The North American frontier change some of the characteristics of the pioneers of the 1750's and intensified others. They were , as a group, semiliterate, proud, and stubborn, as dogged in their insistence on their own way of life as pine roots cracking granite to grow. Perhaps their greatest resource was their capacity to endure. They outlasted recurrent plagues of smallpox and malaria and a steady progression of natural accidents. They were incredibly prolific. Squire Boone's family of eight children was small by frontier standards. James Robertson, an eventual neighbor of Boone's and the founder of Nashville, had eleven children. Twice-married John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, fathered eighteen; his longtime enemy, John Tipton, also twice married, produced seventeen.

　　The entire assets of one of these huge families often amounted, in the beginning, to little more than an axe, a hunting knife, an auger, a rifle, a horse or two, some cattle and a few pigs, a sack of seed corn and another of salt, perhaps a crosscut saw, and a loom. those who moved first into a new region lived for months at a time on wild meat, Indian maize, and native fruits in season. Yet if they were poor at the beginning. they confidently expected that soon they would be rich.

　　In a way almost impossible to define to urban dwellers, a slice of ground suitable for farming represented not just dollars and cents. but dignity. The obsession brought shiploads of yearners every week to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charles Towne, and Savannah. It sent them streaming westward into the wilderness after their predecessors to raise still more children who wanted still more land.　　　 　　

　　重点单词：

frontier : n. 边界,边境

pioneer : n. 先锋,拓荒者,开辟者;vt. 提倡,开辟;vi. 作先驱;a. 最早的,开拓的,先驱的

intensify : vt. 加强;vi. 强化

semiliterate : n. 半文盲

proud : a. 骄傲的,自大的,自豪的,辉煌的,自尊的,壮丽的

stubborn : a. 顽固的,不听话的,执拗的,棘手的

dogged : a. 顽固的,顽强的

insistence : n. 坚持

pine : n. 松树;vi. 消瘦,憔悴,渴望

cracking : n. 分裂,分解;a. 精采的,棒的,很快的,很美的,很好的;ad. 很快地,很好地,很美地

granite : n. 花岗岩

resource : n. 资源,财力,办法,机智,策略,消遣

capacity : n. 容量,能力,才能,资格;n. 容量

endure : v. 仍能工作,继续工作

outlast : vt. 比...长久

recurrent : a. 再发生的,定期重复的,循环的

plague : n. 瘟疫,麻烦,灾祸;vt. 折磨,使苦恼,使得灾祸