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The American baby boom after the war made unconvincing U. S. advice to poor countries that they restrain their births. However, there has hardly been a year since 1957 in which birth rates have not fallen in the United States and other rich countries, and in 1976 the fall was especially sharp. Both East Germany and West Germany have fewer births than they have deaths,and the United States is only temporarily able to avoid this condition because the children of the baby boom are now an exceptionally large group of married couples.
It is true that Americans do not typically plan their births to set an example for developing nations. We are more affected by women's liberation: once women see interesting and well-paid jobs and careers available they are less willing to provide free labor for child raising. From costing nothing,children suddenly come to seem impossibly expensive.
And to the high cost of children are added the uncertainties introduced by divorce; couples are increasingly unwilling to subject children to the terrible experience of marital breakdown and themselves to the difficulty of raising a child alone.
These circumstances 一 women working outside the home and the instability of marriage 一 tend to spread with industrial society and they will affect more and more countries during the remainder of this century. Along with them goes social mobility, ambition to rise in the urban world, a main factor in bringing down the births in Europe in the nineteenth century.
Food shortage will happen again when the reserves resulting from the good harvests of 1976 and 1977 have been consumed. Urbanization is likely to continue with the cities of the developing nations struggling under the weight of twice their present populations by the year 2000. The presently rich countries are approaching a stable population largely because of the changed place of women, and they incidentally are setting an example of restraint(限制)to the rest of the world. Industrial society will spread to the poor countries, and aspirations will exceed resources. All this leads to a population in the twenty-first century that is smaller than was feared a few years ago. For those anxious to see world population brought under control the news is encouraging.
1
During the years from 1957 to 1976, the birth rate of the United States _____.
A.increased
B.was reduced
C.experienced both falls and rises
D.remained stable
本题答案:
  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • 参考答案:B
  • 系统解析:
    细节题。参见文章第一段第二句。关键在于对本句的理解,本句意思是“美国及其他富有的国家的人口出生率自1957年以来,几乎没有一年不在下降,而且在1976年下降得尤其迅速”。由此可知:从1957年到1976年美国孩子的出生率在下降。
2
What influences the birth rate most in the United States is_____.
A.highly paid jobs
B.women's desire for independence
C.expenses of child raising
D.high divorce rate
本题答案:
  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • 参考答案:B
  • 系统解析:
    细节题。根据文章第二段第二句可判断出该題答案为B项.
3
The sentence "From costing nothing, children suddenly come to seem impossibly expensive" (Para.2) implies that______.
A.food and clothing for babies are becoming incredibly expensive
B.prices are going up dramatically all the time
C.to raise children women have to give up interesting and well-paid jobs
D.social development has made child-raising inexpensive
本题答案:
  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • 参考答案:C
  • 系统解析:
    推断题,此题的关键在于对impossibly—词的理解,意思是“无法想象地,非常地”。第二段第二句吿诉我们“妇女一旦找到有趣且报酬好的工作,她们便不太愿意花费精力养育孩子”。由此得知C项为正确答案。
4
A chief factor in bringing down the births in Europe in the 19th century is_____.
A.birth control
B.the desire to seek fortune in cities
C.the instability of marriage
D.the changed place of women
本题答案:
  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • 参考答案:B
  • 系统解析:
    细节理。根据文章第四段最后一句 Along with them goes social mobility, ambition to rise in the urban world,a main factor...得知,ambition to rise in the urban world 意思与选项 B—样,所以 B 项为正确答案。
5
The population in the 21st century, according to the writer, ______.
A.will be smaller than a few years ago
B.will not be as small as people expect
C.will prove to be a threat to the world
D.will not constitute as serious a problem as expected
本题答案:
  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • 参考答案:D
  • 系统解析:
    细节题。根据文章最后一段倒数第二句 All this leads to a population in the twenty-first century that is smaller than was feared a few years ago.表明几年前人口问题是人们担忧的问题,这句话不仅指出21世纪人口会变少,面且不再成为人们担心害怕的事情。因此,D项为正确答案.
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