考研英语阅读篇章: 美元上将出现女性头像

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    考研英语阅读篇章: 美元上将出现女性头像
    President Barack Obama has endorsed a young girl's suggestion to feature a
woman on printed US currency.
    美国总统奥巴马采纳了一个小女孩的建议，决定将一位女性的头像印到美元上。
    Betsy Ross, Amelia Earhart, and Rosa Parks could all be contenders for
appearing on US currency.
    First, it helps to be a titan of American history, like former presidents
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, or founding fathers
Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton.
    The current Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for selecting the
lucky few featured on US bills, and though the bills have been frequently
redesigned for security purposes, the famous faces on them have remained the
same since 1929.
    That's when a special treasury committee selected them due to their
"permanent familiarity in the minds of the public", according to the US
Department of the Treasury.
    Thanks to one 19th Century upstart(暴发户), one also must be dead to appear on
a bill.
    "Some lowly clerk put his image on currency during the Civil War," says
currency expert Frederick Bart. "People decided he had no right to be there, so
that changed our laws forever."
    Though acclaimed women such as suffragette Susan B Anthony and Native
American guide Sacagawea have appeared alongside men on US coins, only one has
ever graced a printed US bill.
    That singular honour goes to the nation's first first lady, Martha
Washington.
    Mrs Washington was featured alone on the face of the $1 silver certificate
in 1886. Ten years later, she was moved to the back of the bill and featured
next to her husband, George, with the roman numeral I between them.
    It may be years until a woman makes it onto a bill again, says Bart. She
would have to have a major political impact, such as assuming the presidency,
and then die in order to even be considered, he says.
    Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, says the
time to see women represented on US currency is now. She says
abolitionists(废奴主义者) Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman or politicians Bella
Abzug and Shirley Chisholm already, in a manner of speaking, fit the bill.