of their birthplace: it is when these people are planted in Texas, and nourished by its atmosphere, that they flower like true Texans. A man may not be born in Texas, which is unfortunate; but he can be born to be Texan.
Many Alaskans are urban, young and raising families, here for a while, and trying to make money before moving to somewhere warmer. But many are staying. While most remain in Anchorage and other centers, some set out to build a cabin in the wilderness and live by hunting, trapping and fishing, learning how to skin a muskrat and moose, how to survive terrible weather, how to be truly in tune with the land, taking pleasure in great silence and unpeopled immensity. To settle the frontier the state has a homesteading program, based on the federal Homestead Act of 1864, which was a key event in the opening up of the American west. Hundreds of Alaskans are awarded parcels of wilderness land in an annual lottery and undertake to invest sweat equity, to build a home within three years and clear and cultivate the land within five. Alaskans love reading about Alaska, and two of the most popular books are a manual on log cabin building and a collection of tales about grizzly bears, of which Alaska is a phold. Log cabin life is for the stout-hearted few with the springs of adventure p in them, and these wilderness Alaskans are remarkable. Some are refugees of one kind or another. Several hundred are Vietnam veterans, tortured by their experiences of war and unable to fit into normal urban life, seeking solace in the wilds. |
Alaskans love reading books about ______.
A．Alaskans’ way of living as hunters and as log cabin builders
B．Alaskans’ keen interest in living in the wild and the abundance in wild animals
C．stories about Alaskans’ log cabin life and their abundance of grizzly bears
D．stories telling how Alaskans were cultivating the land and building log cabins
