研究所、轉學考(插大)、學士後-英文題庫下載題庫

Passage 1

        Since the early twentieth century, the grocery shop has played an important role in Chinese settlers’ immigration into the Caribbean region. Family-based grocery shops served as an ideal place for the Chinese settlers to sustain their connectedness and self-sufficiency. Families usually lived behind the shops； wives and children worked as helpers； and family members shared food to decrease living costs. Most shops contained bars and restaurants, providing a space for gossip and social exchanges, enabling the immigrants to mingle with the local people.

        The Chinese could shelter their clannish, distinct traits within the domain of grocery shops as they received protection and enrichment from the home and shop. Indeed, most of these earliest migrants came from the same provinces in southern China, identified as “Hakka” or “the Guest People,” who were known to be industrious and thrifty and whose renowned adaptability was regarded as ideal for contract labor in a similar climate such as the Caribbean.